Managing internet protocol (IP) address allocation to tenants in a computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11997067-B2
Application number	US-202117155405-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 22, 2021
Priority date	Jan 22, 2021
Publication date	May 28, 2024
Grant date	May 28, 2024

Abstract

Described herein are systems, methods, and software to manage internet protocol (IP) address allocation for tenants in a computing environment. In one implementation, a logical router associated with a tenant in the computing environment requests a public IP address for a new segment instance from a controller. In response to the request, the controller may select a public IP address from a pool of available IP addresses and update networking address translation (NAT) on the logical router to associate the public IP address with a private IP address allocated to the new segment instance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of allocating internet protocol (IP) addresses comprising:
identifying a request for a logical router associated with a first tenant of a plurality of tenants to obtain a public IP address for a virtual node;
selecting the public IP address from a pool, the pool comprising a plurality of public IP addresses allocated to a second logical router such that traffic addressed to any of the plurality of public IP addresses is directed to the second logical router;
updating network address translation (NAT) rules at the logical router to associate a private IP address for the virtual node to the selected public IP address; and
updating a next hop configuration at the second logical router to communicate packets associated with the selected public IP address to the logical router associated with the first tenant, wherein the second logical router connects the logical router to one or more external networks and the logical router associated with the first tenant redirects traffic addressed to the selected public IP address to the private IP address for the virtual node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more external networks comprise the internet.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual node comprises a virtual machine in a segment for the tenant.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a second request for a second logical router associated with a second tenant of the plurality of tenants to obtain a second public IP address for a new virtual node;
selecting the second public IP address from the pool; and
updating NAT rules at the second logical router to associate a second private IP address for the second virtual node to the selected second public IP address.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising
in response to selecting the public IP address, removing the selected public IP address from the pool.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying when the pool satisfies one or more size criteria; and
obtaining one or more additional IP addresses for the pool from a service provider.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more size criteria comprises a quantity of IP addresses in the pool.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a request to remove the selected public IP address from the virtual node;
updating the NAT rules at the logical router to remove the association of the private IP address and the selected public IP address;
updating the next hop configuration at the second logical router to stop communicating packets associated with the selected public IP address to the logical router associated with the first tenant; and
adding the selected public IP address to the pool.

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 that, when executed by the processing system, direct the computing apparatus to:
identify a request for a logical router associated with a first tenant of a plurality of tenants to obtain a public IP address for a virtual node;
select the public IP address from a pool, the pool comprising a plurality of public IP addresses allocated to a second logical router such that traffic addressed to any of the plurality of public IP addresses is directed to the second logical router;
update network address translation (NAT) rules at the logical router to associate a private IP address for the virtual node to the selected public IP address; and
update a next hop configuration at the second logical router to communicate packets associated with the selected public IP address to the logical router associated with the first tenant, wherein the second logical router connects the logical router to one or more external networks and the logical router associated with the first tenant redirects traffic addressed to the selected public IP address to the private IP address for the virtual node.

10. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the one or more external networks comprise the internet.

11. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the virtual node comprises a virtual machine in a segment for the tenant.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to:
identify a second request for a second logical router associated with a second tenant of the plurality of tenants to obtain a second public IP address for a new virtual node;
select the second public IP address from the pool; and
update NAT rules at the second logical router to associate a second private IP address for the second virtual node to the selected second public IP address.

13. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to:
in response to selecting the public IP address, remove the selected public IP address from the pool.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to:
identify when the pool satisfies one or more size criteria; and
obtain one or more additional IP addresses for the pool from a service provider.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the one or more size criteria comprises a quantity of IP addresses in the pool.

16. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to:
identify a request to remove the selected public IP address from the virtual node;
update the NAT rules at the logical router to remove the association of the private IP address and the selected public IP address;
update the next hop configuration at the second logical router to stop communicating packets associated with the selected public IP address to the logical router associated with the first tenant; and
add the selected public IP address to the pool.

17. An apparatus comprising:
a storage system; and
program instructions program stored on the storage system that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to:
identify a request for a logical router associated with a first tenant of a plurality of tenants to obtain a public IP address for a virtual node;
select the public IP address from a pool, the pool comprising a plurality of public IP addresses allocated to a second logical router such that traffic addressed to any of the plurality of public IP addresses is directed to the second logical router;
in response to selecting the public IP address, remove the selected public IP address from the pool;
update network address translation (NAT) rules at the logical router to associate a private IP address for the virtual node to the selected public IP address; and
update a next hop configuration at the second logical router to communicate packets associated with the selected public IP address to the logical router associated with the first tenant, wherein the second logical router connects the logical router to one or more external networks and the logical router associated with the first tenant redirects traffic addressed to the selected public IP address to the private IP address for the virtual node.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the program instructions further direct the processing system to:
identify a request to remove the selected public IP address from the virtual node;
update the NAT rules at the logical router to remove the association of the private IP address and the selected public IP address;
update

Assignees

• VMware LLC

Inventors

• Devireddy Dileep K
• Parmar Ankit
• Patel Hiteshkumar Rameshchandra

Classifications

• H04L61/5061 Primary

  Pools of addresses · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L61/2557

  Translation policies or rules · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title