Methods and apparatus to improve packet flow among virtualized servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11265251-B2
Application number	US-202016886304-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 28, 2020
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture to improve packet flow among virtualized servers are disclosed. An example apparatus includes memory, and hardware to execute instructions to generate a load balance list identifying first ones of virtualized network resources having respective values of a utilization status parameter that satisfy a first threshold, in response to at least a number of the first virtualized network resources not satisfying a load balance list threshold, update the load balance list to additionally identify second ones of the virtualized network resources, the second ones of the virtualized network resources having respective values of the utilization status parameter that satisfy a second threshold, the first threshold different from the second threshold, and adjust a policy of a physical hardware resource corresponding to one or more of the virtualized network resources based on the load balance list.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
memory;
instructions in the apparatus; and
hardware to execute the instructions to:
generate a load balance list identifying first ones of virtualized network resources having respective values of a utilization status parameter that satisfy a first threshold;
in response to at least a number of the first virtualized network resources not satisfying a load balance list threshold, update the load balance list to additionally identify second ones of the virtualized network resources, the second ones of the virtualized network resources having respective values of the utilization status parameter that satisfy a second threshold, the first threshold different from the second threshold; and
adjust a policy of a physical hardware resource corresponding to one or more of the virtualized network resources based on the load balance list.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the utilization status parameter is at least one of a processor utilization parameter or a switch utilization parameter.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hardware is to execute the instructions to generate a network routing configuration for data packets in a virtualized network based on the first ones and the second ones of the virtualized network resources identified in the load balance list, the network routing configuration including at least one of an Internet Protocol address, a port number, or a media access control address of the physical hardware resource.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the policy is an equal-cost multi-path routing hash policy, and the hardware is to execute the instructions to generate a network routing configuration for data packets in a virtualized network based on the first ones and the second ones of the virtualized network resources identified in the load balance list, and adjust the equal-cost multi-path routing hash policy based on the network routing configuration.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hardware is to execute the instructions to:
identify the virtualized network resources based on network configuration information; and
generate the load balance list by:
determining a first value of the utilization status parameter for a first virtualized network resource of the virtualized network resources, comparing the first value to the first threshold, and adding an identifier of the first virtualized network resource to the load balance list when the first value satisfies the first threshold.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hardware is to execute the instructions to:
generate a first list of the virtualized network resources based on network configuration information;
sort the first list based on the values of the utilization status parameter for respective ones of the virtualized network resources in the first list; and
select one or more of the virtualized network resources in the first list, compare a number of the selected ones of the virtualized network resources to the load balance list threshold, and stop selecting ones of the virtualized network resources when the load balance list threshold has been satisfied based on the comparison.

7. A virtual server host comprising:
edge services gateways (ESGs) to route data packets to virtual clusters in a virtualized network; and
a management cluster included in the virtual clusters, the management cluster to:
generate a load balance list identifying first ones of the ESGs having respective values of a utilization status parameter that satisfy a first threshold;
in response to at least a number of the first ESGs not satisfying a load balance list threshold, update the load balance list to identify second ones of the ESGs, the second ones of the ESGs having respective values of the utilization status parameter that satisfy a second threshold, the first threshold different than the second threshold; and
adjust a policy of a physical hardware resource corresponding to one or more of the ESGs in the load balance list.

8. The virtual server host of claim 7 , further including a distributed logical router (DLR) in communication with the ESGs, the management cluster including a virtual distributed switch (VDS) and one or more virtual machines (VMs), the management cluster to:
obtain a first portion of a packet flow from the DLR, the first portion including a data packet having network configuration information associated with a first ESG of the ESGs; and
adjust a routing table used by the physical hardware resource based on the network configuration information, the one or more ESGs identified in the load balance list to route a second portion of the packet flow to one or more of the virtual clusters.

9. The virtual server host of claim 8 , wherein the data packets include Layer 3 network fabric frames, the VDS is to forward at least one of the Layer 3 network fabric frames from at least one of the one or more VMs to the DLR, and the DLR is to route the at least one of the Layer 3 network fabric frames from the management cluster to a second virtual cluster of the virtual clusters.

10. The virtual server host of claim 8 , wherein the data packet is a first Layer 2 network fabric frame, and the second portion includes a second Layer 2 network fabric frame, and, in response to adjusting the policy based on the network configuration information, the management cluster is to distribute the second Layer 2 network fabric frame to a second ESG of the one or more ESGs identified in the load balance list.

11. The virtual server host of claim 8 , wherein the policy is an equal-cost multi-path routing hash policy, and the management cluster is to generate a network routing configuration for the data packets based on the first ones and the second ones of the ESGs identified in the load balance list, and adjust the equal-cost multi-path routing hash policy based on the network routing configuration.

12. The virtual server host of claim 8 , wherein the management cluster is to:
identify the ESGs based on network configuration information, the ESGs including a first ESG;
identifying a first number of the ESGs that satisfy the load balance list threshold in a first list, the first list not identifying the first ESG;
determine a first value of the utilization status parameter for the first ESG based on first ESG monitoring information obtained from the first ESG; and
in response to the first value of the utilization status parameter satisfying the first threshold, update the load balance list to identify the first ESG.

13. The virtual server host of claim 7 , wherein the management cluster is to:
generate a first list of the ESGs based on network configuration information;
sort the first list based on the values of the utilization status parameter for respective ones of the ESGs in the first list; and
identify one or more of the ESGs in the first list, compare a number of the identified ones of the ESGs to the load balance list threshold, and stop identifying ones of the ESGs when the load balance list threshold has been satisfied based on the comparison.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a management cluster to at least:
identify first ones of edge services gateways (ESGs) having respective values of a utilization status parameter that satisfy a first threshold;
in response to at least a number of the first ESGs not satisfying a load balance list threshold, identify second ones of the ESGs, the second ones of the ESGs having respective values of the utilization status parameter that satisfy a second threshold, the first threshold d

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Kommula Raja
• Yavatkar Raj
• Sridhar Thayumanavan

Classifications

• H04L43/20

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

• H04L41/0894

  Policy-based network configuration management · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/344

  Out-of-band transfers · CPC title

• H04L47/125 Primary

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title