Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130117428 | PHYSICAL CONTROLLERS FOR CONVERTING UNIVERSAL FLOWS - Some embodiments provide a network control system for generating physical control plane data for managing first and second managed forwarding elements that implement forwarding operations associated with a first logical datapath set. The system includes a first controller instance for converting logical control plane data for the first logical datapath set to universal physical control plane (UPCP) data. The system includes a second controller instance for converting UPCP data to customized physical control plane (CPCP) data for the first managed forwarding element but not the second managed forwarding element. Each controller instance includes a network information base (NIB) storage for storing data and exchanging data with the other controller instance. | 05-09-2013 |
20130117429 | CHASSIS CONTROLLERS FOR CONVERTING UNIVERSAL FLOWS - A network control system for generating physical control plane data for managing first and second managed forwarding elements that implement forwarding operations associated with a first logical datapath set is described. The system includes (1) a first controller for converting logical control plane data for the first logical datapath set to universal physical control plane (UPCP) data, (2) a second controller for converting UPCP data to customized physical control plane (CPCP) data for the first managed forwarding element but not the second managed forwarding element, and (3) a third controller for receiving UPCP data generated by the first controller instance, identifying the second controller as the controller instance responsible for generating the CPCP data for the first managed forward element, and supplying the received UPCP data to the second controller. Each controller includes a network information base (NIB) storage for exchanging data with another controller instance. | 05-09-2013 |
20130121209 | WAN OPTIMIZER FOR LOGICAL NETWORKS - Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine readable medium of a controller of a network control system for configuring a wide area network (WAN) optimizer instance to implement a WAN optimizer for a logical network. The controller receives a configuration for the WAN optimizer to optimize network data from the logical network for transmission to another WAN optimizer. The controller identifies several other controllers in the network control system on which to implement the logical network. The controller distributes the configuration for implementation on the WAN optimizer. | 05-16-2013 |
20130125120 | MIGRATING MIDDLEBOX STATE FOR DISTRIBUTED MIDDLEBOXES - A controller of a network control system for configuring several middlebox instances is described. The middlebox instances implement a middlebox in a distributed manner in several hosts. The controller configures, in a first host, a first middlebox instance to receive a notification from a migration module before a virtual machine (VM) running in the first host migrates to a second host and to send middlebox state related to the VM to the migration module. | 05-16-2013 |
20130132533 | CONTROL PLANE INTERFACE FOR LOGICAL MIDDLEBOX SERVICES - Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine readable medium of a first middlebox element of several middlebox elements to implement a middlebox instance in a distributed manner in several hosts. The non-transitory machine readable medium stores a set of instructions for receiving (1) configuration data for configuring the middlebox instance to implement a middlebox in a logical network and (2) a particular identifier associated with the middlebox in the logical network. The non-transitory machine readable medium stores a set of instructions for generating (1) a set of rules to process packets for the middlebox in the logical network and (2) an internal identifier associated with the set of rules. The non-transitory machine readable medium stores a set of instructions for associating the particular identifier with the internal identifier for later processing of packets having the particular identifier. | 05-23-2013 |
20130132536 | NETWORK CONTROL SYSTEM FOR CONFIGURING MIDDLEBOXES - Some embodiments provide a method for configuring a logical middlebox in a hosting system that includes a set of nodes. The logical middlebox is part of a logical network that includes a set of logical forwarding elements that connect a set of end machines. The method receives a set of configuration data for the logical middlebox. The method uses a stored set of tables describing physical locations of the end machines to identify a set of nodes at which to implement the logical middlebox. The method provides the logical middlebox configuration for distribution to the identified nodes. | 05-23-2013 |
20130208623 | UNIVERSAL PHYSICAL CONTROL PLANE - A controller for generating universal physical control plane (UPCP) data for configuring a set of managed forwarding elements that forward data in a network is described. The controller includes a control module for converting logical control plane (LCP) data to logical forwarding plane (LFP) data. The controller includes a virtualization module for converting the LFP data to UPCP data. The UPCP data is for subsequent conversion into customized physical control plane (CPCP) data for each of the managed forwarding elements. The CPCP data directs the forwarding of data by the managed forwarding element. | 08-15-2013 |
20130212148 | DISTRIBUTED NETWORK CONTROL SYSTEM - For a controller of a distributed network control system comprising several controllers for managing forwarding elements that forward data in a network, a method for managing the forwarding elements is described. The method changes a set of data tuples stored in a relational database of the first controller that stores data tuples containing data for managing a set of forwarding elements. The method sends the changed data tuples to at least one of other controllers of the network control system. The other controller receiving the changed data tuples processes the changed data tuples and sends the processed data tuples to at least one of the managed forwarding elements. | 08-15-2013 |
20130212245 | NESTING TRANSACTION UPDATES TO MINIMIZE COMMUNICATION - For a controller for managing a network including managed forwarding elements that forward data in the network, a method for configuring a set of managed forwarding elements is described. The method generates a first set of flow entries for configuring the set of managed forwarding elements to forward packets as non-first-hop forwarding elements for a logical datapath set. The method generates a second set of flow entries for configuring the set of managed forwarding elements to forward packets as first-hop forwarding elements for the logical datapath set. The method sends the first set of flow entries to the set of managed forwarding elements prior to sending the second set of flow entries to the set of managed forwarding elements. | 08-15-2013 |
20130212246 | PULL-BASED STATE DISSEMINATION BETWEEN MANAGED FORWARDING ELEMENTS - For a controller that manages managed forwarding elements that forward data in a network, a method for configuring the managed forwarding elements is described. The method computes forwarding state and pushes the computed forwarding state to the managed switching elements. The forwarding state defines forwarding behaviors of the managed switching elements. The method configures the managed switching elements to exchange forwarding state with each other. The method configures the managed switching elements by configuring a first managed forwarding element to send a forwarding state information request to a second managed forwarding element and by configuring the second managed forwarding element to (1) respond to the forwarding state information request by looking up a forwarding state information repository and (2) update the forwarding state information repository with forwarding states information received from a third managed forwarding element. | 08-15-2013 |
20130219078 | TUNNEL CREATION - A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program that configures managed forwarding elements to establish tunnels between the managed forwarding elements is described. From a particular managed forwarding element, the program receives information regarding coupling of a network element to the first managed forwarding element. Upon receiving the information, the program generates a set of universal flow entries for configuring another managed forwarding element to establish a tunnel to the particular managed forwarding element. | 08-22-2013 |
20140247753 | USING TRANSACTIONS TO COMPUTE AND PROPAGATE NETWORK FORWARDING STATE - For a controller for managing a network comprising several managed forwarding elements that forward data in the network, a method for configuring a managed forwarding element is described. The method generates a first set of flow entries for defining forwarding behaviors of the managed forwarding element based on a current network policy for a logical network implemented in the several managed forwarding elements. The method sends the first set of flow entries to the managed forwarding element in order for the managed forwarding element to forward data that the managed forwarding element directly receives from an end machine based on the current network policy. The method generates a second set of flow entries for modifying forwarding behaviors of the managed forwarding element based on a new network policy for the logical network. The method sends the second set of flow entries to the managed forwarding element in order for the managed forwarding element to forward the data based on the new network policy. | 09-04-2014 |
20140348161 | EXCHANGE OF NETWORK STATE INFORMATION BETWEEN FORWARDING ELEMENTS - Some embodiments provide a network control system that includes a network controller and a set of hosts on which a set of managed forwarding elements operate. The network controller computes forwarding state information and pushes the computed forwarding state information to a set of managed forwarding elements to define forwarding behaviors of the managed forwarding elements. The managed forwarding elements receive the forwarding state information from the network controller and directly exchange with each other updates to the forwarding state information. The updates are exchanged between the managed forwarding elements without a network controller relaying the updates. | 11-27-2014 |
20150049632 | Hitless Upgrade for Network Control Applications - A method for upgrading a set of controller nodes in a controller cluster that manages a plurality of forwarding elements in a way that minimizes dataplane outages. The method of some embodiments upgrades the control applications of a subset of the controller nodes before upgrading a decisive controller node. Once the decisive controller node is upgraded, the method switches the controller cluster to use a new version of the control applications. | 02-19-2015 |