Enabling virtual machines access to switches configured by different management entities

• US 10,481,933 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2014
• Issued: 11/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thakkar, Sachin, Su, ChiHsiang, Yu, Jia, Kothari, Piyush, Nipane, Nilesh Ramchandra
• Primary Examiner(s): Swearingen, Jeffrey R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gebre, Messeret F
• Application Number:
  US14/467,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20160057014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,914 Days
• Field of Search: 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

A method of configuring a plurality of logical forwarding elements (LFEs) on a physical computing device comprising virtualization software and a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) is provided. The method provisions a first LFE configured and managed by a network manager of a datacenter on the physical computing device, the first LFE for performing OSI L3)packet forwarding between DCNs on one or more hosts, the first LFE comprising a plurality of logical ports configured and managed by the network manager, each logical port of the first LFE for connecting a DCN to a logical network configured and managed by the network manager. The method provisions a second LFE configured and managed by a compute manager of the datacenter on the physical computing device, the second LFE for performing OSI L3 packet forwarding between DCNs on one or more hosts, the second LFE comprising a plurality of logical port groups configured and managed by the compute manager, each logical port of the second LFE for connecting a DCN to a logical network configured and managed by the compute manager. The method configures a first DCN in the plurality of DCNs by the compute manager to connect to a logical network configured and managed by the network manager through a port of the first LFE. The method configures a second DCN in the plurality of DCNs by the compute manager to connect to a logical network configured and managed by the compute manager through a port of the second LFE.

Claims

1. A physical computing device in a datacenter comprising a plurality of computing devices, a compute manager server, and a network manager server, the computing device comprising:

a set of processing units;

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing sets of instructions for;

defining a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) managed by the compute manager server, wherein the network manager server does not manage any DCNs;

defining a first logical forwarding element (LFE) comprising a first plurality of logical ports, wherein defining the first LFE comprises receiving configuration data from the network manager server to configure the first plurality of logical ports;

defining a second LFE comprising a second plurality of logical ports, wherein defining the second LFE comprises receiving configuration data from the compute manager server to configure the second plurality of logical ports; and

based on configuration data received from the compute manager server, connecting a first DCN to a first logical network through the first plurality of logical ports, and connecting a second DCN to a second logical network through the second plurality of logical ports.

2. The physical computing device of claim 1 further comprising concurrently connecting a third DCN to (i) the first logical network through the first plurality of logical ports and (ii) the second logical network through the second plurality of logical ports.

3. The physical computing device of claim 1 further comprising a virtualization software, wherein the virtualization software provides a set of read-only parameters of the first LFE from the network manager server to the compute manager server, to enable the compute manager server to generate the configuration data for connecting DCNs to the first LFE.

4. The physical computing device of claim 3, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE comprising a unique identification of the first LFE.

5. The physical computing device of claim 4, wherein the unique identification of the first LFE is a universal unique identification (UUID) of the LFE.

6. The physical computing device of claim 3, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE further comprising a list of physical network interface controllers (PNICs) connected to the first LFE.

7. The physical computing device of claim 3, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE comprising a unique identification and a type of the first logical network, wherein the first logical network is configured by the network manager server.

8. The physical computing device of claim 7, wherein the unique identification of the first logical network is a universal unique identification (UUID) of the first logical network, wherein the type of network identifies a format of packets communicated in the first logical network.

9. The physical computing device of claim 1, wherein the first LFE is associated with a first set of transport zones, each transport zone in the first set of transport zone identifying a section of the logical network configured by the network manager server, wherein the second LFE is associated with a second set of transport zones, each transport zone in the second set of transport zones identifying a section of the logical network configured by the compute manager server.

10. The physical computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE comprising a unique identification of each transport zone in the first set of transport zones.

11. The physical computing device of claim 1, wherein a DCN is a virtual machine (VM).

12. For a datacenter comprising a plurality of computing devices, a compute manager server, and a network manager server, a method comprising:

provisioning a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) managed by the compute manager server, wherein the network manager server does not manage any DCNs;

provisioning a first logical forwarding element (LFE) comprising a first plurality of logical ports, wherein provisioning the first LFE comprises receiving configuration data from

the network manager server to configure the first plurality of logical ports;

provisioning a second LFE comprising a second plurality of logical ports, wherein provisioning the second LFE comprises receiving configuration data from the compute manager server to configure the second plurality of logical ports; and

based on configuration data received from the compute manager server, connecting a first DCN to a first logical network through the first plurality of logical ports, and connecting a second DCN to a second logical network through the second plurality of logical ports.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising concurrently connecting a third DCN to (i) the first logical network through the first plurality of logical ports and (ii) the second logical network through the second plurality of logical ports.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising providing a set of read-only parameters of the first LFE from the network manager server to the compute manager server, to enable the compute manager server to generate the configuration data for connecting DCNs to the first LFE.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE comprising a unique identification of the first LFE.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the unique identification of the first LFE is a universal unique identification (UUID) of the LFE.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE further comprising a list of physical network interface controllers (PNICs) connected to the first LFE.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE comprising a unique identification and a type of the first logical network, wherein the first logical network is configured by the network manager server.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the unique identification of the first logical network is a universal unique identification (UUID) of the first logical network, wherein the type of network identifies a format of packets communicated in the first logical network.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the first LFE is associated with a first set of transport zones, each transport zone in the first set of transport zone identifying a section of the logical network configured by the network manager server, wherein the second LFE is associated with a second set of transport zones, each transport zone in the second set of transport zones identifying a section of the logical network configured by the compute manager server.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the set of read-only parameters of the first LFE comprising a unique identification of each transport zone in the first set of transport zones.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein a DCN is a virtual machine (VM).