Using physical location to modify behavior of a distributed virtual network element

• US 10,250,443 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2015
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chandrashekhar, Ganesan, Agarwal, Vivek
• Primary Examiner(s): Adhami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US14/834,207
• Publication Number:
  US 20160094396A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,317 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• 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 45/44 Distributed routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers

Abstract

A system for network virtualization in which physical network resources in different physical contexts are configured to implement one or more distributed logical network elements, at least some of the physical network resources implementing the distributed logical network elements configured according the physical context of those network resources. The local configuration of a physical locale is a version of the logical configuration that is modified specifically for the physical locale. Such modification is based on locale identifiers that are assigned to the physical locales. Some systems use locale-specific information to modify next-hop preference. Some system use locally modified configurations to determine the placement of VMs.

Claims

1. For a logical forwarding element (LFE) spanning a plurality of physical locales and implemented by a plurality of managed forwarding elements (MFEs) at the plurality of physical locales, a method of configuring a set of MFEs at a particular locale that implement the LFE along with MFEs of at least one other physical locale, the method comprising:

receiving a set of configuration data to define forwarding behaviors for the MFEs that implement the LFE that spans the plurality of physical locales;

using a locale identifier assigned to the particular physical locale to perform a filter operation that eliminates, from the received configuration data set, configuration data that is not applicable to the particular locale, in order to produce a modified configuration data set; and

using the modified configuration data set to configure the set of MFEs at the particular locale that implement the LFE that spans the plurality of physical locales, the modified configuration data set configuring the set of MFEs at the particular locale to have a set of forwarding behaviors that are custom specified for the particular locale and not implemented by the MFEs of at least one other locale.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of MFEs comprise managed software switches, and the LFE comprises a logical switch that spans a plurality of managed software switches at the plurality of physical locales.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of MFEs further comprise managed software routers, and the LFE further comprises a logical router that spans a plurality of managed software routers at the plurality of physical locales.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving the locale identifier from a network manager during an initial configuration.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom specified set of forwarding behaviors for the particular locale comprises using a set of locale-specific parameters to determine a custom set of next hop determinations for the particular locale.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom specified set of forwarding behaviors for the particular locale comprises using a set of locale-specific parameters to determine a custom set of ECMP (equal cost multi path) routing behaviors for the particular locale.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each MFE executes on a different host computer operating at one of a plurality of physical locales.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving with the set of configuration data a set of route entries that specify the locale identifier of the particular physical locale.

22. The method of claim 7, wherein the modified configuration data set comprises a plurality of directives for each physical locale to reserve sets of network resources in each locale for VMs executing alongside the MFEs on the different host computers.

9. A computing device situated in a particular physical locale, the computing device comprising:

a set of one or more processing units;

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing sets of instructions for execution by the set of processing units, the sets of instructions for;

executing a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) and a particular managed forwarding element (MFE) for forwarding data packets to and from at least a set of the VMs, wherein the MFE implements a logical forwarding element (LFE) spanning a plurality of physical locales, with a plurality of MFEs located at the particular locale and at least one other locale, wherein a set of configuration data defines forwarding behaviors of particular MFE and the plurality of MFEs to implement the LFE that spans the physical locales;

using a locale identifier assigned to the particular physical locale to perform a filter operation that eliminates, from the configuration data set, configuration data that is not applicable to the particular locale, in order to produce a modified configuration data set; and

using the modified configuration data set to configure the particular MFE operating on the computing device at the particular physical locale to have a set of forwarding behaviors that are custom specified for the particular locale and not implemented by the MFEs of the other locale.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the plurality of MFEs comprise managed software switches, and the LFE comprises a logical switch that spans a plurality of managed software switches at the plurality of physical locales.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the plurality of MFEs further comprise managed software routers, and the LFE further comprises a logical router that spans a plurality of managed software routers at the plurality of physical locales.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the custom specified set of forwarding behaviors for the particular locale comprises using a set of locale-specific parameters to determine a custom set of next hop determinations for the particular locale.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the custom specified set of forwarding behaviors for the particular locale comprises using a set of locale-specific parameters to determine a custom set of ECMP (equal cost multi path) routing behaviors for the particular locale.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the modified configuration data set comprises a set of route entries that specify the locale identifier of the particular physical locale.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the modified configuration data set comprises a set of directives for the particular locale to reserve a network resource in the locale for a particular VM executing on the computing device.

16. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit of a particular host computer at a particular physical locale, the program for defining a logical forwarding element (LFE) that spans a plurality of physical locales and is implemented by a plurality of managed forwarding elements (MFEs) at the plurality of physical locales, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a set of configuration data to define forwarding behaviors for MFEs that implement the LFE that spans the plurality of physical locales, the plurality of MFEs comprising a particular MFE executing on the particular host computer implementing the LFE;

using a locale identifier assigned to the particular physical locale to perform a filter operation that eliminates, from the received configuration data set, configuration data that is not applicable to the particular locale, in order to produce a modified configuration data set; and

using the modified configuration data set to configure the particular MFE to select a different next hop than another MFE at a different physical locale for a similar data packet.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the modified configuration data set further configures the particular MFE with a set of locale-specific parameters to determine a custom set of ECMP (equal cost multi path) routing behaviors for the particular locale.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the plurality of MFEs comprise managed software switches, and the LFE comprises a logical switch that spans a plurality of managed software switches at the plurality of physical locales.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the plurality of MFEs further comprise managed software routers, and the LFE further comprises a logical router that spans a plurality of managed software routers at the plurality of physical locales.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the set of configuration data comprises a set of route entries that specify the locale identifier of the particular physical locale.

21. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the modified configuration data set comprises a set of directives for the particular locale to reserve a network resource in the locale for a particular VM executing alongside the particular MFE on the particular host computer.