Overlay network capable of supporting storage area network (SAN) traffic

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9325524-B2
Application number	US-201314065234-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2013
Priority date	Sep 7, 2012
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for sending FCoE traffic over an overlay network includes receiving a block of media access control (MAC) addresses for use in local fabric initialization protocol (FIP) operations and advertising to all local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to a server by asserting an overlay-capable virtual switch within the server as a FCF for any requesting FCoE initiators.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for sending Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) traffic over an overlay network, the method comprising:
receiving a block of media access control (MAC) addresses for use in local fabric initialization protocol (FIP) operations at an overlay-capable virtual switch of a server;
communicating with a central controller using the overlay-capable virtual switch;
advertising to local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to the server by asserting the overlay-capable virtual switch within the server as a Fibre Channel forwarder (FCF) for requesting FCoE initiators;
receiving one or more modified FCoE frames from a converge network adapter (CNA) within the server after destination information in the one or more FCoE frames has been modified to cause the CNA to pass the one or more modified FCoE frames to the overlay-capable virtual switch instead of passing the one or more FCoE frames to a destination address indicated in the one or more FCoE frames;
implementing a source virtual tunneling end point (VTEP) in an overlay network;
encapsulating the one or more modified FCoE frames with an overlay header, wherein the overlay header comprises routing level information to deliver the one or more modified FCoE frames to a destination VTEP in the overlay network; and
sending the one or more modified FCoE frames to the CNA for passing the one or more modified FCoE frames to the destination VTEP.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving Fibre Channel (FC) traffic from a local FCoE initiator;
encapsulating the FC traffic into one or more FCoE frames; and
sending the one or more FCoE frames to the CNA coupled to a hypervisor within the server.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving the one or more FCoE frames from the CNA;
detecting when conditions of the one or more FCoE frames are met, the conditions comprising:
that the one or more FCoE frames were received from the server; and
that the server has overlay enabled;

modifying the one or more FCoE frames such that the CNA passes the one or more modified FCoE frames to the overlay-capable virtual switch instead of passing the one or more FCoE frames to the destination address indicated in the one or more FCoE frames; and
sending the modified FCoE frames back to the CNA when the conditions are met.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the local FCoE initiator is a virtual machine (VM) hosted by the server, the VM being capable of generating storage traffic and Enterprise networking traffic.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
setting type of service (TOS) bits in an IP header to a highest IP precedence level which is correlated to a differentiated services code point (DSCP) level of either: expedite forwarding (EF), class selector 6 (CS6), or class selector 7 (CS7).

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein the DSCP level is selected based on which IP TOS to DSCP mapping is supported on a particular network node.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the advertising to the local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to the server causes the local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to the server via the overlay-capable virtual switch.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the local FIP operations comprise assigning MAC addresses to local FCoE initiators, and wherein the block of MAC addresses is received from the central controller.

9. A system, comprising:
a server, comprising:
an overlay-capable virtual switch;
a converge network adapter (CNA) configured to communicate with the overlay-capable virtual switch; and
at least one processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to cause the at least one processor to:
receive a block of media access control (MAC) addresses for use in local fabric initialization protocol (FIP) operations at the overlay-capable virtual switch;
communicate with a central controller using the overlay-capable virtual switch;
advertise to local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to the server by asserting the overlay-capable virtual switch within the server as a Fibre Channel forwarder (FCF) for requesting FCoE initiators;
receive one or more modified FCoE frames from the CNA after destination information in the one or more FCoE frames has been modified to cause the CNA to pass the one or more modified FCoE frames to the overlay-capable virtual switch instead of passing the one or more FCoE frames to a destination address indicated in the one or more FCoE frames;
implement a source virtual tunneling end point (VTEP) in an overlay network;
encapsulate the one or more modified FCoE frames with an overlay header, wherein the overlay header comprises routing level information to deliver the one or more modified FCoE frames to a destination VTEP in the overlay network; and
send the one or more modified FCoE frames to the CNA for passing the one or more modified FCoE frames to the destination VTEP.

10. The system as recited in claim 9 , wherein the logic is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
receive Fibre Channel (FC) traffic from a local FCoE initiator;
encapsulate the FC traffic into one or more FCoE frames; and
send the one or more FCoE frames to the CNA coupled to a hypervisor within the server.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 , wherein the logic is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
receive the one or more FCoE frames from the CNA;
detect when conditions of the one or more FCoE frames are met, the conditions comprising:
that the one or more FCoE frames were received from the server; and
that the server has overlay enabled;

modify the one or more FCoE frames such that the CNA passes the one or more modified FCoE frames to the overlay-capable virtual switch instead of passing the one or more FCoE frames to the destination address indicated in the one or more FCoE frames; and
send the modified FCoE frames back to the CNA when the conditions are met.

12. The system as recited in claim 10 , wherein the local FCoE initiator is a virtual machine (VM) hosted by the server, the VM being capable of generating storage traffic and Enterprise networking traffic.

13. The system as recited in claim 9 , wherein the logic is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
set type of service (TOS) bits in an IP header to a highest IP precedence level which is correlated to a differentiated services code point (DSCP) level of either: expedite forwarding (EF), class selector 6 (CS6), or class selector 7 (CS7).

14. The system as recited in claim 13 , wherein the DSCP level is selected based on which IP TOS to DSCP mapping is supported on a particular network node.

15. The system as recited in claim 9 , wherein the logic configured to cause the at least one processor to advertise to local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to the server is configured to cause local FCoE initiators to route FCoE traffic to the server via the overlay-capable virtual switch.

16. The system as recited in claim 9 , wherein the local FIP operations comprise assigning MAC addresses to local FCoE initiators, and wherein the block of MAC addresses is received from the central controller.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Banavalikar Bhalachandra G
• Kamble Keshav G
• Recio Renato J

Classifications

• H04L12/4633 Primary

  Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling · CPC title

• H04L45/72

  Routing based on the source address · CPC title

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L49/70 Primary

  Virtual switches · CPC title

• H04L49/356 Primary

  for storage area networks · CPC title