Selection of managed forwarding element for bridge spanning multiple datacenters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11336486-B2
Application number	US-201916673658-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2019
Priority date	Nov 14, 2017
Publication date	May 17, 2022
Grant date	May 17, 2022

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for a set of central controllers that manages forwarding elements operating in a plurality of datacenters. The method receives a configuration for a bridge between (i) a logical L2 network that spans at least two datacenters and (ii) a physical L2 network. The configuration specifies a particular one of the datacenters for implementation of the bridge. The method identifies multiple managed forwarding elements that implement the logical L2 network and are operating in the particular datacenter. The method selects one of the identified managed forwarding elements to implement the bridge. The method distributes bridge configuration data to the selected managed forwarding element.

First claim

We claim:

1. For a set of central controllers that manages forwarding elements operating in a plurality of datacenters, a method comprising:
receiving a configuration for a bridge between (i) a logical L2 network that spans at least two datacenters and (ii) a physical L2 network, wherein the configuration specifies a particular one of the datacenters for implementation of the bridge by using a particular datacenter identifier that corresponds to the particular datacenter, the particular datacenter identifier one of a plurality of datacenter identifiers corresponding to the plurality of datacenters;
using a stored mapping of managed forwarding elements to the plurality of datacenter identifiers to identify a plurality of managed forwarding elements that implement the logical L2 network and are operating in the particular datacenter;
selecting one of the identified managed forwarding elements mapped to the particular datacenter identifier to implement the bridge in the particular datacenter; and
distributing bridge configuration data to the selected managed forwarding element.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration is received from a network manager located at the particular datacenter.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical L2 network is a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) and the physical L2 network is a virtual local area network (VLAN) located at the particular datacenter.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein machines connected to the VLAN comprise virtual machines operating on host machines that are not VXLAN-compatible.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identified managed forwarding elements operate in virtualization software of host machines located in the particular datacenter, wherein data compute nodes that logically connect to the logical L2 network operate on the host machines.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected managed forwarding element uses the bridge configuration to (i) bridge data packets sent from a first set of data compute nodes that are connected to the logical L2 network and execute in at least two of the plurality of datacenters to destinations in the physical L2 network and (ii) bridge data packets sent from sources in the physical L2 network to a second set of DCNs that are connected to the logical L2 network and execute in at least two of the plurality of datacenters.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein to bridge a data packet sent from a data compute node connected to the logical L2 network to a destination in the physical L2 network, the selected managed forwarding element (i) receives a data packet sent by a data compute node connected to the logical L2 network, the data packet having a destination address of a data compute node connected to the physical L2 network, (ii) removes a logical network identifier from the data packet, and (iii) adds a physical network identifier to the data packet.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein to bridge a data packet sent from a source in the physical L2 network to a DCN connected to the logical L2 network, the selected managed forwarding element (i) receives a data packet sent by a data compute node connected to the physical L2 network, the data packet having a destination address of a data compute node connected to the logical L2 network, (ii) removes a physical network identifier from the data packet, and (iii) adds a logical network identifier to the data packet.

9. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a central controller application which when executed by at least one processing unit manages forwarding elements operating in a plurality of datacenter, the central controller application comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving a configuration for a bridge between (i) a logical L2 network that spans at least two datacenters and (ii) a physical L2 network, wherein the configuration specifies a particular one of the datacenters for implementation of the bridge by using a particular datacenter identifier that corresponds to the particular datacenter, the particular datacenter identifier is one of a plurality of datacenter identifiers corresponding to the plurality of datacenters, and a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) logically connect to the logical L2 network;
using a stored mapping of managed forwarding elements to the plurality of datacenter identifiers to identify a plurality of managed forwarding elements that implement the logical L2 network and are operating in the particular datacenter on host computers on which at least one DCN logically connected to the logical L2 network also operates;
selecting one of the identified managed forwarding elements mapped to the particular datacenter identifier to implement the bridge in the particular datacenter, wherein at least one DCN logically connected to the logical L2 network operates on the same host computer as the selected managed forwarding element; and
distributing bridge configuration data to the selected managed forwarding element.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the configuration is received from a network manager located at the particular datacenter.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the logical L2 network is a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) and the physical L2 network is a virtual local area network located at the particular datacenter.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein DCNs connected to the VLAN comprise virtual machines operating on host machines that are not VXLAN-compatible.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the identified managed forwarding elements operate in virtualization software of host machines located in the particular datacenter, wherein data compute nodes that logically connect to the logical L2 network operate on the virtualization software of the host machines.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the selected managed forwarding element uses the bridge configuration to (i) bridge data packets sent from a first set of data compute nodes that are connected to the logical L2 network and execute in at least two of the plurality of datacenters to destinations in the physical L2 network and (ii) bridge data packets sent from sources in the physical L2 network to a second set of DCNs that are connected to the logical L2 network and execute in at least two of the plurality of datacenters.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein to bridge a data packet sent from a data compute node connected to the logical L2 network to a destination in the physical L2 network, the selected managed forwarding element (i) receives a data packet sent by a data compute node connected to the logical L2 network, the data packet having a destination address of a data compute node connected to the physical L2 network, (ii) removes a logical network identifier from the data packet, and (iii) adds a physical network identifier to the data packet.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein to bridge a data packet sent from a source in the physical L2 network to a DCN connected to the logical L2 network, the selected managed forwarding element (i) receives a data packet sent by a data compute node connected to the physical L2 network, the data packet having a destination address of a data compute node connected to the logical L2 network, (ii) removes a physical network identifier from the data packet, and (iii) adds a logical network identifier to the data packet.

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Sharma Ankur Kumar
• Wang Xiaohu
• Zhu Hongwei
• Chandrashekhar Ganesan
• Agarwal Vivek
• Raju Nithin B

Classifications

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title

• H04L12/1886

  with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains · CPC title

• H04L12/462

  LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone · CPC title

• H04L12/4675 Primary

  Dynamic sharing of VLAN information amongst network nodes (configuration of the network or of network elements H04L41/08) · CPC title

• H04L61/2596

  Translation of addresses of the same type other than IP, e.g. translation from MAC to MAC addresses · CPC title