AUTO-DISCOVERY SERVICE AND METHOD OF DISCOVERING APPLICATIONS WITHIN A VIRTUAL NETWORK

• US 20130179879A1
• Filed: 01/05/2012
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: CUI, Liang, ZHANG, Yiwen, XIA, Zhifeng
• Granted Patent: US 10,514,937 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox

Abstract

Embodiments provide a system including a first host computing device that includes a first virtual machine (VM) and a first application. The system also includes a second host computing device including a virtualization software layer, a second VM, and an auto-discovery service at least partially instantiated within the virtualization software layer. The auto-discovery service is configured to receive a message and an auto-discovery packet from a second application executing on the second VM. The auto-discovery service inserts an option into the auto-discovery packet, and transmits the auto-discovery packet to the first application. The option in the auto-discovery packet includes the message received from the second application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first host computing device comprising a first virtual machine (VM) and a first application executing on the first VM; and

a second host computing device communicatively coupled to the first host computing device to form a network, the second host computing device comprising;

a virtualization software layer;

a second VM, wherein a second application is executing within the second VM; and

an auto-discovery service at least partially instantiated within the virtualization software layer and communicatively coupled to the second VM, wherein the auto-discovery service is configured to;

receive a message from the second application;

receive an auto-discovery packet from the second application;

insert an option into the auto-discovery packet, wherein the option includes the message received from the second application; and

transmit the auto-discovery packet to the first application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the message includes an internet protocol (IP) address of the second application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the auto-discovery service is further configured to register a callback function of the second application with the auto-discovery service.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the auto-discovery service comprises an interceptor application comprising a traffic interceptor module configured to receive network packets transmitted to the second VM and to receive network packets transmitted from the second VM.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the virtualization software layer comprises a virtual switch comprising a plurality of ports for connecting to a plurality of VMs, and wherein the traffic interceptor module is connected to a port associated with the second VM.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the auto-discovery service is further configured to register at least one traffic interception rule with the traffic interceptor module.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the auto-discovery service further comprises a controller module that transmits data to the interceptor application.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first host computing device comprises a second AD service coupled to the first VM.

9. A method of discovering network applications, the method comprising:

receiving, by an auto-discovery service executing on a first computing device, a message from a first application executing on a first VM of the first computing device;

receiving, by the auto-discovery service, an auto-discovery packet from the first application;

determining, by the auto-discovery service, whether the auto-discovery packet satisfies a plurality of traffic interception rules;

inserting, by the auto-discovery service, an option into the auto-discovery packet if the auto-discovery packet satisfies the interception rules, wherein the option includes the message received from the first application; and

transmitting, by the auto-discovery service, the auto-discovery packet to a second application executing on a second VM.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving an auto-discovery response packet from the second application in response to the auto-discovery packet.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining whether the auto-discovery response packet satisfies the traffic interception rules.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the auto-discovery response packet includes a message from the second application, the method further comprising extracting, from the auto-discovery response packet, the message from the second application.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising registering a callback function of the first application.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising calling the callback function with the extracted message.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions embodied thereon, wherein, when executed by a processor, the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to:

instantiate at least one traffic interceptor module within a virtualization software layer of a first computing device;

attach the traffic interceptor module to a virtual switch within the virtualization software layer;

attach the traffic interceptor module to a first VM, wherein a first application is executing within the first VM;

register the first application with an auto-discovery service executing within the virtualization software layer, wherein registering the first application includes receiving a message from the first application;

receive a packet from the first application;

insert the message into the packet; and

transmit the packet to a second computing device.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the processor to receive a plurality of traffic interception rules, and register the traffic interception rules with the traffic interceptor module.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the processor to register a callback function of the first application with the auto-discovery service.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the processor to receive a packet from a second application executing within the second computing device and determine whether the packet received from the second application satisfies the traffic interception rules.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the processor to call the callback function if the packet received from the second application satisfies the traffic interception rules.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the computer executable instructions further cause the processor to ignore the packet received from the second application if the traffic interception rules are not satisfied.