Operations, administration and management (OAM) in overlay data center environments

• US 10,116,559 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2017
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kapadia, Shyam, Dong, Liqin, Yang, Yibin
• Primary Examiner(s): Haile, Awet
• Application Number:
  US15/711,812
• Publication Number:
  US 20180013670A1
• Time in Patent Office: 404 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• 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 41/04 Network management architectures or arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/342 between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for OAM in overlay networks. In response to receiving a packet associated with an OAM operation from a device in an overlay network, the system generates an OAM packet. The system can be coupled with the overlay network and can include a tunnel endpoint interface associated with an underlay address and a virtual interface associated with an overlay address. The overlay address can be an anycast address assigned to the system and another device in the overlay network. Next, the system determines that a destination address associated with the packet is not reachable through the virtual interface, the destination address corresponding to a destination node in the overlay network. The system also determines that the destination address is reachable through the tunnel endpoint interface. The system then provides the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface as a source address in the OAM packet.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in response to receiving, by a first device coupled with an overlay network from a second device in the overlay network, a packet associated with an operations, administration and management (OAM) operation, generating an OAM packet at the first device, the first device comprising a tunnel endpoint interface associated with an underlay address and a virtual interface associated with an overlay address, the overlay address comprising an anycast address that is assigned to the first device and at least one other device in the overlay network;

determining, by the first device, that a destination address associated with the packet is not reachable by the first device through the virtual interface, the destination address corresponding to a destination node in the overlay network;

determining, by the first device, that the destination address is reachable by the first device through the tunnel endpoint interface;

providing, by the first device, the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface of the first device as a source address in the OAM packet;

sending the OAM packet to the second device, the OAM packet identifying the underlay address as the source address; and

in response to receiving, by a third device coupled with the overlay network from the second device, a second packet associated with the OAM operation, generating a second OAM packet, the third device comprising a second tunnel endpoint interface associated with a second underlay address and a second virtual interface associated with a second overlay address, the second overlay address comprising a second anycast address that is assigned to the third device and at least one other device in the overlay network;

wherein the source address identifies a first hop in a path from the device to the destination node in the overlay network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet comprises a user datagram protocol (UDP) packet and the OAM packet comprises an internet control message protocol (ICMP) packet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the packet contains a time-to-live (TTL) value of 1, and wherein the ICMP packet comprises a time-to-live exceed in transit error message, and wherein the OAM operation comprises a traceroute operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is further coupled with an underlay network, and wherein the overlay network comprises a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) with an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) control plane.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the third device, that a destination address in the second packet is reachable by the third device through the second virtual interface, the destination address in the second packet corresponding to the destination node in the overlay network;

determining, by the third device, that a source address of the second packet is reachable by the third device through the second tunnel endpoint interface; and

providing, by the third device, the second underlay address associated with the second tunnel endpoint interface of the third device as a source address in the second OAM packet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second anycast address assigned to the third device is equivalent to the anycast address assigned to the first device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the second anycast address assigned to the third device is different than the anycast address assigned to the first device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the OAM packet is generated by a TCP/IP stack and encapsulated by the tunnel endpoint interface.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface of the first device as the source address in the OAM packet comprises:

modifying the OAM packet generated by the TCP/IP stack to identify the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface as the source address in the OAM packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the OAM packet is modified by a module between the TCP/IP stack and the tunnel endpoint interface after the OAM packet is generated by the TCP/IP stack and before the OAM packet is encapsulated by the tunnel endpoint interface into an overlay packet as a payload of the overlay packet.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving the OAM packet at the module after the OAM packet is generated by the TCP/IP stack; and

modifying the OAM packet by changing the source address in the OAM packet from the overlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface to the underlay address.

12. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a network interface coupled to the one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

in response to receiving, from a device in an overlay network, a packet associated with an operations, administration, and management (OAM) operation, generating an OAM packet at the system, the system comprising a tunnel endpoint interface associated with an underlay address and a virtual interface associated with an overlay address, the overlay address comprising an anycast address that is assigned to the system and at least one other device in the overlay network;

determining that a destination address associated with the packet is reachable by the system through the virtual interface, the destination address corresponding to a destination node in the overlay network;

determining that a source overlay address in the packet associated with the OAM operation is reachable by the system through the tunnel endpoint interface, the overlay source address corresponding to the device in the overlay network; and

providing the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface of the system as a modified source address in the OAM packet;

sending the OAM packet to the device, the OAM packet identifying the underlay address as the modified source address;

wherein the modified source address identifies a first hop in a path from the device to the destination node in the overlay network.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the OAM packet is generated by a TCP/IP stack and encapsulated by the tunnel endpoint interface, wherein providing the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface as the modified source address in the OAM packet comprises:

modifying the OAM packet generated by the TCP/IP stack to identify the underlay address associated with the tunnel endpoint interface as the modified source address in the OAM packet, and wherein the OAM packet is modified by a module between the TCP/IP stack and the tunnel endpoint interface after the OAM packet is generated by the TCP/IP stack and before the OAM packet is encapsulated by the tunnel endpoint interface into an overlay packet as a payload of the overlay packet.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

sending, by a first device in an overlay network to a second device, a packet associated with an operations, administration and management (OAM) operation, wherein the packet comprises a source address corresponding to an overlay address of the first device and a destination address corresponding to a third device in the overlay network, the second device comprising a tunnel endpoint interface associated with an underlay address and a virtual interface associated with an overlay address, the overlay address comprising an anycast address that is assigned to the second device and at least one other device in the overlay network;

in response to sending the packet, receiving, by the first device, a modified OAM packet from the second device; and

based on the modified OAM packet, identifying the underlay address as a first hop in a path from the first device to the third device;

wherein the modified OAM packet comprising the underlay address as a source address.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

sending, by the first device to a fourth device, a second packet associated with the OAM operation, wherein the second packet comprises the source address corresponding to the overlay address of the first device and the destination address corresponding to the third device in the overlay network, the fourth device comprising a second tunnel endpoint interface associated with a second underlay address and a second virtual interface associated with a second overlay address, the second overlay address comprising a second anycast address that is assigned to the fourth device and at least one other device in the overlay network;

in response to sending the second packet, receiving, by the first device, a second modified OAM packet from the fourth device, wherein the second modified OAM packet has been modified to identify the second underlay address associated with the second tunnel endpoint interface as a new source address of the second modified OAM packet; and

based on the second modified OAM packet, identifying the second underlay address as a second hop in the path from the first device to the third device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform an operation comprising presenting the second underlay address as the second hop in the path from the first device to the third device.