Logical router processing by network controller

• US 10,110,431 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ganichev, Igor, Zhang, Ronghua, Koponen, Teemu, Dubovik, Gleb, Thakkar, Pankaj
• Primary Examiner(s): Liu, Siming
• Application Number:
  US15/225,517
• Publication Number:
  US 20160344586A1
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for a network controller. The method receives configuration data, for a logical router managed by the network controller, that specifies at least one logical port for the logical router. The method automatically generates connected routes for the logical router based on network address ranges specified for the logical ports of the logical router. The method receives a manually input static route for the logical router. The method generates data tuples, for distribution to several managed network elements, based on the connected and static routes for the logical router in order for the several managed network elements to implement the logical router.

Claims

1. For a first module of a network controller that generates a set of output configuration data for at least one managed forwarding element, a method comprising:

for a logical router, receiving a set of input configuration data comprising a first set of routes for the logical router;

offloading a route traversal process to a separate second module of the network controller by providing the first set of routes to the second module, wherein the route traversal process returns a second set of routes based on the first set of routes; and

generating the set of output configuration data for configuring the at least one managed forwarding element to implement the logical router based on the second set of routes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the route traversal process is a recursive route traversal process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first module is a table mapping engine implemented in a table mapping language and the second module is a route processing engine implemented in an object-oriented programming language.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the set of input configuration data is a first set of input configuration data and the set of output configuration data is a first set of output configuration data, the method further comprising generating a second set of output configuration data based on a second set of input configuration data received for a logical switch, without using any data generated by the route processing engine.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the network controller is a first network controller, wherein the second set of input configuration data for the logical switch is received through an interface with a second network controller.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each route in the first set of routes specifies one of (i) a next hop network address, (ii) an output port, and (iii) a drop packet action for packets with network addresses in a network address range for which the route is defined.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, to perform the route traversal process, the second module (i) removes from the second set of routes all routes for a particular network address range other than a highest priority route for the particular network address range, when the first set of routes comprises multiple routes for a particular network address range, (ii) removes from the second set of routes any route in the first set of routes that specifies an output port that does not exist or that is not in use, and (iii) identifies, for each route in the first set of routes that specifies a next hop network address, one of an output port and a drop packet action by traversing the first set of routes based on the next hop network address.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one managed forwarding elements comprises L3 gateways implemented at gateway host machines in order to connect a logical network, to which the logical router belongs, to an external network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one managed forwarding elements comprises first-hop managed forwarding elements that operate in virtualization software of a plurality of host machines at which virtual machines that communicate through a logical network are hosted, wherein the logical router is one of a set of logical forwarding elements of the logical network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of input configuration data is received through a set of application programming interfaces of the network controller.

11. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a first module of a network controller which when executed by at least one processing unit generates a set of output configuration data for at least one managed forwarding element, the first network controller module comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, for a logical router, a set of input configuration data comprising a first set of routes for the logical router;

offloading a route traversal process to a separate second module of the network controller by providing the first set of routes to the second module, wherein the route traversal process returns a second set of routes based on the first set of routes; and

generating the set of output configuration data for configuring the at least one managed forwarding element to implement the logical router based on the second set of routes.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the route traversal process is a recursive route traversal process.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first module is a table mapping engine implemented in a table mapping language and the second module is a route processing engine implemented in an object-oriented programming language.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the set of configuration data is a first set of configuration data, the first network controller module further comprising a set of instructions for generating a second set of configuration data based on configuration input received for a logical switch without using any data generated by the route processing engine.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the network controller is a first network controller, wherein the set of input configuration data for the logical switch is received through an interface with a second network controller.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein each route in the first set of routes specifies one of (i) a next hop network address, (ii) an output port, and (iii) a drop packet action for packets with network addresses in a network address range for which the route is defined.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein, to perform the route traversal process, the second module (i) removes from the second set of routes all routes for a particular network address range other than a highest priority route for the particular network address range, when the first set of routes comprises multiple routes for a particular network address range, (ii) removes from the second set of routes any route in the first set of routes that specifies an output port that does not exist or that is not in use, and (iii) identifies, for each route in the first set of routes that specifies a next hop network address, one of an output port and a drop packet action by traversing the first set of routes based on the next hop network address.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one managed forwarding elements comprises L3 gateways implemented at gateway host machines in order to connect a logical network, to which the logical router belongs, to an external network.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one managed forwarding elements comprises first-hop managed forwarding elements that operate in virtualization software of a plurality of host machines at which virtual machines that communicate through a logical network are hosted, wherein the logical router is one of a set of logical forwarding elements of the logical network.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the configuration input is received through a set of application programming interfaces of the network controller.