METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING AND MANAGING VIRTUAL SWITCHES

• US 20100257263A1
• Filed: 04/01/2010
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Amidon, Keith Eric, Balland, Peter J. III, Koponen, Teemu, Pfaff, Benjamin Levy, Ingram, Paul, Wendlandt, Daniel J., Casado, Martin, Pettit, Justin, Gross, Jesse E. IV
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• 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 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• 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 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/00 Packet switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/15 Interconnection of switching modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal

Abstract

In general, the present invention relates to a virtual platform in which one or more distributed virtual switches can be created for use in virtual networking. According to some aspects, the distributed virtual switch according to the invention provides the ability for virtual and physical machines to more readily, securely, and efficiently communicate with each other even if they are not located on the same physical host and/or in the same subnet or VLAN. According other aspects, the distributed virtual switches of the invention can support integration with traditional IP networks and support sophisticated IP technologies including NAT functionality, stateful firewalling, and notifying the IP network of workload migration. According to further aspects, the virtual platform of the invention creates one or more distributed virtual switches which may be allocated to a tenant, application, or other entity requiring isolation and/or independent configuration state. According to still further aspects, the virtual platform of the invention manages and/or uses VLAN or tunnels (e.g, GRE) to create a distributed virtual switch for a network while working with existing switches and routers in the network. The present invention finds utility in both enterprise networks, datacenters and other facilities.

Claims

1. A method of managing networking resources in a site comprising a plurality of hosts and physical forwarding elements, comprising:

identifying a first set of virtual machines using a first set of the plurality of hosts and physical forwarding elements;

identifying a second set of virtual machines using a second set of the plurality of hosts and physical forwarding elements, certain of the hosts and physical forwarding elements in the first and second sets being the same;

providing first and second distributed virtual switches that exclusively handle communications between the first and second sets of virtual machines, respectively, while maintaining isolation between the first and second sets of virtual machines.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the physical forwarding elements comprise one or more virtual switches.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the physical forwarding elements comprise one or more physical switches.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the first and second distributed virtual switches further handle communications between external hosts and the first and second sets of virtual machines, respectively.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the first and second sets of virtual machines are associated with first and second data center tenants, respectively.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a logical flow table and a physical flow table in one of the physical forwarding elements;

determining a mapping between the logical flow table and a physical flow table; and

causing the physical forwarding element to forward packets using the logical flow table and the physical flow table and the determined mapping.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the one physical forwarding elements is used by both the first and second sets of virtual machines.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein certain of the plurality of hosts are located in geographically separate premises.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein certain of the first set of virtual machines are in different subnets.

10. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing tunnels through certain of the physical forwarding elements.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the tunnels comprise GRE tunnels.

12. A method of managing communications in a network comprising one or more physical forwarding elements, comprising:

providing a network virtualization layer comprising a logical forwarding element;

providing a mapping between a port of the logical forwarding element to a port of certain of the physical forwarding elements; and

causing the physical forwarding element to forward a packet using the provided mapping.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the causing step includes:

looking up a logical context for the packet;

identifying a logical egress port for the packet according to the logical context;

mapping the logical egress port to a physical egress port according to the provided mapping; and

looking up the physical egress port.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein the physical forwarding element comprises a physical switch.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein the physical forwarding element comprises a virtual switch.

16. A networking site comprising a plurality of hosts and physical forwarding elements, comprising:

a first set of virtual machines using a first set of the plurality of hosts and physical forwarding elements;

a second set of virtual machines using a second set of the plurality of hosts and physical forwarding elements, certain of the hosts and physical forwarding elements in the first and second sets being the same;

first and second distributed virtual switches that exclusively handle communications between the first and second sets of virtual machines, respectively, while maintaining isolation between the first and second sets of virtual machines.

17. A networking site according to claim 16, wherein the physical forwarding elements comprise one or more virtual switches.

18. A networking site according to claim 16, wherein the physical forwarding elements comprise one or more physical switches.

19. A networking site according to claim 16, wherein the first and second distributed virtual switches further handle communications between external hosts and the first and second sets of virtual machines, respectively.

20. A networking site according to claim 16, wherein the first and second sets of virtual machines are associated with first and second data center tenants, respectively.

21. A networking site according to claim 16, further comprising:

a logical flow table and a physical flow table in one of the physical forwarding elements; and

a mapping between the logical flow table and a physical flow table, wherein the physical forwarding element forwards packets using the logical flow table and the physical flow table and the determined mapping.

22. A networking site according to claim 21, wherein the one physical forwarding elements is used by both the first and second sets of virtual machines.

23. A networking site according to claim 16, wherein certain of the plurality of hosts are located in geographically separate premises.

24. A networking site according to claim 16, wherein certain of the first set of virtual machines are in different subnets.

25. A networking site according to claim 16, further comprising:

tunnels through certain of the physical forwarding elements.

26. A networking site according to claim 25, wherein the tunnels comprise GRE tunnels.