Network Controller Staging Configuration Changes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current network configuration change management systems lack the ability to effectively stage, validate, and deploy changes without conflicts, particularly during critical hours, and fail to prevent unauthorized changes, leading to potential network failures and undesirable user experiences.
Innovation Solution
A configuration change service that transitions a network controller into a frozen state, allowing for the queuing and approval of proposed changes by different user roles, ensuring changes are reviewed and deployed during a maintenance window, with role-based access control and historical tracking of changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If configuration changes are deployed immediately upon submission, then deployment speed is improved, but network stability deteriorates due to potential conflicts and unauthorized changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a staging mechanism where configuration changes are prepared and validated in advance before actual deployment. The system captures the current configuration state, stages proposed changes, and performs validation checks before applying them to the network controller, ensuring that changes are ready for deployment without immediately applying them.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a configuration change service as an intermediary layer between users and the network controller. This service manages the staging, validation, and deployment processes, acting as a mediator that filters and controls which changes reach the network controller, thereby preventing conflicts and unauthorized changes while maintaining deployment efficiency.
2Productivity
If multiple users can deploy configuration changes simultaneously, then user productivity is improved, but configuration conflict increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system captures and stores the current configuration state before allowing multiple users to submit changes. By having a known baseline state recorded in advance, the system can later validate each user's proposed changes against this baseline and against each other, detecting conflicts before deployment while allowing concurrent change submissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The configuration change service implements feedback mechanisms that monitor proposed changes from multiple users, validate them against the current configuration state and each other, and provide information about potential conflicts. This feedback loop allows the system to manage simultaneous change submissions while preventing harmful conflicts from being deployed.
3Reliability
If configuration changes are reviewed and approved before deployment, then deployment reliability is improved, but deployment time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs validation and conflict detection in advance during the staging phase, before actual deployment. By capturing the current configuration state and validating proposed changes beforehand, the system ensures deployment reliability while reducing the time required during the actual deployment window, as changes are already validated and ready to apply.
Data Source
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AI summary
Techniques for a configuration change service to transition a network controller into a frozen state, causing network users submitting configuration changes associated with the network to refrain from deploying the configuration changes for a period of time are disclosed. A first user configured as a stager role may submit data representing a proposed change to the configuration change service, where the proposed change may be stored in association with a list of proposed changes. A second user configured as an approver role may submit data representing an approval or disapproval of the proposed changes to the configuration change service, where a modified list of proposed changes may be generated. A third user configured as an administrator role may submit data configured to transition the controller to an unfrozen state and/or deploy the changes included in the list of proposed changes to the network controller, subsequent to the period of time.