VXLAN Packet Capture Metadata for Low-Impact Network Diagnostics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network diagnostics in datacenters are difficult and costly due to the complexity of multiple routers, switches, and end hosts, with packet tracing being labor-intensive and causing significant latencies, and existing packet capture methods cause performance impact and inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing VXLAN encapsulation to copy and transmit data packets to a storage service for recording, preserving lower-level networking information, and adding metadata to associate packets with data streams, allowing efficient packet capture and retrieval without performance impact on network elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If packet capture is performed at the network element of interest, then packet data can be captured for analysis, but performance impact on the network element increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the packet capture and storage function from the network element of interest and places it at a remote storage service. The network element only performs packet copying and VXLAN encapsulation, while the storage service handles packet recording and metadata management, thereby reducing the performance burden on the network element.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces VXLAN encapsulation as an intermediary mechanism to transfer packet data from the network element to the storage service. The encapsulated packets are transmitted through a tunneling protocol that decouples the capture process from the storage process, allowing the network element to maintain its primary networking functions without performance degradation.
2Loss of information
If multiple data streams are captured from multiple network elements, then comprehensive network diagnostics are enabled, but data retrieval complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal storage service interface that can handle packet capture data from multiple network elements and multiple data streams through a single standardized API. The storage service consolidates diverse packet data into a unified storage format, allowing operators to retrieve data from any network element using the same interface procedures.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If packet tracing is performed manually in distributed computing environments, then network connectivity issues can be investigated, but processing time and labor intensity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent automatically copies packet data from the network element to the storage service using VXLAN encapsulation, eliminating the need for manual packet tracing operations. The system performs automated packet copying, encapsulation, and transmission, replacing labor-intensive manual processes with automated infrastructure that continuously captures and stores packet data for later analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for capturing network traffic in a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing devices. Data packets to be captured are encapsulated within a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) session. A reserved bit in a header of the encapsulated packet is set to indicate the encapsulated packet includes metadata pertaining to the data traffic to be captured.