Hitless Software Upgrades and Non-Stop Forwarding in SONiC Networks

Learn about achieving zero data plane traffic loss during network switch software upgrades in this technical talk from Google's Akarsh Gupta. Explore how Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF) enables seamless software updates on production switches while maintaining continuous data flow, despite control plane downtime. Dive into SONiC's existing NSF capabilities through warm-boot functionality and discover proposed enhancements to improve NSF robustness, including daemon-based shutdown orchestration, enhanced reconciliation monitoring, and new database schemas for CONFIG and APPL DB. Master critical techniques for minimizing application impact during Top-of-Rack switch upgrades in data center environments.