Vmware, Inc.

Mukesh Baphna

Piyush Kothari

Chi-Hsiang Su

ChiHsiang Su

Jia Yu

Mallik Mahalingam

Geetha Kakarlapudi

Techniques for managing configuration of virtual switches in a virtual machine network are disclosed. In an embodiment, a virtual machine network that includes virtual switches is configured to revert back to a saved network configuration if a configuration change causes the connection between the VM management system and a managed node to be lost. For example, before any configuration changes are made, the active configuration is saved. If the new configuration supports a working connection between the managed node and the VM management system, then the saved configuration is no longer needed and can be flushed from memory. If, however, the new configuration causes the managed node to be disconnected from the VM management system, then the system reverts back to the saved configuration that was previously known to work. The saved configuration is used to reestablish the connection so that the network continues to function.

System and method for managing configuration of virtual switches in a virtual machine network

A method, non-transitory storage medium, and apparatus are presented for configuration management of a distributed virtual switch including components distributed on different entities in a computing system is provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a snapshot of a configuration of the distributed virtual switch is received from a management plane configured to manage the distributed virtual switch. The snapshot may include settings for the configuration at a time of taking the snapshot. A persistent storage location independent from the management plane is designated for storing the received snapshot of the configuration. After the snapshot is taken, the configuration may be retrieved from the persistent storage location and the settings of the configuration may be applied to the distributed virtual switch, a new distributed virtual switch, or an existing distributed virtual switch.

Configuration management of distributed virtual switch

Techniques are disclosed for pushing configuration changes of a distributed virtual switch from a management server to a plurality of host servers underlying the distributed virtual switch. The approach includes sending, in parallel, by the management server, a message to each of the plurality of host servers. The message specifies a final configuration state for one or more virtual ports emulated via virtualization layers of the host servers. The approach further includes determining, by each of the plurality of host servers, port state configuration changes to make to the virtual ports to achieve the final configuration state, and reconfiguring, by each of the plurality of host servers, their respective virtual ports, to match the final configuration state.

Distributed virtual switch configuration and state management

MAC addresses are flexibly and dynamically allocated across groups of devices that need MAC addresses. MAC address pools are defined for the groups by non-overlapping ranges of MAC addresses. The range of MAC addresses defined for any pool may be shrunk to support an expansion of the range of MAC addresses of another pool. The maximum number of universally-administered MAC addresses that can be defined for any MAC address pool is greater than 2, and the maximum number of locally-administered MAC addresses that can be defined for any MAC address pool is greater than 2.

Method and apparatus for managing MAC address generation for virtualized environments

Techniques for managing the configuration of managed nodes in a virtual machine network are disclosed. In an embodiment, managing the configuration of a managed node involves creating a clone of a virtual port on the managed node and using the cloned virtual port as an alternative communication channel between the managed node and a virtual machine management system to modify the virtual port. This technique can be used to restore connectivity to a managed node, such as a virtual switch, when connectivity is lost due to a misconfigured virtual port.

Method and system for recovering from network disconnects by cloning a virtual port

Techniques are disclosed for a management application running on a virtualization management platform and a module on a virtual machine host to communicate via an opaque pass-through channel for transporting data through the management platform and intermediate layer(s) of the virtual machine host between the management application and the module. In one embodiment, the data is identified by a key which is unique across management applications and includes a namespace registered by the management application on the management platform and registered by the module on the virtual machine host. In another embodiment, the namespace may indicate an association of the data with one or more entities such as a distributed virtual switch, port groups, ports, and virtual machine hosts. Configuration property settings for an entity may be propagated to its sub-entities based on inheritance. Further, the data may be persisted in database(s) of the management platform and/or the intermediate layer(s).

Growing community of inventors

Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Mukesh Baphna