Vmware, Inc.

Nicira, Inc.

Piyush Kothari

Mukesh Baphna

ChiHsiang Su

Chi-Hsiang Su

Sachin Thakkar

Jia Yu

Nilesh Ramchandra Nipane

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

A method of configuring a plurality of logical forwarding elements (LFEs) on a physical computing device comprising virtualization software and a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) is provided. The method provisions a first LFE configured and managed by a network manager of a datacenter on the physical computing device, the first LFE for performing OSI L3)packet forwarding between DCNs on one or more hosts, the first LFE comprising a plurality of logical ports configured and managed by the network manager, each logical port of the first LFE for connecting a DCN to a logical network configured and managed by the network manager. The method provisions a second LFE configured and managed by a compute manager of the datacenter on the physical computing device, the second LFE for performing OSI L3 packet forwarding between DCNs on one or more hosts, the second LFE comprising a plurality of logical port groups configured and managed by the compute manager, each logical port of the second LFE for connecting a DCN to a logical network configured and managed by the compute manager. The method configures a first DCN in the plurality of DCNs by the compute manager to connect to a logical network configured and managed by the network manager through a port of the first LFE. The method configures a second DCN in the plurality of DCNs by the compute manager to connect to a logical network configured and managed by the compute manager through a port of the second LFE.

Enabling virtual machines access to switches configured by different management entities

A method of configuring a logical network in a datacenter is provided. The datacenter includes a plurality of host physical computing devices, a compute manager to configure one or more data compute nodes (DCNs) on virtualization software of each host, and a network manager. The method configures, by the network manager, a logical network. the method provides, by the network manager, a read-only configuration construct of the logical network to the virtualization software of a set of hosts in the plurality of hosts. The method obtains, by the compute manager, the read-only configuration construct of the logical network from the virtualization software of the set of hosts. The method configures, by the compute manager, a plurality of DCNs to connect to the logical network using the read only configuration construct of the logical network.

Enabling uniform switch management in virtual infrastructure

A physical computing device is provided that includes a set of processing units and a set of machine readable media (CRM) for execution by the set of processing units. The CRM stores a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) deployed by a compute manager of a datacenter, virtualization software, and a network manager agent. The network manager receives a read-only configuration construct for each of a set of logical networks from a network manager of the datacenter, the logical networks configured and managed by the network manager. the agent provisions the set of logical networks on the physical computing device for use by the virtualization software. The agent provides a copy of the read-only construct of each logical network to the compute manager to allow the compute manager to connect one or more DCNs to each of the logical networks.

Method and system of provisioning logical networks on a host machine

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

A method of migrating a data compute node (DCN) in a datacenter comprising a plurality of host physical computing devices, a compute manager, and a network manager is provided. The method by the network manager configures a plurality of logical networks and provides a read-only configuration construct of at least one of the plurality of logical networks to the virtualization software of each host. The construct of each logical network includes a unique identification of the logical network. The method by the compute manager obtains the unique identification of one or more of the logical networks, determining that a particular logical network is available on first and second hosts based on the unique identification of the particular logical network, and configures a first DCN to move from the first host to the second host based on the determination that the first and second hosts are on the particular logical network.

Method and system for migrating virtual machines in virtual infrastructure

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

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Piyush Kothari