Granted Patent B2

US 12,407,644 · App. 18/647,322 · Granted Sep 2, 2025

Inventors: Thomas Szigeti (Vancouver, CA); David John Zacks (Vancouver, CA); Akram Ismail Sheriff (San Jose, CA); Guy Keinan (Kfar-Saba, IL); Walter T. Hulick, Jr. (Pearland, TX)

Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.

H04L61/4511

Abstract

Claims (58)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a domain name system (DNS) service, a registration request to register a first microservice of a service cluster, wherein the registration request, which is transmitted by a node within the service cluster, comprises a name and a network address of the first microservice;

generating, by the DNS service, a DNS record for the first microservice comprising the name and the network address of the first microservice;

receiving, by the DNS service, a lookup request for information about the first microservice of the service cluster, the lookup request being transmitted by a network resource that is external to the service cluster;

performing, based on the lookup request, a lookup operation for the first microservice among a plurality of microservices of the service cluster registered with the DNS service; and

providing the information about the first microservice based on the lookup operation, the information including at least the name of the first microservice for visibility of the first microservice external of the service cluster.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the registration request further comprises an annotation corresponding to the first microservice and wherein the DNS record further comprises metadata about the first microservice obtained from the annotation.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the annotation is in a structured form based on a common naming schema, and further comprising:

parsing the annotation to extract the information corresponding to the first microservice for generating the metadata of the DNS record.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DNS record further includes metadata about the first microservice for applying a network policy specific to the first microservice or for gathering telemetry data about the first microservice.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the lookup operation includes:

obtaining the DNS record for the first microservice that matches a source address in the lookup request, the DNS record including a textual record that identifies the first microservice and one or more attributes of the first microservice.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lookup request includes a source address of a traffic flow, and performing the lookup operation for the first microservice includes:

performing a reverse DNS lookup for the name of the first microservice that matches the source address of the traffic flow.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lookup request includes a source address of a traffic flow based on a DNS domain of the traffic flow obtained from the network resource, and performing the lookup operation for the first microservice includes:

performing a direct DNS lookup for an address of the first microservice and the information about the first microservice that matches the source address in the lookup request.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory;

a network interface configured to enable network communications; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a domain name system (DNS) service, a registration request to register a first microservice of a service cluster, wherein the registration request, which is transmitted by a node within the service cluster, comprises a name and a network address of the first microservice;

generating, by the DNS service, a DNS record for the first microservice comprising the name and the network address of the first microservice;

receiving, by the DNS service, a lookup request for information about the first microservice of the service cluster, the lookup request being transmitted by a network resource that is external to the service cluster;

performing, based on the lookup request, a lookup operation for the first microservice among a plurality of microservices of the service cluster registered with the DNS service; and

providing the information about the first microservice based on the lookup operation, the information including at least the name of the first microservice for visibility of the first microservice external of the service cluster.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the registration request further comprises an annotation corresponding to the first microservice and wherein the DNS record further comprises metadata about the first microservice obtained from the annotation.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the annotation is in a structured form based on a common naming schema, and wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

parsing the annotation to extract the information corresponding to the first microservice for generating the metadata of the DNS record.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the DNS record further includes metadata about the first microservice for applying a network policy specific to the first microservice or for gathering telemetry data about the first microservice.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to perform the lookup operation by:

obtaining the DNS record for the first microservice that matches a source address in the lookup request, the DNS record including a textual record that identifies the first microservice and one or more attributes of the first microservice.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the lookup request includes a source address of a traffic flow and the processor is configured to perform the lookup operation for the first microservice by:

performing a reverse DNS lookup for the name of the first microservice that matches the source address of the traffic flow.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the lookup request includes a source address of a traffic flow based on a DNS domain of the traffic flow obtained from the network resource and the processor is configured to perform the lookup operation for the first microservice by:

performing a direct DNS lookup for an address of the first microservice and the information about the first microservice that matches the source address in the lookup request.

15. A system comprising:

a service cluster hosting a plurality of microservices, the plurality of microservices comprising at least a first microservice;

a node internal to the service cluster;

a network resource external to the service cluster; and

a domain name system (DNS) server comprising:

a memory;

a network interface configured to enable network communications; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving a registration request to register the first microservice of the service cluster, wherein the registration request, which is transmitted by the node, comprises a name and a network address of the first microservice;

generating a DNS record for the first microservice comprising the name and the network address of the first microservice;

receiving a lookup request for information about the first microservice of the service cluster, the lookup request being transmitted by the network resource;

performing, based on the lookup request, a lookup operation for the first microservice among the plurality of microservices of the service cluster registered with the DNS service; and

providing the information about the first microservice based on the lookup operation, the information including at least the name of the first microservice for visibility of the first microservice external of the service cluster.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the registration request further comprises an annotation corresponding to the first microservice and wherein the DNS record further comprises metadata about the first microservice obtained from the annotation.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the annotation is in a structured form based on a common naming schema and the processor is further configured to perform:

parsing the annotation to extract the information corresponding to the first microservice for generating the metadata of the DNS record.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the DNS record further includes metadata about the first microservice for applying a network policy specific to the first microservice or for gathering telemetry data about the first microservice.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to perform the lookup operation by:

obtaining the DNS record for the first microservice that matches a source address in the lookup request, the DNS record including a textual record that identifies the first microservice and one or more attributes of the first microservice.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the lookup request includes a source address of a traffic flow and the processor is configured to perform the lookup operation for the first microservice by:

performing a reverse DNS lookup for the name of the first microservice that matches the source address of the traffic flow.

21. The system of claim 15 , wherein the lookup request includes a source address of a traffic flow based on a DNS domain of the traffic flow obtained from the network resource and the processor is configured to perform the lookup operation for the first microservice by:

performing a direct DNS lookup for an address of the first microservice and the information about the first microservice that matches the source address in the lookup request.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (86)