Logical L3 Daemon

• US 20130148656A1
• Filed: 02/01/2013
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Ronghua, Gross, Jesse E. IV, Koponen, Teemu
• Granted Patent: US 9,461,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2592 using tunnelling or encapsulation

Abstract

For a network controller for managing hosts in a network, a method for configuring a host to resolve network addresses is described. The method configures an address resolution module in a host to resolve a network address. The method configures a managed forwarding element in the host to (1) avoid sending a request to resolve the network address to another host by using the address resolution module to resolve the network address and (2) forward packets using the resolved network address.

Claims

1. For a network controller for managing hosts in a network, a method for configuring a host to resolve network addresses, the method comprising:

configuring an address resolution module in a host to resolve a network address; and

configuring a managed forwarding element in the host to (i) avoid sending a request to resolve the network address to another host by using the address resolution module to resolve the network address and (ii) forward packets using the resolved network address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to resolve the network address is an address resolution protocol (ARP) request.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the address resolution module to maintain and use a list of address pairs, wherein each pair in the list includes a first address and a second address, the first address being an address to resolve, the second address being an address to which the first address is to be resolved.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first address is a network layer address and the second address is a data link layer address.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address and the second address is a Media Access Control (MAC) address.

6. The method of claim 3 further comprising configuring the address resolution module to send an address resolution protocol (ARP) request to other hosts in the network to obtain an address to which to resolve the network address when the list does not include an address pair that includes the network address.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the host is a first host and the list is a local list, the method further comprising:

configuring, in a second host, a global address resolution module to maintain and use a global list of address pairs that are collected from other hosts in the set of hosts; and

configuring the address resolution module to ask the global address resolution module for an address to which to resolve the network address when the local list of the first host does not include an address pair that in includes the network address.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising configuring the global address resolution module to send an address resolution protocol (ARP) request to other hosts in the set of hosts to obtain an address to which to resolve the network address when the global list does not include an address pair that includes the network address.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising configuring the address resolution module to create or update a particular address pair and update the local list with the particular address pair.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the particular address pair is created or updated when a virtual machine is provisioned in or migrated into the first host.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising configuring the address resolution module to send the particular address pair to the global address resolution module.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein using the address resolution module to resolve the network address comprising sending a flow entry that includes the network address, wherein configuring the address resolution module comprises configuring the address resolution module to (i) modify the flow entry to include the resolved network address and (ii) send the modified flow entry to the managed forwarding element.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the address resolution module and the managed switching element are separate software applications running in the host.

14. A computer configured as a first host for managing network traffic to route, the computer comprising:

a set of processing units;

an address resolution module for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units, the address resolution module configured to resolve a network address; and

a software forwarding element for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units, the software forwarding element configured to (i) use the address resolution module to resolve the network address without sending a request to resolve the network address to another host and (ii) forward packets using the resolved network address.

15. The computer of claim 14, the address resolution is further configured to maintain and use a list of address pairs, wherein each pair in the list includes a first address and a second address, the first address being an address to resolve, the second address being an address to which the first address is to be resolved.

16. The computer of claim 15, wherein the first address is a network layer address and the second address is a data link layer address.

17. The computer of claim 15, wherein the first address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address and the second address is a Media Access Control (MAC) address.

18. The computer of claim 15, the address resolution module is further configured to send an address resolution protocol (ARP) request to other hosts in the set of hosts to obtain an address to which to resolve the network address when the list does not include an address pair that includes the network address.

19. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit configures a host to resolve network addresses, the program comprising sets of instructions:

configuring an address resolution module in the host to resolve a network address; and

configuring a managed forwarding element in the host to (i) avoid sending a request to resolve the network address to another host by using the address resolution module to resolve the network address and (ii) forward packets using the resolved network address.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for configuring the address resolution module to maintain and use a list of address pairs, wherein each pair in the list includes a first address and a second address, the first address being an address to resolve, the second address being an address to which the first address is to be resolved.

21. The machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein the host is a first host and the list is a local list, the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

configuring, in a second host, a global address resolution module to maintain and use a global list of address pairs that are collected from other hosts in the set of hosts; and

configuring the address resolution module to ask the global address resolution module for an address to which to resolve the network address when the local list of the first host does not include an address pair that in includes the network address.

22. The machine readable medium of claim 21, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for configuring the global address resolution module to send an address resolution protocol (ARP) request to other hosts in the set of hosts to obtain an address to which to resolve the network address when the global list does not include an address pair that includes the network address.