Performing context-rich attribute-based services on a host

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10609160-B2
Application number	US-201715830086-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2017
Priority date	Dec 6, 2016
Publication date	Mar 31, 2020
Grant date	Mar 31, 2020

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a novel method for performing a service at a host computer that executes data compute nodes (DCNs). For a data message, the method identifies a service tag and a set of attributes associated with the service tag. The method then uses the identified set of attributes to identify a service rule, and performs a service on the data message based on the identified service rule.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of performing a service at a host computer that executes data compute nodes (DCNs), the method comprising:
receiving a data message;
identifying a service tag for the received data message;
identifying a set of attributes associated with the service tag;
using the identified set of attributes to identify a service rule;
performing a service on the data message based on the identified service rule.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the set of attributes comprises using the service tag to identify a record in a storage that stores a plurality of service tags and a set of attributes for each service tag.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein using the identified attribute set comprises using the attribute set to identify a record in a storage that stores a plurality of attribute sets and a service action parameter set for each attribute set.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the service tag comprises using a set of identifiers of the data message to identify the service tag in a storage that stores a plurality of service tags for a plurality of data message identifiers.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
receiving a record that identifies the service tag for a message identifier of the data message before identifying the service tag for the received data message.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein receiving the record comprises receiving the record from a guest introspection agent of a DCN that sends the data message.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the service tag comprises extracting the service tag from a header of the data message.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the header is a tunnel header.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a service engine receives the data message and directs an attribute resolving engine to identify the set of attributes associated with the service tag for the received data message, said service engine and attribute resolving engine executing on the host computer separately from any DCN.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of attributes does not include L2-L4 parameters.

11. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for performing a service at a host computer that executes data compute nodes (DCNs), the program comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving a data message;
identifying a service tag for the received data message;
identifying a set of attributes associated with the service tag;
using the identified set of attributes to identify a service rule;
performing a service on the data message based on the identified service rule.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the set of attributes comprises a set of instructions for using the service tag to identify a record in a storage that stores a plurality of service tags and a set of attributes for each service tag.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the set of instructions for using the identified attribute set comprises a set of instructions for using the attribute set to identify a record in a storage that stores a plurality of attribute sets and a service action parameter set for each attribute set.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the service tag comprises a set of instructions for using a set of identifiers of the data message to identify the service tag in a storage that stores a plurality of service tags for a plurality of data message identifiers.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for receiving a record that identifies the service tag for a message identifier of the data message before identifying the service tag for the received data message.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the set of instructions for receiving the record comprises a set of instructions for receiving the record from a guest introspection agent of a DCN that sends the data message.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the service tag comprises a set of instructions for extracting the service tag from a header of the data message.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the header is a tunnel header.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the program is performed by a service engine that directs an attribute resolving engine to identify the set of attributes associated with the service tag for the received data message, said service engine and attribute resolving engine executing on the host computer separately from any DCN.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of attributes does not include L2-L4 parameters.

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Poon Arnold
• Gunda Laxmikant
• Jain Jayant
• Sengupta Anirban
• Vaidya Sachin Mohan

Classifications

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title

• H04L43/028

  by filtering · CPC title

• H04L41/046

  comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor · CPC title

• H04L41/0846

  based on copy from other elements · CPC title

• H04L41/0816

  the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events · CPC title