System and method for software defined network aware data replication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9330156-B2
Application number	US-201314057431-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 18, 2013
Priority date	Oct 18, 2013
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

An example method is provided in one example embodiment and includes establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for a data replication application; establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller; managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of a plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for a data replication application, wherein the establishing comprises creating each of a plurality of source filers, assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to each source filer, creating one or more replication relationships for each source filer and publishing a replication policy for each source filer;
establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller;
managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of the plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a corresponding replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and
transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

2. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein each source filer is associated with a particular data type
and wherein each replication relationship includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and wherein the SLA includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and
wherein the corresponding replication policy for each corresponding source filer includes a total number of replication relationships on the corresponding source filer, a total number of volumes to be replicated, a total latency requirement, a compression type, a bandwidth requirement, the RPO, and the RTO.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the establishing data replication awareness for the SDN controller further comprises:
collecting each replication policy for each of the plurality of source filers;
creating one or more network rules for each replication policy; and
creating a logical network instance using the one or more network rules for each replication policy for each source filer, wherein each logical network instance comprises forwarding plane information for each of a plurality of switches for each of the plurality of logical networks.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
querying the SDN controller to determine available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting replication data for a replication relationship for a particular data type, wherein the query includes a service level agreement (SLA) for the replication relationship;
determining a minimum bandwidth for the replication data from the SLA;
determining available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting the replication data for the particular data type by slicing bandwidth for the WAN across data replication traffic and non-data replication traffic;
comparing the minimum bandwidth for the replication data to the available bandwidth in the WAN to determine whether bandwidth is available in the WAN for transmitting the replication data;
if bandwidth is available in the WAN, disabling compression for the replication data to be transmitted using a particular logical network; and
if bandwidth is not available in the WAN, enabling compression for the replication data to be transmitted using the particular logical network.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of source filers and the plurality of destination filers are at least one of:
a virtual filer; and
a physical filer.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
controlling a forwarding plane for each of a plurality of switches in the WAN for each of the plurality of logical networks between a particular source filer and a particular destination filer.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating logical networks based on a plurality of replication operating modes defined by the data replication application.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of replication operating modes include at least one of:
a synchronous mode, wherein the synchronous mode includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defined at less than a minute;
a semi-synchronous mode, wherein the semi-synchronous mode includes an RPO defined in one or more minutes; and
an asynchronous mode, wherein the asynchronous mode includes an RPO defined in at least one of: less than a minute; and one or more minutes.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the managing the plurality of logical networks further comprises:
monitoring the plurality of logical networks according to the replication policies for each logical network;
ranking the logical networks based on whether each network meets its corresponding replication policies; and
sorting the plurality of logical networks based on the ranking.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the SDN controller includes an application selected from a group consisting of: rules manager, bandwidth manager, logical network manager, and logical network server.

11. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that include instructions for execution that, when executed by a processor, is operable to perform operations comprising:
establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for data replication application, wherein the establishing comprises creating each of a plurality of source filers, assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to each source filer, creating one or more replication relationships for each source filer and publishing a replication policy for each source filer;
establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller;
managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of the plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a corresponding replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and
transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

12. The media of claim 11 ,
wherein each source filer is associated with a particular data type
and wherein each replication relationship includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and wherein the SLA includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and
wherein the corresponding replication policy for each corresponding source filer includes a total number of replication relationships on the corresponding source filer, a total number of volumes to be replicated, a total latency requirement, a compression type, a bandwidth requirement, the RPO, and the RTO.

13. The media of claim 12 , wherein the establishing data replication awareness for the SDN controller further comprises:
collecting each replication policy for each of the plurality of source filers;
creating one or more network rules for each replication policy; and
creating a logical network instance using the one or more network rules for each replication policy for each source filer, wherein each logical network instance comprises forwarding plane information for each of a plurality of switches for each of the plurality of logical networks.

14. The media of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:
querying the SDN controller to determine available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting replication data for a replication relationship for a particular data type, wherein the query includes a service level agreement (SLA) for t

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Satapathy Soumendu

Classifications

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04L41/5019

  Ensuring fulfilment of SLA · CPC title

• H04L67/1095 Primary

  Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes · CPC title

• H04L41/40 Primary

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

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title