Nicira, Inc.

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Xiaohu Wang

Ganesan Chandrashekhar

Vivek Agarwal

Hongwei Zhu

Ankur Kumar Sharma

Nithin Bangalore Raju

Balaji Sundararajan

Dileep Kumar Devireddy

Minjal Agarwal

Ajeet Pal Singh Gill

Srilatha Tangirala

ChiHsiang Su

Prabahar Radhakrishnan

Hitesh Patel

A method for allocating resources of a virtual controller is disclosed. The method comprises: allocating resources of a virtual controller to a first tenant, wherein the first tenant is allocated a first tenant quantity of guaranteed resources of the virtual controller and a second tenant is allocated a second tenant quantity of guaranteed resources of the virtual controller; determining that resources requested by the first tenant are greater than the first tenant quantity of guaranteed resources; determining that the virtual controller has unutilized resources sufficient to at least partially provide additional resources beyond the first tenant quantity of guaranteed resources to the first tenant; and temporarily provisioning the additional resources to the first tenant, wherein the additional resources are greater than the first tenant quantity of guaranteed resources.

Tenant fairness in a multi-tenant environment

Some embodiments provide a method for a set of central controllers that manages forwarding elements operating in a plurality of datacenters. The method receives a configuration for a bridge between (i) a logical L2 network that spans at least two datacenters and (ii) a physical L2 network. The configuration specifies a particular one of the datacenters for implementation of the bridge. The method identifies multiple managed forwarding elements that implement the logical L2 network and are operating in the particular datacenter. The method selects one of the identified managed forwarding elements to implement the bridge. The method distributes bridge configuration data to the selected managed forwarding element.

Selection of managed forwarding element for bridge spanning multiple datacenters

Techniques are disclosed herein for providing an agent for implementing layer 2 (L2) communication on a layer 3 (L3) underlay network. In one embodiment, an agent in virtualization software determines a newly available network address of a VM, configures a network interface of the L3 network to be associated with the network address such that network traffic for the network address is directed to the network interface, adds a route to a virtual router in the virtualization software indicating the VM is local, and adds a router to an address resolution table to associate the network address with a MAC address. This permits a packet sent from one VM to another VM to be processed by the virtual router based on routes therein and forwarded to the other VM either internally or using the L3 underlay network.

Agent for implementing layer 2 communication on layer 3 underlay network

The technology disclosed herein enables high availability bridging between Layer 2 (L2) networks. In a particular embodiment, a method includes high availability bridge cluster comprising a first bridge node and a second bridge node. The first and second bridge nodes include first and second active bridges and first and second standby bridges, respectively. The method provides, in the first active bridge, bridging network communications between two or more L2 networks. The second standby bridge acts as a failover bridge for the first active bridge. The method further provides generating a failure detection message that incorporates a hardware address of the first bridge node and transferring the failure detection message from the first bridge node to the second bridge node. In the second standby bridge, the method provides receiving the failure detection message and using the hardware address to synchronize bridging information between the first active bridge and the second standby bridge.

High availability bridging between layer 2 networks

Some embodiments provide a method for a network manager that manages multiple managed forwarding elements at a particular datacenter. The method receives a configuration for a bridge between a logical L2 network that spans at least two datacenters and physical L2 networks at one or more of the spanned datacenters. The configuration includes a generic physical network identifier. The method maps the generic physical network identifier to a particular physical L2 network at the particular datacenter. The generic physical network identifier maps to other physical networks at other spanned datacenters. The method provides the configuration to a set of central controllers using an identifier for the particular physical L2 network. The set of central controllers configures a managed forwarding element operating at the particular datacenter to implement the bridge to bridge packets between the logical L2 network and the particular physical L2 network.

Identifier that maps to different networks at different datacenters

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Xiaohu Wang