Abstract: An example method for zero touch configuration and synchronization of a service appliance in a network environment includes receiving, at an appliance port on a service appliance, an indication that a switch port on a switch changed from an inactive status to an active status, the appliance port being connected over a network to the switch port, starting a bootstrap protocol, including by receiving at the service appliance from the switch, a bootstrap message from a service executing in the switch, creating, by the service appliance, an empty port channel at the service appliance, adding, by the service appliance, the appliance port to the port channel, and associating, by the service appliance, the service to the port channel in a cache.

Abstract: Presented herein are service chaining techniques for selective traffic redirection based on Access Control List (ACL) configurations on switches. Network traffic forwarded along one or more service chains may be monitored on the basis of individual segments of the service chains. In one example, the network traffic forwarded along individual segments may be counted on a per-segment basis.

Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. The method includes: storing, in at least one hardware module of a network device having a plurality of ports, attributes for at least one access control list and associated actions that cause network packets received at one of the plurality of ports that match the attributes for the at least one access control list, to be directed into a service chain that includes at least a first network processing application specified according to a port and a second network processing application specified according to an internet protocol (IP) address; and directing a received network packet that matches the attributes for the at least one access control list into the service chain.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes several key features of an agent deployable on a service appliance: agent architecture/design, transport and channel abstractions of the agent, new message definition components, channel switching (e.g., platform independent processing), Channel state machine, platform dependent hooks (e.g., memory, timers), Service key data store, and Secure channel infrastructure. Many of these features alleviate the vendor of the service appliance from having to provide the features. The features and standardization thereof enable the system to be more robust (and increases code quality). Speed of integration is decreased while the risk of integration issues is also decreased. Updates to the agent can be deployed in a controlled and efficient manner. Furthermore, the agent can ensure security between a switch and the agent.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a network apparatus for providing native load balancing within a switch, including: a first network interface operable to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces operable to communicatively couple to a second network; one or more logic elements comprising a switching engine operable for providing network switching; a content-addressable memory (CAM); and one or more logic elements providing a load balancing engine operable for: receiving incoming network traffic via the first network; selecting the incoming network traffic based at least in part on a selection factor, and load balancing selected traffic to a first egress interface based at least in part on a load balancing factor other than an IP address.

Abstract: A method including: in a network element that includes one or more hardware memory resources of fixed storage capacity for storing data used to configure a plurality of networking features of the network element and a utilization management process running on the network element, the utilization management process performing operations including: obtaining utilization data of a hardware memory resource of the network element; and generating, based on the utilization data, historical utilization data of the hardware memory resource.

Abstract: A method is described and in one embodiment includes, for each of a plurality of outgoing ports of a first network element: collecting data comprising a number of packets arriving the outgoing port and an amount of power consumed by the outgoing port for a first time interval; calculating a packet per watt (“P/W”) metric for the port for the first time interval, wherein the P/W metric comprises the number of packets coming into the port divided by the amount of power consumed by the port during the first time interval; repeating the collecting and calculating for a number of successive time intervals; calculating a mean P/W metric for a time period comprising the first time interval and the successive time intervals; and calculating a variance for the time period comprising the first time interval and the successive time intervals. The method further includes redirecting traffic received at the network element to the outgoing port having the lowest variance.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a network element that performs network traffic bridging receives load balancing criteria comprising an indication of at least one transport layer port number and an indication of a plurality of network nodes. A plurality of forwarding entries are created based on the load balancing criteria. A forwarding entry specifies the at least one transport layer port number and a network node of the plurality of network nodes. The network element applies the plurality of forwarding entries to network traffic to load balance, among the plurality of network nodes, network traffic that matches the at least one transport layer port number.

Abstract: An example method is provided and includes configuring a service on a network element; associating a directly connected port with the service to create a port channel between the network element and a directly connected service appliance, the port channel comprising a plurality of member ports; performing an auto-discovery process for each of the member ports; and, upon successful completion of the performing, indicating on the network element that the service appliance is operational. In certain embodiments, the network element includes an intelligent service card manager module (“ISCM”) that forms part of a Remote Integrated Service Engine (“RISE”) element with a corresponding intelligent service card client module (“ISCC”) installed on the service appliance. The method may further include, upon unsuccessful completion of the auto-discovery process, repeating the auto-discovery process.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a network apparatus for providing native load balancing within a switch or router, including a first network interface operable to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces operable to communicatively couple to a second network; one or more logic elements comprising a switching engine operable for providing network switching or routing; and one or more logic elements forming a load balancing engine operable for receiving incoming network traffic via the first network, the incoming traffic having a destination internet protocol address (IP) corresponding to a virtual IP (VIP) designated for load balancing; assigning the incoming traffic to a traffic bucket associated with the second network; and logging the assigning; wherein the switching engine and load balancing engine are configured to be provided on the same hardware as each other and as the first network interface and plurality of second network interface.

Abstract: A network apparatus for providing native load balancing within a switch, including: a first network interface operable to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces operable to communicatively couple to a second network; one or more logic elements providing a switching engine operable for providing network switching or routing; and one or more logic elements providing a load balancing engine operable for: load balancing network traffic among a plurality of service nodes; probing a first service node; determining that the first service node is unavailable; and reassigning the buckets associated with the first service node to a next available service node.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a network apparatus for providing native load balancing, including: a first network interface to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces to communicatively couple to a second network; one or more logic elements providing a switching engine to provide network switching or routing; and one or more logic elements, including at least one hardware logic element, providing a load balancing engine to: load balance network traffic among a plurality of service nodes; probe a service node with a first probe for a first service; and probe the service node with a second probe for a second service, the second probe different in kind from the first probe.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for providing one-arm node clustering using a port channel are provided herein. An example application node may be communicatively connected to at least one application node, and the application node may be connected to a network through a port channel. The application node may include: a link included in the port channel for accommodating the network data being communicated between the remote client and server; and a processor configured to send/receive a cluster control packet to/from the at least one application node through the link included in the port channel.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a network apparatus for providing native load balancing within a switch, including: a first network interface operable to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces operable to communicatively couple to a second network; one or more logic elements forming a switching engine operable for providing network switching or routing; and one or more logic elements providing a load balancing engine operable for: load balancing network traffic among a plurality of service nodes; probing a first service node; and determining that the first service node is unavailable.

Abstract: A computing apparatus for providing an integrated service engine on a network switch, including: one or more logic elements comprising a protocol engine operable for providing a state machine, wherein states of the state machine include: an add-in-progress state operable for receiving an automated policy-based routing (APBR) add transaction, and to set an add-in-progress flag; an add-complete state operable for receiving an APBR add-complete transaction and to clear the add-in-progress flag; a delete-in-progress state operable to receive an APBR delete transaction and to set a delete-in-progress flag; and a delete-complete state operable to receive an APBR delete-complete transaction and to clear the delete-in-progress flag.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a load balancing network apparatus, including a first network interface operable to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces operable to communicatively couple to a second network; and one or more logic elements providing a load balancing engine operable for: receiving an address mask; receiving an incoming network packet; masking a destination virtual network address with the address mask to match a plurality of virtual ip addresses; and load balancing the incoming network packet to the plurality of service nodes. There is also disclosed one or more computer-readable mediums including instructions for carrying out the operations, and a method of providing load balancing including carrying out the operations.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a computing apparatus for providing an integrated service engine on a network switch, including: one or more logic elements including a protocol engine operable for providing routing policies, including: providing an ADD command, comprising a first ordinal list of operations; and providing a DELETE command, comprising a second ordinal list of operations, wherein the second ordinal list of operations is the ordinal inverse of the first ordinal list of operations.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a network apparatus for providing native load balancing within a switch or router, including a first network interface operable to communicatively couple to a first network; a plurality of second network interfaces operable to communicatively couple to a second network; one or more logic elements comprising a switching engine operable for providing network switching or routing; and one or more logic elements forming a load balancing engine operable for receiving incoming network traffic via the first network, the incoming traffic having a destination internet protocol address (IP) corresponding to a virtual IP (VIP) designated for load balancing; assigning the incoming traffic to a traffic bucket associated with the second network; and logging the assigning; wherein the switching engine and load balancing engine are configured to be provided on the same hardware as each other and as the first network interface and plurality of second network interface.

Abstract: A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes transmitting from an appliance connected to a first virtual device context (“VDC”) instantiated on a network device a request for statistics associated with selected ones of a plurality of VDCs implemented on the network device, wherein the plurality of VDCs includes the first VDC and wherein the appliance is connected to the first VDC via a management link; and receiving at the appliance the requested statistics associated with the plurality of VDCs. The method may further comprise receiving at the appliance a configuration message, wherein the configuration message identifies at least one of the selected ones of the plurality of VDCs for which statistics are to be provided, at least one type of statistic to be provided for the selected ones of the VDCs, and a polling interval at which statistics are to be collected from the selected VDCs.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a computing apparatus for providing an integrated service engine on a service appliance requiring switching or routing services, including one or more logic elements providing a service appliance engine operable for performing a service appliance function; and one or more logic elements providing a protocol engine operable for: creating a route required by the service appliance; and sending an integrated service engine message (remote route programmability and distribution (RRPD) to an upstream network member comprising instructions to realize the route on the upstream network member. There is also disclosed a method of performing the foregoing operations, and one or more computer-readable mediums having stored thereon instructions for realizing the operations.