Distributed dynamic virtual machine configuration service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9270525-B2
Application number	US-201213461967-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 2, 2012
Priority date	Dec 1, 2011
Publication date	Feb 23, 2016
Grant date	Feb 23, 2016

Abstract

An approach is provided in which a local module receives a discovery message from a virtual network endpoint that is devoid of a corresponding virtual IP address. The local module sends one or more unicast network configuration messages to a dynamic configuration service and, in turn, the local module receives one or more unicast network configuration responses from the dynamic configuration service. One of the unicast network configuration responses includes one or more network configuration parameters. The local module configures the virtual network endpoint according to one or more of the network configuration parameters.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
intercepting a broadcast discovery message generated by a virtual network endpoint, wherein the virtual network endpoint is devoid of a corresponding virtual IP address;
determining, in response to accessing a local cache, that a dynamic configuration service is unknown;
querying a distributed policy service for a location of the dynamic configuration service in response to the determination, wherein the distributed policy service is different than the dynamic configuration service;
receiving the location of the dynamic configuration service from the distributed policy service;
sending one or more unicast network configuration messages to the dynamic configuration service in response to receiving the location of the dynamic configuration service;
receiving one or more unicast network configuration responses from the dynamic configuration service, wherein at least one of the one or more unicast network configuration responses includes one or more network configuration parameters; and
configuring, by one or more processors, the virtual network endpoint according to one or more of the network configuration parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the unicast network configuration messages is a dynamic virtual machine configuration discover message, and wherein the configuring further comprises assigning a virtual IP address included in the network configuration parameters to the virtual network endpoint.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
sending a dynamic virtual machine configuration discovery message to the dynamic configuration service;
receiving a dynamic virtual machine configuration offer message in response to the dynamic virtual machine configuration discovery message;
sending a dynamic virtual machine configuration request message in response to receiving the dynamic virtual machine configuration offer message; and
receiving a dynamic virtual machine configuration reply message, wherein the dynamic virtual machine configuration reply message confirms assignment of the virtual IP address to the virtual network endpoint.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the dynamic configuration service includes a dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module and a network configuration module, the method further comprising:
receiving the one or more dynamic configuration messages from the local module at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module;
formatting the one or more dynamic configuration messages at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module and forwarding the formatted one or more dynamic configuration messages to the network configuration module;
receiving one or more network configuration response at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module from the network configuration module;
formatting the one or more network configuration responses at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module and forwarding the formatted one or more dynamic virtual machine configuration responses to the local module.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the network configuration module is a DHCP/BOOTP server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual network endpoint corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual domains, and wherein each of the plurality of virtual domains corresponds to an independent virtual address space and is independently managed by one of a plurality of heterogeneous tenants.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein each of the plurality of virtual domains are independent of physical topology constraints of a physical network.

Assignees

• Barabash Katherine
• Cohen Rami
• Levin Anna
• IBM

Inventors

• Barabash Katherine
• Cohen Rami
• Levin Anna

Classifications

• H04L41/0897

  by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• H04L61/2015

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title