Network control apparatus and method for populating logical datapath sets

• US 10,103,939 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj, Lambeth, W. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Todd, Gregory
• Application Number:
  US13/269,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20120120964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,566 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

For a network control system that receives, from a user, logical datapath sets that logically express desired forwarding behaviors that are to be implemented by a set of managed switching elements, a controller for managing several managed switching elements that forward data in a network that includes the managed switching elements is described. The controller includes a set of modules for detecting a change in one or more managed switching elements and for updating logical datapath set based on the detected change. The logical datapath set is for subsequent translation into a set of physical forwarding behaviors of the managed switching elements.

Claims

1. A distributed network control system comprising:

a plurality of network controllers for managing a plurality of logical forwarding elements, each logical forwarding element being managed by one master network controller, each particular network controller in the plurality of network controllers designated as the master network controller for at least one logical forwarding element, each particular network controller comprising a set of hardware processing units for executing a control application comprising sets of instructions for;

receiving data that expresses desired forwarding behaviors of a plurality of logical forwarding elements, each logical forwarding element comprising a plurality of logical ports and implemented by a plurality of managed physical forwarding elements that connect to machines, other than the network controllers, associated with the logical forwarding element;

detecting a change in a state of one or more managed physical forwarding elements that implement multiple logical forwarding elements in the plurality of logical forwarding elements;

determining whether the change in the state affects the implementation of a particular logical forwarding element for which the particular network controller is designated as the master network controller; and

generating logical forwarding plane data based on the detected change when the change in the state affects the implementation of the particular logical forwarding element, the generated logical forwarding plane data for subsequent translation into physical control plane data that defines forwarding behaviors of one or more of the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements that implement the particular logical forwarding element.

2. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein each control application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving from a user a request to change the particular logical forwarding element; and

generating logical forwarding plane data based on the requested change when the change in the state affects the implementation of the particular logical forwarding element.

3. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for detecting the change comprises a set of instructions for monitoring a network information base (NIB) data structure that stores data for managing the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements.

4. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for detecting the change comprises a set of instructions for monitoring the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements.

5. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein each control application has a corresponding virtualization application, each control application further comprising a set of instructions for sending the generated logical forwarding plane data to the control application'"'"'s corresponding virtualization application for performing the translation of the generated logical forwarding plane data into the physical control plane data.

6. The distributed network control system of claim 5, wherein the control application and the corresponding virtualization application execute on the same computer.

7. The distributed network control system of claim 5, wherein the control application and the corresponding virtualization application execute on two different computers.

8. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein each control application further comprises a set of instructions for sending the generated logical forwarding plane data to a network information base (NIB) data structure that stores data for managing the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements, wherein a virtualization application that performs the translation of the generated logical forwarding plane data into the physical control plane data retrieves the generated logical forwarding plane data from the NIB data structure.

9. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the control application of the particular network controller further comprises a set of instructions for, when the detected change does not relate to the particular logical forwarding element, terminating a set of mapping operations that the control application performs to generate the logical forwarding plane data in order not to generate the logical forwarding plane data.

10. For a distributed network control system comprising a plurality of network controllers, a method implemented by a particular network controller that manages a particular logical forwarding element, the method comprising:

receiving logical forwarding data that expresses desired forwarding behaviors of at least one logical forwarding element, each logical forwarding element comprising a plurality of logical ports and implemented by a plurality of managed physical forwarding elements that connect to machines, other than the network controller, associated with the logical forwarding element, wherein each logical forwarding element is managed by one network controller, wherein the logical forwarding data is mapped to physical forwarding data that defines the forwarding behaviors of managed physical forwarding elements that implement the at least one logical forwarding element;

detecting a change in a state of a managed physical switching element;

determining whether the change in the state affects the implementation of the particular logical forwarding element; and

generating logical forwarding plane data based on the detected state change when the change in the state affects the particular logical forwarding element.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving data from a user for managing the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements; and

modifying the particular logical forwarding element based on the received data.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein detecting the change of state comprises retrieving data from a network information base (NIB) storage structure for storing the data regarding a state of the set of managed physical forwarding elements.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular logical forwarding element is expressed as a plurality of logical flow entries that specifies forwarding rules for forwarding of data between logical addresses of logical forwarding elements.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements comprises at least one hardware switch.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements comprises at least one virtual switch.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the distributed network comprises a plurality of host machines.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the host machines comprise virtual machines.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprising sending the particular logical forwarding element to a network information base (NIB) data structure that stores data for managing the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular logical forwarding element is specified as input logical control plane data, the method further comprising converting the input logical control plane data into output logical forwarding plane data that defines the logical forwarding element in terms of a set of logical forwarding rules.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising translating the logical forwarding plane data into physical control plane data for directing the set of managed switching elements to implement the particular logical forwarding element when processing data packets.

21. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for a network controller for managing a plurality of managed physical forwarding elements that implement a particular logical forwarding element managed by the network controller, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving logical forwarding data that expresses desired forwarding behaviors of at least one logical forwarding element, each logical forwarding element comprising a plurality of logical ports and implemented by a plurality of managed physical forwarding elements that connect to machines, other than the network controller, associated with the logical forwarding element, wherein each logical forwarding element is managed by one network controller, wherein the logical forwarding data is mapped to physical forwarding data that defines the forwarding behaviors of managed physical forwarding elements that implement the at least one logical forwarding element;

detecting a change in a state of a managed physical switching element;

determining whether the change in the state affects the implementation of the particular logical forwarding element; and

generating logical forwarding plane data based on the detected state change when the change in the state affects the particular logical forwarding element.

22. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 21 wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving data from a user for managing the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements; and

modifying the particular logical forwarding element based on the received data.

23. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 21 wherein the instructions for detecting the change of state comprises retrieving data from a network information base (NIB) storage structure for storing the data regarding a state of the set of managed physical forwarding elements.

24. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 21 wherein the instructions for detecting the change of state comprises monitoring the plurality of managed physical forwarding elements.