Nicira, Inc.

Natasha Gude

Martin Casado

Jeremy Stribling

Teemu Koponen

Amar Padmanabhan

Anuprem Chalvadi

W Andrew Lambeth

Alexander Yip

Justin Pettit

Igor Ganichev

Keith Eric Amidon

Benjamin L Pfaff

Peter J Balland, Iii

Daniel J Wendlandt

Scott J Shenker

Timothy L Hinrichs

Pankaj Thakkar

Ronghua Zhang

Harold Vinson C Lim

Alan Shieh

Soner Sevinc

Benjamin Levy Pfaff

Iii Balland Peter J

Peter J Iii Balland

Peter Balland

A control system including several controllers for managing several switching elements. A first controller registers a second controller for receiving a notification when a data tuple changes in a network information base (NIB) storage of the first controller that stores data for managing a set of switching elements. The first controller changes the data tuple in the NIB. The first controller sends the notification to the second controller of the change to the data tuple in the NIB. The first and second controllers operate on two different computing devices. Each controller receives logical control plane data for specifying logical datapath sets and converts the logical control plane data to physical control plane data for enabling the switching elements to implement the logical datapath sets.

Method and apparatus for interacting with a network information base in a distributed network control system with multiple controller instances

Systems and methods for managing a network are described. A view of current state of the network is maintained where the current state of the network characterizes network topology and network constituents, including network entities and network elements residing in or on the network. Events are announced that correspond to changes in the state of the network and one or more network elements can be configured accordingly. Methods for managing network traffic are described that ensure forwarding and other actions taken by network elements implement globally declared network policy and refer to high-level names, independently of network topology and the location of network constituents. Methods for discovering network constituents are described, whereby are automatically configured. Routing may be performed using ACL and packets can be intercepted to permit host to continue in sleep mode. The methods are applicable to virtual environments.

Network operating system for managing and securing networks

Some embodiments provide a method for a network controller that manages a flow-based managed forwarding element (MFE). The method receives multiple sets of service rules for implementation by the MFE. The sets of service rules have a priority order and the rules in each set of service rules have separate priority orders. The method organizes the service rules in all of the sets of service rules into a single ordered list of service rules. The method assigns priority values within a space-constrained set of priority values to the service rules in the list in a manner designed to minimize re-assignment when changes to the sets of service rules are received. The method uses the assigned priority values to generate flow entries for the MFE to use to implement the service rules.

Priority allocation for distributed service rules

A method for upgrading a set of controller nodes in a controller cluster that manages a plurality of forwarding elements in a way that minimizes dataplane outages. The method of some embodiments upgrades the control applications of a subset of the controller nodes before upgrading a decisive controller node. Once the decisive controller node is upgraded, the method switches the controller cluster to use a new version of the control applications.

Hitless upgrade for network control applications

Some embodiments provide a novel method for installing flows of a desired network state in an actualized network state of a managed forwarding element. In some embodiments, the method maintains a flow output table based on flow events received from a computation engine for computing desired state, and from a set of managed forwarding elements on which the computed desired state is installed. The method of some embodiments then installs flows on the set of managed forwarding elements based on the flow output table.

Method and mechanism for efficiently managing flows

Some embodiments provide a novel network control system that provides publications for managing different slices (e.g., logical and/or physical entities) of a network. The publications are published from publisher controllers in the network control system to subscriber controllers. The network control system uses publications with generation numbers and buffered subscribers to implement the fixed points in order to help maintain a consistent network state. Buffered subscribers buffer the inputs received from a publisher in case the publisher becomes unavailable. Rather than deleting all of the output state that is based on the published inputs, the buffered subscriber allows the subscriber to maintain the network state until an explicit change to the state is received at the subscriber from a publisher (e.g., a restarted publisher, a backup publisher, etc.).

Buffered subscriber tables for maintaining a consistent network state

Some embodiments provide a method for a network controller that manages a flow-based managed forwarding element (MFE). The method receives multiple service rules for implementation by the MFE. Each service rule matches over a set of network addresses. At least one network address is in the set of network addresses for at least two service rules. The method groups the network addresses into non-overlapping groups of network addresses, each of which addresses that are all matched by only a same set of service rules. The method generates flow entries that match over the groups of network addresses for the MFE to use to implement the service rules.

Address grouping for distributed service rules

Some embodiments provide a novel network control system that uses secondary input queues to receive and store inputs from multiple input sources prior to moving the inputs to a primary input queue for processing. The secondary input queues provide a separate storage for each input source so that the inputs from the different sources do not get mixed with each other to ensure that fixed points and barriers sent to the controller maintain their integrity.

Secondary input queues for maintaining a consistent network state

Some embodiments provide a novel network control system that provides publications for managing different slices (e.g., logical and/or physical entities) of a network. The publications are published from publisher controllers in the network control system to subscriber controllers. The network control system uses publications with generation numbers and buffered subscribers to implement the fixed points in order to help maintain a consistent network state. The information published with a publication is useful for resolving conflicts in the network control system when multiple publisher controllers provide conflicting inputs to a subscriber controller.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Natasha Gude