LAYER 2 ON RAMP SUPPORTING SCALABILITY OF VIRTUAL DATA CENTER RESOURCES
In an embodiment, a method for operating a virtual data center includes interconnecting a hierarchy of networking devices comprising physical networking devices and virtual networking devices. Customer- facing access to resources in the virtual data center is provided via an overlay network using a suitable protocol that supports compatible addressing between service provider physical locations.
1 . A method for operating a data center comprising:
providing a hierarchy of data processing devices into a virtual data center comprising physical devices and virtual devices, such that physical devices are located at two or more higher levels in the hierarchy, and such that the virtual devices are located in at least one lower levels of the hierarchy; and
communicating between virtual devices in the hierarchy using an overlay protocol, and other devices located at least at two or more of (a) virtual data centers located in different physical locations, (b) physical data centers in a remote location, (c) remote colocation sites, or (d) a cloud service provider.
2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining Layer 2 separation with VLANs between at least two virtual networking devices in two or more locations.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the physical devices include one or more data center routers, distribution layer switches and top-of-rack switches.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual devices include one or more virtual switches and customer virtual routers.
5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the overlay protocol is L2 over L3 VPNs, Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), or Cisco's Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV).
6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the hierarchy comprises three levels, with
a carrier block located at a top level, plural Point of Delivery (POD) access blocks located at a middle level and plural customer access blocks located at a bottom level; the carrier block comprising at least one data center router and north bound ports of at least one distribution layer switch;
each POD access block comprising one or more south bound ports of the at least one distribution layer switch, plural top-of-rack switches, and north bound ports of plural virtual switches; and
each customer access block comprising one of the plural virtual switches, a customer virtual router and plural virtual resources.
7 . The method of claim 6 further comprising connecting each customer virtual router to corresponding interface IP addresses in corresponding VPN routing/forwarding instances on the distribution layer switch using a border gateway protocol.
8 . The method of claim 7 wherein interface addresses assigned in the overlay network are independent of interface addresses assigned in the corresponding VPN routing/forwarding instances on the distribution layer.
9 . The method of claim 1 wherein Layer 2 addressing is extended to the overlay network without filtering MAC addresses.
10 . The method of claim 1 additionally comprising:
stripping off IEEE 802.1q VLAN tags when processing overlay network packets.
11 . A data center system comprising:
a plurality of physical data processing devices;
a plurality of virtual data processing devices;
wherein the physical and virtual devices are connected in a hierarchy such that physical devices are located at two or more higher levels in the hierarchy, and such that the virtual devices are located in at least one lower levels of the hierarchy; and
wherein the physical and virtual devices further comprise communications interfaces that implement communication between virtual devices in the hierarchy using an overlay protocol, and other devices located at least at two or more of (a) virtual data centers located in different physical locations, (b) physical data centers in a remote location, (c) remote colocation sites, or (d) a cloud service provider.
12 . The system of claim 11 wherein the communications interfaces are further configured such that Layer 2 separation is maintained using VLANs between at least two virtual networking devices in two or more locations.
13 . The system of claim 11 wherein the physical devices include one or more data center routers, distribution layer switches and top-of-rack switches.
14 . The system of claim 11 wherein the virtual devices include one or more virtual switches and customer virtual routers.
15 . The system of claim 11 wherein the overlay protocol is L2 over L3 VPNs, Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), or Cisco's Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV).
16 . The system of claim 11 wherein the hierarchy comprises three levels, with a carrier block located at a top level, plural Point of Delivery (POD) access blocks located at a middle level and plural customer access blocks located at a bottom level; the carrier block comprising at least one data center router and north bound ports of at least one distribution layer switch;
each POD access block comprising one or more south bound ports of the at least one distribution layer switch, plural top-of-rack switches, and north bound ports of plural virtual switches; and
each customer access block comprising one of the plural virtual switches, a customer virtual router and plural virtual resources.
17 . The system of claim 16 wherein the communications interfaces further connect each customer virtual router to corresponding interface IP addresses in corresponding VPN routing/forwarding instances on the distribution layer switch using a border gateway protocol.
18 . The system of claim 17 wherein interface addresses assigned in the overlay network are independent of interface addresses assigned in the corresponding VPN routing/forwarding instances on the distribution layer.
19 . The system of claim 11 wherein the communication interfaces extend Layer 2 addressing to the overlay network without filtering MAC addresses.
20 . The system of claim 11 wherein the communication interfaces additionally strip off IEEE 802.1q VLAN tags when processing overlay network packets.