SCALABLE POLICY ASSIGNMENT IN AN EDGE VIRTUAL BRIDGING (EVB) ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140282532A1
• Filed: 11/12/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Abidi, Vasmi M., Radhakrishnan, Chandramouli
• Granted Patent: US 9,513,943 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to scalable policy assignment in an edge virtual bridging (EVB) environment. One embodiment includes fetching virtual machine (VM) information for one or more VMs from a virtual station interface (VSI) database (DB). The VM information includes a VSI type identification (ID) associated with each VM. A policy discriminator (PD) value is associated for each VSI type ID. A VSI DB table is generated with at least a portion of the VM information from the VSI DB and the PD for each VSI type ID. A message is received including virtual machine (VM) information for a created VM. One or more rules and bandwidth filter information associated with a VSI type ID are retrieved from the VSI DB table. The associated rules and filter information are applied based on the PD.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

fetching virtual machine (VM) information for one or more VMs from a virtual station interface (VSI) database (DB), wherein the VM information includes a VSI type identification (ID) associated with each VM;

associating a policy discriminator (PD) value for each VSI type ID;

generating a VSI DB table with at least a portion of the VM information from the VSI DB and the PD for each VSI type ID;

receiving a message including virtual machine (VM) information for a created VM;

retrieving one or more rules and bandwidth filter information associated with a VSI type ID from the VSI DB table; and

applying the associated one or more rules and filter information based on the PD.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules comprise access list information, and the bandwidth filter information comprises transmission rate information and receiving rate information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the VSI DB table comprises one or more VSI Type IDs that is associated with one or more access rules, transmission rate, receiving rate and PD.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a switch fetches the information from the VSI DB from a server in an edge virtual bridging (EVB) system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein upon creation of the VM, a hypervisor transmits a VSI discovery protocol (VDP) message to the switch, wherein the VDP message includes the VSI type ID, source media access control (MAC) address and virtual local area network (vLAN) ID for the VM.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein applying the associated one or more rules and filter information for the PD further comprises:

determining a type of PD; and

determining to apply a policy comprising one or more rules and bandwidth filter information based on the determined type of PD.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the type of PD comprises a VM type or a vLAN type.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein if the PD comprises a VM type, rules and bandwidth filter information are applied based on a source MAC address of the VM, and if the PD comprises a LAN type, rules and bandwidth filter information are applied based on a vLAN ID of the VM.