Utilizing network analytics for service provisioning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12395553-B2
Application number	US-202318111362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 17, 2023
Priority date	Sep 9, 2019
Publication date	Aug 19, 2025
Grant date	Aug 19, 2025

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques for collecting network parameter data for network switches and/or physical servers and provisioning virtual resources of a service on physical servers based on network resource availability. The network parameter data may include network resource availability data, diagnostic constraint data, traffic flow data, etc. The techniques include determining network switches that have an availability of network resources to support a virtual resource on a connected physical server. A scheduler may deploy virtual machines to particular servers based on the network parameter data in lieu of, or in addition to, the server utilization data of the physical servers (e.g., CPU usage, memory usage, etc.). In this way, a virtual resource may be deployed to a physical server that has an availability of the server resources, but also is connected to a network switch with the availability of network resources to support the virtual resource.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a list of servers associated with an orchestration system that are capable of hosting an application workload, the list determined based at least in part on server utilization data associated with the servers;
obtaining first network parameter data collected from a first network switch that is connected to a first server included in the list of servers, the first network parameter data indicating utilization of a first network resource on the first network switch;
determining, based at least in part on the first network parameter data, that the first network switch is less constrained for the first network resource than a second network switch is constrained for a second network resource on the second network switch, the second network switch connected to a second server included in the list of servers, wherein the first network resource and the second network resource are a same network resource type; and
based at least in part on the first network switch being less constrained for the first network resource than the second network switch is for the second network resource, provisioning the application workload on the first server.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first network parameter data indicates utilization of multiple network resource types of the first network switch, the method further comprising:
calculating, based at least in part on the first network parameter data, a first utilization weighting value representing the utilization of the multiple network resource types of the first network switch;
calculating, based at least in part on second network parameter data associated with the second network switch, a second utilization weighting value representing the utilization of the multiple network resource types of the second network switch; and
provisioning the application workload on the first server based at least in part on the first utilization weighting value being greater than the second utilization weighting value.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein provisioning the application workload on the first server comprises provisioning the application workload on the first server without assessing whether the first server is more or less constrained for a computing resource than other servers included in the list of servers.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining second network parameter data associated with the second network switch, the second network parameter data indicating utilization of the second network resource of the second network switch, wherein determining that the first network switch is less constrained for the first network resource than the second network switch is for the second network resource is further based at least in part on the second network parameter data.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the list of servers is a ranked list of servers received from the orchestration system, the servers ranked based on an availability of a computing resource for hosting the application workload.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
calculating resource utilization weighting values associated with each network switch that is connected to a respective server included in the list of servers;
determining a new ranked list of servers based at least in part on the resource utilization weighting values; and
selecting the first server from the new ranked list of servers for hosting the application workload.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network resource type of the first network resource and the second network resource comprises at least one of:
a ternary content addressable memory (TCAM);
an access control list (ACL);
a routing table;
a buffered memory; or
a flow rate.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining, based at least in part on the list of servers, respective network switches that are connected to respective servers included in the list of servers, the respective network switches including at least the first network switch and the second network switch, wherein obtaining the first network parameter data associated with the first network switch is based at least in part on determining that the first network switch is connected to the first server.

9. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving a list of servers associated with an orchestration system that are capable of hosting an application workload, the list determined based at least in part on server utilization data associated with the servers;
obtaining first network parameter data collected from a first network switch that is connected to a first server included in the list of servers, the first network parameter data indicating utilization of a first network resource on the first network switch;
determining, based at least in part on the first network parameter data, that the first network switch is less constrained for the first network resource than a second network switch is constrained for a second network resource on the second network switch, the second network switch connected to a second server included in the list of servers, wherein the first network resource and the second network resource are a same network resource type; and
based at least in part on the first network switch being less constrained for the first network resource than the second network switch is for the second network resource, provisioning the application workload on the first server.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first network parameter data indicates utilization of multiple network resource types of the first network switch, the operations further comprising:
calculating, based at least in part on the first network parameter data, a first utilization weighting value representing the utilization of the multiple network resource types of the first network switch;
calculating, based at least in part on second network parameter data associated with the second network switch, a second utilization weighting value representing the utilization of the multiple network resource types of the second network switch; and
provisioning the application workload on the first server based at least in part on the first utilization weighting value being greater than the second utilization weighting value.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein provisioning the application workload on the first server comprises provisioning the application workload on the first server without assessing whether the first server is more or less constrained for a computing resource than other servers included in the list of servers.

12. The system of claim 9 , the operations further comprising obtaining second network parameter data associated with the second network switch, the second network parameter data indicating utilization of the second network resource of the second network switch, wherein determining that the first network switch is less constrained for the first network resource than the second network switch is for the second network resource is further based at least in part on the second network parameter data.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the list of servers is a ranked list of servers received from the orchestration system, the servers ranked based on an availability of a computing resource for hosting the application workload, the operations further comprising:
calculating, based at least in part on first network parameter data, resource utilization weighting values associated with each network swi

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Banerjee Ayan
• Batchu Nataraj
• Shah Varun

Classifications

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title

• H04L43/0882

  Utilisation of link capacity · CPC title

• H04L67/1008 Primary

  based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload (monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30) · CPC title

• H04L41/0806 Primary

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title