Network offering in cloud computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10938642-B2
Application number	US-201816192136-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 15, 2018
Priority date	Oct 28, 2012
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

A cloud system may create and support multiple network offerings for virtual machines in a cloud zone. Physical networks comprising sets of network elements, such as routers, gateways, firewalls, load balancers, and other network hardware, may be created and updated within a zone. Network offerings may be defined and associated, using tags or other techniques, with virtual machine networks, physical networks and/or network elements. Cloud end users may request specific network offerings when creating virtual machines, or may request to move existing virtual machines from one network offering to another. The cloud system may use the requested network offering to identify the virtual machine network, physical network, and/or network elements corresponding to the requested network offering. The cloud system may allocate a new virtual machine network and configure the network elements within the associated physical network to provide network services to the virtual machine.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computing device to:
store a first network offering associated with a first subset of network elements of a plurality of network elements in a cloud of computing resources and a second network offering associated with a second subset of network elements of the plurality of network elements;
receive a first end user request to create a new virtual machine within the cloud of computing resources, wherein the first end user request identifies the first network offering as a selected offering;
create a first virtual machine in response to the first end user request, wherein the first virtual machine is configured to use a first virtual machine network and the first subset of network elements corresponding to the first network offering;
receive a second end user request to move the first virtual machine to a different virtual machine network, wherein the second end user request identifies the second network offering as the selected offering; and
move the first virtual machine to a second virtual machine network, wherein the first virtual machine is configured to use the second virtual machine network and the second subset of network elements corresponding to the second network offering as a result of the move.

2. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to:
in response to receiving the first end user request, match the identified first network offering to a definition of the first virtual machine network, wherein the first virtual machine network comprises a first set of network services; and
wherein creating the first virtual machine causes the first virtual machine to be configured to use the first virtual machine network based on matching the identified first network offering to the definition of the first virtual machine network.

3. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to:
in response to receiving the second end user request, match the identified second network offering to a definition of the second virtual machine network, wherein the second virtual machine network comprises a second set of network services; and
wherein moving the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine network is based on matching the identified second network offering to the definition of the second virtual machine network.

4. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , storing further instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to move the first virtual machine to the first virtual machine network by causing the computing device to:
determine whether the second virtual machine network has been allocated within the second subset of network elements corresponding to the second network offering; and
when determining that the second virtual machine network has not been allocated, allocate network resources to the second virtual machine network from the second subset of network elements corresponding to the second network offering, said network resources corresponding to a set of network services associated with the second network offering.

5. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to:
determine, in response to the second end user request to move the first virtual machine to a different virtual machine network, whether the first virtual machine network includes any other virtual machines; and
when determining that the first virtual machine network does not include any other virtual machines, de-allocate the network resources from the subset of network elements corresponding to the identified network offering and allocated to the first virtual machine network.

6. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein the first network offering corresponds to a first virtual machine network definition having a first level of isolation, and wherein the second network offering corresponds to a second virtual machine network definition having a second different level of isolation.

7. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein the first network offering corresponds to a first virtual machine network definition that configures a given virtual network to support a set of virtual machines associated with a single end user only, and wherein the second network offering corresponds to a second virtual machine network definition that configures a given virtual network to be shared by virtual machines of multiple different end users.

8. The computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of network elements has a tag associating the network element with either the first network offering or the second network offering.

9. A method comprising:
storing, by a computing device, a first network offering associated with a first subset of network elements of a plurality of network elements in a cloud of computing resources and a second network offering associated with a second subset of network elements of the plurality of network elements;
receiving a first end user request to create a new virtual machine within the cloud of computing resources, wherein the first end user request identifies the first network offering as a selected offering;
creating a first virtual machine in response to the first end user request, wherein the first virtual machine is configured to use a first virtual machine network and the first subset of network elements corresponding to the first network offering;
receiving a second end user request to move the first virtual machine to a different virtual machine network, wherein the second end user request identifies the second network offering as the selected offering; and
moving the first virtual machine to a second virtual machine network, wherein the first virtual machine is configured to use the second virtual machine network and the second subset of network elements corresponding to the second network offering as a result of the move.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
in response to receiving the first end user request, matching the identified first network offering to a definition of the first virtual machine network, wherein the first virtual machine network comprises a first set of network services; and
wherein creating the first virtual machine causes the first virtual machine to be configured to use the first virtual machine network based on matching the identified first network offering to the definition of the first virtual machine network.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
in response to receiving the second end user request, matching the identified second network offering to a definition of the second virtual machine network, wherein the second virtual machine network comprises a second set of network services; and
wherein moving the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine network is based on matching the identified second network offering to the definition of the second virtual machine network.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein moving the first virtual machine to the first virtual machine network comprises:
determining whether the second virtual machine network has been allocated within the second subset of network elements corresponding to the second network offering; and
when determining that the second virtual machine network has not been allocated, allocating network resources to the second virtual machine network from the

Assignees

• Citrix Systems Inc

Inventors

• Huang Alex
• Chan William
• Vittal Chiradeep

Classifications

• G06F9/5072 Primary

  Grid computing · CPC title

• H04L61/2503

  Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/5014

  using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP] · CPC title

• H04L41/0806 Primary

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L41/5096

  wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications · CPC title