HANDLING NAT MIGRATION IN LOGICAL L3 ROUTING

• US 20130151661A1
• 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: Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj, Zhang, Ronghua
• Granted Patent: US 9,407,599 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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 managed forwarding elements running in hosts in a network, a method for configuring a host to facilitate migration of a virtual machine (VM) from a first host to a second host is described. The method configure, in the first host, a first managed forwarding element to perform (1) a logical L3 routing processing and (2) a network address translation (NAT) processing for a VM running in the first host. The method configures the first host to automatically send NAT information to the second host when the VM migrates to the second host so that a second managed forwarding element running in the second host can perform a NAT processing for the migrated VM based on the NAT information.

Claims

1. For a network controller for managing managed forwarding elements running in hosts in a network, a method for configuring a host to facilitate migration of a virtual machine (VM) from a first host to a second host, the method comprising:

configuring, in the first host, a first managed forwarding element to perform (i) a logical L3 routing processing and (ii) a network address translation (NAT) processing for a VM running in the first host; and

configuring the first host to automatically send NAT information to the second host when the VM migrates to the second host so that a second managed forwarding element running in the second host can perform a NAT processing for the migrated VM based on the NAT information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the first managed forwarding element comprises configuring the first managed forwarding element to direct a migration module of the first host to send the NAT information to the second host.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising configuring the migration module to notify the VM'"'"'s migration to the second host.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting the VM'"'"'s migration to the second host.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein configuring the first host comprises configuring a migration module of the first host to send the NAT information to the second host.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the NAT information includes at least a pair of associated network addresses.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the NAT information includes flow entries for configuring the first host to perform the NAT processing for the VM.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical L3 routing processing comprises logically routing a packet between a source machine that is in a first logical domain and a destination machine that is in a second logical domain.

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

a set of processing units;

a set of virtual machines (VMs) for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units;

a first software forwarding element for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units, the first software forwarding element communicatively coupled to the set of VMs, the software forwarding element configured to (i) route packets from one logical domain to another logical domain for the set of VMs and (ii) perform a network address translation (NAT) processing on the packets; and

a migration module for (i) execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing unites and (ii) sending NAT information to a second host when a VM in the set of VMs migrates to the second host so that a second software forwarding element configured in the second host can perform the NAT processing for the migrated VM based on the NAT information.

10. The computer of claim 9, wherein the first software forwarding element is further for directing the migration to send the NAT information to the second host.

11. The computer of claim 10, wherein the migration module is further for notifying the VM'"'"'s migration to the second host.

12. The computer of claim 9, wherein the NAT information includes at least a pair of associated network addresses.

13. The computer of claim 9, wherein the NAT information includes flow entries for configuring the first software forwarding element to perform the NAT processing for the VM.

14. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit configures a host to perform a network address translation (NAT) processing, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

configuring, in the first host, a first managed forwarding element to perform (i) a logical L3 routing processing and (ii) a NAT processing for a VM running in the first host; and

configuring the first host to send NAT information to the second host when the VM migrates to the second host so that a second managed forwarding element running in the second host can perform a NAT processing for the migrated VM based on the NAT information.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first managed forwarding element comprises a set of instructions for configuring the first managed forwarding element to direct a migration module of the first host to send the NAT information to the second host.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for configuring the migration module to notify the VM'"'"'s migration to the second host.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for detecting the VM'"'"'s migration to the second host.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first host comprises a set of instructions for configuring a migration module of the first host to send the NAT information to the second host.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the NAT information includes at least a pair of associated network addresses.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the NAT information includes flow entries for configuring the first host to perform the NAT processing for the VM.