HOST SIDE METHOD OF USING A CONTROLLER ASSIGNMENT LIST

摘要

Some embodiments provide a novel method for distributing control-channel communication load between multiple controllers in a network control system. In some embodiments, the controllers manage physical forwarding elements that forward data between several computing devices (also called hosts or host computers), some or all of which execute one or more virtual machines (VMs). The method of some embodiments distributes a controller assignment list to the host computers. The host computers use this list to identify the controllers with which they need to interact to perform some of the forwarding operations of their associated logical forwarding elements. In some embodiments, agents executing on the host computers (1) review the controller assignment list to identify the appropriate controllers, and (2) establish control channel communications with these controllers to obtain the needed data for effectuating the forwarding operations of their associated physical forwarding elements. These agents in some embodiments are responsible for out-of-band control channel communication with the controllers.

主权项

1. For a computer that executes at least one physical forwarding element that together with physical forwarding elements of other computers implements a plurality different types of logical forwarding elements (LFEs), a method of identifying the controllers for managing the LFEs, the method comprising:
receiving a controller assignment list that, based on a common range of index values, specifies N controllers for N sets of LFEs; for a first LFE of a first LFE type, generating a first index value based on an identifier of the first LFE and using the first index value to identify a first controller in the controller assignment list as the first LFE's controller; and for a second LFE of a second LFE type, generating a second index value based on an identifier of the second LFE and using the second index value to identify a second controller in the controller assignment list as the second LFE's controller.