N-node virtual link trunking (Vlt) supporting arbitrary topologies

1. An information handling system node comprising:

a plurality of input/output (I/O) ports, at least a portion of which facilitate communications with one or more client devices and are configurable to be part of one or more arbitrary topology virtual link trunking (VLT) link aggregation groups (LAGs), each of the one or more VLT LAGs including the information handling system node and at least one of the one or more client devices;

a plurality of inter-node-link (INL) ports, at least a portion of which facilitate communications with one or more of peer information handling system nodes in an arbitrary n-node VLT system, which comprises the information handling system node and a plurality of information handling system nodes;

a data processing component that processes data traffic, and receives data from and sends data to at least some of the plurality of I/O ports and at least some of the plurality of INL ports;

at least one encapsulation module that performs tunnel encapsulation to add information to identify an ingress port and to identify an ingress peer information system node, the tunnel encapsulation is performed whenever packets are forwarded over at least one INL port; and

a forwarding component that forwards data traffic based on the tunnel encapsulation information.

2. The information handling system node of claim 1 further comprising a designated forwarder election module implemented to elect a designated forwarder.

3. The information handling system node of claim 2 wherein the designated forwarder is elected based on a priority and a node address.

4. The information handling system node of claim 2 wherein the designated forwarder is elected based on bandwidth of a VLT port channel.

5. The information handling system node of claim 1 wherein the INL ports are configured to be a member of each virtual local area network (VLAN) defined in the n-node VLT system.

6. The information handling system node of claim 1 further comprising an external tunnel extender tag used during Access Control List (ACL) lookup.

7. A n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system comprising:

a plurality of node devices communicatively coupled to each other via inter-node link (INL) ports to facilitate communications with one or more of the other node devices from the plurality of node devices in the n-node VLT system, wherein the communications are facilitated using an external tunnel extender tag identifying a source node, wherein the communications are facilitated by the external tunnel extender tag and communication forwarding decisions are based on the external tunnel extender tag; and

at least some of the plurality of node devices communicatively coupled via one or more input/output (I/O) ports to a client device configured with a virtual link trunking (VLT) link aggregation group (LAG), the plurality of node devices of the n-node VLT system associating a common VLT identifier with each of the ports of the at least some of the plurality of node devices that participate in the VLT and associating an internal tunnel extender tag identifying a source node LAG.

8. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein the plurality of node devices are communicatively coupled to each other via inter-node link (INL) port in an arbitrary topology.

9. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein the communications are facilitated using the external tunnel extender tag identifying port information.

10. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein table lookups for a packet arriving on the INL port are based on the internal tunnel extender tag and ignore the external tunnel extender tag.

11. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein the internal tunnel extender tag identifies a source port through which a packet has arrived.

12. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein the external tunnel extender tag is used during an Access Control List (ACL) lookup.

13. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein the external tunnel extender tag is used for implementing source suppression.

14. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 13 wherein the source suppression prevents a packet from being forwarded back on a VLT LAG to which the source port belong.

15. The n-node Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) system of claim 7 wherein the n-node VLT system is configured to be provide load balancing across the N nodes.

16. A method of providing communications using an n-node VLT system comprising a plurality of nodes communicatively coupled to each other via inter-node port links (INLs), the method comprising:

forming an arbitrary topology between the nodes of the n-node VLT system;

at a fabric level:

for each link aggregation group (LAG) spanning a plurality of nodes in the n-node VLT system, associating an internal tunnel extender tag identifying a source node LAG, wherein the communications are provided by the external tunnel extender tag and communication forwarding decisions are based on the external tunnel extender tag; and

operating the link aggregation group or groups across the n-node VLT system using the associated internal tunnel extender tag.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

using an external tunnel extender tag identifying a source node and port information.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the external tunnel extender tag is used in Access Control List (ACL) look up.