research-article

Safely and automatically updating in-network ACL configurations with intent language

Authors:

Bingchuan Tian,

Hongqiang Harry Liu,

Chunsheng Wang,

Ben Y. ZhaoAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCOMM '19: Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication

Pages 214 - 226

https://doi.org/10.1145/3341302.3342088

Published: 19 August 2019 Publication History

Abstract

In-network Access Control List (ACL) is an important technique in ensuring network-wide connectivity and security. As cloud-scale WANs today constantly evolve in size and complexity, in-network ACL rules are becoming increasingly more complex. This presents a great challenge to the updating process of ACL configurations: network operators are frequently required to update "tangled" ACL rules across thousands of devices to meet diverse business requirements, and even a single ACL misconfiguration may lead to network disruptions. Such increasing challenges call for an automated system to improve the efficiency and correctness of ACL updates. This paper presents Jinjing, a system that aids Alibaba's network operators in automatically and correctly updating ACL configurations in Alibaba's global WAN. Jinjing allows the operators to express in a declarative language, named LAI, their update intent (e.g., ACL migration and traffic control). Then, Jinjing automatically synthesizes ACL update plans that satisfy their intent. At the heart of Jinjing, we develop a set of novel verification and synthesis techniques to rigorously guarantee the correctness of update plans. In Alibaba, our operators have used Jinjing to efficiently update their ACLs and have thus prevented significant service downtime.

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Cited By

Ding WLi JNiu ZChen HXu HSekar VYu MSeneviratne AVeitch D(2024)Poster: Automating Network Configuration with Natural Language IntentsProceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2024 Conference: Posters and Demos10.1145/3672202.3673721(19-21)Online publication date: 4-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672202.3673721
Chen H(2024)Interpretable Network Synthesis via Localized SpecificationsProceedings of the 2024 SIGCOMM Workshop on Formal Methods Aided Network Operation10.1145/3672199.3673889(51-53)Online publication date: 4-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672199.3673889
Kou TSun HZhuang ZQi QWang JLiao J(2024)Accelerating ACL Configuration Update through Data Plane AnalysisProceedings of the 2024 SIGCOMM Workshop on Formal Methods Aided Network Operation10.1145/3672199.3673888(48-50)Online publication date: 4-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672199.3673888
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Index Terms

Safely and automatically updating in-network ACL configurations with intent language
1. Networks
  1. Network properties
    1. Network reliability
  2. Network services
    1. Network management

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCOMM '19: Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication

August 2019

526 pages

ISBN:9781450359566

DOI:10.1145/3341302

General Chairs:
Jianping Wu
Tsinghua University, China
,
Wendy Hall
University of Southampton, UK

Copyright © 2019 ACM.

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Published: 19 August 2019

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August 19 - 23, 2019

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672202.3673721
Chen H(2024)Interpretable Network Synthesis via Localized SpecificationsProceedings of the 2024 SIGCOMM Workshop on Formal Methods Aided Network Operation10.1145/3672199.3673889(51-53)Online publication date: 4-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672199.3673889
Kou TSun HZhuang ZQi QWang JLiao J(2024)Accelerating ACL Configuration Update through Data Plane AnalysisProceedings of the 2024 SIGCOMM Workshop on Formal Methods Aided Network Operation10.1145/3672199.3673888(48-50)Online publication date: 4-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672199.3673888
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