Route advertisement by managed gateways

• US 10,164,881 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2017
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tubaltsev, Ariel, Zhang, Ronghua, Basler, Benjamin C., Maskalik, Serge, Ramanathan, Rajiv, Leroy, David J., Neginhal, Srinivas, Fan, Kai-Wei, Atteka, Ansis
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwar, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US15/436,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20170163532A1
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a network system. The network system includes a first set of host machines for hosting virtual machines that connect to each other through a logical network. The first set of host machines includes managed forwarding elements for forwarding data between the host machines. The network system includes a second set of host machines for hosting virtualized containers that operate as gateways for forwarding data between the virtual machines and an external network. At least one of the virtualized containers peers with at least one physical router in the external network in order to advertise addresses of the virtual machines to the physical router.

Claims

1. A network system comprising:

a first set of host machines for hosting end machines of a logical network that comprises at least two subnets, wherein managed forwarding elements for forwarding data messages between the first set of host machines execute on the first set of host machines; and

a second set of host machines for hosting gateways for forwarding data messages between (i) the end machines of the at least two subnets of the logical network and (ii) a set of networks external to the logical network,

wherein the gateways include;

a first gateway to peer with a physical router in a first external network to advertise a first subnet of the logical network, and

a second gateway to peer with the physical router in the first external network to advertise a second subnet of the logical network.

2. The network system of claim 1 further comprising a set of network controllers for managing the first and second sets of host machines by generating and distributing data to provision (i) the managed forwarding elements on the first set of host machines and (ii) the gateways on the second set of host machines.

3. The network system of claim 2, wherein the set of network controllers comprises:

a first network controller for generating configuration data for the managed forwarding elements and the gateways to implement the logical network; and

a plurality of controllers executing on the host machines of the first and second sets of host machines for translating the configuration data and providing the configuration data to the managed forwarding elements and gateways.

4. The network system of claim 1, wherein the gateways are implemented within virtualized containers on the second set of host machines.

5. The network system of claim 1, wherein the physical router is a first physical router, wherein the second gateway also peers with a second physical router in the first external network to advertise the second subnet of the logical network.

6. The network system of claim 1, wherein the physical router is a first physical router, wherein the second gateway also peers with a second physical router in a second external network to advertise the second subnet of the logical network.

7. The network system of claim 1, wherein a routing protocol application executes on each host machine of the second set of host machines to advertise a gateway hosted on the host machine as a next hop for network addresses in the logical network subnets.

8. The network system of claim 7, wherein the routing protocol application uses Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to peer with physical routers in the external network.

9. The network system of claim 1, wherein the logical network is a first logical network, the physical router is a first physical router, and the gateways are a first set of gateways, the network system further comprising:

a third set of host machines for hosting end machines of a second logical network that comprises at least one subnet, wherein at least a set of the managed forwarding elements for forwarding data messages between the third set of host machines execute on the third set of host machines; and

a fourth set of host machines for hosting a second set of gateways for forwarding data messages between (i) the end machines of the second logical network and (ii) a second network external to the second logical network, wherein the second set of gateways include a third gateway to peer with a physical router in the second external network in order to advertise a third subnet of the second logical network.

10. The network system of claim 9, wherein the first set of host machines and third set of host machines have at least one host machine in common, and the second set of host machines and fourth set of host machines have at least one host machine in common.

11. A network controller computer for managing a logical network implemented across a plurality of host machines, the network controller computer comprising:

a set of processing units; and

a set of machine readable media storing;

a state computation engine which when executed by at least one of the processing units generates data tuples to provision (i) managed forwarding elements executing on the plurality of host machines to forward data messages within the logical network and (ii) routing tables for gateways executing on a set of the host machines in order to forward data messages between the logical network and at least one physical router external to the logical network, wherein each gateway provides the physical router with an interface to at least one subnet of the logical network; and

a routing protocol service which when executed by at least one of the processing units of the network controller computer connects with the physical router in order to send separate sets of routing protocol packets, each set of routing protocol packets advertising a particular gateway as a next hop for packets sent to network addresses in a subnet of the logical network corresponding to the advertised gateway.

12. The network controller computer of claim 11, wherein each gateway provides a separate interface between the logical network and the physical router external to the logical network.

13. The network controller computer of claim 11, wherein the physical router is a first physical router, wherein the routing protocol service connects with a second physical router to advertise the particular gateway.

14. The network controller computer of claim 11, wherein the routing protocol service is further for receiving information from the physical router that advertises network addresses outside the logical network that are reachable from the logical network through the physical router.

15. The network controller computer of claim 14, wherein the state computation engine uses the received information from the physical router to update the routing tables for the gateways.

16. The network controller computer of claim 11, wherein the machine readable medium further stores a distribution interface for distributing the generated data tuples to the managed forwarding elements and the gateways.

17. The network controller computer of claim 11 further comprising a NIC that connects to a network to send the routing protocol packets to the physical router.

18. The network controller computer of claim 11, wherein the routing protocol service uses Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to peer with the physical router.

19. The network controller computer of claim 11, wherein each of the gateways peers with the physical router, wherein the physical router divides traffic sent to the network addresses of the logical network between the gateways using equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) techniques.