Selecting a master processor from an ambiguous peer group

摘要

A distributed switch may include a plurality of special-purpose processors that control the different functions of the switch. To enable some special services, however, the distributed switch may need one of these processors to perform the role of a master. When a processor is powered on, the processor may publish a corresponding unique ID. Before electing the master, the special-purpose processors may use a discovery process to identify the network topology of the switch and evaluate the published IDs to determine which processor should be the master. If all the processors nominate the same master processor, then that processor is elected as the master and may finish configuring the distributed switch to enable the special services.

主权项

1. A method of electing a master processor from a plurality of processors, comprising:
storing in a first portion of a shared memory a first unique identifier for a first processor of the plurality of processors, wherein the shared memory is accessible by the plurality of processers via a network fabric; traversing the network fabric comprising the plurality of processors to identify a network topology, while traversing the network fabric to identify the network topology:
reading, from a second portion of the shared memory, a second unique identifier for a second processor of the plurality of processors,determining, based on one or more criteria, a nominee identifier from among the first and the second unique identifiers, andstoring the nominee identifier in a register in the first portion of the shared memory, wherein the nominee identifier is read from the register by one of the plurality of processors; and electing the master processor that corresponds to the nominee identifier.