Switch management system and method

1. A method, comprising:

providing a switch having a plurality of processor elements (PEs), each of the plurality of PEs running a network operating system (NOS), the NOS allowing the switch to create discrete customized services for customers of a service provider operating the switch by providing each customer with a customized configuration of service object groups;

creating a system virtual router on a first PE of the plurality of PEs, wherein creating the system virtual router includes establishing a global object manager associated with the NOS of the first PE, the global object manager being responsible for managing global object groups and global object configurations; and

configuring the plurality of PEs from the system virtual router, wherein configuring includes establishing, via the global object manager, a local object manager on each of the PEs, wherein the local object manager for a given PE of the plurality of PEs manages objects local to the given PE and transfers messages between objects on the given PE and between objects on the given PE and objects on other PEs of the plurality of PEs.

2. An article comprising a computer readable medium having instructions thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed in a computer, create a system for executing the method of claim 1 .

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said configuring PEs of the plurality of PEs includes creating a customer virtual router from selected PEs on multiple blades of the switch, wherein creating a customer virtual router includes:

establishing a virtual private network (VPN) associated with a customer;

adding the customer virtual router to a list of virtual routers associated with the VPN; and

creating an object associated with the customer virtual router on each of the selected PEs.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said configuring the plurality of PEs includes:

adding new PEs; and

using a distributed management layer to group PEs into at least one virtual router, wherein grouping includes assigning a group identifier to selected objects in each PE such that the selected objects can be addressed as a group.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein using a distributed management layer to group processor elements into at least one virtual router includes:

requesting the global object manager to create a virtual router from a group of PEs;

requesting one or more of the local object managers to group the group of PEs;

activating PEs of the group; and

generating a status message that the at least one virtual router is created.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said activating PEs of the group includes causing a state machine for a PE of the PEs of the group to enter an active state.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein said using a distributed management layer to group PEs includes adding object identifiers to a global object database.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with a first customer represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the first customer with network-based managed firewall services.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with the first customer further represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the first customer with virtual private network (VPN) services.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with a second customer represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the second customer with network-based managed firewall services.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with the second customer further represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the second customer with virtual private network (VPN) services.

12. A method comprising:

providing a switch having a plurality of processor elements (PEs), each of the plurality of PEs running a network operating system (NOS);

creating discrete customized services for each customer of a service provider operating the switch by providing each customer with a customized configuration of service object groups; and

configuring and managing the service object groups by

establishing a global object manager associated with the NOS of a first PE of the plurality of PEs, the global object manager being responsible for managing a global object database, global object groups and global object configurations;

establishing, via the global object manager, a local object manager on each of the plurality of PEs; and

each of the local object managers managing objects local to the corresponding PE of the plurality of PEs, including establishing object channels between objects residing in local and remote address spaces via connection end points supported by the NOS, each object channel representing a point-to-point asynchronous communications channel between a first object and a second object onto which services can be pushed.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising configuring the plurality of PEs by

creating a customer virtual router from selected PEs of the plurality of PEs on multiple blades of the switch;

establishing a virtual private network (VPN) associated with a customer;

adding the customer virtual router to a list of virtual routers associated with the VPN; and

creating an object associated with the customer virtual router on each of the selected PEs.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said configuring the plurality of PEs includes:

adding new PEs; and

using a distributed messaging layer of the NOS to group PEs into at least one virtual router, wherein grouping includes allowing selected objects in each PE to be addressed as a group by assigning a group identifier to the selected objects.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein said using a distributed messaging layer of the NOS to group PEs into at least one virtual router includes:

requesting the global object manager to create a virtual router from a group of PEs;

requesting one or more of the local object managers to group the group of PEs;

activating PEs of the group; and

generating a status message that the at least one virtual router is created.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein said using a distributed messaging layer of the NOS to group PEs includes adding object identifiers to the global object database.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with a first customer represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the first customer with network-based managed firewall services.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with a second customer represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the second customer with network-based managed firewall services.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with the first customer further represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the first customer with virtual private network (VPN) services.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the customized configuration of service object groups associated with the second customer further represent network resources of the switch sufficient to provide the second customer with virtual private network (VPN) services.

21. An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the method of claim 13 to be performed.