Nicira, Inc.

Bruce Davie

Teemu Koponen

Justin Pettit

Anupam Chanda

Martin Casado

Amar Padmanabhan

W Andrew Lambeth

Jeremy Stribling

Benjamin L Pfaff

Pankaj Thakkar

Ronghua Zhang

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 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

Some embodiments provide a forwarding element that detects and handles elephant flows. In detecting, the forwarding element of some embodiments monitors statistics or measurements relating to a data flow. In handling, the forwarding element marks each packet associated with a detected elephant flow in some manner to differentiate it from a packet associated with a mouse flow. Alternatively, the forwarding element of break elephant flows into a number mouse flow by facilitating in sending packets associated with the detected elephant flow along different paths.

Detecting and handling large flows

Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine readable medium of a first middlebox element of several middlebox elements to implement a middlebox instance in a distributed manner in several hosts. The non-transitory machine readable medium stores a set of instructions for receiving (1) configuration data for configuring the middlebox instance to implement a middlebox in a logical network and (2) a particular identifier associated with the middlebox in the logical network. The non-transitory machine readable medium stores a set of instructions for generating (1) a set of rules to process packets for the middlebox in the logical network and (2) an internal identifier associated with the set of rules. The non-transitory machine readable medium stores a set of instructions for associating the particular identifier with the internal identifier for later processing of packets having the particular identifier.

Control plane interface for logical middlebox services

Some embodiments provide a method for a first network controller located at a first physical domain that manages a logical network spanning several physical domains including the first domain. The method stores a set of context identifiers for assignment to logical entities. The context identifiers are for use in packets sent between managed forwarding elements in order to store logical network information in the packets. While connected to a master controller for the logical network at a second physical domain of the several physical domains, the method forwards state input requiring assignment of context identifiers to the master controller. While connectivity is lost with the master controller, the method assigns context identifiers from the stored set of context identifiers to logical entities.

Managing forwarding of logical network traffic between physical domains

A method of manages a set of managed forwarding elements that forward data between machines. The method configures (1) a first managed forwarding element to operate in a first network that uses first and second address spaces that at least partially overlap with each other, (2) a second managed forwarding element to operate in a second network that uses the first address space, and (3) a third managed forwarding element to operate in a third network that uses the second address space. A machine in the second network and a machine in the third network have an identical address that belongs to both the first and second address spaces. The method directs the first managed forwarding element to connect to the second and third managed forwarding elements in a manner that enables the first managed forwarding element to forward data from a machine in the first network to the machine in the second network via the second managed forwarding element.

Extension of logical networks across layer 3 virtual private networks

Some embodiments provide a method for configuring a hardware switch to implement a security policy associated with a logical router of a logical network. The method receives a logical router definition. The logical router logically connects a physical machine, connected to a physical port of the hardware switch, to several VMs that execute on a set of host machines. The method defines a set of routing components for the logical router, each of which, has several interfaces. The method receives a security policy that includes a set of security rules for the physical machine and populates an ACL table with ACL rules data generated based on the received set of security rules. The method then for at least one interface of one of the routing components, generates linking data that links a set of one or more ACL rules in the ACL table to the interface of the routing component.

Implementing logical network security on a hardware switch

Detecting and handling elephant flows

Some embodiments provide a system that detects whether a flow is an elephant flow; and if so, the system treats it differently than a mouse flow. The system of some embodiment detect elephants based on one or more of the following: statistics associated with a flow, packet segment size, and invoked system calls. Also, some embodiments use one or more various methods to handle elephant flows. Examples of such methods include marking each packet belonging to an elephant with a particular marking, breaking the elephants into mice, reporting the elephant to a network controller, and selectively choosing a route for each packet belonging to the elephant.

Growing community of inventors

Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Bruce Davie