Top-of-rack (TOR) switches are connected to a network fabric of a data center. Each TOR switch corresponds to a rack of the data center, and is configured to provide access to the network fabric for computing devices mounted in the rack. In one method, a TOR switch is mounted in a rack. The TOR switch is connected to a network fabric of a data center. A lock is used to control physical access to the rack. A request to physically access the rack is received from a computing device (e.g., a badge implementing a security token, or a mobile device). The request includes authentication credentials. The computing device is then authenticated. In response to authenticating the computing device, the lock is configured to provide physical access to the rack.

The present disclosure provides systems, methods and computer-readable media for maintaining network connectivity, in a LISP based network, when one or more network edge nodes lose connectivity to a LISP control plane of the network, using multicast messaging. In one example, a method includes receiving a connection request from a first endpoint to a second endpoint communicatively coupled to a second edge node; determining, by the first edge node, that a connection session to a control plane for locating the second endpoint has failed; querying one or more available edge nodes for locating the second endpoint using a multicast message; locating the second endpoint based on at least one query response received from the one or more available edge nodes, at least one query response including an identifier of the second endpoint; and establishing the connection request between the first endpoint and the second endpoint upon locating the second endpoint.

A method and system of configuring a stack of switches includes configuring a switch with mapping information based on a user input flow mapping that defines destination port(s) (local destination port(s) and/or remote destination port(s)) for a flow to exit the stack. The mapping information includes any local destination port(s) via which the flow can exit the stack from the switch and an outbound stack port for each of any remote destination port(s) via which the flow can be transmitted from the switch to a downstream switch. The method further includes creating a decapsulation entry having a flow ID for the flow, wherein the flow ID is assigned to the flow and is unique across the stack, and configuring the switch with access to a decapsulation algorithm configured to use the flow ID via the decapsulation entry to decapsulate encapsulated network traffic of the flow received from an upstream switch.

A method and system of configuring a stack of switches includes configuring a switch with mapping information based on a user input flow mapping that defines destination port(s) (local destination port(s) and/or remote destination port(s)) for a flow to exit the stack. The mapping information includes any local destination port(s) via which the flow can exit the stack from the switch and an outbound stack port for each of any remote destination port(s) via which the flow can be transmitted from the switch to a downstream switch. The method further includes creating a decapsulation entry having a flow ID for the flow, wherein the flow ID is assigned to the flow and is unique across the stack, and configuring the switch with access to a decapsulation algorithm configured to use the flow ID via the decapsulation entry to decapsulate encapsulated network traffic of the flow received from an upstream switch.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a forwarding element that can be configured through in-band data-plane messages from a remote controller that is a physically separate machine from the forwarding element. The forwarding element of some embodiments has data plane circuits that include several configurable message-processing stages, several storage queues, and a data-plane configurator. A set of one or more message-processing stages of the data plane are configured (1) to process configuration messages received by the data plane from the remote controller and (2) to store the configuration messages in a set of one or more storage queues. The data-plane configurator receives the configuration messages stored in the set of storage queues and configures one or more of the configurable message-processing stages based on configuration data in the configuration messages.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a forwarding element that can be configured through in-band data-plane messages from a remote controller that is a physically separate machine from the forwarding element. The forwarding element of some embodiments has data plane circuits that include several configurable message-processing stages, several storage queues, and a data-plane configurator. A set of one or more message-processing stages of the data plane are configured (1) to process configuration messages received by the data plane from the remote controller and (2) to store the configuration messages in a set of one or more storage queues. The data-plane configurator receives the configuration messages stored in the set of storage queues and configures one or more of the configurable message-processing stages based on configuration data in the configuration messages.

A method is performed by a first server on a chip (SoC) node that is one instance of a plurality of nodes within a cluster of nodes. An operation is performed for determine if a second one of the SoC nodes in the cluster has data stored thereon corresponding to a data identifier in response to receiving a data retrieval request including the data identifier. An operation is performed for determining if a remote memory access channel exists between the SoC node and the second one of the SoC nodes. An operation is performed for access the data from the second one of the SoC nodes using the remote memory access channel after determine that the second one of the SoC nodes has the data stored thereon and that the remote memory access channel exists between the SoC node and the second one of the SoC nodes.

A network system for a data center is described in which a switch fabric may provide full mesh interconnectivity such that any servers may communicate packet data to any other of the servers using any of a number of parallel data paths. Moreover, according to the techniques described herein, edge-positioned access nodes, optical permutation devices and core switches of the switch fabric may be configured and arranged in a way such that the parallel data paths provide single L2/L3 hop, full mesh interconnections between any pairwise combination of the access nodes, even in massive data centers having tens of thousands of servers. The plurality of optical permutation devices permute communications across the optical ports based on wavelength so as to provide, in some cases, full-mesh optical connectivity between edge-facing ports and core-facing ports.

A network system for a data center is described in which a switch fabric may provide full mesh interconnectivity such that any servers may communicate packet data to any other of the servers using any of a number of parallel data paths. Moreover, according to the techniques described herein, edge-positioned access nodes, optical permutation devices and core switches of the switch fabric may be configured and arranged in a way such that the parallel data paths provide single L2/L3 hop, full mesh interconnections between any pairwise combination of the access nodes, even in massive data centers having tens of thousands of servers. The plurality of optical permutation devices permute communications across the optical ports based on wavelength so as to provide, in some cases, full-mesh optical connectivity between edge-facing ports and core-facing ports.

Aspects include receiving, at an input/output (I/O) processor, a transport control word (TCW) that includes an instruction to perform physical port mirroring. It is identified, by the I/O processor, a first port to be mirrored and a second port to perform the mirroring. The second port is a physical port on a host bus adapter (HBA). In response to outbound data being sent to the first port for transmission to a first target device and to the instruction specifying outbound port mirroring, the I/O processor sends a copy of the outbound data to a second target device via the second port. In response to receiving inbound data at the first port and to the instruction specifying inbound port mirroring, a copy of the inbound data is transmitted to the second target device via the second port.