On-demand connection ping
Techniques disclosed herein provide an approach for diagnosing problems in a network connection established between applications running on two endpoints. In one embodiment, upon identification of a potential issue in the network connection, a connection detector is triggered in one of the endpoints and requests a kernel of that endpoint to transmit an on-demand, non-invasive packet to the other endpoint. The connection detector then determines whether the application running on the other endpoint is available via the connection based on whether an acknowledgment packet is received from the other endpoint after the transmission of the non-invasive packet.
1. A computer-implemented method of diagnosing problems in a network connection between a first application running on system software of a first endpoint and a second application running on system software of a second endpoint, the method comprising:
identifying, at the first endpoint, a potential connection issue in the network connection;
responsive to the identifying of the potential connection issue, requesting a kernel component of the system software of the first endpoint to transmit a non-invasive packet from the first endpoint to the second endpoint, wherein the non-invasive packet is an on-demand packet that the kernel component of the system software of the first endpoint is configured to transmit in response to an application or user request, wherein the non-invasive packet is transmitted in-band via the network connection, wherein the non-invasive packet includes a header but not a payload; and
determining whether the second application is available via the network connection based on whether a packet is received by the first endpoint from the second endpoint in response to the transmission of the non-invasive packet, wherein the non-invasive packet is processed by a kernel component of the system software of the second endpoint but not transmitted to the second application.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network connection is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection, and wherein the non-invasive packet is a TCP keep-alive packet.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to transmit the on-demand non-invasive packet is made by a connection detector triggered in response to the identifying of the potential connection issue.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to transmit the on-demand non-invasive packet is made by a user interacting with a user interface in response to the identifying of the potential connection issue.
5. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the network connection is established for a virtual machine live migration operation, and
wherein the potential connection issue is identified when the live migration operation does not make progress for a given amount of time.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining the second application is not available, establishing a new network connection between the first application and the second application.
7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a program which, when executed by one or more processors, performs operations for diagnosing problems in a network connection between a first application running on system software of a first endpoint and a second application running on system software of a second endpoint, the operations comprising:
identifying, at the first endpoint, a potential connection issue in the network connection;
responsive to the identifying of the potential connection issue, requesting a kernel component of the system software of the first endpoint to transmit a non-invasive packet from the first endpoint to the second endpoint, wherein the non-invasive packet is an on-demand packet that the kernel component of the system software of the first endpoint is configured to transmit in response to an application or user request, wherein the non-invasive packet is transmitted in-band via the network connection, wherein the non-invasive packet includes a header but not a payload; and
determining whether the second application is available via the network connection based on whether a packet is received by the first endpoint from the second endpoint in response to the transmission of the non-invasive packet, wherein the non-invasive packet is processed by a kernel component of the system software of the second endpoint but not transmitted to the second application.
8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the network connection is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection, and wherein the non-invasive packet is a TCP keep-alive packet.
9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the request to transmit the on-demand non-invasive packet is made by a connection detector triggered in response to the identifying of the potential connection issue.
10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 ,
wherein the network connection is established for a virtual machine live migration operation, and
wherein the potential connection issue is identified when the live migration operation does not make progress for a given amount of time.
11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
in response to determining the second application is not available, establishing a new network connection between the first application and the second application.
12. A first endpoint, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory, wherein the memory includes a program executable in the processor to perform operations for diagnosing problems in a network connection between a first application running on system software of the first endpoint and a second application running on system software of a second endpoint, the operations comprising:
identifying a potential connection issue in the network connection,
responsive to the identifying of the potential connection issue, requesting a kernel component of the system software of the first endpoint to transmit a non-invasive packet from the first endpoint to the second endpoint, wherein the non-invasive packet is an on-demand packet that the kernel component of the system software of the first endpoint is configured to transmit in response to an application or user request, wherein the non-invasive packet is transmitted in-band via the network connection, wherein the non-invasive packet includes a header but not a payload, and
determining whether the second application is available via the network connection based on whether a packet is received by the first endpoint from the second endpoint in response to the transmission of the non-invasive packet, wherein the non-invasive packet is processed by a kernel component of the system software of the second endpoint but not transmitted to the second application.
13. The first endpoint of claim 12 , wherein the request to transmit the on-demand non-invasive packet is made by a connection detector triggered in response to the identifying of the potential connection issue.