Route advertisement by managed gateways

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10567283-B2
Application number	US-201816179976-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2018
Priority date	Mar 14, 2014
Publication date	Feb 18, 2020
Grant date	Feb 18, 2020

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a network system. The network system includes a first set of host machines for hosting virtual machines that connect to each other through a logical network. The first set of host machines includes managed forwarding elements for forwarding data between the host machines. The network system includes a second set of host machines for hosting virtualized containers that operate as gateways for forwarding data between the virtual machines and an external network. At least one of the virtualized containers peers with at least one physical router in the external network in order to advertise addresses of the virtual machines to the physical router.

First claim

We claim:

1. A host machine in a managed network that interfaces with at least one router external to the managed network, the host machine comprising:
a managed forwarding element for using flow entries received from a network controller to process data packets for a logical network; and
a virtualized container operating as a gateway for the logical network, the virtualized container comprising:
a routing table for routing (i) packets received at the managed forwarding element from the router external to the managed network and (ii) packets received at the managed forwarding element from a different host machine in the managed network with a destination address outside of the logical network; and
a routing protocol application for peering with the router external to the managed network in order for the logical network to advertise a set of network addresses in the logical network that are reachable through the gateway.

2. The host machine of claim 1 , wherein the logical network comprises at least one logical switch to which virtual machines attach, the virtual machines having a range of network addresses, wherein the advertised set of network addresses comprises the range of network addresses.

3. The host machine of claim 1 , wherein the routing protocol application advertises the gateway as a next hop for the set of network addresses in the logical network.

4. The host machine of claim 1 , wherein the virtualized container is a namespace.

5. The host machine of claim 1 , wherein the routing protocol application uses Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to establish adjacency with the router and exchange routing information with the router.

6. The host machine of claim 1 further comprising a daemon for receiving database records defining a configuration for the routing protocol application and converting the received database records into a configuration file for the routing protocol application.

7. The host machine of claim 6 , wherein the managed forwarding element and the daemon are part of virtualization software operating on the host machine.

8. The host machine of claim 7 , wherein the virtualization software further comprises a database daemon for communicating with a controller to receive (i) data tuples defining the configuration for the routing protocol application and (ii) data tuples defining configuration data for the managed forwarding element.

9. The host machine of claim 6 , wherein the configuration comprises data defining settings for the routing protocol application, the set of network addresses reachable through the gateway, and data defining a set of routers external to the managed network with which to peer.

10. The host machine of claim 1 , wherein the logical network is a first logical network implemented across a first plurality of host machines, the virtualized container operating as a gateway is a first virtualized container operating as a first gateway, the routing table is a first routing table, and the routing protocol application is a first routing protocol application, wherein the managed forwarding element is further for using additional flow entries received from the network controller to process data packets for a second logical network implemented across a second plurality of host machines, the host machine further comprising a second virtualized container operating as a second gateway for the second logical network, the second virtualized container comprising:
a second routing table for routing (i) packets received at the managed forwarding element from the router external to the managed network with a destination address in the second logical network and (ii) packets received at the managed forwarding element from a different host machine in the second plurality of host machines with a destination address outside of the second logical network; and
a routing protocol application for peering with the router external to the managed network in order for the second logical network to advertise a second set of network addresses reachable through the second gateway.

11. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a network controller program to manage a plurality of logical networks, the program for execution by at least one set of processing units, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving a specification of a logical network that comprises a logical forwarding element with at least two logical ports that each connect the logical network to an external network and that each peer with a physical router of the external network in order to advertise network address reachability information for the logical network to the external network;
selecting host machines from a plurality of host machines to host gateways for implementing each of the logical ports that connect the logical network to the external network; and
generating, for distribution to each of the gateways, data tuples defining (i) a routing table for implementing the connection between the logical network and the external network for the port implemented by the gateway and (ii) a configuration for a routing protocol application operated by the gateway, said routing protocol application enabling the gateway to peer with the physical router of the external network peering with the logical port implemented by the gateway.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the data tuples defining the configuration for the routing protocol application for the gateway implementing a particular one of the logical ports comprise a network address, an autonomous system number, a keep-alive time, and a hold-down timer for the physical router of the external network.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for selecting host machines to host gateways for implementing each of the logical ports that connects the logical network to the external network comprises a set of instructions for selecting a different host machine from the plurality of host machines to implement each of the logical ports.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the data tuples defining the configuration for the routing protocol application for the gateway implementing a particular one of the logical ports comprise data regarding a plurality of physical routers with which the particular logical port peers.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the data tuples defining the configuration for the routing protocol application for a particular gateway comprise a local autonomous system number, a router identifier, and a list of network addresses to advertise as reachable through the particular gateway.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the network reachability information comprises reachability information for at least two subnets of the logical network.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the logical forwarding element is a logical router, wherein each of the at least two subnets of the logical network corresponds to a different logical switch that connects to the logical router.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the logical network is implemented by a plurality of managed forwarding elements operating on a second plurality of host machines.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the second plurality of host machines hosts virtual machines that connect to logical switches of the logical network.

20. Th

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Tubaltsev Ariel
• Zhang Ronghua
• Basler Benjamin C
• Maskalik Serge
• Ramanathan Rajiv
• Leroy David J
• Neginhal Srinivas
• Fan Kai-Wei
• Atteka Ansis

Classifications

• H04L49/354

  for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN] · CPC title

• H04L45/02

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L45/586 Primary

  of virtual routers · CPC title

• H04L45/74 Primary

  Address processing for routing · CPC title