International Business Machines Corporation

Eric LeBrun

Pascal Chauffour

Valerie Mahe

Arnaud Lund

Jean-Marc Berthaud

Gregg W Machovec

Joseph D Robinson

Atef O Zaghloul

John H Zeiger

Patrick Gayrard

Bruce Booth

Timothy A Goodacre

William B Chalk, Iii

David W Chow

Paolo Gerosa

A method, system and service for a data center computer network. A core network switches data using a first protocol layer. A first access switch is in electrical communication with the core network. The first access switch communicates the data to the core network using the first protocol layer. A second redundant access switch forms a first access switch pair with the first access switch. The second access switch is in electrical communication with the core network and communicates the data using the first protocol layer. The second access switch is in electrical communication with first access switch and communicates with the first access switch using a second protocol layer. The second protocol layer is at lower OSI level than the first protocol layer. The first access switch and the second access switch are configured to form a first VLAN. A first edge device is in electrical communication with the first access switch and the second access switch. The first edge device is part of the first VLAN.

Data center virtual local area network system and method

A single firewall or cluster of firewalls with a public IP address is interfaced to an internet public subnet to receive service requests for a cluster of network servers. A first private subnet with a plurality of private IP addresses is interfaced to the single firewall or cluster of firewalls to receive the service requests after passing through a firewall. A plurality of redundant load balancers with a respective plurality of private IP addresses are interfaced to the first private subnet to receive the service requests after passing through the first private subnet. The load balancers are interfaced to a second private subnet. The network servers with respective private IP addresses are interfaced to the second private subnet to receive the service requests from the load balancers. At an initialization time, a private IP address is defined for the network load balancer system within the internet access subnet. When one of the load balancers becomes primary at the initialization time or switches from a standby state to an active state, the network load balancer system private IP address is defined as an alias in an interface table to be recognized by the one load balancer. When the one network load balancer switches from the active state to a standby state, the network load balancer system private IP address previously defined as the alias is released from the interface table.

Technique for addressing a cluster of network servers

A system, computer program and method to determine a transmission path of a datagram in an IP network from a source device to a destination device. The source device sends a datagram to an IP network device along the transmission path to the destination device. The datagram comprises as destination address, the IP address of the destination device and as source address, the IP address of the network manager station. Consequently, replies, if any, to the datagram are sent back directly to the network manager station by the IP network device along the transmission path, bypassing the source device.

Method and system for determining a path between two points of an IP network over which datagrams are transmitted

A method for improving network server load balancing in a system that has a plurality of network servers connected by an Internet access LAN to the Internet, a back-end access LAN connected to several database servers, and a network load balancer for selecting one of the network servers according to weights associated with the network servers. Link connectivity is monitored cyclically from each network server, and a status indicator is set to UP if all of the links associated with the network server are available, or to DOWN if at least one link is unavailable. The network servers send their status indicators to the network load balancer. The network load balancer changes the weight associated with a network server to a non-eligible value if the associated status indicator changes from UP to DOWN.

Method for improving network server load balancing

A cluster system and method accesses from an internet network, a network server within one or a plurality of clusters, each cluster being identified by a single cluster public Internet Protocol (IP) address. The cluster system has a plurality of network servers organized in one of a plurality of clusters and a network load balancer system for selecting a destination network server in a cluster. Each cluster has one or a plurality of identical network servers, the network load balancer system being connected on one hand to an access routing device and on another hand to the plurality of network servers through a private network server subnet. The method includes the steps of at initialization time, on each network server defining, as a non-advertising alias, in an interface table, the public IP address of each cluster to which the network server belongs, and upon reception, by the network load balancing system, of a datagram having an IP header including a destination IP address field and a medium access control (MAC) header including a destination MAC address field, selecting a destination network server within the cluster corresponding to the cluster public IP address identified in the destination IP address field of the datagram IP header, replacing the destination medium access control (MAC) address field of the datagram MAC header by the MAC address of the selected destination network server, and sending the datagram through the private network server subnet, using the MAC address of the selected destination network server. Upon reception, by the destination network server, of the datagram sent by the network load balancing system, the MAC address in the destination MAC address field of the datagram MAC header is identified as being the MAC address of the selected destination network server, and the IP datagram is processed if the identified cluster public IP address in the destination IP address field of the datagram IP header, is defined as a non-advertising alias in the interface table of the destination network server.

System and method for accessing clusters of servers from the internet network

System, computer program and method for determining a transmission path of datagrams in an IP network from a source device to a destination device. The source device receives from a network manager station, a message for retrieving information related to the transmission path of datagrams to the destination device. The message comprises a destination address and a source address. The destination address is an IP address of the destination device, and the source address is an IP address of the network manager device. The source device sends a plurality of probe datagrams to a respective plurality of IP network devices along the transmission path to the destination device. Each probe datagram comprises as destination address, the IP address of the destination device and as source address, the IP address of the network manager station. Consequently, replies, if any, to the probe datagrams are sent back directly to the network manager station by the IP network device along the transmission path, bypassing said the device. The invention also resides in the network manager station and the computer program product executing at the network manager station which sends the message to the source device, and receives and analyzes the replies to the probe datagrams to locate the break in the transmission path.

A security system for a communication system that includes an IP network and groups of servers in a farm, wherein each group is associated with a customer. A user connected to the network can access information provided by a customer from a server within the group of servers associated with this customer through a dispatching device. The security system comprises setting means in each of the switches which are located between the dispatching device and the customer servers for setting a field of bits in the IP header of potentially irregular packets transmitted from a customer server and the dispatching device, means in the dispatching device for identifying any packet wherein the field of bits has been set to the predefined value, and means for deleting or logging the potentially irregular packet when the destination of the packet is not the dispatching device.

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Carros, France

Eric LeBrun