Managing tunnel interface selection between gateways in a computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11824780-B2
Application number	US-202117502081-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 15, 2021
Priority date	Jul 22, 2021
Publication date	Nov 21, 2023
Grant date	Nov 21, 2023

Abstract

Described herein are systems, methods, and software to manage the selection of an edge gateway or edge for processing a packet. In one implementation, a first edge may receive a packet and hash addressing information in the packet to select a second edge to process the packet. The first edge may further forward the packet to the second edge, permitting the second edge to process the packet. Once processed, the second edge may forward the packet to a destination host computing system and notify the host computing system to use the second edge for response packets directed at a source internet protocol (IP) address in the packet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a first gateway, the method comprising:
receiving, from a second gateway, an encapsulated first packet at a first tunnel interface of a plurality of tunnel interfaces;
decapsulating the encapsulated first packet to obtain the first packet;
identifying addressing information in the first packet and an identifier for the first tunnel interface at which the encapsulated first packet was received;
in response to receiving the encapsulated first packet at the first tunnel interface, storing an entry in a cache that associates the addressing information from the first packet with the identifier for the first tunnel interface at which the encapsulated first packet was received;
communicating the first packet to a computing system;
receiving, from the computing system, a second packet;
identifying the entry in the cache that corresponds to addressing information in the second packet;
in response to identifying the entry that corresponds to the addressing information in the second packet, identifying that the entry includes the identifier for the first tunnel interface;
in response to the entry including the identifier for the first tunnel interface, selecting the first tunnel interface from the plurality of tunnel interfaces to communicate the second packet;
encapsulating the second packet; and
communicating the encapsulated second packet to the second gateway using the first tunnel interface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encapsulated first packet comprises an IPsec packet.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the addressing information in the first packet comprises a source and destination IP address.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the addressing information in the first packet further comprises source port, destination port, and protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving a third packet;
determining that addressing information in the third packet does not correspond to an entry in the cache;
in response to determining that the addressing information in the third packet does not correspond to an entry in the cache, hashing header information of the third packet to select a tunnel interface from the plurality of tunnel interfaces;
encapsulating the third packet; and
forwarding the encapsulated third packet using the selected tunnel interface.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing system comprises a host computing system for one or more virtual machines, and wherein communicating the first packet to the computing system comprises:
encapsulating the first packet to create a second encapsulated packet; and
forwarding the second encapsulated packet to the host computing system.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second encapsulated packet comprises a Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE) packet.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein receiving, from the computing system, the second packet comprises:
receiving the second packet in a third encapsulated packet; and
decapsulating the third encapsulated packet to identify the second packet.

9. A computing apparatus comprising:
a storage system;
a processing system operatively coupled to the storage system; and
program instructions stored on the storage system to operate a first gateway that, when executed by the processing system, direct the computing apparatus to:
receive, from a second gateway, an encapsulated first packet at a first tunnel interface of a plurality of tunnel interfaces;
decapsulate the encapsulated first packet to obtain the first packet;
identify addressing information in the first packet and an identifier for the first tunnel interface at which the encapsulated first packet was received;
in response to receiving the encapsulated first packet at the first tunnel interface, store an entry in a cache that associates the addressing information from the first packet with the identifier for the first tunnel interface at which the encapsulated first packet was received;
communicate the first packet to a computing system;
receive, from the computing system, a second packet;
identify the entry in the cache that corresponds to addressing information in the second packet;
in response to identifying the entry that corresponds to the addressing information in the second packet, identifying that the entry includes the identifier for the first tunnel interface;
in response to the entry including the identifier for the first tunnel interface, select the first tunnel interface from the plurality of tunnel interfaces to communicate the second packet;
encapsulate the second packet; and
communicate the encapsulated second packet to the second gateway using the first tunnel interface.

10. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the encapsulated packet comprises an IPsec packet.

11. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the addressing information in the first packet comprises a source and destination IP address.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the addressing information in the first packet further comprises source port, destination port, and protocol.

13. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to:
receive a third packet;
determine that addressing information in the third packet does not correspond to an entry in the cache;
in response to determining that the addressing information in the third packet does not correspond to an entry in the cache, hash header information of the third packet to select a tunnel interface from the plurality of tunnel interfaces;
encapsulate the third packet; and
forward the encapsulated third packet using the selected tunnel interface.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computing system comprises a host computing system for one or more virtual machines, and wherein communicating the first packet to the computing system comprises:
encapsulating the first packet to create a second encapsulated packet; and
forwarding the second encapsulated packet to the host computing system.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the second encapsulated packet comprises a Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE) packet.

16. The computing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein receiving, from the computing system, the second packet comprises:
receiving the second packet in a third encapsulated packet; and
decapsulating the third encapsulated packet to identify the second packet.

17. A system comprising:
a plurality of gateways;
a first gateway of the plurality of gateways configured to:
receive, from a second gateway of the plurality of gateways, an encapsulated first packet at a first tunnel interface of a plurality of tunnel interfaces;
decapsulate the encapsulated first packet to obtain the first packet;
identify addressing information in the first packet and an identifier for the first tunnel interface at which the encapsulated first packet was received;
in response to receiving the encapsulated first packet at the first tunnel interface, store an entry in a cache that associates the addressing information from the first packet with the identifier for the first tunnel interface at which the encapsulated first packet was received;
communicate the first packet to a computing system;
receive, from the computing system, a second packet;
identify the entry in the cache that corresponds to addressing information in the second packet;
in response to identifying the entry that corresponds to the addressing information in

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Wang Yong
• Sharma Awan Kumar
• Hong Xinhua
• Goliya Abhishek

Classifications

• H04L45/742 Primary

  Route cache; Operation thereof · CPC title

• H04L12/4633

  Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling · CPC title

• H04L12/66 Primary

  Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways · CPC title

• H04L2212/00

  Encapsulation of packets · CPC title

• H04L12/4625

  Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge · CPC title