Network virtualization without gateway function
View Patent ↗A local network, such as a data center, includes a plurality of servers each of which are linked to a network switch. Some of the plurality of servers are network virtualization capable and some are not. The network virtualization capable servers include functionality that encapsulates a data frame, generated by one network virtualization servers that is to be sent to another network virtualization capable server, with a network virtualization identity. In the event that a network virtualization server generates a data frame for transmission to a server that is not capable of network virtualization, the network virtualization capable server does not encapsulate the data frame with the network virtualization identity.
1. A method of transmitting a data frame, comprising:
providing a first server that is capable of network virtualization and that is linked through a local network to a second server that is capable of network virtualization and a third server that is not capable of network virtualization;
receiving, by the first server from a first server virtual machine (VM) located on the first server, a data frame with a destination address; and
in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a second server VM located on the second server that is capable of network virtualization, attaching a network virtualization header to the data frame and transmitting the data frame to the second server; and
in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a third server VM located on the third server that is not capable of network virtualization, transmitting the data frame to the third server without attaching a network virtualization header to the data frame.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
providing a switch in the local network that links the first server and to the third server that is not capable of network virtualization;
receiving, by the switch from the first server, the data frame;
resolving a next hop for the data frame using the switch such that the data frame is transmitted to the third server.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
building, by the first server, a binding table that includes a plurality of entries, each entry including a VM address associated with a VM located on the first server and a physical address of the first server; and
distributing the binding table by the first server to the third server.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the server includes a virtual machine-virtual network segment identifier (VM-VNSI) table correlating a VNSI supported by the local network with VMs located on the servers in the local network, and wherein the method further includes:
determining, by the first server using the VM-VNSI table, that the destination address of the data frame corresponds to the second server VM on the second server that is correlated with a VNSI that is correlated with the first server VM and, in response, attaching the network virtualization header to the data frame and transmitting the data frame to the second server; and
determining, by the first server using the VM-VNSI table, that the destination address of the data frame corresponds to a destination VM on the third server that is correlated with a VNSI that is not correlated with the first server VM and, in response, transmitting the data frame to the third server without attaching a network virtualization header to the data frame.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a plurality of switches in the local network that link the first server and to the third server;
discovering, by a first switch of the plurality of switches, binding information correlating servers in the local network with VMs located on those servers; and
distributing the binding information to each of the other switches in the plurality of switches.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first switch is directly linked to the first server and discovers the binding information from the first server, and the at least one second switch is indirectly linked to the first server through at least the first switch.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the local network is a data center.
8. A method of operating a network virtualization capable server linked to a local network, comprising:
associating a physical network address assigned to a network virtualization capable server with a plurality of virtual network addresses associated with virtual machines (VMs) located on the network virtualization capable server;
associating a first virtual network segment identifier (VNSI) with at least one of the plurality of virtual network addresses associated with the network virtualization capable server;
generating a data frame and determining a second VNSI that is associated with a destination virtual network address included in the data frame; and
in response to determining that second VNSI is the same as the first VNSI, encapsulating the data frame with a network virtualization header and transmitting the data frame to the local network; and
in response to determining that second VNSI is different than the first VNSI, transmitting the data frame to the local network without encapsulating the data frame with a network virtualization header.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the association of the physical network address and the plurality of virtual network addresses includes at least one binding table.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the physical network address includes is an source IP address and the plurality of virtual network addresses include source medium access control (MAC) addresses.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the VNSI is one of a VXLAN identifier and a network virtualization generic routing encapsulation identifier.
12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the network virtualization header is comprised of a virtual network segment identity.
13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the local network is a data center.
14. A data frame transmission system, comprising:
a first server including:
a network interface connecting the first server to a local network;
a non-transitory, computer readable memory for storing one or more binding tables and virtual machine to virtual network segment identity (VM-VNSI) association information; and
a hypervisor configured to:
manage the operation of a plurality of first server virtual machines located on the first server;
determines a destination address from a data frame generated by one of a plurality of virtual machines; and
in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a second server VM located on a second server on that is connected to the local network and that is capable of network virtualization, encapsulate the data frame with a network virtualization header and transmit the data frame to the second server; and
in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a third server VM located on a third server that is connected to the local network and that is not capable of network virtualization, transmit the data frame to the third server without encapsulating the data frame with a network virtualization header.
15. The data frame transmission system of claim 14 , wherein the hypervisor includes a virtual switch that operates to manage the transmission of data frames to and from the plurality of first server virtual machines.
16. The data frame transmission system of claim 15 , wherein the one more binding tables include binding information correlating servers in the local network with VMs located on those servers, and the VM-SNSI association information correlates a VNSI supported by the local network with VMs located on the servers in the local network.