Abstract: A method for setting up standby links on a link failure may be provided. The method comprises for a set of N link ports and M standby link ports, where N and M are integers and N is not equal to M, performing the following functions. Determining the status of a link from a first link port of the N ports. After the link from the first link port has failed, determining when a standby link port from the M standby link ports has been assigned to the first link port of the N ports. After the standby link port has been assigned, determining the health of the standby link port. After the standby link port has been assigned and is healthy, redirecting traffic from the first link port to the standby link port.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to providing shared resources to virtual devices on a network switch. In one example, a switch comprises a plurality of virtual device contexts (VDCs) and a default virtual device context (DVDC). The DVDC stores configuration data that identifies a network resource. The DVDC transmits a reference to the configuration data to each of the plurality of VDCs. Each of plurality of VDCs receives the reference from the DVDC. When the DVDC receive, from the at least one of the plurality of VDCs, a request to access the configuration data via the reference, the DVDC transmits at least a portion of the configuration data to the at least one of the plurality of VDCs. The at least the portion of the configuration data is operable to initiate a connection between the at least one of the plurality of VDCs and the network resource.

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 a plurality of entries of the one or more hardware memory resources representing utilization of the one or more hardware memory resources by network traffic passing through the network element; sorting the plurality of entries of the one or more hardware memory resources by statistics associated with the network traffic passing through the network element to produce sorted entries; and sending the extracted to a network management application for display is disclosed. An apparatus and one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media to execute the method are also provided.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a network device is provided that comprises a plurality of ports at which network packets are received at the network device and sent from the network device. At least hardware module includes one or more memories that store entries for one or more networking features to be performed to direct network packets with respect to the plurality of ports. A processor is coupled to the at least one hardware module and configured to communicate with the at least one hardware module to store in the one or more memories attributes for one or more access control lists and associated actions that cause network packets which are received that match the attributes for the one or more access control lists, to be directed in a service chain that includes one or more network processing appliances connected to one or more of the plurality of ports.

Abstract: A switch/switching fabric is configured to load balance traffic. The switch fabric includes a plurality of switches. A packet is received at a first switch of the plurality of switches. The first switch load balances the packet to a particular entity among a plurality of entities. Each of the entities is connected to one of the plurality of switches. The first switch determines a particular switch of the plurality of switches to which the packet should be directed, the particular entity being connected to the particular switch of the plurality of switches. The particular switch receives the packet, and determines which interface of the particular switch to direct the packet to the particular entity. The plurality of entities include servers and network appliances as physical devices or virtual machines.

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 computing apparatus for providing load-balanced switching, including a switching network; one or more logic elements operable for providing network switching or routing; and one or more logic elements providing a load balancing engine operable for: load balancing at least some incoming network traffic; receiving an exclude list identifying a network node excluded from load balancing; identifying a network packet directed to the network node excluded from load balancing; and directing the network packet to the network.

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 computing apparatus for providing an integrated service engine on a service appliance, 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: detecting that a plurality of upstream network switches are connected to the service appliance in a virtual port channel configuration; and provisioning virtual port channel (VPC) services comprising replicating a routing policy to each of the plurality of upstream network switches. There is also disclosed one or more computer-readable mediums having stored thereon instructions for providing the foregoing, and a computer-implemented method of performing the foregoing operations.

Abstract: In one embodiment a forwarding policy from a first network node coupled to a network element is received. The forwarding policy specifies an address of a second network node coupled to the network element. A plurality of ports of the network element are identified, wherein the second network node is accessible from the network element through each of the plurality of ports. The forwarding policy is applied to the plurality of ports of the network element. Network traffic received at a port of the plurality of ports from the second network node is forwarded to the first network node.

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: 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 some embodiments, a virtual device context (vDC) domain may be advertised to other network devices. If at least a partition of each device is determined to belong to the same vDC domain, the network interface communicating with the at least one device may be activated.

Abstract: A network element 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. A utilization management process runs on the network element to perform operations including obtaining utilization data representing utilization of the one or more hardware memory resources, and analyzing the utilization data of the one or more hardware memory resources to produce summarized utilization data.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes methods and systems for enabling simultaneous redirection and load-balancing of data packets to network elements in a network environment. In one embodiment, a data packet is received at a network element. The network element identifies a traffic bucket corresponding to the data packet. The traffic bucket includes a matching criterion that identifies a subset of network traffic to map to a node. The data packet is redirected, based on the traffic bucket, from a first address contained in a field of the data packet to a second address that corresponds to the node. The data packet is forwarded to the second address.

Abstract: A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes calculating a packet metric for a first one of a plurality of links connected to a network element, wherein the packet metric is equal to a packet count over a period of time T divided by a maximum throughput of the first one of the links; and determining based on the packet metric whether traffic on the one of the links should be switched to another one of the plurality of links to optimize power usage. If a determination is made that the traffic on the first one of the links should be switched to another one of the plurality of links, the method further includes selecting a second link from a subset of the plurality of links; assigning the traffic to the selected second link; and applying a cost saving measure at an interface of the network element to which the first link is connected.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an indication of a plurality of network nodes and load balancing criteria is received. A plurality of forwarding entries are created, wherein a forwarding entry of the plurality of forwarding entries is based upon the load balancing criteria and corresponds to a network node of the plurality of network nodes. A network element applies the plurality of forwarding entries to data packets to load balance the data packets among the plurality of network nodes. A plurality of counts are tracked, wherein each count corresponds to at least one forwarding entry of the plurality of forwarding entries and represents the number of times the corresponding at least one forwarding entry is used to redirect a data packet.

Abstract: In accordance with one example embodiment, there is provided a method for configuring a virtual IP address (“VIP”) at a network element, wherein the configuring includes identifying at least one ingress interface of the network element for receiving traffic destined for the VIP and wherein the VIP is associated with a plurality of servers; determining whether the configuring indicates that the VIP is to be advertised; and advertising the configured VIP address to at least one neighboring network node if the configuring indicates that the VIP is to be advertised.

Abstract: In an example, a system and method for data plane integration is described. Aspects of the embodiments are directed to a service application connected to a switch of a network fabric and a method of data plane integration performed at a service appliance, the service appliance providing firewall functionality. The service appliance can receive a data packet from a network location; determine a flow owner of the data packet based on a hashing table; and transmit the data packet based on the determined flow owner of the data packet.

Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed an example of a system and method for plug and play in a controller based network. Aspects of the embodiments are directed to a network switch of a fabric network, the network switch configured to detect a connection of a device to the network switch, the device compliant with a remote integrated services engine (RISE) protocol; receive, from the device, a programming instruction for switching compliant with the RISE protocol; and distribute the programming instruction to one or more other network switches of the fabric network.