Redirecting traffic in a virtual distributed router environment

• US 10,225,184 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Agarwal, Vivek, Chandrashekhar, Ganesan, Subramaniyam, Rahul Korivi, Wang, Howard, Singh, Ram Dular
• Primary Examiner(s): Daniel, Jr., Willie J
• Application Number:
  US14/840,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20170005924A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,282 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• 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 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 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/44 Distributed routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/33 using forward notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/325 in the network layer [OSI layer 3], e.g. X.25 H04L69/16 takes precedence

Abstract

A LRE (logical routing element) that have LIFs that are active in all host machines spanned by the LRE as well as LIFs that are active in only a subset of those spanned host machines is provided. A host machine having an active LIF for a particular L2 segment would perform the L3 routing operations for network traffic related to that L2 segment. A host machine having an inactive LIF for the particular L2 segment would not perform L3 routing operations for the network traffic of the L2 segment.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of host machines that are configured to operate a logical network comprising a logical routing element (LRE) for routing packets between different segments of the logical network, wherein each host machine executes a managed physical routing element (MPRE) that implements a local instance of the LRE, the LRE comprising a plurality of logical interfaces (LIFs), each LIF for interfacing with a different segment of the logical network and associated with a set of MPREs executing on a set of the host machines,

wherein to route a packet into a particular logical network segment associated with a particular LIF, an MPRE of a first host machine (i) identifies an outbound LIF associated with the packet and (ii) when the identified outbound LIF is the particular LIF and is inactive on the first host, selects a second host machine on which the particular LIF is active from a subset of host machines on which the particular LIF is active by performing an ECMP (equal cost multi-path) operation and forwards the packet to the second host machine for the MPRE of the second host machine to identify a destination address of the packet in the particular network segment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the MPRE forwards the packet to the second host machine by overwriting a destination MAC address of the packet with an IMAC address that is associated with an IP interface of the particular LIF on the second host machine.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular network segment is a VLAN network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular LIF is active on only a subset of the set of host machines.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the host machines in the subset of host machines provide edge services to an external network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the MPRE forwards the packet to the second host machine by overwriting a destination MAC address of the packet with an rMAC address that is associated with the second host machine.

7. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for implementing a managed physical routing element (MPRE) on a first host machine as a local instance of a logical routing element (LRE) of a logical network that connects a plurality of host machines, the LRE comprising a plurality of logical interfaces (LIFs), each LIF for interfacing with a different segment of the logical network and associated with a set of MPREs executing on a set of the host machines, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a packet that is destined for a particular logical network segment;

identifying an outbound LIF associated with the packet;

determining that the identified outbound LIF is (i) a particular LIF associated with the particular logical network segment and (ii) is inactive on the first host;

selecting a second host machine on which the particular LIF is active from a subset of host machines on which the particular LIF is active by performing an ECMP (equal cost multi-path) operation; and

forwarding the packet to the second host machine for an MPRE of the second host machine to identify a destination address of the packet in the particular network segment.

8. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for forwarding the packet to the second host machine comprises a set of instructions for overwriting a destination MAC address of the packet with an IMAC address that is associated with an IP interface of the particular LIF on the second host machine.

9. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the particular logical network segment is a VLAN network.

10. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the particular LIF is active on only a subset of the set of host machines.

11. The machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the host machines in the subset of host machines are for providing edge services to an external network.

12. The machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for forwarding the packet to the second host machine comprises a set of instructions for overwriting a destination MAC address of the packet with an rMAC address that is associated with the second host machine.

13. A method of operating a logical network over a network virtualization infrastructure that comprises a plurality of host machines, the method comprising:

defining a logical routing element (LRE) spanning the plurality of host machines for routing packets between different segments of the logical network, wherein each host machine executes a managed physical routing element (MPRE) that implements a local instance of the LRE, the LRE comprising a plurality of logical interfaces (LIFs), each LIF for interfacing with a different segment of the logical network and associated with a set of MPREs executing on a set of the host machines;

generating configuration data to configure an MPRE of a first host machine to route a packet into a particular logical network segment associated with a particular LIF, by (i) identifying an outbound LIF associated with the packet and (ii) when the identified outbound LIF is the particular LIF and is inactive on the first host, selecting a second host machine on which the particular LIF is active from a subset of host mcahines on which the particular LIF is active by performing an ECMP (equal cost multi-path) operation and forwarding the packet to the second host machine for the MPRE of the second host machine to identify a destination address of the packet in the particular network segment; and

configuring the plurality of host machines by using the generated configuration data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein forwarding the packet to the second host machine comprises overwriting a destination MAC address of the packet with an IMAC address that is associated with an IP interface of the particular LIF on the second host machine.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the particular network segment is a VLAN network.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the particular LIF is active on only a subset of the set of host machines.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the host machines in the subset of host machines are for providing edge services to an external network.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein forwarding the packet to the second host machine comprises overwriting a destination MAC address of the packet with an rMAC address that is associated with the second host machine.