Address resolution using multiple designated instances of a logical router

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12218834-B2
Application number	US-202318235859-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 20, 2023
Priority date	Mar 27, 2014
Publication date	Feb 4, 2025
Grant date	Feb 4, 2025

Abstract

A logical routing element (LRE) having multiple designated instances for routing packets from physical hosts (PH) to a logical network is provided. A PH in a network segment with multiple designated instances can choose among the multiple designated instances for sending network traffic to other network nodes in the logical network according to a load balancing algorithm. Each logical interface (LIF) of an LRE is defined to be addressable by multiple identifiers or addresses, and each LIF identifier or address is assigned to a different designated instance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A network comprising:
a set of host computers each executing a set of virtual machines (VMs) and a managed physical routing element (MPRE) that implements a logical router with a plurality of MPREs executing on a plurality of other host computers;
a plurality of routers operating outside of the house computers in the set of host computers;
wherein a plurality of MPREs in a subset of the plurality of host computers are selected to respond to address resolution protocol (ARP) messages sent by the routers and to perform logical routing for the logical router on data packets from the plurality of routers to the VMs executing on the host computers in the set of host computers.

2. The network of claim 1 , wherein each MPRE implements a logical routing element (LRE) instance of the logical router and routes data packets from the VMs executing on the host computers in the set of host computers.

3. The network of claim 2 , wherein the routers do not implement LRE instances of the logical router.

4. The network of claim 1 , wherein the each MPRE of the plurality of MPREs in the subset is assigned a different IP address for responding to the ARP messages.

5. The network of claim 4 , wherein each MPRE of the plurality MPREs responds to an ARP message by resolving its assigned IP address to its own MAC address.

6. The network of claim 4 , wherein the different IP addresses assigned to the MPREs in the subset belong to a same network segment.

7. The network of claim 6 , wherein the network segment corresponds to an overlay encapsulation network.

8. The network of claim 6 , wherein the network segment comprises a plurality of IP subnets.

9. The network of claim 6 , wherein the different IP addresses belong to at least two different IP subnets.

10. The network of claim 1 , wherein the MPRE of each host computer perform L3 routing on data packets from the VMs of the host computer to the plurality of routers.

11. The network of claim 1 , wherein the routers comprise physical routers operating outside of any host computer in the set of host computers.

12. The network of claim 1 , wherein the routers further comprise routers operating on a host computer that is not in the set of host computers and that does not execute an MPRE that implements the logical router.

13. The network of claim 1 , wherein the routers comprise routers operating on a host computer that is not in the set of host computers and that does not execute an MPRE that implements the logical router.

14. A method of implementing a logical router for a logical network, the method comprising:
on each host computer in a set of host computers each of which executes a set of virtual machines (VMs), configuring a managed physical routing element (MPRE) to implement the logical router with a plurality of MPREs executing on a plurality of other host computers in the set of host computers;
configuring a plurality of MPREs in a subset of the plurality of host computers are selected (i) to respond to address resolution protocol (ARP) messages sent by a plurality of routers operating outside of the house computers in the set of host computers, and (ii) to perform logical routing for the logical router on data packets from the plurality of routers to the VMs executing on the host computers in the set of host computers.

15. The network of claim 14 , wherein each MPRE implements a logical routing element (LRE) instance of the logical router and routes data packets from the VMs executing on the host computers in the set of host computers, and the routers do not implement LRE instances of the logical router.

16. The network of claim 14 further comprising assigning each MPRE of the plurality of MPREs a different IP address for responding to the ARP messages.

17. The network of claim 16 further comprising configuring each MPRE of the plurality MPREs responds to an ARP message by resolving its assigned IP address to its own MAC address.

18. The network of claim 16 , wherein the different IP addresses assigned to the MPREs in the subset belong to a same network segment.

19. The network of claim 18 , wherein the network segment corresponds to an overlay encapsulation network.

20. The network of claim 18 , wherein the network segment comprises a plurality of IP subnets.

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Agarwal Vivek
• Chandrashekhar Ganesan
• Subramaniyam Rahul Korivi
• Singh Ram Dular
• Wang Howard

Classifications

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L49/70

  Virtual switches · CPC title

• H04L45/741

  Routing in networks with a plurality of addressing schemes, e.g. with both IPv4 and IPv6 · CPC title

• H04L61/2596

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