IP Library Granted Patent US 11,750,481
Granted Patent B2
US 11,750,481 · App. 17/676,771 · Granted Sep 5, 2023

Application assessment and visibility for micro-segmentation of a network deployment

Inventors: Kaushal Bansal (Pleasanton, CA); Uday Masurekar (Sunnyvale, CA); Srinivas Nimmagadda (San Jose, CA); Jingmin Zhou (Los Gatos, CA); Abhishek Goliya (Pune, IN); Amit Chopra (Palo Alto, CA); Kausum Kumar (Los Gatos, CA)
Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
H04L43/026G06F9/45558H04L43/045H04L63/0263H04L67/14H04L67/51G06F2009/45595H04L43/18H04L63/0236H04L63/0254
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,750,481
App. No.
17/676,771
Granted
Sep 5, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method for visualizing network flows of a network is provided. The method monitors network flows between a group of machines in a network. The method associates identifiers with the monitored network flows. The method aggregates the monitored network flows into a set of groups based on the associated identifiers. The method displays a set of flow records for the each group of the set of groups.

Claims (36)

1. A method of creating micro-segmentation policy for applications executing in a network, the method comprising:

monitoring network packet traffic to identify network traffic types and patterns;

based on the network traffic types and patterns, identifying a set of associated components as an affinity group in the network;

using an application template that comprises a set of application components for a particular application to reconcile the components of the application template and the associated affinity group; and

creating micro-segmentation policy for the network based on a mapping of the components of the affinity group into the components of the application template of the particular application.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

based on the network traffic type and patterns, identifying a set of communication paths among different components of the affinity group; and

revising the set of components of the affinity group based the identified set of communication paths.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein using the application template comprises analyzing a set of conflicts identified through the monitoring of the network packet traffic.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the micro-segmentation policy for the network comprises a set of rules for a distributed firewall.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising applying the firewall rules to the components of the particular application and the network packet traffic.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the template of the particular application comprises a set of mandatory components, the method further comprising:

determining whether the associated affinity group of the particular application comprises the set of mandatory components; and

when the component of the affinity group do not include a mandatory component, providing an alert regarding the missing mandatory component.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the network packet traffic comprises monitoring network traffic of a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) operating at a plurality of host machines.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein monitoring the network packet traffic comprises identifying the network traffic from system logs of the plurality of DCNs.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the set of components as an affinity group associated with the particular application comprises performing deep packet inspection (DPI) to identify traffic types associated with each component.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the set of components as an affinity group comprises identifying the traffic types associated with the monitored packet traffic based on a protocol and a port identified in the monitored packet traffic.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for creating micro-segmentation policy for applications executing in a network, the program executable by a processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

monitoring network packet traffic to identify network traffic types and patterns;

based on the network traffic types and patterns, identifying a set of associated components as an affinity group in the network;

using an application template that comprises a set of application components for a particular application to reconcile the components of the application template and the associated affinity group; and

creating micro-segmentation policy for the network based on a mapping of the components of the affinity group into the components of the application template of the particular application.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , the program further comprising sets of instructions for:

identifying, based on the network traffic type and patterns, a set of communication paths among different components of the affinity group; and

revising the set of components of the affinity group based the identified set of communication paths.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for using the application template comprises a set of instructions for analyzing a set of conflicts identified through the monitoring of the network packet traffic.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the micro-segmentation policy for the network comprises a set of rules for a distributed firewall.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , the program further comprising a set of instructions for applying the firewall rules to the components of the particular application and the network packet traffic.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the template of the particular application comprises a set of mandatory components, the program further comprising sets of instructions for:

determining whether the associated affinity group of the particular application comprises the set of mandatory components; and

providing, when the component of the affinity group do not include a mandatory component, an alert regarding the missing mandatory component.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for monitoring the network packet traffic comprises a set of instructions for monitoring network traffic of a plurality of data compute nodes (DCNs) operating at a plurality of host machines.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the set of instructions for monitoring the network packet traffic comprises a set of instructions for identifying the network traffic from system logs of the plurality of DCNs.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the set of components as an affinity group comprises a set of instructions for performing deep packet inspection (DPI) to identify traffic types associated with each component.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the set of components as an affinity group comprises a set of instructions for identifying the traffic types associated with the monitored packet traffic based on a protocol and a port identified in the monitored packet traffic.

Assignments (1)
MERGER Recorded Jan 27, 2025
From: NICIRA, INC.
To: VMWARE LLC
Reel/Frame 070187/0487 →