Granted Patent B2

US 12,301,382 · App. 17/724,436 · Granted May 13, 2025

Inventors: Jianjun Shen (Redwood City, CA); Ran Gu (Beijing, CN); Caixia Jiang (Beijing, CN); Yves Fauser (Munich, DE)

Assignee: VMWare LLC

H04L12/4645G06F9/45558G06F9/5016G06F9/505G06F9/547H04L41/0803H04L41/122H04L61/2535G06F2009/4557G06F2009/45595

Abstract

Claims (49)

1. A method of processing data messages for routable subnets of a logical network, the logical network implemented by a software-defined network (SDN) and connecting a plurality of machines, the method comprising:

receiving an inbound data message;

performing a DNAT (destination network address translation) operation on the received data message to identify a record associated with a destination IP (Internet protocol) address of the data message;

from the record, identifying a VLAN (virtual local area network) identifier, an LNI (logical network identifier), and a destination host computer IP address for the data message;

encapsulating the data message with an outer header containing the destination host computer IP address and the VLAN identifier; and

forwarding the encapsulated data message to the destination host computer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the VLAN identifier is associated with a particular subnet to which a destination machine of the data message belongs.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a combination of the VLAN identifier and LNI map to a particular logical switch designated for the particular subnet.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data message is destined to a set of containers (i) that belong to a subnet associated with the identified VLAN identifier and (ii) that execute on a machine executing on the destination host computer.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the set of containers is a first set of containers and the subnet is a first subnet, wherein at least a second set of containers belonging to a second subnet execute on the machine separately from the first set of containers.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first set of containers comprises a first pod and the second set of containers comprises a second pod.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the set of containers are a first set of containers and the machine is a first machine;

at least a second set of containers belonging to the subnet execute on a second machine; and

the first and second sets of containers receive data messages transported by a logical switch that is associated with the VLAN identifier and that is designated for the subnet.

8. The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the set of containers is a first set of containers in a plurality of sets of containers belonging to a particular subnet associated with the second LNI and the first segment; and

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are assigned to containers in each of the plurality of sets of containers belonging to the particular subnet from an IP address pool allocated to the particular subnet.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein each set of containers in the plurality of sets of containers uses (address resolution protocol) ARP messages tagged with the VLAN identifier to advertise the assigned IP addresses to each other set of containers in the plurality of sets of containers belonging to the subnet, wherein tagging the ARP messages with the VLAN identifier ensures the ARP messages are only read by sets of containers belonging to the subnet.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein each set of containers in the plurality of sets of containers uses (neighbor discovery) ND messages tagged with the VLAN identifier to advertise the assigned IP addresses to each other set of containers in the plurality of sets of containers belonging to the subnet, wherein tagging the ND messages with the VLAN identifier ensures the ND messages are only read by sets of containers belonging to the subnet.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by a gateway logical router.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the gateway logical router logically connects the plurality of machines of the logical network to an external network.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the gateway logical router is a VRF (virtual routing and forwarding) gateway logical router comprising a plurality of simultaneous instances of a routing table, wherein each instance in the plurality of simultaneous instances of the routing table is associated with a different subnet of the logical network.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an encapsulated data message with outer and inner headers storing an LNI (logical network identifier), a logical source IP (Internet protocol) address, and a VLAN (virtual local area network) identifier;

using the VLAN identifier to identify a subnet to which a source of the data message belongs;

based on the identified subnet, performing a SNAT (source network address translation) operation to identify an external source IP address for the data message; and

forwarding the data message with a header containing the identified external source IP address.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein before forwarding the data message, the method further comprises:

creating a NAT (network address translation) record identifying the VLAN identifier and logical source IP address; and

using the NAT record to process inbound data messages destined to the external source IP address.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein performing the SNAT operation based on the identified subnet comprises identifying the external source IP address from a SNAT IP address pool allocated to the identified subnet.

17. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by a set of processing units, the program for processing data messages for routable subnets of a logical network, the logical network implemented by a software-defined network (SDN) and connecting a plurality of machines, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving an inbound data message;

performing a DNAT (destination network address translation) operation on the received data message to identify a record associated with a destination IP (Internet protocol) address of the data message;

from the record, identifying a VLAN (virtual local area network) identifier, an LNI (logical network identifier), and a destination host computer IP address for the data message;

encapsulating the data message with an outer header containing the destination host computer IP address and the VLAN identifier; and

forwarding the encapsulated data message to the destination host computer.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein:

the VLAN identifier is associated with a particular subnet to which a destination machine of the data message belongs; and

a combination of the VLAN identifier and LNI map to a particular logical switch designated for the particular subnet.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , the program further comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving an encapsulated data message with outer and inner headers storing an LNI (logical network identifier), a logical source IP (Internet protocol) address, and a VLAN (virtual local area network) identifier;

using the VLAN identifier to identify a subnet to which a source of the data message belongs;

based on the identified subnet, performing a SNAT (source network address translation) operation to identify an external source IP address for the data message; and

forwarding the data message with a header containing the identified external source IP address.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19 , wherein before forwarding the data message, the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

creating a NAT (network address translation) record identifying the VLAN identifier and logical source IP address; and

using the NAT record to process inbound data messages destined to the external source IP address.

Assignments (3)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (330)