DYNAMIC ROUTING THROUGH VIRTUAL APPLIANCES

• US 20140149490A1
• Filed: 11/27/2012
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Luxenberg, Roni, Lublin, Uri
• Granted Patent: US 9,535,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/00 Digital computers in general details G06F1/00 – G06F13/00; Data processing equipment in general
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A computing device executes a virtual machine that provides a service to a client. The computing device monitors one or more conditions associated with at least one of the virtual machine or the client. The computing device receives a data packet from the client, wherein the data packet is addressed to the virtual machine. The computing device determines, based on the one or more conditions, whether to route the data packet from the client through a virtual appliance before sending the data packet to the virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring, by a processing device executing a virtual machine that provides a service to a client, one or more conditions associated with at least one of the virtual machine or the client;

receiving a data packet from the client by the processing device, wherein the data packet is addressed to the virtual machine; and

determining, by the processing device, based on the one or more conditions, whether to route the data packet from the client through a virtual appliance before sending the data packet to the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing the data packet through the virtual appliance transparently without providing an indication of the routing to the client or to the virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a response packet from the virtual machine;

routing the response packet through the virtual appliance; and

sending the response packet to the client.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a change in the one or more conditions; and

determining a new virtual appliance to route new data packets from the client through in response to the change.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a change in the one or more conditions; and

re-determining, based on the change in the one or more conditions, whether to route future data packets from the client through the virtual appliance.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the change in the one or more conditions comprises a change in at least one of a location of the client or a network parameter associated with the client.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the virtual appliance is a virtual firewall, the method further comprising:

in response to the client moving from an internal subnet associated with the virtual machine to an external subnet, initiating routing of the data packets from the client through the virtual firewall; and

in response to the client moving from the external subnet to the internal subnet, ceasing routing of data packets from the client through the virtual firewall.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the virtual appliance is a virtual wide area network (WAN) optimizer, the method further comprising:

detecting that the client has at least one of a bandwidth, a round trip time, or a latency that fails to meet a threshold; and

routing data packets from the client through the virtual WAN optimizer in response to the detecting.

9. A computer readable storage medium having instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method comprising:

monitoring, by the processing device executing a virtual machine that provides a service to a client, one or more conditions associated with at least one of the virtual machine or the client;

receiving a data packet from the client by the processing device, wherein the data packet is addressed to the virtual machine; and

determining, by the processing device, based on the one or more conditions, whether to route the data packet from the client through a virtual appliance before sending the data packet to the virtual machine.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

routing the data packet through the virtual appliance transparently without providing an indication of the routing to the client or to the virtual machine.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving a response packet from the virtual machine;

routing the response packet through the virtual appliance; and

sending the response packet to the client.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

detecting a change in the one or more conditions; and

determining a new virtual appliance to route new data packets from the client through in response to the change.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

detecting a change in the one or more conditions; and

re-determining, based on the change in the one or more conditions, whether to route future data packets from the client through the virtual appliance.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the change in the one or more conditions comprises a change in at least one of a location of the client or a network parameter associated with the client.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the virtual appliance is a virtual firewall, the method further comprising:

in response to the client moving from an internal subnet associated with the virtual machine to an external subnet, initiating routing of the data packets from the client through the virtual firewall; and

in response to the client moving from the external subnet to the internal subnet, ceasing routing of data packets from the client through the virtual firewall.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the virtual appliance is a virtual wide area network (WAN) optimizer, the method further comprising:

detecting that the client has at least one of a bandwidth, a round trip time, or a latency that fails to meet a threshold; and

routing data packets from the client through the virtual WAN optimizer in response to the detecting.

17. A computing device comprising:

a memory to store instructions for a virtual machine; and

a processing device coupled to the memory, wherein the processing device is configured to;

execute the virtual machine, the virtual machine providing a service to a client;

monitor one or more conditions associated with at least one of the virtual machine or the client;

receive a data packet from the client, wherein the data packet is addressed to the virtual machine; and

determine, based on the one or more conditions, whether to route the data packet from the client through a virtual appliance before sending the data packet to the virtual machine.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is further configured to route the data packet through the virtual appliance transparently without providing an indication of the routing to the client or to the virtual machine.

19. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

detect a change in the one or more conditions; and

determine a new virtual appliance to route new data packets from the client through in response to the change.

20. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

detect a change in the one or more conditions; and

re-determine, based on the change in the one or more conditions, whether to route future data packets from the client through the virtual appliance.