Maintaining Virtual Machines in a Network Device

• US 20110004877A1
• Filed: 07/01/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Riverbed Technology, LLC (Riverbed Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Riverbed Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Wu, David Tze-Si
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/00 Packet switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

Network devices include hosted virtual machines and virtual machine applications. Hosted virtual machines and their applications implement additional functions and services in network devices. Network devices include data taps for directing network traffic to hosted virtual machines and allowing hosted virtual machines to inject network traffic. Network devices include unidirectional data flow specifications, referred to as hyperswitches. Each hyperswitch is associated with a hosted virtual machine and receives network traffic received by the network device from a single direction. Each hyperswitch processes network traffic according to rules and rule criteria. A hosted virtual machine can be associated with multiple hyperswitches, thereby independently specifying the data flow of network traffic to and from the hosted virtual machine from multiple networks. The network device architecture also enables the communication of additional information between the network device and one or more virtual machine applications using an extended non-standard network protocol.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining a network device including at least one hosted virtual machine, the method comprising:

communicating a first message to a first hosted virtual machine;

waiting a time duration to receive a second message from the first hosted virtual machine; and

in response to not receiving the second message within the time duration, configuring a virtual machine data interface such that network traffic bypasses the first hosted virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message is adapted to be received and processed by a virtual network interface executing within the first hosted virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first message is a ping message.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

in response to receiving the second message within the time duration, determining if the virtual machine data interface is configured such that network traffic bypasses the first hosted virtual machine; and

in response to the determination that the virtual machine data interface is configured such that the network traffic bypasses the first hosted virtual machine, configuring the virtual machine data interface to enable at least a portion of the network traffic to be directed to the first hosted virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

determining if the network device is configured with a network device bypass function enabled, such that network traffic bypasses all processing by the network device; and

in response to the determination that network device is configured with the network device bypass function enabled, configuring the network device to disable the network device bypass function, such that at least a portion of the network traffic is processed by the network device.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

enabling a network device bypass function, such that the network traffic bypasses all processing by the network device.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

directing the network device to reset at least the first hosted virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the virtual machine data interface comprises:

configuring a first hyperswitch interface associated with the first hosted virtual machine to enable a first bypass mode, such that the first hyperswitch interface passes the network traffic without evaluation by network traffic rule criteria included in the first hyperswitch interface.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising:

configuring a second hyperswitch interface associated with the first hosted virtual machine to enable a second bypass mode, such that the second hyperswitch interface passes the network traffic without evaluation by network traffic rule criteria included in the second hyperswitch interface.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first hyperswitch interface is adapted to process a first portion of the network traffic directed in a first direction and the second hyperswitch interface is adapted to process a second portion of the network traffic directed in a second direction.

11. A method of maintaining a network device including at least one hosted virtual machine, the method comprising:

waiting a time duration to receive a first message from the first hosted virtual machine; and

in response to not receiving the second message within the time duration, configuring a virtual machine data interface such that network traffic bypasses the first hosted virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is adapted to be received and processed by a module of the network device outside of the first hosted virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first message is a ping message.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is generated by a virtual machine application executed by the first hosted virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is generated by a virtual machine network interface executed by the first hosted virtual machine.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is generated by the first hosted virtual machine.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is generated according to a periodic schedule based on the time duration.

18. The method of claim 11, comprising:

in response to receiving the first message within the time duration, determining if the virtual machine data interface is configured such that the network traffic bypasses the first hosted virtual machine; and

in response to the determination that the virtual machine data interface is configured such that network traffic bypasses the first hosted virtual machine, configuring the virtual machine data interface to enable at least a portion of the network traffic to be directed to the first hosted virtual machine.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising:

determining if the network device is configured with a network device bypass function enabled, such that the network traffic bypasses all processing by the network device; and

in response to the determination that network device is configured with the network device bypass function enabled, configuring the network device to disable the network device bypass function, such that at least a portion of the network traffic is processed by the network device.

20. The method of claim 11, comprising:

enabling a network device bypass function, such that the network traffic bypasses all processing by the network device.

21. The method of claim 11, comprising:

directing the network device to reset at least the first hosted virtual machine.

22. The method of claim 11, wherein configuring the virtual machine data interface comprises:

configuring a first hyperswitch interface associated with the first hosted virtual machine to enable a first bypass mode, such that the first hyperswitch interface passes the network traffic without evaluation by network traffic rule criteria included in the first hyperswitch interface.

23. The method of claim 22, comprising:

configuring a second hyperswitch interface associated with the first hosted virtual machine to enable a second bypass mode, such that the second hyperswitch interface passes the network traffic without evaluation by network traffic rule criteria included in the second hyperswitch interface.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first hyperswitch interface is adapted to process a first portion of the network traffic directed in a first direction and the second hyperswitch interface is adapted to process a second portion of the network traffic directed in a second direction.