BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to synchronizing aggregated networking information handling systems.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.

Information handling systems such as, for example, switch devices and/or other networking devices known in the art, are sometimes provided in networking aggregation systems. For example, multiple networking devices may provide a networking aggregation system via the utilization of the Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) protocol, which one of skill in the art in possession of the present disclosure will recognize is a proprietary aggregation protocol available in switch devices provided by DELL® Inc. of Round Rock, Tex., United States, and operates to provide a redundant, load-balancing connection in a loop-free environment that eliminates the need to use the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), as well as including other VLT functionality known in the art. As such, in specific examples involving the VLT protocol, the networking aggregation system may include a VLT domain provided by the networking devices that are referred to as VLT peer devices, with each of those VLT peer devices connected together via a plurality of inter-networking-device/inter-VLT-peer-device links that may be aggregated into a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) that is referred to as an Inter-Chassis Link (ICL) or VLT interconnect (VLTi). Furthermore, each of the VLT peer devices may be connected to a Top Of Rack (TOR) switch device via respective links that may be aggregated to provide a LAG that is referred to as a VLT LAG, with that VLT LAG provided by VLT ports that are included on the VLT peer devices and provided as part of a VLT port channel, and with that TOR switch device coupled to one or more host devices. Finally, the VLT peer devices may be connected to one or more core switch devices that provide access to other devices via a network.

Networking aggregation systems sometime require synchronization. For example, networking aggregation systems often elect one of the VLT peer devices as a primary VLT peer device, with the other VLT peer device being designated as a secondary VLT peer device, and various processes running in the primary VLT peer device and the secondary VLT peer device need to complete synchronization operations so that each operates correctly in providing the VLT LAG with the TOR switch device. Such synchronization may be required for elements of the VLT domain including, for example, a number of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, Layer 2 (L3) routes (e.g., Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) learns), Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping routes, multicast routes, and/or other characteristics of the VLT domain that may require synchronization.

In conventional systems, the synchronization operations are performed by various protocol manager applications provided in the application level that are processed by a central processing system in a VLT peer device, and the results of the synchronization operations are then shared with a corresponding protocol manager application in the central processing system of the other VLT peer device via the ICL to complete the synchronization. For example, when maintaining symmetric MAC tables between VLT peer devices, a MAC-synchronization mechanism may be used such that a MAC learn that happens on any of the VLT ports in a first VLT peer device is synchronized with a second VLT peer device using a control plane MAC manager on the second VLT peer devices that install the MAC entry as though it was learnt on its own VLT port. Similarly, when the TOR switch device acts as an L3 router, all the ARP learns on the VLT VLANs are synchronized to between the VLT peer devices by ARP managers.

Some of the control protocols elements such as, for example, spanning-tree packets and IGMP protocol packets, should be processed first by the primary VLT peer device, as if the secondary VLT peer device receives these control protocols via a VLT port channel then the secondary VLT peer device will process the packets with respective protocol manager applications at its central processing system. For example, if the secondary VLT peer device receives the control packets first, the protocol manager application(s) in the secondary VLT peer device will check the VLT port channel and the role of the VLT peer device as a secondary VLT peer device and send, for example, BPDU packets to the primary VLT peer device. Such learning and processing of these packets by the secondary VLT peer device at the application level in the manner described above adds to the application workload and processing at the central processing system of the secondary VLT peer device.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide networking aggregation synchronization system that addresses the issues discussed above.

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment, an Information Handling System (IHS) includes a central processing system; a network processing system; and a memory system that is coupled to the network processing system and the central processing system and that includes instructions that, when executed by the network processing system, cause the network processing system to provide a network synchronization engine that is configured to: receive a first packet on a first aggregated port that provides a first portion of a link aggregation to a connected device, wherein the first packet includes first information for synchronizing at least one first aggregated networking device process running in at least one of the central processing system or the network processing system with respective corresponding second aggregated networking device processes running in a first aggregated networking device that is coupled to the network processing system via an inter-aggregated-networking-device link; copy the first packet to provide a first copied packet; and provide the first copied packet to the first aggregated networking device via the inter-aggregated-networking-device link without processing the first copied packet using the central processing system.

