Systems and methods for automatic network health check

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12301477-B2
Application number	US-202217946526-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2022
Priority date	Sep 16, 2022
Publication date	May 13, 2025
Grant date	May 13, 2025

Abstract

Systems and methods for automatic network health check are disclosed herein. A method for performing an automatic health check includes determining to perform a health check on a portion of a communications network, the communications network including a plurality of hosts that each include a routing agent and an advertising agent. The method includes adding a test route indicated as applicable to every host and pointing to an IP address to a database, and receiving the test route from the database with the routing agents of at least some of the plurality of hosts. The method includes providing the test route from the routing agent to the advertising agent, advertising the test route with of the at least some of the plurality of hosts to a plurality of switches within the communications network, and determining success of health check based on information received from the plurality of switches.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining to perform a health check on a portion of a communications network, the communications network comprising a plurality of hosts, each of the plurality of hosts comprising a routing agent and an advertising agent;
adding a test route to a database accessible by each of the plurality of hosts, the test route indicated as applicable to every host and pointing to an IP address, the test route having an expected path length;
receiving the test route from the database with the routing agents of at least some of the plurality of hosts;
for each of the at least some of the plurality of hosts, providing the test route from the routing agent to the advertising agent;
advertising the test route with at least some of the plurality of hosts to a plurality of switches within the communications network; and
determining success of health check based on information received from the plurality of switches and information in the database, the information received from the switches indicating a length of the test route, and the information in the database indicating the expected path length of the test route.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least some of the plurality of hosts comprises all of the plurality of hosts.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least some of the plurality of hosts comprises less than all of the plurality of hosts.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the test route from the database with the routing agents comprises retrieving the test route with the routing agents.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of switches comprises a plurality of Top-Of-Rack (TOR) switches.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein advertising the test route comprises: each of the advertising agents advertising the test route to a one of the plurality of switches associated with the advertising agent.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising receiving the advertised test route at the one of the plurality of switches associated with the advertising agent.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising generating the information indicative of the switch receiving the advertised test route and the path length of the advertised test route.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising providing the information to a network provisioner.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein providing the information to a network provisioner comprises storing the information in a database accessible by the network provisioner.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein information for each of the plurality of switches is provided to the network provisioner.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the network provisioner determines success of the health check based on the information received from the plurality of switches.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining success of the health check comprises determining if the path length of the test route stored by each the plurality of switches matches the path length of the advertised test route.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising generating an alert when the health check is unsuccessful.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining success of the health check comprises determining if the path length of the test route stored by each the plurality of switches within a predetermined time period subsequent to adding the test route to the database matches the path length of the advertised test route.

16. A system comprising:
memory comprising a database of routing information;
a plurality of hosts, wherein each of the plurality of hosts comprises a routing agent and an advertising agent, and wherein the database of routing information is accessible by each of the hosts;
a plurality of switches, wherein the advertising agents of the plurality of hosts are coupled at least one of the switches, and wherein the advertising agent is configured to advertise a route to the at least one of the switches with which it is coupled;
at least one processor configured to:
determine to perform a health check on a portion of a communications network comprising the plurality of hosts and the plurality of switches; and
add a test route to the database of routing information, the test route indicated as applicable to each of the plurality of hosts and pointing to an IP address, the test route having an expected path length;

wherein at least some of the plurality of hosts are configured to:
receive the test route from the database with the routing agent of each of the at least some of the plurality of hosts;
provide the test route from the routing agent to the advertising agent; and
advertise the test route to the plurality of switches within the communications network; and
wherein the at least one processor can determine success of health check based on information received from the plurality of switches and information in the database, the information received from the switches indicating a length of the test route, and the information in the database indicating the expected path length of the test route.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein advertising the test route comprises: each of the advertising agents advertising the test route to a one of the plurality of switches associated with the advertising agent.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors, the plurality of instructions when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
determine to perform a health check on a portion of a communications network, the communications network comprising a plurality of hosts, each of the plurality of hosts comprising a routing agent and an advertising agent;
add a test route to a database accessible by each of the plurality of hosts, the test route indicated as applicable to every host and pointing to an IP address, the test route having an expected path length;
receive the test route from the database with the routing agents of at least some of the plurality of hosts;
for each of the at least some of the plurality of hosts, provide the test route from the routing agent to the advertising agent;
advertise the test route with at least some of the plurality of hosts to a plurality of switches within the communications network; and
determine success of health check based on information received from the plurality of switches and information in the database, the information received from the switches indicating a length of the test route, and the information in the database indicating the expected path length of the test route.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein advertising the test route comprises: each of the advertising agents advertising the test route to a one of the plurality of switches associated with the advertising agent.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein determining the success of the health check based on information received from the plurality of switches comprises:
receiving the advertised test route at the one of the plurality of switches associated with the advertising agent;
generating information indicative of the switch receiving the advertised test route and the path length of the advertised test route;
providing the information to a network provisioner, wherein providing the information to a network provisioner comprises storing the information in a database accessible by the network provisioner, and whe

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Dorantes Loarca Edgar Jesus
• He Danyang
• Dai Xiangkun
• Kadushko Oleksandr (Alex)
• Mullaraj Andi
• Vaddempudi Sharath

Classifications

• H04L43/10

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L43/026

  using flow identification · CPC title

• H04L43/20

  the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L43/50

  Testing arrangements · CPC title