Tracing network packets through logical and physical networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10778557-B2
Application number	US-201916239600-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 4, 2019
Priority date	Jul 12, 2013
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for a first network controller that manages a set of logical forwarding elements implemented in several managed forwarding elements. The method receives a request to trace a specified packet having a particular source on a logical forwarding element. The method generates the packet according to the packet specification. The generated packet includes an indicator that the packet is for a trace operation. The method sends the packet to a second network controller that manages a managed forwarding element associated with the particular source. The method receives a first set of messages regarding operations performed on the packet from a set of network controllers that receives a second set of messages regarding operations performed on the packet from a set of managed forwarding elements that process the packet.

First claim

We claim:

1. For a particular managed forwarding element (MFE) that implements a logical forwarding element (LFE) of a logical network along with a plurality of other MFEs, a method comprising:
receiving a packet comprising an indicator that data associated with at least one logical forwarding operation on the packet should be captured;
using a set of logical network addresses to perform a logical forwarding operation on the packet;
generating a set of data relating to the logical forwarding operation;
performing a physical forwarding determination on the packet and based on the physical forwarding determination, forwarding the packet through a network;
sending the generated set of data relating to the logical forwarding operation to a server for analysis.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the packet comprises receiving a command from a network controller that provides the packet to the particular MFE to treat the packet as if the particular MFE received the packet through an ingress port connected to a virtual machine (VM) of the logical network, wherein a source address associated with the packet corresponds to the ingress port.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the particular MFE executes on a host computer on which the VM executes and the network controller is the server that receives the generated set of data relating to the logical forwarding operation.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet is a first packet, wherein generating the data set is based on the indicator, the method further comprising:
receiving a second packet that does not comprise an indicator that that data associated with at least one logical forwarding operation on the second packet should be captured;
performing a logical forwarding operation on the second packet without generating any data sets.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the logical forwarding operation comprises using a set of logical forwarding rules to process the packet in order to identify an LFE egress port for the packet.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the data set comprises (i) an identifier for the LFE and (ii) a port identifier for the LFE egress port.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the LFE is a logical router, wherein the data set further comprises a routing entry matched by the packet.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the LFE is a logical switch, wherein the particular MFE further implements a logical router of the logical network, wherein the logical forwarding operation is a first logical forwarding operation, the method further comprising:
performing, on the packet, a second logical forwarding operation for the logical router;
generating another set of data relating to the second logical forwarding operation; and
sending, to the server, the other generated data set.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein forwarding the packet through the network comprises encapsulating the packet with a tunnel header and sending the packet out a port of the particular MFE, the method further comprising:
generating another data set comprising a tunnel identifier;
sending the other generated data set to the server for analysis.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular MFE executes on a host computer that also executes a plurality of machines that are sources or destinations of packet flows and at least a subset of the other plurality of MFEs execute on other host computers that execute other machines.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator is a trace indicator that indicates that the packet should be used for a trace operation for describing how the packet is processed at multiple stages along a forwarding path.

12. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a particular managed forwarding element (MFE) that implements a logical forwarding element (LFE) of a logical network along with a plurality of other MFEs, a particular MFE comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving a packet comprising an indicator that data associated with at least one logical forwarding operation on the packet should be captured;
using a set of logical network addresses to perform a logical forwarding operation on the packet;
generating a set of data relating to the logical forwarding operation;
performing a physical forwarding determination on the packet and based on the physical forwarding determination, forwarding the packet through a network;
sending the generated set of data relating to the logical forwarding operation to a server for analysis.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the set of instructions for receiving the packet comprises a set of instructions for receiving a command from a network controller that provides the packet to the particular MFE to treat the packet as if the particular MFE received the packet through an ingress port connected to a virtual machine (VM) of the logical network, wherein a source address associated with the packet corresponds to the ingress port.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the particular MFE executes on a host computer on which the VM executes and the network controller is the server that receives the generated set of data relating to the logical forwarding operation.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the packet is a first packet, wherein generating the data set is based on the indicator, the particular MFE further comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving a second packet that does not comprise an indicator that that data associated with at least one logical forwarding operation on the second packet should be captured;
performing a logical forwarding operation on the second packet without generating any data sets.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the set of instructions for performing the logical forwarding operation comprises a set of instructions for using a set of logical forwarding rules to process the packet in order to identify an LFE egress port for the packet.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the data set comprises (i) an identifier for the LFE and (ii) a port identifier for the LFE egress port, wherein the LFE is a logical router, wherein the data set further comprises a routing entry matched by the packet.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the LFE is a logical switch, wherein the particular MFE further implements a logical router of the logical network, wherein the logical forwarding operation is a first logical forwarding operation, the particular MFE further comprising sets of instructions for:
performing, on the packet, a second logical forwarding operation for the logical router;
generating another set of data relating to the second logical forwarding operation; and
sending, to the server, the other generated data set.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the set of instructions for forwarding the packet through the network comprises sets of instructions for encapsulating the packet with a tunnel header and sending the packet out a port of the particular MFE, the particular MFE further comprising sets of instructions for:
generating another data set comprising a tunnel identifier;
sending the other generated data set to the server for analysis.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the particular MFE executes on a host computer that also executes a plurality of machines that are sourc

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Ganichev Igor
• Thakkar Pankaj
• Koponen Teemu
• Dong Mo

Classifications

• H04L43/20

  the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV · CPC title

• H04L45/586

  of virtual routers · CPC title

• H04L49/70

  Virtual switches · CPC title

• H04L43/10 Primary

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title