A system and method for supporting load balancing in a multi-tenant cluster environment, in accordance with an embodiment. One or more tenants can be supported and each associated with a partition, which are each in turn associated with one or more end nodes. The method can provide a plurality of switches, the plurality of switches comprising a plurality of leaf switches and at least one switch at another level, wherein each of the plurality of switches comprise at least one port. The method can assign each node a weight parameter, and based upon this parameter, the method can route the plurality of end nodes within the multi-tenant cluster environment, wherein the routing attempts to preserve partition isolation.

System and method for supporting configurable legacy P_Key table abstraction using a bitmap based hardware implementation in a high performance computing environment. A mapping table in DRAM can be provided through the use of a software based SMA that implements the mapping table. With this mapping table, it is possible to provide a legacy compliant view of a bit map based P_Key table. Such a legacy compliant view can be called a virtual P_Key table, or a configurable legacy P_Key table abstraction.

An apparatus in a first computing device is provided. During operation, the apparatus can present, to a processor of the first computing device, a virtual interface switch (VIS) coupled to an interface port of the processor. The apparatus can present to the processor that a target device, which is reachable via a remote apparatus of a second computing device, is coupled to the VIS. The apparatuses can be coupled via at least a first fabric and a second fabric. A respective fabric may facilitate communication based on a fabric switching protocol. The apparatus can obtain a set of packets, which can be issued from the interface port via the VIS and directed to the target device. The apparatus can then forward, to the remote apparatus, a first subset of the set of packets via the first fabric and a second subset of the set of packets via the second fabric.

A server system comprising storage devices, processing devices and a storage fabric all operating according to a storage fabric protocol. The storage fabric comprises a plurality of individual switches having a modular design from which an overall switch is built, and the individual switches have individual respective configuration settings which determine which processing devices are allocated to use which of the storage devices. The system comprises an API enabling a software control function to configure the overall switch. The API is operable to receive from the control function an overall mapping of the storage devices to the processing devices instead of requiring the individual configuration settings of each of the individual switches to be specified by the control function, the API being configured to convert the overall mapping into the individual configuration settings of the individual switches to produce the overall mapping.

Systems and methods for providing multicast group (MCG) membership relative to partition membership in a high performance computing environment. In accordance with an embodiment, by allowing a subnet manager of a local subnet to be instructed that all ports that are members of the relevant partition should be set up as members for a specific multicast group, the SM can perform a more efficient multicast-routing process. It is also possible to limit the IB client interaction with subnet administration conventionally required to handle join and leave operations. Additionally, subnet manager overhead can be reduced by creating a spanning tree for the routing of multicast packets that includes each of the partition members added to the multicast group, instead of creating a spanning tree after each multicast group join request is received, as conventionally required.

A novel multi-stage folded Clos network and a linecard for use in a network is disclosed. The Clos network can consist of three stages, an access stage, a lower stage, and an upper stage. The access stage and the upper stage can include a plurality of switches or conventional access points. The lower stage can include a plurality of linecards. Each linecard can be made of two switch chips, each of which are connected to the ports of the linecard, and contain the same number of ports. Each switch chip can forward information in only one direction and one is used to send direction from the access stage to the upper stage, and the other from the upper stage to the access stage. The lower stage can consist of a number of sub-stages, each sub-stage can be entirely of either conventional switches or linecards. Accordingly, compared to a conventional Clos network, the provided network can increase the throughput by any power of 2 by replacing the conventional switches used in the lower stage or sub-stages with linecards.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for efficient data transfer in a computing system are disclosed. A source generates packets to send across a communication fabric (or fabric) to a destination. The source generates partition enable signals for the partitions of payload data. The source negates an enable signal for a particular partition when the source determines the packet type indicates the particular partition should have an associated asserted enable signal in the packet, but the source also determines the particular partition includes a particular data pattern. Routing components of the fabric disable clock signals to storage elements assigned to store the particular partition. The destination inserts the particular data pattern for the particular partition in the payload data.

A network switch is provided. The network switch may incorporate resources for use as network attached resources for remote devices. Resources may include SSD storage for use as network attached storage for remote devices. The network switch may also include one or more client applications configured to detect an intended access path between a remote device and a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) storage device. The intended access path may be based on one of many different NVMe over fabric (NVMe-oF) protocols. The network switch (via the one or more client applications) automatically configures parameters to provide a network connectivity path between the remote device and the NVMe storage device. Communication includes at least one of a virtual local area network (VLAN) and a communication tunnel and/or other form of dedicated communication path to facilitate remotely accessible storage capacity provided from the network switch to the remote device.

A network switch is provided. The network switch may incorporate resources for use as network attached resources for remote devices. Resources may include SSD storage for use as network attached storage for remote devices. The network switch may also include one or more client applications configured to detect an intended access path between a remote device and a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) storage device. The intended access path may be based on one of many different NVMe over fabric (NVMe-oF) protocols. The network switch (via the one or more client applications) automatically configures parameters to provide a network connectivity path between the remote device and the NVMe storage device. Communication includes at least one of a virtual local area network (VLAN) and a communication tunnel and/or other form of dedicated communication path to facilitate remotely accessible storage capacity provided from the network switch to the remote device.

A storage system switching mediators within a storage system synchronously replicating data, where the switching between mediators includes: determining, among one or more of the plurality of storage systems, a change in availability of a first mediator service, wherein one or more of the plurality of storage systems are configured to request mediation from the first mediator service; communicating, among the plurality of storage systems and responsive to determining the change in availability of the first mediator service, a second mediator service to use in response to a fault; and switching, in dependence upon the change in availability of the first mediator service, from the first mediator service to the second mediator service.