Forwarding tables for virtual networking devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9755965-B1
Application number	US-201414477817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 4, 2014
Priority date	Nov 5, 2013
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for forwarding tables for virtual networking devices. The system first identifies local virtual machines hosted on a local host connected to the system, the system having virtual tunneling capabilities. The system then generates a forwarding table for the system. Next, the system populates the forwarding table with local entries including bindings for the local virtual machines hosted on the local host and adds a default route in the forwarding table pointing to a default forwarder function, wherein the default route is configured to handle all non-local traffic relative to the system and the local host.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
identifying virtual machines hosted on a local host associated with a switch component comprising a virtual tunnel endpoint associated with an overlay network;
generating, via a processor, a forwarding table for the switch component and populating the forwarding table only with local entries comprising bindings or entries for the virtual machines hosted on the local host;
adding a default route in the forwarding table pointing to a forwarder function configured to handle all non-local traffic relative to the switch component, wherein the forwarder function associated with the default route is implemented on a network separate from the overlay network; and
updating the forwarding table only based on updates to the virtual machines hosted on the local host or addition of new virtual machines hosted on the local host.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the switch component is hosted by the local host, and wherein the switch component comprises one of a virtual switch or a virtual router.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the local entries comprises a respective virtual machine address and a respective network scope identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-local traffic comprises traffic having a destination that is not hosted by the local host.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the local entries comprise respective network segment identifiers, wherein the respective network segment identifiers comprise at least one of overlay segment identifiers, virtual local area network identifiers, and virtual routing and forwarding identifiers.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network comprises a network fabric connected to the overlay network, wherein the forwarder function resides on the network fabric, the switch component connecting the network fabric to the overlay network.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the virtual machines reside in the overlay network and communicate with the network fabric via a tunnel provided by the switch component, wherein the overlay network comprises a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN).

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the default route is used to route traffic intended to other virtual machines in the overlay network, the other virtual machines being hosted by other hosts.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the network fabric comprises spine and leaf network devices in a spine and leaf topology, wherein the forwarder function is hosted or performed by a plurality of the spine and leaf network devices.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing a local entry from the forwarding table associated with a virtual machine on the local host when the virtual machine is at least one of migrated to another host or removed from the local host.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a local entry to the forwarding table associated with a virtual machine on the local host when the virtual machine is at least one of added to the local host or migrated from another host to the local host.

12. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
identifying virtual machines hosted on a local host associated with a switch, the switch comprising a virtual tunnel endpoint associated with an overlay network;
generating a forwarding table for the switch and populating the forwarding table only with local entries comprising bindings or entries for the virtual machines hosted on the local host;
adding a default route in the forwarding table pointing to one or more devices running a forwarder function, wherein the forwarder function is configured to handle all non-local traffic relative to at least one of the switch and the local host; and
updating the forwarding table only based on updates to the virtual machines hosted on the local host or addition of new virtual machines hosted on the local host.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the execution of the instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium further cause the one or more processors to update the forwarding table by updating the local entries in the forwarding table when a local virtual machine is migrated to the local host, added to the local host, or removed from the local host.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the switch comprises a virtual switch, the non-local traffic comprising traffic having a destination that is not hosted by the local host.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the local entries include at least one of respective addresses associated with local virtual machines, respective network segment identifiers associated with the local virtual machines, and an address associated with the local host hosting the local virtual machines.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the execution of the instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium cause the one or more processors to update the forwarding table only when a virtual machine is added to the local host or removed from the local host, and wherein updates to other forwarding tables associated with different hosts or switches are not propagated to the forwarding table unless such updates are associated with the virtual machine being added to the local host or removed from the local host.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, via a switch comprising a virtual tunnel endpoint connected to an overlay network, an incoming packet intended for a destination address;
analyzing a forwarding table to identify a next hop for the packet, wherein the forwarding table comprises only local entries for local destinations relative to the switch and a default route entry for all non-local traffic, the local destinations corresponding to virtual nodes hosted on a same host as the switch and wherein the forwarding table is updated only based on updates to the virtual nodes hosted on the same host or addition of new virtual nodes hosted on the same host; and
forwarding the incoming packet to the next hop based on an entry in the forwarding table, the entry comprising:
at least one of the local entries when the next hop is one of the virtual nodes hosted on the same host as the switch; or
the default route entry when the next hop is not one of the virtual nodes hosted on the same host as the switch.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the virtual tunnel endpoint connects the virtual nodes hosted on the same host to a network fabric via a tunnel between the overlay network and the network fabric, wherein the default route entry corresponds to one or more nodes in the network fabric.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the default route entry maps to a forwarder function implemented by a plurality of network devices on the network fabric, and wherein the plurality of network devices comprises at least one of spine and leaf switches on the network fabric.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the virtual nodes hosted on the same host as the switch are associated with a plurality of virtual network domains comprising different overlay network segments.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Yadav Navindra
• Merchant Sameer

Classifications

• H04L41/34

  Signalling channels for network management communication · CPC title

• H04L45/586

  of virtual routers · CPC title

• H04L45/54 Primary

  Organization of routing tables · CPC title

• H04L41/5048

  Automatic or semi-automatic definitions, e.g. definition templates · CPC title

• H04L47/125

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title