Virtual distributed bridging

• US 10,020,960 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2014
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Howard, Subramaniyam, Rahul Korivi, Chandrashekhar, Ganesan, Agarwal, Vivek, Singh, Ram Dular
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): VIDAL CARPIO, MARIELA
• Application Number:
  US14/503,177
• Publication Number:
  US 20160094366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,379 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4629 using multilayer switching, e.g. layer 3 switching

Abstract

Virtualization software that includes a VDRB (virtual distributed router/bridge) module for performing L3 routing and/or bridging operations is provided. At least some of the VDRBs are configured as VDBs (virtual distributed bridge) for performing bridging operations between different network segments in a distributed manner. The bridging tasks of a network are partitioned among several VDBs of the network based on MAC addresses. MAC addresses of VMs or other types of network nodes belonging to an overlay logical network are partitioned into several shards, each shard of MAC addresses assigned to a VDB in the network. Each VDB assigned a shard of MAC addresses performs bridging when it receives a packet bearing a MAC address belonging to its assigned shard. A VDB does not perform bridging on packets that do not have MAC address that falls within the VDB'"'"'s shard of MAC addresses.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which, when executed by a set of processing units of a computing device conditionally bridges packets in a network, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a plurality of sets of addresses from a plurality of computing devices, each set of addresses received from a computing device corresponding to a set of virtual machines (VMs) that execute on the computing device from which the set of addresses is received, the plurality of sets of addresses forming an excluded set of addresses that are to be bridged by local bridges on the plurality of computing devices from which the plurality of sets of addresses is received;

receiving a packet having a source address in a first segment of the network and a destination address in a second segment of the network; and

bridging the packet from the first segment to the second segment when the source address and the destination address of the packet are not one of the addresses included in the received plurality of sets of addresses that form the excluded set of addresses so as to avoid bridging a packet which is to be bridged by one of the local bridges on the plurality of computing devices.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first and second segments of the network includes an overlay logical network and a layer 2 (L2) network.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the overlay logical network is a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN).

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein each address in the received plurality of sets of addresses corresponds to a node in the overlay logical network.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein each computing device in the plurality of computing devices is a tunnel endpoint in the overlay logical network.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for bridging the packet comprises a set of instructions for identifying the second segment of the network based on the destination address.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein each address in the set of addresses is a link layer MAC (media access control) address, and the set of instructions for bridging the packet comprises a set of instructions for using a MAC address lookup.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of computing devices are interconnected by a physical L2 segment in the network.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first and second segments of the network coexist in the L2 physical segment of the network.

10. A system comprising:

a first computing device for hosting a first set of virtual machines (VMs) and a first local bridge for bridging packets that are destined or sourced by a first subset of the first set of VMs in a first network segment, wherein the first computing device stores addresses associated with the first subset of VMs in a first include list of addresses to bridge at the first local bridge;

a second computing device for hosting a second set of VMs and a second local bridge for bridging packets that are destined or sourced by a second subset of the second set of VMs in the first network segment, wherein the second computing device stores addresses associated with the second subset of VMs in a second include list of addresses to bridge at the second local bridge; and

a third computing device hosting a default bridge for bridging packets that have source addresses or destination addresses that are (i) in the first network segment and (ii) not in the first or second include lists of addresses and thereby are not bridged by the first or second local bridge.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first computing device is operating a virtualization software for hosting the first set of VMs and the local bridge for bridging packets that are destined or sourced by the first subset of VMs.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first and second local bridges and the default bridge are for bridging packets between an overlay logical network and a layer 2 (L2) network.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second subsets of VMs are connected to the overlay logical network.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second local bridges and the default bridge are connected to a particular physical L2 segment of the network, wherein the network comprises multiple physical L2 segments that include the particular physical L2 segment.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the overlay logical network spans the multiple physical L2 segments of the network, wherein the L2 network operates within the particular physical L2 segment.