CONFIGURATION OF LOAD BALANCER FOR CONNECTION SERVERS BETWEEN NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND MANAGED DATACENTERS

1 . A method for initiating a connection between a network management system in a public cloud and a datacenter managed by the network management system:

at a controller executing in the public cloud:

receiving a registration message from a particular datacenter to be managed by the network management system;

identifying one of a plurality of connection servers in the public cloud for handling a persistent connection initiated by the datacenter; and

configuring a load balancer in the public cloud to statically select the identified connection server for data messages that include a datacenter identifier associated with the particular datacenter.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the registration message is part of an onboarding process for the particular datacenter.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the particular datacenter joins a group of datacenters managed by a same set of service instances of the network management system for a particular tenant, wherein a logical network spans the group of datacenters.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the registration message is an API request.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the identified connection server handles connections for a plurality of datacenters for a plurality of different tenants.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the connection server from the plurality of connection servers comprises determining which of the plurality of connection servers has a highest current available connection load.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the controller stores metadata for each of the connection servers that specifies, for each connection server, (i) a maximum number of connections that the connection server can handle and (ii) a number of current connections handled by the connection server.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein for each connection server, the maximum number of connections is based on an amount of resources assigned to the connection server.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the registration message is received from a connection agent operating at the datacenter; and

the connection agent is configured to initiate a connection to a network address associated with the connection servers.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the connection agent initiates the connection using the datacenter identifier.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the load balancer selects the identified connection server for the connection agent when the connection agent initiates the connection after the load balancer is configured.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein configuring the load balancer comprises:

writing a mapping of the datacenter identifier to the identified connection server to a schema; and

based on the mapping in the schema, configuring the load balancer.

13 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting that a particular one of the connection servers has become unavailable; and

for each persistent connection between a respective datacenter and the network management system handled by the particular connection server:

identifying a respective connection server to handle the connection; and

configuring the load balancer to statically select the respective connection server for data messages that include a respective datacenter identifier associated with the respective datacenter.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data messages including the datacenter identifier comprise (i) requests from services of the network management system directed to a local network manager at the particular datacenter, (ii) responses from the local network manager, and (iii) data streamed by the local network manager to the network management system.

15 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a controller program which when executed by at least one processing unit initiates a connection between a network management system in a public cloud and a datacenter managed by the network management system, the controller program executing in the public cloud and comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a registration message from a particular datacenter to be managed by the network management system;

identifying one of a plurality of connection servers in the public cloud for handling a persistent connection initiated by the datacenter; and

configuring a load balancer in the public cloud to statically select the identified connection server for data messages that include a datacenter identifier associated with the particular datacenter.

16 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the registration message is part of an onboarding process for the particular datacenter to join a group of datacenters managed by a same set of service instances of the network management system for a particular tenant, wherein a logical network spans the group of datacenters.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the identified connection server handles connections for a plurality of datacenters for a plurality of different tenants.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the connection server from the plurality of connection servers comprises a set of instructions for determining which of the plurality of connection servers has a highest current available connection load.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the controller program stores metadata for each of the connection servers that specifies, for each connection server, (i) a maximum number of connections that the connection server can handle that is based on an amount of resources assigned to the connection server and (ii) a number of current connections handled by the connection server.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein:

the registration message is received from a connection agent operating at the datacenter; and

the connection agent is configured to initiate a connection to a network address associated with the connection servers.

21 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 20 , wherein:

the connection agent initiates the connection using the datacenter identifier; and

the load balancer selects the identified connection server for the connection agent when the connection agent initiates the connection after the load balancer is configured.

22 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the set of instructions for configuring the load balancer comprises sets of instructions for:

writing a mapping of the datacenter identifier to the identified connection server to a schema; and

based on the mapping in the schema, configuring the load balancer.

23 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the controller program further comprises sets of instructions for:

detecting that a particular one of the connection servers has become unavailable; and

for each persistent connection between a respective datacenter and the network management system handled by the particular connection server:

identifying a respective connection server to handle the connection; and

configuring the load balancer to statically select the respective connection server for data messages that include a respective datacenter identifier associated with the respective datacenter.

24 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the data messages including the datacenter identifier comprise (i) requests from services of the network management system directed to a local network manager at the particular datacenter, (ii) responses from the local network manager, and (iii) data streamed by the local network manager to the network management system.