System and method for determining the configuration of switches in virtual link trunking environments
A system and method of determining the configuration of a network switching unit includes receiving a configuration message on a network link. The network switching unit is associated with a first switch ID and belongs to a domain associated with a first domain ID. The system and method further includes identifying a second domain ID and a second switch ID based on at least information associated with the configuration message; determining whether the first domain ID and the second domain ID match; if the first domain ID and the second domain ID match, adding the network link to a first link aggregation group (LAG) associated with the second switch ID and designating the first LAG as part of an intra cluster link (ICL); and if the first domain ID and the second domain ID do not match, adding the network link to a second LAG associated with the second domain ID.
1. A method comprising:
receiving a first configuration message on a first network link of a network switching unit, the network switching unit being assigned a first switch ID and belonging to a domain being assigned a first domain ID;
identifying a second domain ID and a second switch ID based on at least information contained in the first configuration message;
determining whether the first domain ID and the second domain ID match;
in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID match:
adding the first network link to a first link aggregation group (LAG) associated with the second domain ID; and
designating the first LAG as part of an intra cluster link (ICL);
in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID do not match, adding the first network link to a second LAG associated with the second domain ID; and
forwarding, by the network switching unit, network traffic using the first LAG and the second LAG to improve the forwarding by the network switching unit and redundancy of a network.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
formatting a second configuration message including at least information associated with the first domain ID and the first switch ID; and
broadcasting the second configuration message on each of one or more second network links, the one or more second network links including the first network link.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising ignoring the first configuration message when it is not associated with any domain.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein ignoring the first configuration message includes detecting that the second domain ID is zero.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein ignoring the first configuration message includes detecting that the first configuration message does not include information associated with the second domain ID.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first configuration message comprises a domain ID field including at least the second domain ID and a switch ID field including at least the second switch ID.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first configuration message is a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) frame.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising configuring the network switching unit using at least the first LAG, the second LAG, and the ICL.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising verifying a configuration of the network switching unit using at least the first LAG, the second LAG, and the ICL.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising generating an error message if the configuration of the network switching unit cannot be verified.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating a configuration of the network switching unit based on at least information associated with the first configuration message.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the first LAG exists; and
in response to determining that the first LAG does not exist, creating the first LAG before adding the first network link to the first LAG.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the second LAG exists; and
in response to determining that the second LAG does not exist, creating the second LAG before adding the first network link to the second LAG.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising encoding the first domain ID and the first switch ID into one or more memory devices of the network switching unit.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID do not match, the method further comprises:
designating the second LAG as part of a virtual link trunk (VLT);
associating the second LAG with a LAG ID;
formatting a second configuration message including a least information associated with the second domain ID and the LAG ID; and
sending the second configuration message via the ICL.
16. A network switching unit, the network switching unit comprising:
a first network link for sending and receiving messages;
wherein:
the network switching unit is associated with a first switch ID;
the network switching unit belongs to a domain, the domain being associated with a first domain ID; and
the network switching unit is configured to:
receive a first configuration message on the first network link;
identify a second domain ID and a second switch ID based on at least information associated with the first configuration message;
determine whether the first domain ID and the second domain ID match;
in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID match:
add the first network link to a first link aggregation group (LAG) associated with the second domain ID; and
designate the first LAG as part of an intra cluster link (ICL);
in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID do not match, add the first network link to a second LAG associated with the second domain ID; and
forward network traffic using the first LAG and the second LAG to improve the forwarding by the network switching unit and redundancy of a network.
17. The network switching unit of claim 16 , further comprising:
one or more second network links, the one or more second network links including the first network link; and
wherein the network switching unit is further configured to:
format a second configuration message including at least information associated with the first domain ID and the first switch ID; and
broadcast the second configuration message on each of the one or more second network links.
18. The network switching unit of claim 16 wherein the network switching unit is further configured to configure the network switching unit using at least the first LAG, the second LAG, and the ICL.
19. The network switching unit of claim 16 wherein the network switching unit is further configured to verify a configuration of the network switching unit using at least the first LAG, the second LAG, and the ICL.
20. An information handling system comprising:
a domain associated with a first domain ID;
the domain comprising a network switching unit associated with a first switch ID and comprising a first network link for sending and receiving messages;
wherein the network switching unit is configured to:
receive a first configuration message on the first network link;
identify a second domain ID and a second switch ID based on at least information associated with the first configuration message;
determine whether the first domain ID and the second domain ID match;
in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID match:
add the first network link to a first link aggregation group (LAG) associated with the second domain ID; and
designate the first LAG as part of an intra cluster link (ICL);
in response to determining that the first domain ID and the second domain ID do not match, add the first network link to a second LAG associated with the second domain ID; and
forward network traffic using the first LAG and the second LAG to improve the forwarding by the network switching unit and redundancy of the information handling system.