Host detection by top of rack switch devices in data center environments

摘要

Techniques are provided for detecting and identifying host devices in a network. At a switch device, a packet is received from a server that is interfaced with a switch device and is configured to host a virtual machine that is a source of the packet. A Media Access Control (MAC) address or an Internet Protocol (IP) address is identified. The MAC address and IP address are associated with the virtual machine. In response to identifying the MAC or IP addresses, the switch device determines whether a binding between the IP and MAC addresses of the virtual machine is present in a database of addresses accessible by the switch device. If the association is not present, based on the fields obtained from the packet header, a request message is sent to the virtual machine to resolve the association between the IP address and the MAC address of the virtual machine.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
at a switch device, receiving a packet from a server that is interfaced with the switch device and that is configured to host a virtual machine that is a source of the packet, wherein the virtual machine has been migrated from a different server; identifying from the packet a Media Access Control (MAC) address that is associated with the virtual machine; in response to the identifying, determining whether an Internet Protocol (IP) address corresponding to the MAC address of the virtual machine is present in a database of IP addresses and MAC addresses accessible by the switch device; and if the determining indicates that the IP address corresponding to the MAC address is not present in the database on the switch device, sending a request message from the switch device to the virtual machine hosted by the server that is interfaced to the switch device to obtain the IP address associated with the MAC address of the virtual machine.