Using virtual networking devices to connect managed computer networks

• US 9,467,398 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2015
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• 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): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US14/807,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20150334054A1
• Time in Patent Office: 446 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/220, 709/224, 709/228, 370/352
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• 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 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/15 Interconnection of switching modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/252 Store and forward routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Techniques are described for providing managed virtual computer networks whose configured logical network topology may have one or more virtual networking devices, such as by a network-accessible configurable network service, with corresponding networking functionality provided for communications between multiple computing nodes of a virtual computer network by emulating functionality that would be provided by the networking devices if they were physically present. The networking functionality provided for a managed computer network may include supporting a connection between that managed computer network and other managed computer networks, such as via a provided virtual peering router to which each of the managed computer networks may connect, with the functionality of the virtual peering router being emulated by modules of the configurable network service without physically providing the virtual peering router, including to manage data communications between computing nodes of the inter-connected managed computer networks in accordance with client-specified configuration information.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored contents that cause one or more computing systems of a configurable network service to at least:

provide, by the configurable network service, a first virtual computer network;

connect the first virtual computer network to a second virtual computer network provided by the configurable network service via a virtual peering router provided by the configurable network service, wherein at least one computing system of the one or more computing systems hosts one or more virtual machines used as computing nodes of the first virtual computer network;

update, based at least in part on the connecting, configuration of the at least one computing system for use in managing communications between the one or more virtual machines and other computing nodes of the second virtual computer network, the updating including storing mapping information on the at least one computing system about at least one of the other computing nodes of the second virtual computer network; and

forward, using the updated configuration, one or more communications from the one or more virtual machines to the other computing nodes and emulate functionality of the virtual peering router as part of the forwarding.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the providing of the first virtual computer network is performed for a client of the configurable network service and involves including information about the multiple computing nodes in the mapping information on the at least one computing system, and wherein the stored contents include software instructions that, when executed by the one or more computing systems, further cause the one or more computing systems to, before the connecting:

forward, by the at least one computing system and based on the mapping information, multiple communications between the one or more virtual machines and other of the multiple computing nodes, wherein the forwarding includes emulating functionality of a first virtual router device of the first virtual computer network for the forwarding.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the connecting of the first virtual computer network to the second virtual computer network includes establishing a first logical connection to the virtual peering router from the first virtual router device of the first virtual computer network, and establishing a second logical connection to the virtual peering router from a second virtual router device of the second virtual computer network.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the at least one computing system is a physical machine that further executes at least one of a hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor to manage communications for multiple virtual machines hosted by the at least one computing system, wherein the multiple virtual machines include the one or more virtual machines, and wherein the stored contents further cause the one or more computing systems to, before the updating, perform the configuration of the at least one computing system by configuring the at least one of the hypervisor or virtual machine monitor to modify its operations in managing communications for the one or more virtual machines.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein the performing of the configuration of the at least one computing system includes storing mapping information on the at least one computing system about multiple computing nodes of the first virtual computer network.

6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing, by a configurable network service implemented using a plurality of computing systems, a virtual computer network having multiple computing nodes for a client, wherein the multiple computing nodes include one or more virtual machines hosted by a physical computing system of the configurable network service, and wherein the providing includes configuring the physical computing system to manage communications of the virtual computer network for the one or more virtual machines;

creating, by the configurable network service, a virtual peering router configured to establish an inter-connection between the virtual computer network and a second virtual computer network provided by the configurable network service, and updating configuration of the physical computing system based at least in part on the inter-connection, wherein the updating includes storing information on the physical computing system about one or more computing nodes of the second virtual computer network; and

sending, using the stored information on the physical computing system, one or more communications from the one or more virtual machines to the one or more computing nodes of the second virtual computer network and emulate functionality of the virtual peering router as part of the sending.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 wherein the physical computing system further executes at least one of a hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor to manage communications for multiple virtual machines hosted by the physical computing system that include the one or more virtual machines, and wherein the configuring of the physical computing system includes configuring the at least one of the hypervisor or virtual machine monitor to modify its operations in managing communications for the one or more virtual machines.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the configuring of the physical computing system includes storing mapping information on the physical computing system about the multiple computing nodes, and wherein the method further comprises forwarding communications from the one or more virtual machines to other computing nodes of the multiple computing nodes by using the stored mapping information and including emulating functionality for the forwarding of one or more virtual router devices of the virtual computer network.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the storing of the information on of the physical computing system about the one or more computing nodes of the second virtual computer network includes adding additional information to the stored mapping information about the one or more computing nodes in the second virtual computer network.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 wherein the multiple computing nodes further include additional virtual machines hosted by additional computing systems of the plurality, wherein the physical computing system and the additional computing systems execute multiple communication managers of the configurable network service that each manages communications for at least one virtual machine, and wherein the method further comprises forwarding communications from the one or more virtual machines to other computing nodes of the multiple computing nodes, including emulating, by the multiple communication managers in a distributed manner, functionality of one or more virtual router devices that are specified to be part of the virtual computer network.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 wherein the multiple computing nodes further include additional virtual machines hosted by additional computing systems of the plurality, wherein the physical computing system and the additional computing systems execute multiple communication managers of the configurable network service that each manages communications for at least one virtual machine, and wherein the emulating of the functionality of the virtual peering router is performed by the multiple communication managers in a distributed manner.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the emulating of the functionality of the virtual peering router includes modifying headers of the one or more communications.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the emulating of the functionality of the virtual peering router includes enforcing specified restrictions for the virtual peering router to control which communications are forwarded between the virtual computer network and the second virtual computer network.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising receiving, by the physical computing system and after the updating of the configuration, one or more further communications from the one or more computing nodes of the second virtual computer network that are intended for at least one virtual machine of the one or more virtual machines, and providing the one or more further communications to the at least one virtual machine.

15. A system, comprising:

one or more hardware processors; and

one or more memories with stored instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more hardware processors, cause the at least one hardware processor to provide functionality of a configurable network service, including;

providing a virtual computer network having multiple computing nodes that include one or more virtual machines hosted by a physical machine of the configurable network service, and wherein the providing includes configuring the physical machine to store mapping information about the multiple computing nodes for use in managing communications of the virtual computer network for the one or more virtual machines;

establishing an inter-connection of the virtual computer network with a second virtual computer network provided by the configurable network service via a virtual peering router provided by the configurable network service;

updating configuration of the physical machine based at least in part on the established inter-connection to store additional information about one or more computing nodes in the second virtual computer network; and

forwarding, by the physical machine and based at least in part on the updated configuration, one or more communications from the one or more virtual machines of the virtual computer network to the one or more computing nodes in the second virtual computer network, including emulating functionality of the virtual peering router for the forwarding.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the virtual computer network is provided by the configurable network service for a client of the configurable network service, wherein the at least one hardware processor includes a hardware processor that is part of the physical machine, and wherein the stored instructions further cause the hardware processor of the physical machine to forward, based on the configuring, multiple communications from the one or more virtual machines to other computing nodes of the multiple computing nodes, wherein the forwarding includes emulating functionality of a first virtual router device of the first virtual computer network for the forwarding.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the multiple computing nodes further include additional virtual machines hosted by additional physical machines of the configurable network service, wherein the physical machine and the additional physical machines execute multiple communication managers of the configurable network service that each manages communications for at least one virtual machine, and wherein the forwarding of the multiple communications includes emulating, by the multiple communication managers in a distributed manner, functionality of the first virtual router device.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the multiple computing nodes further include additional virtual machines hosted by additional physical machines of the configurable network service, wherein the physical machine and the additional physical machines execute multiple communication managers of the configurable network service that each manages communications for at least one virtual machine, and wherein the forwarding of the one or more communications includes emulating, by the multiple communication managers in a distributed manner, functionality of the virtual peering router.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the emulating of the functionality of the virtual peering router includes modifying headers of the one or more communications and further includes enforcing specified restrictions for the virtual peering router to control which communications are forwarded between the virtual computer network and the second virtual computer network.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the physical machine further executes at least one of a hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor to manage communications for multiple virtual machines hosted by the physical machine that include the one or more virtual machines, and wherein the configuring of the physical machine includes configuring the at least one of the hypervisor or virtual machine monitor to modify its operations in the managing of the communications of the virtual computer network for the one or more virtual machines.