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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12407646-B2
Application number	US-202418639631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2024
Priority date	Jan 22, 2021
Publication date	Sep 2, 2025
Grant date	Sep 2, 2025

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 comprising:
maintaining a pool of a public internet protocol (IP) addresses;
receiving a first request for a first router associated with a first tenant to obtain a public IP address for a virtual node;
selecting a public IP address from a pool of public IP addresses, the pool comprising a plurality of public IP addresses associated with a second router;
updating network address translation (NAT) rules at the first 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 router to send a packet associated with the selected public IP address to the first router, the first router being configured to direct traffic addressed to the selected public IP address to a private IP address of the virtual node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the traffic addressed to any of the plurality of IP addresses is directed to the second router.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second router connects the first router to one or more external networks.

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

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

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

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying when the pool of available IP addresses satisfies one or more size criteria; and
obtaining one or more additional IP addresses for the pool.

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

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

10. 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:
maintain a pool of a public internet protocol (IP) addresses;
receive a first request for a first router associated with a first tenant to obtain a public IP address for a virtual node;
select a public IP address from a pool of public IP addresses, the pool comprising a plurality of public IP addresses associated with a second router;
update network address translation (NAT) rules at the first 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 router to send a packet associated with the selected public IP address to the first router, the first router being configured to direct traffic addressed to the selected public IP address to a private IP address of the virtual node.

11. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the traffic addressed to any of the plurality of IP addresses is directed to the second router.

12. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the second router connects the first router to one or more external networks.

13. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the virtual node comprises a virtual machine in a segment for the tenant.

14. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the program instructions stored on the storage system that, when executed by the processing system, further direct the computing apparatus to:
identify a second request for a second router associated with a second tenant of a plurality of tenants to obtain a second public IP address for a new virtual node;
select a second public IP address from the pool of available public IP addresses; and
update NAT rules at the second router to associate a second private IP address for the second virtual node to the second public IP address.

15. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the program instructions stored on the storage system that, when executed by the processing system, further direct the computing apparatus to:
in response to selecting the public IP address, remove the selected public IP address from the pool of available public IP addresses.

16. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the program instructions stored on the storage system that, when executed by the processing system, further direct the computing apparatus to:
identify when the pool of available IP addresses satisfies one or more size criteria; and
obtain one or more additional IP addresses for the pool.

17. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more size criteria comprises a quantity of IP addresses in the pool.

18. The computer apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the program instructions stored on the storage system that, when executed by the processing system, further direct the computing apparatus to:
identifying a request to remove the public IP address from the virtual node;
update NAT rules at the router to remove the association of the private IP address and the public IP address;
update the next hope configuration at the second router to stop communicating packets associated with the public IP address to the router associated with the first tenant; and
add the public IP address to the pool of available public IP addresses.

19. 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:
maintain a pool of a public internet protocol (IP) addresses;
receive a first request for a first router associated with a first tenant to obtain a public IP address for a virtual node;
select a public IP address from a pool of public IP addresses, the pool comprising a plurality of public IP addresses associated with a second router;
update network address translation (NAT) rules at the first 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 router to send a packet associated with the selected public IP address to the first router, the first router being configured to direct traffic addressed to the selected public IP address to a private IP address of the virtual node.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the program instructions further direct the processing system to:
identify a second request for a second router associated with a second tenant of a plurality of tenants to obtain a second public IP address for a new virtual node;
select a second public IP address from the pool of available public IP addresses; and
update NAT rules at the second router to associate a second private IP address for the second virtual node to the second publi

Assignees

• VMware LLC

Inventors

• Devireddy Dileep K
• Parmar Ankit
• Patel Hiteshkumar Rameshchandra

Classifications

• H04L61/2557

  Translation policies or rules · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

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

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/2532

  Clique of NAT servers · CPC title