Managing administrative statuses of hardware VTEPs
View Patent ↗Some embodiments provide a novel method for a network control system (or controllers of the network control system) to manage a set of hardware Virtual Tunnel End Points (VTEPs) used to implement a logical network. Many network devices or entities (such as interfaces or transport nodes) have a functionality to mark the device or entity as “administratively down”. In that mode, such a device does not participate in any further forwarding in the dataplane, until it is marked as administratively up. This feature is often used to troubleshoot networks, and/or to remove misbehaving or faulty devices.
1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit manages a set of hardware Virtual Tunnel End Points (VTEPs) used to implement a logical network, the logical network implemented on a set of hardware forwarding elements, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
configuring a hardware VTEP forwarding element to implement a logical network, wherein the hardware VTEP forwarding element comprises an administrative status value for each of a plurality of elements associated with the hardware VTEP forwarding element;
detecting a problem with an element associated with the logical network;
identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element as a hardware VTEP forwarding element that is associated with the element with the detected problem; and
sending a configuration message to direct the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element to update the administrative status value of the element with the detected problem.
2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element comprises a set of instructions for identifying one of a VTEP gateway and managed hardware forwarding element that is associated with the problem element.
3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the problem element is a physical machine.
4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the problem element is a physical forwarding element.
5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying an element as a problem element comprises a set of instructions for determining that the element is infected with a virus.
6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying an element as a problem element comprises a set of instructions for identifying a physical port to which the problem element is attached, wherein the set of elements to be updated comprises the physical port.
7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying an element as a problem element comprises a set of instructions for identifying a physical switch to which the problem element is attached, wherein the set of elements comprises the physical switch.
8. A method for managing a set of hardware Virtual Tunnel End Points (VTEPs) used to implement a logical network, the logical network implemented on a set of hardware forwarding elements, the method comprising:
configuring a hardware VTEP forwarding element to implement a logical network, wherein the hardware VTEP forwarding element comprises an administrative status value for each of a plurality of elements associated with the hardware VTEP forwarding element;
detecting a problem with an element associated with the logical network;
identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element as a hardware VTEP forwarding element that is associated with the element with the detected problem; and
sending a configuration message to direct the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element to update the administrative status value of the element with the detected problem.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element comprises identifying one of a VTEP gateway and managed hardware forwarding element that is associated with the problem element.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the problem element is a physical machine.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the problem element is a physical forwarding element.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein identifying an element as a problem element comprises determining that the element is infected with a virus.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element that is associated with the problem element comprises identifying a physical port to which the problem element is attached, wherein the set of elements to be updated comprises the physical port.
14. The method of claim 9 , wherein identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element that is associated with the problem element comprises identifying a physical switch to which the problem element is attached, wherein the set of elements comprises the physical switch.
15. A device comprising:
a set of processing units; and
a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by the set of processing units manages a set of hardware Virtual Tunnel End Points (VTEPs) used to implement a logical network, the logical network implemented on a set of hardware forwarding elements, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
configuring a hardware VTEP forwarding element to implement a logical network, wherein the hardware VTEP forwarding element comprises an administrative status value for each of a plurality of elements associated with the hardware VTEP forwarding element;
detecting a problem with an element associated with the logical network;
identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element as a hardware VTEP forwarding element that is associated with the element with the detected problem; and
sending a configuration message to direct the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element to update the administrative status value of the element with the detected problem.
16. The device of claim 15 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element comprises a set of instructions for identifying one of a VTEP gateway and managed forwarding element that is associated with the problem element.
17. The device of claim 16 , wherein the problem element is a physical machine.
18. The device of claim 16 , wherein the problem element is a physical forwarding element.
19. The device of claim 16 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying an element as a problem element comprises determining that the element is infected with a virus.
20. The device of claim 16 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the particular hardware VTEP forwarding element that is associated with the problem element comprises a set of instructions for identifying a physical port to which the problem element is attached, wherein the set of elements to be updated comprises the physical port.
21. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the updated administrative status value indicates that the problem element is not available.