System and method for initializing and maintaining a series of virtual local area networks contained in a clustered computer system

1. A method for sharing network resources, the method comprising:

(1) initializing and maintaining a management local area network (MLAN);

(2) initializing and maintaining a plurality of top-layer virtual local area networks (VLANs);

(3) initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs containing a plurality of network resources; and

(4) using an empty VLAN that is not allocated for external traffic as a virtual wire between a client VLAN and a network resource shared between a plurality of client VLANs;

wherein a plurality of the network resources are virtual resources allocated on at least one networkable computing device, and the step of initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs comprises creating an ethernet device without IP address and routing information on a network resource so that the networkable computing device does not see or respond to the contents of incoming packets.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the MLAN is contained within one of the top-level VLANs.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the client VLANs are nested within at least one of the top-level VLANs.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein at least one of the client VLANs is a top-level VLAN.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the network resources is physical hardware.

6. The method of claims 5 , wherein the shared network resource is contained within another client VLAN.

7. The method of claims 5 , wherein the shared network resource is contained within a stand-alone top-layer VLAN.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein every client VLAN and at least one top-layer VLAN contains at least one virtual firewall.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the step of using an empty VLAN as a virtual wire between the client VLAN and a shared network resource further comprises:

(1) adding a virtual port to a virtual firewall;

(2) mapping the virtual port in a network address table within the virtual firewall; and

(3) connecting the virtual port to one end of the empty VLAN.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs further comprises:

(1) preregistering MAC addresses for the client VLAN, wherein when each virtual resource is initialized, an assigned MAC address is taken off a stack of the preregistered MAC addresses; and

(2) initializing a virtual system on any storage device of any computing device in a system capable of implementing the method, transparent to the user.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the storage devices are managed using a distributed file system.

12. A system for sharing network resources, the system comprising:

(1) at least one network switch;

(2) a plurality of computing devices, the computing device comprising:

(i) at least one network connection;

(ii) a plurality of processing nodes; and

(iii) at least one storage device containing software for

a. initializing and maintaining a plurality of top-layer virtual local area networks (VLANs),

b. initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs containing a plurality of network resources; and

c. using an empty VLAN that is not allocated for external traffic as a virtual wire between the client VLAN and a shared network resource;

wherein a plurality of the network resources are virtual resources allocated on at least one of the networkable computing devices, and the initializing and maintaining a plurality of client VLANs comprises creating an ethernet device without IP address and routing information on a network resource so that the networkable computing device does not see or respond to the contents of incoming packets.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein a plurality of the client VLANs are nested VLANs contained in a top-level VLAN.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the client VLANs is a top-level VLAN.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the network resources is physical hardware.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein every client VLAN and at least one top-layer VLAN contains at least one virtual firewall.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the computing device uses an empty VLAN as a virtual wire by

(1) dynamically adding a virtual port to a virtual firewall;

(2) mapping the port in a network address table within the virtual firewall; and

(3) connecting the virtual port to one end of the empty VLAN.

18. The system of claims 15 , wherein the shared network resource is contained within another client VLAN.

19. The system of claims 15 , wherein the shared network resource is contained within another top-layer VLAN.

20. The system of claim 12 , wherein the network connection is a switched fabric communications link.

21. The system of claim 12 , wherein the network switch is natively capable of handling Q-in-Q double tagging.