Method and apparatus for implementing and managing distributed virtual switches in several hosts and physical forwarding elements

摘要

In general, the present invention relates to a virtual platform in which one or more distributed virtual switches can be created for use in virtual networking. According to some aspects, the distributed virtual switch according to the invention provides the ability for virtual and physical machines to more readily, securely, and efficiently communicate with each other even if they are not located on the same physical host and/or in the same subnet or VLAN. According other aspects, the distributed virtual switches of the invention can support integration with traditional IP networks and support sophisticated IP technologies including NAT functionality, stateful firewalling, and notifying the IP network of workload migration. According to further aspects, the virtual platform of the invention creates one or more distributed virtual switches which may be allocated to a tenant, application, or other entity requiring isolation and/or independent configuration state. According to still further aspects, the virtual platform of the invention manages and/or uses VLAN or tunnels (e.g, GRE) to create a distributed virtual switch for a network while working with existing switches and routers in the network. The present invention finds utility in both enterprise networks, datacenters and other facilities.

主权项

1. For a network hypervisor, a method of managing a network comprising physical forwarding elements, the method comprising:
identifying a set of virtual machines communicatively coupled to a set of physical forwarding elements, at least one of the physical forwarding elements in the set of physical forwarding elements also coupled to a virtual machine that is not in the set of virtual machines; generating a set of flow entries for the set of physical forwarding elements to use to implement a logical forwarding element that is to handle communications between the set of virtual machines, wherein the logical forwarding element maintains isolation between the set of virtual machines and other virtual machines that are coupled to the set of physical forwarding elements but are not in the set of virtual machines; and sending the generated set of flow entries to the set of physical forwarding elements, wherein a particular physical forwarding element in the set of forwarding elements is for using the set of flow entries to (i) make a set of logical forwarding decisions to identify a logical egress port of the logical forwarding element for a packet received from a virtual machine in the set of virtual machines and (ii) map the identified logical egress port to a physical port of the particular forwarding element through which to send the packet.