Orchestrator Agnostic Container Visibility via Messaging Bus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing container networking solutions are not programmable, agile, or automated, and are difficult to manage due to their dependency on specific Container Orchestration Engines, leading to scalability limitations and increased overhead in network device management.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a network device with a container supervisor module that subscribes to container lifecycle notifications to obtain networking information independently from Container Orchestration Engines, establishing a messaging bus to provide visibility and configure networking functionality for containers, thereby supporting any type of Container Orchestration Engine and enabling orchestrator-agnostic container visibility and auto-configuration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If container networking solutions depend on specific Container Orchestration Engines, then integration with those engines is achieved, but scalability and adaptability to different orchestrators are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a messaging bus as an intermediary layer between network devices and container networking plugins. This messaging bus decouples the network device from specific container orchestration engines, allowing the system to communicate with multiple orchestrators (Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, Mesos, etc.) through a standardized interface. The network device subscribes to container lifecycle notifications via the messaging bus without needing to understand or integrate directly with each orchestrator's proprietary API, thus achieving orchestrator-agnostic container visibility and management.
2Extent of automation
If manual configuration of container networking is performed, then control over networking parameters is achieved, but automation and agility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables network devices to automatically subscribe to container lifecycle notifications through the messaging bus and autonomously configure networking parameters based on received events. When container events (creation, deletion, networking changes) are published to the messaging bus, network devices automatically process these notifications and adjust their forwarding rules, VLAN configurations, and other networking parameters without requiring manual intervention. This self-configuration mechanism provides both automation and ease of operation by eliminating repetitive manual tasks while maintaining full control over networking parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback loop where network devices continuously monitor container lifecycle events through the messaging bus and automatically adjust networking configurations in response to these events. The container networking plugin publishes container state changes to the messaging bus, network devices subscribe to relevant events, and upon receiving notifications, the network devices automatically update their forwarding tables, VLAN assignments, and other networking parameters. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures the networking configuration remains synchronized with container lifecycle states without manual intervention.
3Adaptability or versatility
If container networking information is obtained directly from Container Orchestration Engines, then integration is achieved, but dependency on specific orchestrators increases and scalability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The messaging bus serves as an intermediary that captures container lifecycle notifications from container orchestration engines and redistributes them to network devices in a standardized format. Instead of network devices directly querying or integrating with specific orchestrator APIs, the container networking plugin publishes container events (creation, deletion, networking changes) to the messaging bus, which then delivers these events to subscribed network devices. This intermediary approach maintains complete container networking visibility while eliminating direct dependencies on specific orchestrator implementations.
Data Source
AI summary
A network device is configured to establish a messaging bus with a container networking plug-in, which is associated with a container virtual network. The network device is also configured to obtain, via the messaging bus, networking information for one or more containers hosted at the at least one container-hosting computing device. Based on the networking information, the network device provides visibility of one or more containers below the network device.