Technique for managing an allocation of a VLAN

摘要

Techniques for allocation of a VLAN for a deployment by at least one VM provided on a host in a network. A VLAN manager is adapted to allocate a free physical VLAN identifier to the requested virtual VLAN identifier. The VLAN manager queries a VLAN mapping table for determining a free physical VLAN identifier. In case the physical VLAN identifier for the requested virtual VLAN identifier is in use, a procedure for determining the at least one free physical VLAN is performed. The determination procedure may be based on pre-defined zoning or it may apply a retagging after a free physical VLAN identifier has been calculated. The determined physical VLAN identifier is assigned to the requested VLAN. The VLAN switch devices are instructed about the assignment between the virtual and the physical VLAN identifier in order to apply the assignment of the data packets transported over the requested VLAN.

主权项

1. A method for managing an allocation of a VLAN for a deployment between a first virtual machine VM and a second virtual machine VM for transferring data packets, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a request for allocating a VLAN being identified by a virtual VLAN identifier, identifying a free physical VLAN identifier
by checking an assignment of a virtual VLAN identifier of the requested VLAN to a physical VLAN identifier wherein the physical VLAN identifier is to be used uniquely by a VLAN switch device for switching data packets of over the requested VLAN andby performing, in case the physical VLAN identifier is in use, a procedure for determining at least one free physical VLAN identifier wherein the determination procedure comprises estimating for a physical VLAN identifier that each VLAN switch device on the path between the first virtual machine VM and the second virtual machine VM transferring data over the requested VLAN does not already use the same physical VLAN identifier for routing data packets, assigning the virtual VLAN identifier to the determined at least one free VLAN physical identifier for the requested VLAN, and instructing the VLAN switch device involved in the communication over the requested VLAN to apply the assignment between the virtual and the physical VLAN identifier to the data packets transferred by the VLAN switch device for the requested VLAN.