Logical Network Policy Parsing Across Multi-Site Datacenters
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing logical networks that span multiple physical sites, such as datacenters, is challenging due to the need for self-containment and seamless data transfer between sites, with existing solutions failing to efficiently address these issues.
Innovation Solution
A network management system with a global manager and local managers at each site, utilizing a hierarchical tree structure to define and enforce logical network policies across multiple sites, ensuring data consistency and resilience through asynchronous replication and failover mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a logical network spans multiple physical sites, then data transfer between sites is enabled, but network management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network management system is segmented into a global manager that handles overall logical network configuration and local managers at each physical site that handle site-specific implementations. This segmentation allows data transfer across sites while distributing management complexity, with each manager handling only its relevant portion of the configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The global manager acts as an intermediary between network administrators and multiple local managers across different physical sites. It receives global desired configuration, parses it into site-specific portions, and distributes them to appropriate local managers, thereby simplifying the management of multi-site logical networks.
2Reliability
If sites are self-contained, then site autonomy is maintained, but cross-site data transfer becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The global desired configuration defines logical network elements and policies that are universally applied across multiple physical sites. This universal configuration enables sites to maintain their self-contained nature while simultaneously enabling cross-site data transfer through the standardized logical network framework.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution implements a nested structure where site-specific logical network configurations are nested within the global logical network configuration. Each site contains its own implementation details while being part of the larger multi-site logical network, allowing both site autonomy and cross-site connectivity.
3Stability of the object's composition
If global configuration is distributed to all sites, then configuration consistency is maintained, but unnecessary data transmission occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The global manager extracts and distributes only the relevant portions of the global desired configuration to each local manager based on site-specific requirements. This extraction process maintains configuration consistency across sites while avoiding the transmission of unnecessary configuration data, thereby improving data transmission efficiency.
4Ease of operation
If manual configuration management is used across multiple sites, then detailed control is achieved, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service configuration management where the global manager automatically parses the global desired configuration and distributes appropriate portions to local managers without manual intervention. This automation maintains detailed configuration control while significantly reducing the time required for multi-site configuration management.
Data Source
AI summary
Some embodiments provide a method for distributing a service rule that is to be enforced across a first set of sites and that is defined by reference to a group identifier that identifies a group of machines. The method distributes the service rule to each site in the first set of sites. The method identifies at least one site in the first set of sites that is not in a second set of sites that has already received a definition of the group. The method distributes the group definition to each identified site in the first set of sites that has not already received the definition of the group.