Using virtual networking devices to manage network configuration

• US 8,392,608 B1
• Filed: 01/30/2012
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Miller, Kevin Christopher, Brandwine, Eric Jason, Doane, Andrew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tammy
• Application Number:
  US13/361,789
• Time in Patent Office: 400 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/220, 709/224, 709/227, 709/238, 455/445, 342/457
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery

Abstract

Techniques are described for providing managed virtual computer networks that may have a configured logical network topology with one or more virtual networking devices, with corresponding networking functionality provided for communications between multiple computing nodes of the virtual computer network by emulating functionality that would be provided by the networking devices if they were physically present. In some situations, the emulating of networking device functionality includes receiving routing communications directed to the networking devices and using included routing information to update the configured network topology for the managed computer network. In addition, the techniques may further include supporting interactions with devices that are external to the virtual computer network, including remote physical networking devices that are part of a remote computer network configured to interoperate with the virtual computer network, and/or specialized network devices that are accessible via a substrate network on which the virtual computer network is overlaid.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing, by one or more configured computing systems, a virtual computer network for a client in accordance with configuration information that indicates one or more networking devices interconnecting multiple computing nodes of the virtual computer network, the providing including overlaying the virtual computer network on a distinct substrate computer network and emulating functionality of the one or more networking devices to enable communications between the multiple computing nodes to be forwarded over the substrate computer network;

assigning, by the one or more configured computing systems, network addresses for the virtual computer network to represent the one or more networking devices;

receiving, by the one or more configured computing systems, one or more routing communications that are each directed to at least one of the one or more networking devices using the assigned network addresses for the at least one networking devices, the one or more routing communications being sent via a connection between the virtual computer network and one or more remote computing systems of the client and including network routing information corresponding to the one or more remote computing systems; and

forwarding, by the one or more configured computing systems, one or more subsequent communications from the multiple computing nodes to the one or more remote computing systems over the connection based on the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration information is specified for the virtual computer network by the client, and wherein the method further comprises updating the configuration information based on the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the configuration information specifies a network topology for the virtual computer network that includes specified computing nodes interconnected via the indicated one or more networking devices, and wherein the method further comprises analyzing the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications to determine one or more network topology changes for the provided virtual computer network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications is specified in accordance with one or more defined network routing protocols.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more networking devices are each specified in the configuration information to be a network router device, wherein the providing of the virtual computer network is performed without physically providing the one or more networking devices, and wherein the receiving of the one or more routing communications includes intercepting any communications sent to the assigned network addresses before those intercepted communications are forwarded over the substrate computer network.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising forwarding multiple communications between the multiple computing nodes over the substrate computer network, the forwarding including using information about a location of each of the multiple computing nodes in the substrate computer network without using routing functionality that would otherwise be available from the one or more networking devices if the one or more networking devices were physically provided.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing multiple modules of a configurable network service that manage the multiple communications by modifying outgoing communications from the multiple computing nodes to encode them with information specific to the substrate computer network before transmission over the substrate computer network and by modifying incoming communications to the multiple computing nodes to remove encoded information specific to the substrate computer network after transmission over the substrate computer network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are part of a configurable network service that provides a plurality of computing nodes for use in supporting multiple virtual computer networks for multiple clients, and wherein the multiple computing nodes of the provided virtual computer network are a subset of the plurality of computing nodes.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are part of a configurable network service that provides a programmatic interface via which multiple clients may programmatically specify information for virtual computer networks provided for the multiple clients by the configurable network service, and wherein the method further comprises receiving the configuration information from the client via the programmatic interface.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more remote computing systems are part of a remote computer network of the client, wherein the one or more routing communications are sent by one or more physical networking devices that are part of the remote computer network, and wherein the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications is routing information for the remote computer network.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing the connection between the virtual computer network and one or more remote computing systems of the client in accordance with one or more instructions received from the client.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the established connection is a virtual private network (“

VPN”

) connection, and wherein the one or more remote computing systems are located at one or more geographical locations that are distinct from one or more other geographical locations at which the multiple computing nodes of the provided virtual computer network are located.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple computing nodes are each a virtual machine hosted on one of multiple physical computing systems of a configurable network service provided by the configured computing systems, and wherein the providing of the virtual computer network includes configuring one or more virtual machine communication manager modules that execute on one or more of the physical computing systems to manage communications for the virtual machines hosted on those one or more physical computing systems.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored contents that configure a computing system to:

provide a virtual computer network in accordance with specified configuration information for the virtual computer network that indicates one or more networking devices interconnecting multiple computing nodes of the virtual computer network, the providing including overlaying the virtual computer network on a distinct substrate computer network without physically providing the one or more networking devices;

assign a network address for the virtual computer network for each of the one or more networking devices to represent the networking device within the virtual computer network;

receive one or more routing communications that are each directed to at least one of the one or more networking devices using the assigned network address for the at least one networking device, the one or more routing communications being sent via a connection between the virtual computer network and one or more remote computing systems and including network routing information; and

update the specified configuration information for the virtual computer network based on the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the computing system is further configured to forward one or more additional communications from the multiple computing nodes to the one or more remote computing systems over the connection based on the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the computing system is further configured to emulate functionality of the one or more networking devices, and wherein the receiving of the one or more routing communications directed to the at least one networking devices includes intercepting any communications directed to the at least one networking devices.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the configuration information specifies a network topology for the virtual computer network that includes specified computing nodes interconnected via the indicated one or more networking devices, and wherein the computing system is further configured to analyze the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications to determine one or more network topology changes for the provided virtual computer network.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more remote computing systems are part of a remote computer network of a client for whom the virtual computer network is provided, wherein the one or more routing communications are sent by one or more physical networking devices that are part of the remote computer network, and wherein the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications is routing information for the remote computer network.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the stored contents include instructions that, when executed, program the configured computing system.

20. A configured computing system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more modules that are configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or processors;

provide a virtual computer network that includes multiple interconnected computing nodes, the providing including overlaying the virtual computer network on a distinct substrate computer network and emulating functionality of one or more networking devices that are specified to interconnect the multiple computing nodes;

receive one or more routing communications that are each directed to at least one of the one or more networking devices, the one or more routing communications being sent via a connection between the virtual computer network and one or more remote computing systems and including network routing information; and

forward one or more subsequent communications from the multiple computing nodes to the one or more remote computing systems based on the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications.

21. The computing system of claim 20 wherein the one or more modules are further configured to assign one or more network addresses for the virtual computer network to the one or more networking devices, and wherein the received one or more routing communications use at least one of the assigned network addresses to direct the one or more routing communications to the at least one networking device.

22. The computing system of claim 20 wherein the providing of the virtual computer network is based in part on configuration information for the virtual computer network that is specified by a client for whom the virtual computer network is provided, the configuration information specifying interconnections between the multiple computing nodes that include the one or more networking devices.

23. The computing system of claim 22 wherein the one or more modules are further configured to update the configuration information for the virtual computer network based on the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications.

24. The computing system of claim 22 wherein the configuration information specifies a network topology for the virtual computer network that includes specified computing nodes interconnected via the indicated one or more networking devices, and wherein the one or more modules are further configured to analyze the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications to determine one or more network topology changes for the provided virtual computer network.

25. The computing system of claim 20 wherein the one or more remote computing systems are part of a remote computer network of a client for whom the virtual computer network is provided, wherein the one or more routing communications are sent by one or more physical networking devices that are part of the remote computer network, and wherein the included network routing information from the received one or more routing communications is routing information for the remote computer network.

26. The computing system of claim 20 wherein the one or more modules include software instructions that, when executed, program the at least one processor.