Reprogramming network infrastructure in response to VM mobility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10929169-B2
Application number	US-201916256047-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2019
Priority date	Jan 24, 2019
Publication date	Feb 23, 2021
Grant date	Feb 23, 2021

Abstract

The disclosure provides an approach for dynamically reprogramming network and network infrastructure in response to VM mobility. The approach provides a hypervisor layer that can observe changes in VM-host relationships and reprogram the associated network and network infrastructure to maintain network communication. The hypervisor layer notifies a controller of a data center to migrate an ENI of the migrated VM to the same destination host as the migrated VM, in response to VM migration.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of dynamically reprogramming network infrastructure of a data center, the method comprising:
providing a virtual machine (VM) on a first host;
associating the VM with an elastic network interface (ENI) of the first host, wherein the ENI comprises a list;
receiving, by the ENI, a network packet;
comparing, by the ENI, an address of the packet to the list, wherein the address is an IP address; and
responsive to the comparing:
blocking the packet, if the address is not on the list;
transmitting the packet toward a destination address of the packet, if the destination address is on the list;

migrating the VM from the first host to a second host;
connecting the VM to a second hypervisor on the second host; and
migrating the ENI from the first host to the second host.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ENI has a first IP address and the VM has the first IP address.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the ENI comprises a plurality of IP addresses, wherein a primary IP address of the plurality of IP addresses is an IP address used for addressing packets to the ENI, and wherein the primary IP address of the ENI is the first IP address.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein associating the VM with the ENI of the first host comprises connecting the VM to a first hypervisor of the first host through a virtual port of the first hypervisor, and associating the ENI with the virtual port of the first hypervisor.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the associating the VM with the ENI of the first host is performed by a daemon within the first host, the daemon being configured to monitor port-connect events between virtual machines and the first hypervisor.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to the connecting, extracting an identifier of the VM; and
locating the ENI within the data center based on the identifier of the VM.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data center is a software defined data center.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a processor of a computer system, the instructions when executed in the processor cause the computer system to carry out a method of dynamically reprogramming network infrastructure of a data center, the method comprising:
providing a virtual machine (VM) on a first host;
associating the VM with an elastic network interface (ENI) of the first host, wherein the ENI comprises a list;
receiving, by the ENI, a network packet;
comparing, by the ENI, an address of the packet to the list, wherein the address is an IP address; and
responsive to the comparing:
blocking the packet, if the address is not on the list;
transmitting the packet toward a destination address of the packet, if the destination address is on the list;

migrating the VM from the first host to a second host;
connecting the VM to a second hypervisor on the second host; and
migrating the ENI from the first host to the second host.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the ENI has a first IP address and the VM has the first IP address.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the ENI comprises a plurality of IP addresses, wherein a primary IP address of the plurality of IP addresses is an IP address used for addressing packets to the ENI, and wherein the primary IP address of the ENI is the first IP address.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein associating the VM with the ENI of the first host comprises connecting the VM to a first hypervisor of the first host through a virtual port of the first hypervisor, and associating the ENI with the virtual port of the first hypervisor.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the associating the VM with the ENI of the first host is performed by a daemon within the first host, the daemon being configured to monitor port-connect events between virtual machines and the first hypervisor.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , the method further comprising:
responsive to the connecting, extracting an identifier of the VM; and
locating the ENI within the data center based on the identifier of the VM.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the data center is a software defined data center.

15. A computer system comprising:
a data center;
a first host comprising a virtual machine (VM) and an elastic network interface (ENI);
a second host comprising a second hypervisor; and
a processor, wherein the processor is programmed to carry out a method of dynamically reprogramming network infrastructure of a data center, the method comprising:
providing a virtual machine (VM) on a first host;
associating the VM with an elastic network interface (ENI) of the first host, wherein the ENI comprises a list;
receiving, by the ENI, a network packet;
comparing, by the ENI, an address of the packet to the list, wherein the address is an IP address; and
responsive to the comparing:
blocking the packet, if the address is not on the list;
transmitting the packet toward a destination address of the packet, if the destination address is on the list;

migrating the VM from the first host to a second host;
connecting the VM to a second hypervisor on the second host; and
migrating the ENI from the first host to the second host.

16. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein the ENI has a first IP address and the VM has the first IP address.

17. The computer system of claim 16 , wherein the ENI comprises a plurality of IP addresses, wherein a primary IP address of the plurality of IP addresses is an IP address used for addressing packets to the ENI, and wherein the primary IP address of the ENI is the first IP address.

18. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein associating the VM with the ENI of the first host comprises connecting the VM to a first hypervisor of the first host through a virtual port of the first hypervisor, and associating the ENI with the virtual port of the first hypervisor.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Tarasuk-Levin Gabriel
• Su Chi-Hsiang
• Klee Christoph
• Bosch Robert

Classifications

• H04L2101/618

  Details of network addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/5061

  Pools of addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title