Patent ID: 11863383
Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 16:
17. A system comprising:
a host processor; and
a memory having computer readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer readable instruction, cause the host processor to:
instantiate a virtualized network device with an operating image of a target network device, wherein the virtualized network device is configured, by software instructions or hardware, to execute one or more profiling processes not executing on the target network device, and wherein the target network device comprises a first control plane and data plane that is receiving and forwarding network traffic in a network;
join the virtualized network device and the target network device in a stack configuration to synchronize states of the first control plane of the target network device to a second control plane of the virtualized network device, wherein the first control plane of the target network device is initially executing in an active stacked configuration, and wherein the second control plane of the virtualized network device is initially executing in a standby stacked configuration; and
trigger a switchover operation, wherein the first control plane of the target network device is switched from the active stacked configuration to the standby stacked configuration and disconnected from updating the data plane of the target network device, and wherein the second control plane of the virtualized network device is switched from the standby stacked configuration to the active stacked configuration and connected over a connection,
wherein the one or more profiling processes are triggered based on operations of the network device, wherein profile data acquired from the profiling process are used to evaluate at least one of: i) said second control plane, ii) a hardware or firmware configuration of the target network device, and iii) the network.