Nicira, Inc.

Vmware, Inc.

Anupam Chanda

Pankaj Thakkar

Hua Wang

Bruce Davie

Jianjun Shen

Ziyou Wang

Ronghua Zhang

Amar Padmanabhan

Ariel Tubaltsev

Donghai Han

Benjamin L Pfaff

Amre Shakimov

Justin Pettit

Caixia Jiang

Da Wan

Pradeep Singh

Igor Ganichev

Su Wang

Ansis Atteka

Teemu Koponen

Ganesan Chandrashekhar

Jin Liu

Srinivas Neginhal

Bolt Zhang

Frank Pan

Vicky Liu

HsinYi Shen

Sarvani Vakkalanka

Mukesh Hira

Alexander Tessmer

Nithin Bangalore Raju

Anuprem Chalvadi

Bryan J Fulton

Harold Vinson C Lim

Bhavesh Davda

Scott J Goldman

Hsin-Yi Shen

Boon Seong Ang

Petr Vandrovec

Jeremy Sugerman

Kevin Scott Christopher

Gustav Seth Wibling

Soner Sevinc

Mart Haitjema

Some embodiments provide novel methods for controllers to communicate with managed hardware forwarding elements (MHFEs) in a transactional manner. The transactional communication methods of some embodiments ensure that an MHFE receives the entirety of a control plane update that a controller supplies to it, before the MHFE starts to modify its data plane forwarding data and operations. The transactional communication methods of some embodiments provide one or more transactional boundary controls to the controllers to define complete control plane data set updates. In some embodiments, the transactional controls ensure that an MHFE receives all of a control plane update before it starts to modify its data plane forwarding data. Controllers use one transactional control in some embodiments when they define logical forwarding elements (e.g., logical switches or routers) on the MHFEs.

Transaction controls for supplying control plane data to managed hardware forwarding element

A managed hardware forwarding element (MHFE) that performs packet forwarding operations for a logical network is described. The MHFE receives configuration data for the logical network that defines a logical router and a set of logical switches for logically connecting several end machines that operate on different host machines to several physical machines that are connected to the MHFE. The logical router also includes multiple routing components. The MHFE also receives a first forwarding table and a second forwarding table. The first forwarding table stores linking data for each logical port of each logical switch in the set of logical switches that identifies a corresponding routing component in the logical router. The second forwarding table stores a set of routes for each routing component of the logical router. The MHFE uses the first and second forwarding tables to perform packet forwarding operations at the MHFE.

Enabling hardware switches to perform logical routing functionalities

For a managed network including multiple host machines implementing multiple logical networks, some embodiments provide a method that reduces the memory and traffic load required to implement the multiple logical networks. The method generates configuration data for each of multiple host machines including (i) data to configure a host machine to implement a set of logical forwarding elements that belong to a set of routing domains and (ii) identifiers for each routing domain in the set of routing domains. The method then receives data regarding tunnels endpoints operating on each of the host machines and an association with the routing identifiers sent to the host machines. The method then generates a routing domain tunnel endpoint list for each routing domain based on the data received from each of the host machines including a list of the tunnel endpoints associated with the routing domain which the host machines can use to facilitate packet processing.

Defining routing domain for distributed packet processing

Some embodiments provide a method for a network controller that manages several logical networks. The method receives a specification of a logical network that includes at least one logical forwarding element attached to a logical service (e.g., DHCP). The method selects at least one host machine to host the specified logical service from several host machines designated for hosting logical services. The method generates logical service configuration information for distribution to the selected host machine. In some embodiments, the method selects a master host machine and a backup host machine for hosting logical service. In some embodiments, a particular one of the designated host machines hosts at least two DHCP services for two different logical networks as separate processes operating on the particular host machine.

Providing services for logical networks

Example methods are provided for assigning a routing domain identifier in a logical network environment that includes one or more logical distributed routers and one or more logical switches. In one example, the method may comprise obtaining network topology information specifying how the one or more logical distributed routers are connected with the one or more logical switches; and selecting, from the one or more logical switches, a particular logical switch for which routing domain identifier assignment is required. The method may also comprise: identifying a particular logical distributed router that is connected with the particular logical switch based on the network topology information; assigning the particular logical switch with the routing domain identifier that is associated with the particular logical distributed router; and using the routing domain identifier in a communication between a management entity and a host.

Routing domain identifier assignment in logical network environments

For a network with host machines that are hosting virtual machines, a method for facilitating BUM (broadcast, unknown unicast, and multicast) traffic between a hardware switch (e.g., ToR switch) and the host machines is provided. The network has a set of host machines configured as a cluster of replicators for replicating BUM traffic from the hardware switch to the host machines. A set of network controllers establishes failure-detection tunnels for links between the hardware switch and the replicator cluster. The replicator cluster informs the set of controllers of a change in the membership of the replicator cluster to initiate an update to the active failure-detection sessions. The set of network controllers communicates with the replicator cluster and a ToR switch to establish bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) sessions between one or more replicator nodes in the replicator cluster and the ToR switch.

Automatic setup of failure detection sessions

Some embodiments provide a set of one or more network controllers that communicates with a wide range of devices, ranging from switches to appliances such as firewalls, load balancers, etc. The set of network controllers communicates with such devices to connect them to its managed virtual networks. The set of network controllers can define each virtual network through software switches and/or software appliances. To extend the control beyond software network elements, some embodiments implement a database server on each dedicated hardware. The set of network controllers accesses the database server to send management data. The hardware then translates the management data to connect to a managed virtual network.

Database protocol for exchanging forwarding state with hardware switches

A method for configuring a managed forwarding element (MFE) to perform logical routing operations in a logical network on behalf of a hardware switch is described. The method of some embodiments receives data that defines a logical router that logically connects several different end machines operating on several different host machines to different physical machines that are connected to the hardware switch. The method, based on the received data, defines a number of routing components for the logical router. In some embodiments, the method then configures the MFE to implement the routing components in order to enable the MFE to perform logical routing operations on behalf of the hardware switch.

Logical L3 processing for L2 hardware switches

Some embodiments of the invention provide a novel method for interfacing between a first tuple-based controller and a second controller using a message-based protocol. The method of some embodiments identifies a set of changed tuples stored in a set of output tables, generates a set of messages based on the changed tuples, and sends the generated set of messages to a second controller. In some embodiments, the first and second controllers are parts of a network control system that manages forwarding elements to implement a logical network.

Implementing an interface between tuple and message-driven control entities

Some embodiments provide a novel method of configuring a managed hardware forwarding element (MHFE) that implements a logical forwarding element (LFE) of a logical network to handle address resolution requests (e.g., Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests) for multiple addresses (e.g., IP addresses) associated with a single network interface of the logical network. The method identifies a physical port of the MHFE with which the multiple addresses are to be associated. The physical port is coupled to an end machine (e.g., a virtual machine, server, container, etc.) of the logical network. The method then modifies associations stored at the MHFE to associate the physical port with the multiple addresses.

IP aliases in logical networks with hardware switches

For a virtual distributed network environment employing physical forwarding elements that includes both software forwarding elements and third party devices serving as hardware forwarding elements, a scalable method for synchronizing configuration data of logical forwarding elements that are distributed across the various physical forwarding elements is provided. The method generates and updates the configuration data at a set of central controllers and then distributes the configuration data to the physical forwarding elements. The method delivers the updated configuration data to some of the physical forwarding elements by (i) determining a delta/differential between the updated configuration data held at the central controller and the obsolete configuration data held at those physical forwarding elements and (ii) delivering the determined differential configuration data to the physical forwarding elements.

Scalable controller for hardware VTEPs

Some embodiments provide an ARP-offload service node for several managed hardware forwarding elements (MHFEs) in a datacenter in order to offload ARP query processing by the MHFEs. The MHFEs are managed elements because one or more network controllers (e.g., one or more management servers) send configuration data to the MHFEs to configure their operations. In some of these embodiments, the network controllers configure the MHFEs to create logical forwarding elements (e.g., logical switches, logical routers, etc.) each of which can span two or more managed forwarding elements.

ARP offloading for managed hardware forwarding elements

Some embodiments provide a novel method for managing hardware forwarding elements (MHFEs) that facilitate the creation of multiple logical networks on a set of shared physical forwarding elements. The method uses a set of logical controllers that generate data that defines a set of logical networks, and a set physical controllers to distribute the generated data to the hardware forwarding elements. In some embodiments, each MHFE can serve as either a master MHFE or a slave MHFE for one set of computing end nodes (e.g., VMs, containers, etc.) in a logical network. To ensure proper routing of data packets to the computing end nodes, each MHFE sends to its physical controller an inventory (e.g., a table, a list, etc.) of the set of computing end nodes for which it serves as the master MHFE or the slave MHFE. Each physical controller forwards the inventory for each logical network to the logical controller for the logical network. Each logical controller maintains the master inventory of the MHFEs that are masters (and slaves if applicable) of the various compute end nodes of each logical network managed by the logical controller. After receiving a new inventory from a physical controller, the logical controller updates its records, resolves any conflicts while it is updating its records, and distributes one or more master/slave inventories for one or more logical networks that it manages to the physical controllers, which, in turn, pass this information to the MHFEs that they manage.

Managing tunnel endpoints for facilitating creation of logical networks

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Anupam Chanda