System and method for providing ethernet over network virtual hub scalability in a middleware machine environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9614746-B2
Application number	US-201113235187-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2011
Priority date	Sep 17, 2010
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

A system and method can support a middleware machine environment that include one or more gateway nodes. One or more gateways that resides on the one or more gateway nodes are provided in a subnet with a plurality of host servers, wherein each host server is associated with one or more virtual network interface cards (vNICs). The middleware machine environment also include a plurality of virtual hubs (vHUB) on the one or more gateways, with each vHUB associated with one or more said vNICs. The gateways are adapted to connect with an external network, and operate to forward a multicast packet to both the external network and the plurality of host servers via the plurality of vHUBs, and prevent multicast packet traffic loops between the subnet and the external network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for supporting a network having an InfiniBand architecture, the network including a subnet comprising a first gateway and a second gateway in communication with an external Ethernet network, a plurality of host servers and a plurality of virtual network interface cards (vNICs) wherein each host server is associated with one or more of said plurality of vNICs, said method comprising:
providing a first private virtual hub (vHUB) on said first gateway wherein a first subset of said plurality of vNICs is in communication with said first vHUB;
providing a second vHUB on said second gateway wherein a second subset of said plurality of vNICs is in communication with said second vHUB, and said first vHUB is in communication with said second vHUB;
receiving at said first vHUB a first multicast packet originating from a vNIC in said first subset of vNICs;
detecting with said first gateway that said first multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs, and forwarding said first multicast packet from said first gateway to said external Ethernet network, and to host servers associated with the first subset of vNICs; and
receiving at said first vHUB a second multicast packet originating from a vNIC in said second subset of vNICs;
detecting with said first gateway that said second multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs, and forwarding said second multicast packet from said first gateway to host servers associated with the first subset of vNICs without forwarding said second multicast packet to the external Ethernet network;
receiving at said second vHUB said first multicast packet originating from said vNIC in said first subset of vNICs;
detecting with said second gateway that said first multicast packet did not originate from said second subset of vNICs, and forwarding said first multicast packet from said second gateway to host servers associated with the second subset of vNICs without forwarding said first multicast packet to the external Ethernet network;
receiving at said second vHUB said second multicast packet originating from said vNIC in said second subset of vNICs; and
detecting with said second gateway that said second multicast packet originated from said second subset of vNICs, and forwarding said multicast packet from said second gateway to said external Ethernet network, and to host servers associated with the second subset of vNICs;
whereby only a single copy of said first multicast packet is transmitted from said network having the InfiniBand architecture to said external Ethernet network via said first gateway, and whereby only a single copy of said second multicast packet is transmitted from said network having the InfiniBand architecture to said external Ethernet network via said second gateway.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of said first gateway and second gateway includes a dedicated detecting hardware logic, and wherein:
detecting with said first gateway that said first multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said first gateway using information about the first subset of vNICs that said first multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs;
detecting with said first gateway that said second multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said first gateway using information about the first subset of vNICs that said second multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs;
detecting with said second gateway that said first multicast packet did not originate from said second subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said second gateway using information about the first subset of vNICs that said first multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs; and
detecting with said second gateway that said second multicast packet originated from said second subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said second gateway using information about the first subset of vNICs that said second multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of said first gateway and second gateway includes a dedicated detecting hardware logic, and wherein:
detecting with said first gateway that said first multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said first gateway using range registers for Media Access Control (MAC) addresses in the first vHUB that said first multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs;
detecting with said first gateway that said second multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said first gateway using range registers for Media Access Control (MAC) addresses in the first vHUB that said second multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs;
detecting with said second gateway that said first multicast packet did not originate from said second subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said second gateway using range registers for Media Access Control (MAC) addresses in the second vHUB that said first multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs; and
detecting with said second gateway that said second multicast packet originated from said second subset of vNICs comprises detecting with said dedicated hardware logic of said second gateway using range registers for Media Access Control (MAC) addresses in the second vHUB that said second multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a global vHUB multicast group in communication with all of said plurality of vNICs in the subnet and only said first gateway;
receiving an inbound multicast packet from said external Ethernet network at said first gateway, and transmitting said inbound multicast packet to each of said plurality of vNICs in the subnet via said global vHUB multicast group.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first gateway and second gateway reside on a first network switch and a second network switch respectively.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first gateway and second gateway reside on a first network switch and a second network switch respectively, and wherein each of said first network switch and second network switch has an external port connected to said external Ethernet network and a plurality of internal ports connected to host servers of said plurality of hosts servers.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
managing communications between vNICs is said first subset of vNICs and vNICs in said second subset of vNICs using source media access control (MAC) address filtering.

8. A system for supporting a middleware machine environment connected to an external Ethernet network, the system comprising:
a network having an InfiniBand architecture, the network comprising a subnet, said subnet comprising
a first gateway in communication with said external Ethernet network, said first gateway comprising a first private virtual hub (vHUB), and one or more microprocessors,
a second gateway in communication with said external Ethernet network, said second gateway comprising a second private virtual hub (vHUB), and one or more microprocessors,
a plurality of host servers and a plurality of virtual network interface cards (vNICs), wherein each host server is associated with one or more of said plurality of vNICs,
wherein a first subset of said plurality of vNICs is in comm

Assignees

• Johnsen Bjorn-Dag
• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Johnsen Bjorn-Dag

Classifications

• H04L12/462

  LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L45/50

  using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS] · CPC title

• H04L45/00 Primary

  Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks (routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00) · CPC title

• H04L41/0659

  by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities · CPC title