Design of a Live Networking Device Update Mechanism For Cloud Computing Systems

With the rapid deployment of cloud services and the transformation of traditional on-prem services, e.g., infrastructure, platform, and security, to cloud platforms, the demand for High Availability for cloud services is essential. The growth of compute services through cloud platforms can no longer be met via standard resource provisioning techniques, which includes resources such as compute devices, network devices, etc. Device virtualization is key for cloud resource allocation. Even with the continued adoption of workload containerization, the requirement of domain isolation and the flexibility of service provisioning, containerization within a Virtual Machine is the preferred cloud deployment model. In this paper, we present the design of a live network device update mechanism, e.g., driver and firmware, through a host managed device emulation interface for services deployed on a cloud compute platform. This design does not require scheduled shutdowns of the cloud server, nor does it require hardware redundancy for a system administrator to perform driver and/or firmware maintenance updates. The innovative design presented in this paper enables dynamic resource sharing based upon the service requirements, e.g., failover switching time and network throughput, between the target devices to be updated along with other network devices either in service or on standby. A live networking device mechanism reduces compute service interruption and provides a transparent network function transition between the target interfaces and the failover interfaces.