Granted Patent B2

US 12,541,385 · App. 14/687,869 · Granted Feb 3, 2026

Inventors: Teemu Koponen (San Francisco, CA); Ronghua Zhang (San Jose, CA); Pankaj Thakkar (Santa Clara, CA); Martin Casado (Portola Valley, CA)

Assignee: VMware LLC

G06F9/45558G06F9/455G06F9/45533G06F15/177H04L41/0803H04L41/0806H04L41/0813H04L41/0823H04L41/0889H04L41/0894H04L41/0895H04L45/64H04L45/74H04L49/70H04L61/2503H04L61/2517H04L61/2521H04L61/256H04L63/0218H04L67/1008G06F2009/4557G06F2009/45595H04L45/02H04L49/15

Abstract

Claims (54)

1 . For a firewall application executing on a physical host computer, a method comprising:

receiving a packet from a managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer;

identifying which of a plurality of sets of processing rules enforced by the firewall application applies to the packet, wherein:

(i) each set of processing rules of the plurality of sets of processing rules corresponds to a different one of a plurality of distributed firewalls;

(ii) each distributed firewall of the plurality of distributed firewalls is associated with a different one of a plurality of logical networks;

(iii) each respective logical network of the plurality of logical networks logically connects a respective set of end machines that operate on the physical host computer with other end machines that operate on a respective plurality of other physical host computers and that are connected to the respective logical network;

(iv) each respective logical network is implemented by a respective plurality of managed forwarding elements executing on the respective plurality of physical host computers on which at least one end machine connected to the respective logical network operates;

(v) for each respective logical network, the respective set of processing rules corresponding to the respective distributed firewall associated with the respective logical network is enforced by the firewall application executing on the physical host computer and by firewall applications executing on each of the other physical host computers on which at least one end machine connected to the respective logical network operates; and

(vi) identifying which of the plurality of sets of processing rules enforced by the firewall application applies to the packet comprises determining which of the plurality of logical networks the packet is traversing;

determining whether to allow the packet based on the identified set of processing rules; and

when the packet is allowed, sending the packet back to the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sets of processing rules are received by the firewall application from a network control system that also configures the managed forwarding element.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the plurality of distributed firewalls comprises a particular distributed firewall with a corresponding particular set of processing rules enforced by the firewall application; and

a particular logical network that comprises the particular distributed firewall logically connects a particular set of end machines through a set of logical forwarding elements.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the particular distributed firewall logically connects to a logical router implemented by a particular one of the pluralities of managed forwarding elements, including the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer, the logical router comprising a set of routing policies that determines whether the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer sends the packet to the distributed firewall.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the managed forwarding element implements the particular logical network by implementing the set of logical forwarding elements.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when the identified set of processing rules specifies to drop the packet, the firewall application executing on the physical host computer does not send the packet back to the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet sent back to the managed forwarding element is treated as a new packet by the managed forwarding element.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising negotiating a software port with the managed forwarding element prior to receiving any packets from the managed forwarding element, wherein:

the packet is received by the firewall application from the managed forwarding element through the negotiated software port; and

the packet is sent back to the managed forwarding element through the negotiated software port.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying which of the plurality of sets of processing rules applies to the packet comprises:

after receiving the packet, reading a slice identifier appended to the packet; and

matching the slice identifier with a particular set of processing rules that corresponds to a particular one of the plurality of distributed firewalls.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the packet is a first packet, the particular set of processing rules is a first set of processing rules, the slice identifier is a first slice identifier, and the particular distributed firewall is a first distributed firewall, the method further comprising:

receiving a second packet, with a second slice identifier appended, from the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer;

matching the second slice identifier with a second set of processing rules of the plurality of sets of processing rules enforced by the firewall application, different from the first set of processing rules, the second set of processing rules corresponding to a second distributed firewall of the plurality of distributed firewalls; and

determining whether to allow the second packet based on the second set of processing rules.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first and second slice identifiers are appended to the first and second packets, respectively, by the managed forwarding element.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each set of processing rules of the plurality of sets of processing rules comprises a set of rules for determining whether to allow, block, or drop packets based on information about the packets.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the information about the packets comprises stateful transport connection information.

14 . A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a firewall application for execution by at least one processing unit of a physical host computer, the firewall application comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a packet from a managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer;

identifying which of a plurality of sets of processing rules enforced by the firewall application applies to the packet, wherein:

(i) each set of processing rules of the plurality of sets of processing rules corresponds to a different one of a plurality of distributed firewalls;

(ii) each distributed firewall of the plurality of distributed firewalls is associated with a different one of a plurality of logical networks;

(iii) each respective logical network of the plurality of logical networks logically connects a respective set of end machines that operate on the physical host computer with other end machines that operate on a respective plurality of other physical host computers and that are connected to the respective logical network;

(iv) each respective logical network is implemented by a respective plurality of managed forwarding elements executing on the respective plurality of physical host computers on which at least one end machine connected to the respective logical network operates

(v) for each respective logical network, the respective set of processing rules corresponding to the respective distributed firewall associated with the respective logical network is enforced by the firewall application executing on the physical host computer and by firewall applications executing on each of the other physical host computers on which at least one end machine connected to the respective logical network operates; and

(vi) identifying which of the plurality of sets of processing rules enforced by the firewall application applies to the packet comprises determining which of the plurality of logical networks the packet is traversing;

determining whether to allow the packet based on the identified set of processing rules; and

when the packet is allowed, sending the packet back to the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer.

15 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of sets of processing rules are received by the firewall application from a network control system that also configures the managed forwarding element.

16 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying which of the plurality of sets of processing rules applies to the packet comprises sets of instructions for:

after receiving the packet, reading a slice identifier appended to the packet; and

matching the slice identifier with a particular set of processing rules that corresponds to a particular one of the plurality of distributed firewalls.

17 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the packet is a first packet, the particular set of processing rules is a first set of processing rules, the slice identifier is a first slice identifier, and the particular distributed firewall is a first distributed firewall, wherein the firewall application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving a second packet, with a second slice identifier appended, from the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer;

matching the second slice identifier with a second set of processing rules of the plurality of sets of processing rules enforced by the firewall application, different from the first set of processing rules, the second set of processing rules corresponding to a second distributed firewall of the plurality of distributed firewalls; and

determining whether to allow the second packet based on the second set of processing rules.

18 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein each set of processing rules in the plurality of sets of processing rules comprises a set of rules for determining whether to allow, block, or drop packets based on information about the packets.

19 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the information about the packets comprises stateful transport connection information.

20 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein when the identified set of processing rules specifies to drop the packet, the firewall application does not send the packet back to the managed forwarding element executing on the physical host computer.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (400)