Method and system for invalidating cached flow information in a cloud infrastructure

Abstract

Techniques for managing distribution of configuration information supporting packet flows in a cloud environment are described. In an example, a virtual network interface card (VNIC) hosted on a network virtualization device (NVD) receives a first packet from a compute instance associated with the VNIC. The VNIC determines that flow information for sending the first packet on a virtual network is not available from a memory of the NVD. The VNIC sends the first packet to a network interface service via the NVD, where the network interface service maintains configuration information for sending packets on an underlay network and is configured to send the first packet on the underlay network based on the configuration information. The NVD receives flow information from the network interface service, where the flow information is a subset of the configuration information. The NVD stores the flow information in the memory.

Description

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This international patent application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 237,750, filed April 22, 2021, entitled “Invading Cachedlow Information in a Cloud Infrastructure,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 149,276, filed February 13, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. Background Technology

[0003] Cloud infrastructure, such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), provides a collection of cloud services that enable entities subscribing to these services (e.g., enterprises) to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available, cloud-hosted environment. Subscribing entities are referred to as customers of the cloud service provider. Cloud infrastructure can provide high-performance computing, storage, and networking capabilities within a flexible, overlay virtual network that runs on top of the physical underlying network and is securely accessible from the enterprise's on-premises network. Cloud infrastructure such as OCI generally allows customers to manage cloud-based workloads in the same way they manage their on-premises workloads. Therefore, organizations can reap all the benefits of the cloud with the same control, isolation, security, and predictable performance as their on-premises networks.

[0004] Virtual networking is fundamental to cloud infrastructure and cloud applications because it enables access to, connectivity to, protection of, and modification of cloud resources. Virtual networking supports communication between multiple computers, virtual machines (VMs), virtual servers, or other devices across different physical locations. While physical networking connects computer systems via cabling and other hardware, virtual networking uses software to manage computers and servers connected to different physical locations over the internet. Virtual networking uses virtualized versions of traditional network components, such as network switches, routers, and adapters, allowing for more efficient routing and easier network configuration and reconfiguration. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This disclosure generally relates to the distribution of configuration information that supports packet flow between endpoints in a cloud environment. Configuration information typically includes policies, rules, mappings, routes, and other types of information used for sending and / or receiving packets. This distribution can optimize the balance between memory usage and bandwidth. Specifically, the configuration information may be stored by a network interface service that centrally supports connectivity between compute instances in a virtual network. A relevant subset of the configuration information (referred to herein as flow information) may also be stored locally on a network virtualization device that provides interfaces from compute instances to the network interface service and the virtual network. When flow information is not natively available on the network virtualization device to support packet flow to an endpoint, the packet may be sent to the network interface service, which then processes it and sends it to the endpoint. Otherwise, the flow information is used at the network virtualization device to process the packet and send it to the endpoint, without sending it via the network interface service. In this way, instead of storing the entire set of configuration information on the network virtualization device (which would use a relatively large amount of memory and limit the density of interfaces that the network virtualization device can support), only the relevant subset is stored locally and used for packet streaming, thereby saving memory space (which in turn allows for a relatively high interface density on the network virtualization device) and bandwidth (e.g., by sending packets to endpoints without going through network interface services).

[0006] The terms and expressions used are intended to be descriptive rather than restrictive, and their use is not intended to exclude any equivalent forms of the features or portions thereof shown and described. However, it should be recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the claimed systems and methods. Therefore, it should be understood that while the systems and methods have been specifically disclosed by way of examples and optional features, those skilled in the art will recognize modifications and variations to the concepts disclosed herein, and such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the systems and methods as defined by the appended claims.

[0007] This overview is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used alone to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. The subject matter should be understood by referring to the appropriate portions of this disclosure, any or all of the accompanying drawings, and each claim.

[0008] The foregoing, as well as other features and embodiments, will become more apparent from the following description, claims, and drawings. Attached Figure Description

[0009] The illustrative examples are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0010] Figure 1This is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment, illustrating a virtual or overlay cloud network hosted by a cloud service provider infrastructure according to certain embodiments.

[0011] Figure 2 A simplified architecture diagram of the physical components in the physical network within the CSPI according to certain embodiments is depicted.

[0012] Figure 3 An example arrangement within CSPI according to certain embodiments is shown, in which a host machine is connected to multiple network virtualization devices (NVDs).

[0013] Figure 4 The connectivity between the host machine and the NVD, according to certain embodiments, is described for providing I / O virtualization to support multiple tenancy.

[0014] Figure 5 A simplified block diagram of a physical network provided by CSPI according to certain embodiments is depicted.

[0015] Figure 6 The illustration shows an example of a network architecture that supports packet flows based on cached configuration information, according to certain embodiments.

[0016] Figure 7 The illustration shows an example of a network architecture that supports packet flows based on non-cached configuration information, according to certain embodiments.

[0017] Figure 8 The illustration shows an example of a network architecture that supports packet flows based on cached streaming information and non-cached configuration information, according to certain embodiments.

[0018] Figure 9 An example of an outbound packet flow that results in cached streaming information is illustrated according to certain embodiments.

[0019] Figure 10 An example of an outbound packet flow based on cached streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated.

[0020] Figure 11 An example of an inbound packet stream that results in cached streaming information is illustrated according to certain embodiments.

[0021] Figure 12 An example of an inbound packet stream based on cached streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated.

[0022] Figure 13 The illustration shows an example of invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments.

[0023] Figure 14The illustration shows another example of invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments.

[0024] Figure 15 An example of a method for sending packets of streaming information that cause caching, according to certain embodiments, is illustrated.

[0025] Figure 16 An example of a method for receiving packets of streaming information that result in caching, according to certain embodiments, is illustrated.

[0026] Figure 17 An example of a method for generating and sending streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated.

[0027] Figure 18 An example of a method for invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated.

[0028] Figure 19 The illustration shows another example of a method for invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments.

[0029] Figure 20 The illustration shows another example of a method for invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments.

[0030] Figure 21 This is a block diagram illustrating a pattern for implementing cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0031] Figure 22 This is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0032] Figure 23 This is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0033] Figure 24 This is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0034] Figure 25 This is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system according to at least one embodiment. Detailed Implementation

[0035] Example Virtual Networking Architecture

[0036] The term cloud service generally refers to services provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) to users or customers on demand (e.g., via a subscription model) using systems and infrastructure (cloud infrastructure) provided by the CSP. Typically, the servers and systems that make up the CSP's infrastructure are separate from the customer's own on-premises servers and systems. Therefore, customers can utilize cloud services provided by the CSP without having to purchase separate hardware and software resources for the service. Cloud services are designed to provide subscribers with simple, scalable access to applications and computing resources without requiring customers to invest in the infrastructure used to provide the service.

[0037] Several cloud service providers offer various types of cloud services. There are various types or models of cloud services, including Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), etc.

[0038] Customers can subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by a CSP. Customers can be any entity, such as individuals, organizations, or businesses. When a customer subscribes to or registers for a service provided by a CSP, a lease or account is created for that customer. The customer can then access one or more cloud resources associated with that account through their subscription.

[0039] As mentioned above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing service. In the IaaS model, a CSP provides infrastructure (called Cloud Service Provider Infrastructure or CSPI) that customers can use to build their own customizable networks and deploy customer resources. Therefore, the customer's resources and network are hosted in a distributed environment by the infrastructure provided by the CSP. This differs from traditional computing, where the customer's resources and network are hosted by the infrastructure provided by the customer.

[0040] CSPI can include interconnected high-performance computing resources forming a physical network, including various host machines, memory resources, and network resources. This physical network is also known as the base network or underlying network. Resources in CSPI can be distributed across one or more data centers, which may be geographically dispersed across one or more geographic regions. Virtualization software can be executed by these physical resources to provide a virtualized distributed environment. Virtualization creates overlay networks (also known as software-based networks, software-defined networks, or virtual networks) on the physical network. The CSPI physical network provides the underlying foundation for creating one or more overlay or virtual networks on top of the physical network. The physical network (or base network or underlying network) includes physical network devices such as physical switches, routers, computers, and host machines. An overlay network is a logical (or virtual) network that runs on top of the physical base network. A given physical network can support one or more overlay networks. Overlay networks typically use encapsulation techniques to distinguish traffic belonging to different overlay networks. Virtual or overlay networks are also known as Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs). A virtual network is a layer of network abstraction that can run on top of a physical network, implemented using software virtualization technologies (e.g., hypervisors, virtualization functions implemented by network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., smart NICs), top-of-rack (TOR) switches, smart TORs that implement one or more functions performed by NVDs, and other mechanisms). Virtual networks can take many forms, including peer-to-peer networks, IP networks, etc. Virtual networks are typically either Layer 3 IP networks or Layer 2 VLANs. This method of virtual or overlay networking is often referred to as virtual or overlay Layer 3 networking. Examples of protocols developed for virtual networks include IP-in-IP (or Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN—IETF RFC 7348), Virtual Private Network (VPN) (e.g., MPLS Layer 3 Virtual Private Network (RFC 4364)), VMware's NSX, GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), etc.

[0041] For IaaS, the infrastructure provided by a CSP (Center for Service Providers) can be configured to offer virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, cloud service providers can host infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., hypervisor layer), etc.). In some cases, IaaS providers can also provision various services to accompany those infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.). Therefore, since these services can be policy-driven, IaaS users can implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance. CSPI provides a collection of infrastructure and complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available, hosted, distributed environment. CSPI provides high-performance computing resources and capabilities, as well as storage capacity, in a flexible virtual network securely accessible from various networked locations, such as the customer's on-premises network. When a customer subscribes to or enrolls in an IaaS service provided by a CSP, the lease created for that customer is a secure and isolated partition within the CSP, where the customer can create, organize, and manage their cloud resources.

[0042] Customers can build their own virtual networks using the compute, storage, and networking resources provided by CSPI. One or more customer resources or workloads, such as compute instances, can be deployed on these virtual networks. For example, a customer can use resources provided by CSPI to build one or more customizable and private virtual networks, called Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs). A customer can deploy one or more customer resources, such as compute instances, on a customer VCN. Compute instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. Therefore, CSPI provides a collection of infrastructure and complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available, virtually managed environment. Customers do not manage or control the underlying physical resources provided by CSPI, but they can control the operating system, storage devices, and deployed applications; and may have limited control over selected networking components (e.g., firewalls).

[0043] The CSP can provide a console that enables customers and network administrators to configure, access, and manage resources deployed in the cloud using CSPI resources. In some embodiments, the console provides a web-based user interface that can be used to access and manage the CSPI. In other embodiments, the console is a web-based application provided by the CSP.

[0044] CSPI can support single-tenant or multi-tenant architectures. In a single-tenant architecture, software (e.g., applications, databases) or hardware components (e.g., host machines or servers) serve a single customer or tenant. In a multi-tenant architecture, the software or hardware components serve multiple customers or tenants. Therefore, in a multi-tenant architecture, CSPI resources are shared among multiple customers or tenants. In a multi-tenant scenario, precautions and safeguards are implemented in CSPI to ensure that each tenant's data is isolated and invisible to other tenants.

[0045] In a physical network, a network endpoint (“endpoint”) is a computing device or system that connects to and communicates with the physical network. Network endpoints in a physical network can connect to a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), or other types of physical networks. Examples of traditional endpoints in a physical network include modems, hubs, bridges, switches, routers and other networking devices, physical computers (or host machines), etc. Each physical device in a physical network has a fixed network address that can be used to communicate with the device. This fixed network address can be a Layer 2 address (e.g., a MAC address), a fixed Layer 3 address (e.g., an IP address), etc. In a virtualized environment or virtual network, endpoints can include various virtual endpoints, such as virtual machines hosted by components of the physical network (e.g., hosted by physical host machines). These endpoints in a virtual network are addressed by overlay addresses, such as overlay Layer 2 addresses (e.g., overlay MAC addresses) and overlay Layer 3 addresses (e.g., overlay IP addresses). Network overlays provide flexibility by allowing network administrators to move around the overlay addresses associated with network endpoints using software management (e.g., via software implementing a control plane for virtual networks). Therefore, unlike physical networks, in virtual networks, overlay addresses (e.g., overlay IP addresses) can be moved from one endpoint to another using network management software. Since virtual networks are built on top of physical networks, communication between components within a virtual network involves both the virtual network and the underlying physical network. To facilitate this communication, CSPI components are configured to learn and store mappings that map overlay addresses in the virtual network to actual physical addresses in the base network, and vice versa. These mappings are then used to facilitate communication. Client traffic is encapsulated to facilitate routing within the virtual network.

[0046] Therefore, physical addresses (e.g., physical IP addresses) are associated with components in a physical network, and overlay addresses (e.g., overlay IP addresses) are associated with entities in a virtual or overlay network. A physical IP address is an IP address associated with a physical device (e.g., a network device) in the underlying or physical network. For example, each NVD has an associated physical IP address. An overlay IP address is an overlay address associated with an entity in an overlay network, such as an overlay address associated with a compute instance in a customer's Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). Two different customers or tenants (each with its own private VCN) can potentially use the same overlay IP address in their VCN without knowing about each other. Both physical IP addresses and overlay IP addresses are types of real IP addresses. These addresses are separate from virtual IP addresses. A virtual IP address is typically a single IP address that represents or maps to multiple real IP addresses. A virtual IP address provides a one-to-many mapping between virtual IP addresses and multiple real IP addresses. For example, a load balancer can use a VIP to map or represent multiple servers, each with its own real IP address.

[0047] Cloud infrastructure, or CSPI, is physically hosted in one or more data centers in one or more regions of the world. CSPI can include components in the physical or underlying network and virtualized components (e.g., virtual networks, compute instances, virtual machines, etc.) in a virtual network built on top of the physical network components. In some embodiments, CSPI is organized and hosted in domains, regions, and availability domains. A region is typically a localized geographical area containing one or more data centers. Regions are generally independent of each other and can be geographically distant, for example, spanning countries or even continents. For example, one region might be in Australia, another in Japan, another in India, and so on. CSPI resources are partitioned between regions, so that each region has its own independent subset of CSPI resources. Each region can provide a set of core infrastructure services and resources, such as compute resources (e.g., bare metal servers, virtual machines, containers, and related infrastructure); storage resources (e.g., block volume storage devices, file storage devices, object storage devices, archive storage devices); networking resources (e.g., virtual cloud networks (VCNs), load balancing resources, connections to on-premises networks), database resources; edge networking resources (e.g., DNS); and access management and monitoring resources, etc. Each region typically has multiple paths connecting it to other regions within the domain.

[0048] Generally, applications are deployed in the areas where they are used most frequently (i.e., on infrastructure associated with that area) because using nearby resources is faster than using distant ones. Applications may also be deployed in different areas for various reasons, such as redundancy to mitigate the risk of events within a region (such as large weather systems or earthquakes), or to meet different requirements of legal jurisdictions, tax areas, and other business or social standards.

[0049] Data centers within a region can be further organized and subdivided into Availability Domains (ADs). An Availability Domain can correspond to one or more data centers located within a region. A region can consist of one or more Availability Domains. In this distributed environment, CSPI resources are either region-specific, such as Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs), or Availability Domain-specific, such as compute instances.

[0050] Availability Zones (ADs) within a region are isolated from each other, fault-tolerant, and configured to make simultaneous failures highly unlikely. This is achieved by ensuring that ADs do not share critical infrastructure resources (such as networking, physical cabling, cable paths, cable entry points, etc.), making a failure at one AD within a region unlikely to affect the availability of other ADs in the same region. ADs within the same region can be interconnected via low-latency, high-bandwidth networks, enabling high-availability connectivity to other networks (e.g., the internet, customer on-premises networks, etc.) and allowing for replication systems across multiple ADs to achieve high availability and disaster recovery. Cloud services use multiple ADs to ensure high availability and prevent resource failures. As the infrastructure provided by an IaaS provider grows, more regions and ADs, along with additional capacity, can be added. Traffic between availability domains is typically encrypted.

[0051] In some embodiments, regions are grouped into domains. A domain is a logical collection of regions. Domains are isolated from each other and do not share any data. Regions within the same domain can communicate with each other, but regions in different domains cannot. A customer's lease or account with the CSP resides in a single domain and can be distributed across one or more regions belonging to that domain. Typically, when a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, a lease or account is created for that customer in a region within the domain that the customer designates (called the "primary" region). A customer can extend their lease to one or more other regions within the domain. A customer cannot access regions that are not within the domain where their lease is located.

[0052] IaaS providers can offer multiple domains, each catering to a specific set of customers or users. For example, a business domain can be offered for business customers. As another example, a domain can be offered for customers within a specific country. As yet another example, a government domain can be offered for governments, etc. For instance, a government domain can cater to a specific government and may have a higher level of security than the business domain. For example, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) currently offers domains for the business region and two domains for the government cloud region (e.g., FedRAMP licensed and IL5 licensed).

[0053] In some embodiments, an Active Directory (AD) can be subdivided into one or more fault domains. A fault domain is a grouping of infrastructure resources within an AD to provide anti-affinity. Fault domains allow for the distribution of compute instances such that these instances do not reside on the same physical hardware within a single AD. This is known as anti-affinity. A fault domain refers to a collection of hardware components (computers, switches, etc.) that share a single point of failure. Compute pools are logically divided into fault domains. Therefore, a hardware failure or compute hardware maintenance event affecting one fault domain does not affect instances in other fault domains. Depending on the embodiment, the number of fault domains for each AD can vary. For example, in some embodiments, each AD contains three fault domains. Fault domains act as logical data centers within the AD.

[0054] When a customer subscribes to IaaS services, resources from CSPI are provisioned to the customer and associated with the customer's lease. Customers can use these provisioned resources to build private networks and deploy resources on those networks. Customer networks hosted in the cloud by CSPI are called Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs). Customers can use the CSPI resources allocated to them to set up one or more VCNs. A VCN is a virtual or software-defined private network. Customer resources deployed in a customer's VCN can include compute instances (e.g., virtual machines, bare metal instances) and other resources. These compute instances can represent various customer workloads, such as applications, load balancers, databases, etc. Compute instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with publicly accessible endpoints (“public endpoints”) via public networks (such as the Internet), with other instances in the same VCN or other VCNs (e.g., other VCNs belonging to the customer or VCNs not belonging to the customer), with the customer's on-premises data center or network, and with service endpoints and other types of endpoints.

[0055] CSPs can use CSPIs to provide various services. In some cases, CSPI clients can function as service providers themselves and use CSPI resources to provide services. Service providers can expose service endpoints, characterized by identifying information such as IP addresses, DNS names, and ports. Client resources (e.g., compute instances) can access a specific service by visiting the service endpoints exposed by the service for that specific service. These service endpoints are generally publicly accessible to users via public communication networks such as the Internet using the public IP addresses associated with the endpoints. Publicly accessible network endpoints are sometimes also referred to as public endpoints.

[0056] In some embodiments, a service provider may expose the service via an endpoint (sometimes referred to as a service endpoint) for the service. Clients of the service can then use this service endpoint to access the service. In some implementations, the service endpoint provided for the service can be accessed by multiple clients intending to consume the service. In other implementations, a dedicated service endpoint can be provided to a client, so that only that client can use that dedicated service endpoint to access the service.

[0057] In some embodiments, when a VCN is created, it is associated with a Private Overlay Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) address space, which refers to a set of private overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0 / 16) assigned to the VCN. A VCN includes associated subnets, routing tables, and gateways. A VCN resides within a single region but can span one or more of the availability domains within that region. A gateway is a virtual interface configured for the VCN and enables communication between the VCN and one or more endpoints outside the VCN. One or more different types of gateways can be configured for a VCN to enable communication to and from different types of endpoints.

[0058] A VCN can be subdivided into one or more subnets, such as one or more subnets. Therefore, a subnet is a configurable unit or subdivision that can be created within a VCN. A VCN can have one or more subnets. Each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24), which do not overlap with other subnets within that VCN and represent a subset of the VCN's address space.

[0059] Each compute instance is associated with a Virtual Network Interface Card (VNIC), which enables the compute instance to participate in subnets within a VCN. A VNIC is the logical representation of a physical network interface card (NIC). Generally, a VNIC is the interface between an entity (e.g., a compute instance, a service) and the virtual network. A VNIC exists within a subnet and has one or more associated IP addresses, along with associated security rules or policies. A VNIC is equivalent to a Layer 2 port on a switch. A VNIC is attached to both the compute instance and the subnet within the VCN. The VNIC associated with a compute instance makes the compute instance part of the VCN's subnet and enables the compute instance to communicate (e.g., send and receive packets) with endpoints on the same subnet as the compute instance, with endpoints in different subnets within the VCN, or with endpoints outside the VCN. Therefore, the VNIC associated with a compute instance determines how the compute instance connects to endpoints inside and outside the VCN. When a compute instance is created and added to a subnet within a VCN, a VNIC for the compute instance is created and associated with that compute instance. For a subnet that includes a set of compute instances, the subnet contains a VNIC corresponding to that set of compute instances, with each VNIC attached to a compute instance within that set of compute instances.

[0060] A private overlay IP address is assigned to each compute instance via the VNIC associated with it. This private overlay network IP address is assigned to the VNIC associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created and is used to route traffic to and from the compute instance. All VNICs within a given subnet use the same routing table, security list, and DHCP options. As described above, each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24) that do not overlap with other subnets within that VCN and represent a subset of the VCN's address space. For a VNIC on a specific subnet of a VCN, the private overlay IP address assigned to that VNIC is an address from the contiguous range of overlay IP addresses allocated to the subnet.

[0061] In some embodiments, in addition to a private overlay IP address, a compute instance may optionally be assigned additional overlay IP addresses, such as one or more public IP addresses, for example, if in a public subnet. These multiple addresses may be assigned either on the same VNIC or on multiple VNICs associated with the compute instance. However, each instance has a primary VNIC, which is created during instance startup and associated with the overlay private IP address assigned to that instance—this primary VNIC cannot be deleted. Additional VNICs, called secondary VNICs, can be added to existing instances in the same availability domain as the primary VNIC. All VNICs are in the same availability domain as the instance. Secondary VNICs may reside in a subnet within the same VCN as the primary VNIC, or in a different subnet within the same VCN or different VCNs.

[0062] If a compute instance is in a public subnet, it can optionally be assigned a public IP address. When creating a subnet, it can be specified as either a public or private subnet. A private subnet means that resources within the subnet (such as compute instances) and associated VNICs cannot have public overriding IP addresses. A public subnet means that resources within the subnet and associated VNICs can have public IP addresses. Customers can specify that a subnet exists within a single availability domain or across multiple availability domains in regions or domains.

[0063] As described above, a VCN can be subdivided into one or more subnets. In some embodiments, a virtual router (VR) configured for the VCN (referred to as a VCN VR or simply VR) enables communication between the subnets of the VCN. For a subnet within the VCN, the VR represents a logical gateway for that subnet, enabling that subnet (i.e., compute instances on that subnet) to communicate with endpoints on other subnets within the VCN and other endpoints outside the VCN. The VCN VR is a logical entity configured to route traffic between the VNIC within the VCN and the virtual gateway (“gateway”) associated with the VCN. The following section discusses… Figure 1Further description of the gateway. A VCN VR is a Layer 3 / IP layer concept. In one embodiment, there exists a VCN VR for a VCN, where the VCN VR has a potentially unlimited number of IP-addressable ports, one port for each subnet of the VCN. In this way, the VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet within the VCN to which the VCN VR is attached. The VR also connects to various gateways configured for the VCN. In some embodiments, a specific overlay IP address within the overlay IP address range for a subnet is reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. For example, consider a VCN with two subnets, associated with address ranges 10.0 / 16 and 10.1 / 16. For the first subnet in the VCN with an address range of 10.0 / 16, addresses within this range are reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. In some cases, the first IP address within the range can be reserved for the VCN VR. For example, for a subnet covering the IP address range of 10.0 / 16, the IP address 10.0.0.1 could be reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. For a second subnet within the same VCN with an address range of 10.1 / 16, the VCN VR can have a port for the second subnet with the IP address 10.1.0.1. The VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet within the VCN.

[0064] In some other embodiments, each subnet within a VCN may have its own associated VR, which can be addressed by the subnet using a reserved or default IP address associated with the VR. For example, the reserved or default IP address may be the first IP address in a range of IP addresses associated with the subnet. The VNICs within the subnet can use this default or reserved IP address to communicate with the VR associated with the subnet (e.g., send and receive packets). In this embodiment, the VR is the ingress / egress point of the subnet. The VR associated with a subnet within the VCN can communicate with other VRs associated with other subnets within the VCN. The VR can also communicate with the gateway associated with the VCN. The VR functionality of a subnet runs on or is performed by one or more NVDs that perform VNIC functionality for the VNICs within the subnet.

[0065] You can configure routing tables, security rules, and DHCP options for a VCN. A routing table is a virtual routing table used by the VCN and contains rules that route traffic from subnets within the VCN to destinations outside the VCN via gateways or specially configured instances. You can customize the VCN's routing table to control how packets are forwarded / routed to and from the VCN. DHCP options refer to configuration information automatically provided to the instance when it starts up.

[0066] Security rules configured for a VCN represent overlay firewall rules used by the VCN. Security rules can include ingress and egress rules, specifying the types of traffic allowed to enter and exit the VCN instance (e.g., based on protocol and port). Clients can choose whether a given rule is stateful or stateless. For example, a client can set a stateful ingress rule with source CIDR 0.0.0.0 / 0 and destination TCP port 22 to allow a set of incoming SSH traffic from anywhere to the instance. Security rules can be implemented using network security groups or security lists. A network security group consists of a set of security rules that apply only to resources within that group. A security list, on the other hand, includes rules applicable to all resources in any subnet using that security list. A default security list with default security rules can be provided to the VCN. DHCP options configured for the VCN provide configuration information that is automatically provided to instances within the VCN at instance startup.

[0067] In some embodiments, configuration information for a VCN is determined and stored by the VCN control plane. For example, configuration information for a VCN may include information about: the address range associated with the VCN, subnets and associated information within the VCN, one or more VRs associated with the VCN, compute instances and associated VNICs within the VCN, NVDs (e.g., VNICs, VRs, gateways) that perform various virtualization network functions associated with the VCN, status information for the VCN, and other VCN-related information. In some embodiments, a VCN distribution service publishes configuration information stored by the VCN control plane or a portion thereof to the NVD. The distributed information can be used to update information stored and used by the NVD (e.g., forwarding tables, routing tables, etc.) to forward packets to or from compute instances within the VCN.

[0068] In some embodiments, the creation of VCNs and subnets is handled by the VCN control plane (CP), and the initiation of compute instances is handled by the compute control plane. The compute control plane is responsible for allocating physical resources to the compute instances and then invoking the VCN control plane to create VNICs and attach them to the compute instances. The VCN CP also maps VCN data to the VCN data plane, which is configured to perform packet forwarding and routing functions. In some embodiments, the VCN CP provides a distribution service responsible for providing updates to the VCN data plane. Examples of VCN control planes are also available in... Figure 21 , Figure 22 , Figure 23 and Figure 24 It is depicted in (see reference numerals 2116, 2216, 2316 and 2416) and described below.

[0069] Customers can create one or more VCNs using resources hosted by CSPI. Compute instances deployed on a customer's VCN can communicate with different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI and endpoints external to CSPI.

[0070] Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 , Figure 4 , Figure 5 , Figure 21 , Figure 22 , Figure 23 and Figure 25 The document describes various architectures for implementing cloud-based services using CSPI, and these are described below. Figure 1 This is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment 100, illustrating an overlay or client VCN hosted by CSPI according to certain embodiments. Figure 1 The distributed environment described includes multiple components in the overlay network. Figure 1 The distributed environment 100 depicted herein is merely an example and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. Many variations, substitutions, and modifications are possible. For example, in some implementations, Figure 1 The distributed environment described in the text can have more than Figure 1 The more or fewer systems or components shown can be combined into two or more systems, or can have different system configurations or arrangements.

[0071] like Figure 1 As illustrated in the example, distributed environment 100 includes a CSPI 101 that provides services and resources that customers can subscribe to and use to build their Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). In some embodiments, CSPI 101 provides IaaS services to subscribing customers. Data centers within CSPI 101 can be organized into one or more regions. Figure 1 The example shown is a region "Region US" 102. The customer has already configured customer VCN 104 for Region 102. The customer can deploy various compute instances on VCN 104, which can include virtual machines or bare metal instances. Examples of instances include applications, databases, load balancers, etc.

[0072] exist Figure 1 In the embodiment depicted, customer VCN 104 includes two subnets, namely "Subnet-1" and "Subnet-2", each with its own CIDR IP address range. Figure 1In this configuration, subnet-1 covers the IP address range of 10.0 / 16, and subnet-2 covers the address range of 10.1 / 16. VCN Virtual Router 105 represents the logical gateway for the VCN, enabling communication between subnets of VCN104 and with other endpoints outside the VCN. VCN VR 105 is configured to route traffic between the VNICs within VCN104 and the gateways associated with VCN104. VCN VR 105 provides a port for each subnet of VCN104. For example, VR 105 could provide a port with IP address 10.0.0.1 for subnet-1 and a port with IP address 10.1.0.1 for subnet-2.

[0073] Multiple compute instances can be deployed on each subnet, where compute instances can be virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. Compute instances within a subnet can be hosted by one or more host machines within CSPI 101. Compute instances participate in the subnet via a VNIC associated with the compute instance. For example, as... Figure 1 As shown, compute instance C1 becomes part of subnet-1 via the VNIC associated with it. Similarly, compute instance C2 becomes part of subnet-1 via the VNIC associated with it. In a similar manner, multiple compute instances (which can be virtual machine instances or bare metal instances) can be part of subnet-1. Each compute instance is assigned a private overlay IP address and MAC address via its associated VNIC. For example, in... Figure 1 In this subnet, compute instance C1 has an overlay IP address of 10.0.0.2 and a MAC address of M1, while compute instance C2 has a private overlay IP address of 10.0.0.3 and a MAC address of M2. Each compute instance in subnet-1 (including compute instances C1 and C2) has a default route to VCN VR 105 using IP address 10.0.0.1, which is the IP address of the port of VCN VR 105 used in subnet-1.

[0074] Multiple compute instances, including virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances, can be deployed on subnet-2. For example, such as Figure 1 As shown, compute instances D1 and D2 become part of subnet-2 via the VNIC associated with the respective compute instance. Figure 1 In the illustrated embodiment, compute instance D1 has an overlay IP address of 10.1.0.2 and a MAC address of MM1, while compute instance D2 has a private overlay IP address of 10.1.0.3 and a MAC address of MM2. Each compute instance in subnet-2 (including compute instances D1 and D2) has a default route to VCN VR 105 using IP address 10.1.0.1, which is the IP address of the port of VCN VR 105 in subnet-2.

[0075] VCN A 104 may also include one or more load balancers. For example, a load balancer can be provided for a subnet, and the load balancer can be configured to load balance traffic across multiple compute instances on the subnet. Load balancers can also be provided to load balance traffic across subnets within a VCN.

[0076] A specific compute instance deployed on VCN 104 can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints outside of CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 101 can include: endpoints on the same subnet as the specific compute instance (e.g., communication between two compute instances in subnet-1); endpoints on different subnets but within the same VCN (e.g., communication between a compute instance in subnet-1 and a compute instance in subnet-2); endpoints in different VCNs within the same region (e.g., communication between a compute instance in subnet-1 and endpoints in VCNs in the same region 106 or 110, or communication between a compute instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in service point 110 within the same region); or endpoints in VCNs in different regions (e.g., communication between a compute instance in subnet-1 and endpoints in VCNs in different regions 108). Compute instances in subnets hosted by CSPI 101 can also communicate with endpoints not hosted by CSPI 101 (i.e., outside of CSPI 101). These external endpoints include endpoints in the customer’s on-premises network 116, endpoints in other remote cloud-hosted networks 118, public endpoints 114 that are accessible via public networks such as the Internet, and other endpoints.

[0077] VNICs associated with source and destination compute instances facilitate communication between compute instances on the same subnet. For example, compute instance C1 in subnet-1 might want to send a packet to compute instance C2 in subnet-1. For a packet originating from the source compute instance and destined for another compute instance in the same subnet, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. The processing performed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance may include determining the packet's destination information from the packet header, identifying any policies (e.g., security lists) configured for the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, determining the next hop for the packet, performing any packet encapsulation / decapsulation functions as needed, and then forwarding / routing the packet to the next hop to facilitate communication to its intended destination. When the destination compute instance is in the same subnet as the source compute instance, the VNIC associated with the source compute instance is configured to identify the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance and forward the packet to that VNIC for processing. The VNIC associated with the destination compute instance then performs the processing and forwards the packet to the destination compute instance.

[0078] For packets to be transferred from compute instances in a subnet to endpoints in different subnets within the same VCN, communication is facilitated by the VNIC associated with the source and destination compute instances, as well as the VCN VR. For example, if Figure 1 If compute instance C1 in subnet-1 wants to send a packet to compute instance D1 in subnet-2, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with compute instance C1. The VNIC associated with compute instance C1 is configured to route the packet to VCN VR 105 using the default route or port 10.0.0.1 of the VCN VR. VCN VR 105 is configured to route the packet to subnet-2 using port 10.1.0.1. Then, the VNIC associated with D1 receives and processes the packet and forwards it to compute instance D1.

[0079] For packets to be transferred from a compute instance in VCN 104 to an endpoint outside VCN 104, communication is facilitated by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, VCN VR 105, and the gateway associated with VCN 104. One or more types of gateways can be associated with VCN 104. A gateway is an interface between a VCN and another endpoint located outside the VCN. A gateway is a Layer 3 / IP concept and enables a VCN to communicate with endpoints outside the VCN. Therefore, a gateway facilitates traffic flow between a VCN and other VCNs or networks. Various different types of gateways can be configured for a VCN to facilitate different types of communication with different types of endpoints. Depending on the gateway, communication can occur over a public network (e.g., the Internet) or over a private network. Various communication protocols can be used for these communications.

[0080] For example, compute instance C1 might want to communicate with an endpoint outside of VCN 104. The packet can first be processed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance C1. The VNIC processing determines that the packet's destination is outside subnet-1 of C1. The VNIC associated with C1 can then forward the packet to VCN VR 105 for VCN 104. VCN VR 105 then processes the packet and, as part of the processing, determines a specific gateway associated with VCN 104 as the next hop for the packet based on its destination. VCN VR 105 can then forward the packet to the specific identified gateway. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within a customer's on-premises network, the packet can be forwarded by VCN VR 105 to the Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) gateway 122 configured for VCN 104. The packet can then be forwarded from the gateway to the next hop to facilitate delivery to its final intended destination.

[0081] Various types of gateways can be configured for a VCN. Examples of gateways that can be configured for a VCN are available in [link to example]. Figure 1 It is depicted in [the text] and described below. Examples of gateways associated with VCNs are also [described in the text]. Figure 21 , Figure 22 , Figure 23 and Figure 24 The gateways are depicted (e.g., referenced by reference numerals 2134, 2136, 2138, 2234, 2236, 2238, 2334, 2336, 2338, 2434, 2436, and 2438) and are described below. Figure 1As depicted in the embodiments, a Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) 122 can be added to or associated with a customer VCN 104 and provides a path for private network traffic communication between the customer VCN 104 and another endpoint, which can be the customer's on-premises network 116, a VCN 108 in a different region of CSPI 101, or another remote cloud network 118 not hosted by CSPI 101. The customer's on-premises network 116 can be a customer network or customer data center built using the customer's resources. Access to the customer's on-premises network 116 is generally very restricted. For customers who have both a customer's on-premises network 116 and one or more VCNs 104 deployed or hosted in the cloud by CSPI 101, the customer may want their on-premises network 116 and their cloud-based VCN 104 to be able to communicate with each other. This allows customers to build extended hybrid environments that include the customer's VCN 104 hosted by CSPI 101 and their on-premises network 116. DRG 122 enables this communication. To enable this type of communication, a communication channel 124 is set up, with one endpoint located in the customer's on-premises network 116 and the other endpoint located in CSPI 101 and connected to the customer's VCN 104. Communication channel 124 can be over a public communication network (such as the Internet) or a private communication network. Various communication protocols can be used, such as IPsec VPN technology over a public communication network (such as the Internet), Oracle's FastConnect technology using a private network instead of a public network, etc. The device or equipment forming one endpoint of communication channel 124 in the customer's on-premises network 116 is referred to as a customer field equipment (CPE), such as... Figure 1 The CPE126 is depicted in the diagram. On the CSPI 101 side, the endpoint can be a host machine executing DRG 122.

[0082] In some embodiments, a remote peering connection (RPC) can be added to the DRG, which allows a customer to peer one VCN to another VCN in a different region. Using such an RPC, customer VCN 104 can use DRG 122 to connect to VCN 108 in another region. DRG 122 can also be used to communicate with other remote cloud networks 118 (such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, etc.) not hosted by CSPI 101.

[0083] like Figure 1As shown, an Internet Gateway (IGW) 120 can be configured for customer VCN 104, enabling compute instances on VCN 104 to communicate with a public endpoint 114 accessible via a public network, such as the Internet. IGW 120 is a gateway connecting the VCN to a public network, such as the Internet. IGW 120 enables public subnets within the VCN (such as VCN 104), where resources have publicly overridden IP addresses, to directly access a public endpoint 112 on the public network 114 (such as the Internet). Using IGW 120, connections can be initiated from subnets within VCN 104 or from the Internet.

[0084] A Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway 128 can be configured for a customer's VCN 104, enabling cloud resources within the customer's VCN that do not have dedicated public overlay IP addresses to access the internet, and doing so to direct incoming internet connections (e.g., L4-L7 connections) without exposing those resources. This allows private subnets within the VCN (such as private subnet-1 in VCN 104) to privately access public endpoints on the internet. With a NAT gateway, connections can only originate from private subnets to the public internet, not from the internet to private subnets.

[0085] In some embodiments, a Service Gateway (SGW) 126 can be configured for customer VCN 104, providing a path for private network traffic between VCN 104 and service endpoints supported in service network 110. In some embodiments, service network 110 may be provided by a CSP and may offer a variety of services. An example of such a service network is Oracle's service network, which provides a variety of services available to customers. For example, compute instances (e.g., database systems) in a private subnet of customer VCN 104 can back up data to service endpoints (e.g., object storage devices) without requiring public IP addresses or access to the Internet. In some embodiments, a VCN may have only one SGW, and connections can only originate from subnets within the VCN, not from service network 110. If a VCN is peered to another, resources in the other VCN typically cannot access the SGW. Resources in the on-premises network of a VCN connected using FastConnect or VPN Connect can also use the service gateway configured for that VCN.

[0086] In some implementations, the SGW 126 uses the concept of a Service Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) label, which is a string representing all regional public IP address ranges for the service or group of services of interest. Customers use the Service CIDR label when configuring the SGW and associated routing rules to control traffic to the service. If the public IP address of the service changes in the future, customers can optionally use it when configuring security rules without having to adjust them.

[0087] Local peering gateway (LPG) 132 is a gateway that can be added to customer VCN 104 and enable VCN 104 to peer with another VCN in the same region. Peering means that VCNs communicate using private IP addresses, and traffic does not need to traverse public networks (such as the Internet) or be routed through the customer's on-premises network 116. In a preferred embodiment, a VCN has a separate LPG for each peer it establishes. Local peering, or VCN peering, is a common practice for establishing network connectivity between different applications or infrastructure management functions.

[0088] Service providers (such as those providing services in service network 110) can offer access to services using different access models. Under the public access model, a service can be exposed as a public endpoint that is publicly accessible by compute instances within a customer's VCN via a public network (such as the Internet), and / or can be privately accessed via SGW 126. Under a specific private access model, a service can be accessed as a private IP endpoint within a private subnet of the customer's VCN. This is called private endpoint (PE) access and enables service providers to expose their services as instances within the customer's private network. A private endpoint resource represents a service within the customer's VCN. Each PE is represented as a VNIC (called a PE-VNIC, with one or more private IPs) within the customer's VCN in a subnet selected by the customer. Thus, the PE provides a way to present services within a private customer VCN subnet using a VNIC. Because the endpoint is exposed as a VNIC, all characteristics associated with the VNIC (such as routing rules, security lists, etc.) are now available for the PE VNIC.

[0089] Service providers can register their services to enable access via PE. Providers can associate policies with services, which restricts the visibility of the service to customer leases. Providers can register multiple services under a single Virtual IP address (VIP), especially for multi-tenant services. Multiple such private endpoints (across multiple VCNs) can represent the same service.

[0090] Compute instances in a private subnet can then access the service using the private IP address or service DNS name of the PE VNIC. Compute instances in a customer VCN can access the service by sending traffic to the private IP address of the PE in the customer VCN. A Private Access Gateway (PAGW) 130 is a gateway resource that can be attached to a service provider VCN (e.g., a VCN in service network 110), which acts as the ingress / egress point for all traffic from / to the private endpoints of the customer subnet. PAGW 130 enables providers to scale the number of PE connections without utilizing their internal IP address resources. A provider only needs to configure one PAGW for any number of services registered in a single VCN. A provider can represent a service as a private endpoint in multiple VCNs of one or more customers. From the customer's perspective, the PE VNIC is not an instance attached to the customer, but rather appears to be attached to the service that the customer wants to interact with. Traffic to the private endpoint is routed to the service via PAGW 130. These are referred to as customer-to-service private connections (C2S connections).

[0091] The PE concept can also be used to extend private access to services to the customer's on-premises network and data center by allowing traffic to flow through FastConnect / IPsec links and private endpoints in the customer's VCN. Private access to services can also be extended to the customer's peering VCN by allowing traffic to flow between the LPG 132 and the PE in the customer's VCN.

[0092] Customers can control routing within a VCN at the subnet level, allowing them to specify which subnets within a customer's VCN (such as VCN104) use each gateway. The VCN's routing table is used to determine whether traffic is allowed to leave the VCN via a specific gateway. For example, in a given instance, a routing table for a public subnet within customer VCN 104 might send non-local traffic via IGW 120. A routing table for a private subnet within the same customer VCN 104 might send traffic destined for a CSP service via SGW 126. All remaining traffic can be sent via NAT gateway 128. The routing table only controls traffic flowing out of the VCN.

[0093] Security lists associated with a VCN are used to control traffic entering the VCN via a gateway through inbound connections. All resources within a subnet use the same routing tables and security lists. Security lists can be used to control specific types of traffic allowed to enter or leave instances within a subnet of the VCN. Security list rules can include inbound and outbound rules. For example, inbound rules can specify allowed source address ranges, while outbound rules can specify allowed destination address ranges. Security rules can specify specific protocols (e.g., TCP, ICMP), specific ports (e.g., port 22 for SSH, port 3389 for Windows RDP), etc. In some implementations, the instance's operating system can enforce its own firewall rules that conform to the security list rules. Rules can be stateful (e.g., tracking connections and automatically allowing responses without explicit security list rules for response traffic) or stateless.

[0094] Access from a customer's VCN (i.e., through resources or compute instances deployed on VCN 104) can be categorized as public access, private access, or dedicated access. Public access refers to an access model that uses a public IP address or NAT to access a public endpoint. Private access enables customer workloads with private IP addresses within VCN 104 (e.g., resources in a private subnet) to access services without traversing a public network such as the Internet. In some embodiments, CSPI 101 enables customer VCN workloads with private IP addresses to access the service's (public service endpoint) using a service gateway. Thus, the service gateway provides a private access model by establishing a virtual link between the customer's VCN and the public endpoint of the service residing outside the customer's private network.

[0095] Furthermore, CSPI can provide dedicated public access using technologies such as FastConnect public peering, where on-premises instances can access one or more services within a customer's VCN using FastConnect connections without traversing public networks such as the internet. CSPI can also provide dedicated private access using FastConnect private peering, where on-premises instances with private IP addresses can access a customer's VCN workloads using FastConnect connections. FastConnect is a network connectivity alternative to using the public internet to connect a customer's on-premises network to CSPI and its services. Compared to internet-based connections, FastConnect offers a simple, flexible, and cost-effective way to create dedicated and private connections with higher bandwidth options and a more reliable and consistent network experience.

[0096] Figure 1The accompanying description above describes the various virtualized components in the example virtual network. As mentioned above, the virtual network is built on the underlying physical or base network. Figure 2 A simplified architecture diagram of the physical components within the physical network of the CSPI 200, which provides the underlying layer for virtual networks according to certain embodiments, is depicted. As shown, the CSPI 200 provides a distributed environment including components and resources (e.g., compute, storage, and network resources) provided by a cloud service provider (CSP). These components and resources are used to provide cloud services (e.g., IaaS services) to subscribed customers (i.e., customers who have subscribed to one or more services provided by the CSP). Based on the services subscribed to by the customer, a subset of the resources of the CSPI 200 (e.g., compute, storage, and network resources) is provisioned to the customer. The customer can then use the physical compute, storage, and networking resources provided by the CSPI 200 to build their own cloud-based (i.e., CSPI-hosted) customizable and private virtual networks. As indicated above, these customer networks are referred to as Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs). Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as compute instances, on these customer VCNs. Compute instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. The CSPI 200 provides a collection of infrastructure and complementary cloud services, enabling customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available managed environment.

[0097] exist Figure 2 In the example embodiment depicted, the physical components of CSPI 200 include one or more physical host machines or physical servers (e.g., 202, 206, 208), network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., 210, 212), top-of-rack (TOR) switches (e.g., 214, 216), and a physical network (e.g., 218), as well as switches within physical network 218. The physical host machines or servers can host and execute various compute instances participating in one or more subnets of the VCN. Compute instances can include virtual machine instances and bare metal instances. For example, Figure 1 The various computational examples described in the text can be derived from... Figure 2 The physical host machine described in the diagram is used for hosting virtual machine compute instances in a VCN. Virtual machine compute instances in a VCN can be executed by one host machine or multiple different host machines. A physical host machine can also host virtual host machines, container-based hosts, or functions, etc. Figure 1 The VNIC and VCN VR described in the text can be generated by Figure 2 The NVD execution described in the text. Figure 1 The gateway described in the text can be... Figure 2 The host machine and / or NVD execution described in the document.

[0098] A host machine or server can execute a hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor or VMM) that creates and enables virtualized environments on the host machine. Virtualization or virtualized environments facilitate cloud-based computing. One or more compute instances can be created, executed, and managed on the host machine by a hypervisor on that host machine. The hypervisor on the host machine enables the host machine's physical computing resources (e.g., compute, storage, and network resources) to be shared among various compute instances executed by the host machine.

[0099] For example, such as Figure 2 As depicted, host machines 202 and 208 execute hypervisors 260 and 266, respectively. These hypervisors can be implemented using software, firmware, or hardware, or a combination thereof. Typically, a hypervisor is a process or software layer residing above the host machine's operating system (OS), which in turn executes on the host machine's hardware processor. Hypervisors provide a virtualized environment by enabling the host machine's physical computing resources (e.g., processing resources such as processors / cores, memory resources, network resources) to be shared among various virtual machine computing instances executed by the host machine. For example, in... Figure 2 In this configuration, the hypervisor 260 can reside on top of the operating system of the host machine 202 and enable the computing resources (e.g., processing, memory, and network resources) of the host machine 202 to be shared among computing instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed by the host machine 202. Virtual machines can have their own operating systems (called guest operating systems), which can be the same as or different from the host machine's operating system. The operating system of a virtual machine executed by the host machine can be the same as or different from the operating system of another virtual machine executed by the same host machine. Therefore, the hypervisor enables multiple operating systems to be executed simultaneously, while sharing the same computing resources of the host machine. Figure 2 The host machines described in the text may have the same or different types of management programs.

[0100] A compute instance can be a virtual machine instance or a bare metal instance. Figure 2 In the diagram, compute instance 268 on host machine 202 and compute instance 274 on host machine 208 are examples of virtual machine instances. Host machine 206 is an example of a bare metal instance provided to a customer.

[0101] In some cases, an entire host machine can be provisioned to a single customer, and one or more compute instances (or virtual machines or bare metal instances) hosted by that host machine all belong to the same customer. In other cases, the host machine can be shared among multiple customers (i.e., multiple tenants). In this multi-tenancy scenario, the host machine can host virtual machine compute instances belonging to different customers. These compute instances can be members of different VCNs for different customers. In some embodiments, bare metal compute instances are hosted by bare metal servers without a hypervisor. When provisioning bare metal compute instances, a single customer or tenant maintains control over the physical CPU, memory, and network interfaces of the host machine hosting the bare metal instance, and the host machine is not shared with other customers or tenants.

[0102] As previously mentioned, each compute instance as part of a VCN is associated with a VNIC that enables that compute instance to become a member of a subnet of the VCN. The VNIC associated with a compute instance facilitates communication to and from the compute instance. The VNIC is associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created. In some embodiments, for compute instances executed by a host machine, the VNIC associated with that compute instance is executed by an NVD connected to the host machine. For example, in Figure 2 In this example, host machine 202 executes a virtual machine compute instance 268 associated with VNIC 276, and VNIC 276 is executed by NVD 210 connected to host machine 202. As another example, a bare-metal instance 272 hosted by host machine 206 is associated with VNIC 280 executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 206. As yet another example, VNIC 284 is associated with compute instance 274 executed by host machine 208, and VNIC 284 is executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 208.

[0103] For compute instances hosted by a host machine, NVDs connected to that host machine also execute VCN VR corresponding to the VCN where the compute instance is a member. For example, in Figure 2 In the embodiment depicted, NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to a VCN that is a member of compute instance 268. NVD 212 may also execute one or more VCN VR 283 corresponding to a VCN that corresponds to a compute instance hosted by host machines 206 and 208.

[0104] The host machine may include one or more network interface cards (NICs) that enable the host machine to connect to other devices. The NIC on the host machine may provide one or more ports (or interfaces) that allow the host machine to communicate with another device. For example, the host machine may use one or more ports (or interfaces) provided on the host machine and the NVD to connect to the NVD. The host machine may also connect to other devices (such as another host machine).

[0105] For example, in Figure 2 In this configuration, host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 via link 220, which extends between port 234 provided by NIC 232 of host machine 202 and port 236 of NVD 210. Host machine 206 is connected to NVD 212 via link 224, which extends between port 246 provided by NIC 244 of host machine 206 and port 248 of NVD 212. Host machine 208 is connected to NVD 212 via link 226, which extends between port 252 provided by NIC 250 of host machine 208 and port 254 of NVD 212.

[0106] The NVD is then connected to top-of-rack (TOR) switches via communication links, which are connected to physical network 218 (also known as a switch architecture). In some embodiments, the links between the host machine and the NVD, and between the NVD and the TOR switches, are Ethernet links. For example, in Figure 2 In this configuration, NVDs 210 and 212 are connected to TOR switches 214 and 216 via links 228 and 230, respectively. In some embodiments, links 220, 224, 226, 228, and 230 are Ethernet links. The collection of host machines and NVDs connected to the TOR is sometimes referred to as a rack.

[0107] Physical network 218 provides a communication architecture that enables TOR switches to communicate with each other. Physical network 218 can be a multi-layer network. In some implementations, physical network 218 is a multi-layer Clos network of switches, where TOR switches 214 and 216 represent leaf-level nodes of the multi-layer and multi-node physical switching network 218. Different Clos network configurations are possible, including but not limited to Layer 2 networks, Layer 3 networks, Layer 4 networks, Layer 5 networks, and general "n"-layer networks. Examples of Clos networks are provided in... Figure 5 It is depicted in the middle and described below.

[0108] Various connection configurations can exist between the host machine and the NVD, such as one-to-one, many-to-one, and one-to-many configurations. In a one-to-one configuration, each host machine connects to its own individual NVD. For example, in... Figure 2 In this configuration, host machine 202 connects to NVD 210 via its NIC 232. In a many-to-one configuration, multiple host machines connect to a single NVD. For example, in... Figure 2 In the middle, host machines 206 and 208 are connected to the same NVD212 via NIC244 and 250 respectively.

[0109] In a one-to-many configuration, a host machine connects to multiple NVDs. Figure 3 An example within the CSPI300 is shown, where the host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. (Example follows) Figure 3 As shown, host machine 302 includes a network interface card (NIC) 304, which includes multiple ports 306 and 308. Host machine 300 is connected to a first NVD 310 via port 306 and link 320, and to a second NVD 312 via port 308 and link 322. Ports 306 and 308 may be Ethernet ports, and links 320 and 322 between host machine 302 and NVDs 310 and 312 may be Ethernet links. NVD 310 is further connected to a first TOR switch 314, and NVD 312 is connected to a second TOR switch 316. Links between NVDs 310 and 312 and TOR switches 314 and 316 may be Ethernet links. TOR switches 314 and 316 represent Layer 0 switching devices in a multi-layer physical network 318.

[0110] Figure 3 The layout depicted provides two separate physical network paths from physical switch network 318 to host machine 302: the first path traverses TOR switch 314 to NVD 310 and then to host machine 302, and the second path traverses TOR switch 316 to NVD 312 and then to host machine 302. These separate paths provide enhanced availability (referred to as high availability) for host machine 302. If one of the paths (e.g., a link in one of the paths breaks) or a device (e.g., a particular NVD is not running) experiences a problem, the other path can be used for communication with host machine 302.

[0111] exist Figure 3 In the configuration depicted, the host machine connects to two different NVDs using two different ports provided by the host machine's NIC. In other embodiments, the host machine may include multiple NICs that enable the host machine to connect to multiple NVDs.

[0112] Go back to reference Figure 2An NVD is a physical device or component that performs one or more network and / or storage virtualization functions. An NVD can be any device with one or more processing units (e.g., CPU, Network Processing Unit (NPU), FPGA, packet processing pipeline, etc.), memory (including cache), and ports. Various virtualization functions can be executed by software / firmware performed by one or more processing units of the NVD.

[0113] NVDs can be implemented in various different forms. For example, in some embodiments, an NVD is implemented as an interface card called a smartNIC or a smart NIC with an onboard embedded processor. A smartNIC is a device that is independent of the NIC on the host machine. Figure 2 In this context, NVD210 and 212 can be implemented as smartNICs connected to host machine 202 and host machines 206 and 208, respectively.

[0114] However, smartNIC is just one example of an NVD implementation. Various other implementations are possible. For example, in some other implementations, the NVD, or one or more functions performed by the NVD, may be integrated into or performed by one or more host machines, one or more TOR switches, and other components of the CSPI 200. For example, the NVD may be implemented within a host machine, where the functions performed by the NVD are performed by the host machine. As another example, the NVD may be part of a TOR switch, or the TOR switch may be configured to perform functions performed by the NVD, enabling the TOR switch to perform various complex packet transformations for public clouds. TORs performing the functions of the NVD are sometimes referred to as smart TORs. In other implementations that serve virtual machine (VM) instances rather than bare metal (BM) instances to customers, the functions performed by the NVD may be implemented within the hypervisor of the host machine. In some other implementations, some of the functions of the NVD may be offloaded to a centralized service running on a set of host machines.

[0115] In some embodiments, such as when implemented as Figure 2 As shown in the smartNIC diagram, the NVD can include multiple physical ports that enable it to connect to one or more host machines and one or more TOR switches. Ports on the NVD can be classified as host-facing ports (also known as "south ports") or network-facing or TOR-facing ports (also known as "north ports"). The host-facing ports of the NVD are those used to connect the NVD to the host machine. Figure 2 Examples of host-facing ports include port 236 on the NVD210 and ports 248 and 254 on the NVD212. Network-facing ports on the NVD are those used to connect the NVD to a TOR switch. Figure 2 Examples of network-facing ports include port 256 on the NVD 210 and port 258 on the NVD 212. Figure 2 As shown, NVD 210 is connected to TOR switch 214 via link 228, which extends from port 256 of NVD 210 to TOR switch 214. Similarly, NVD 212 is connected to TOR switch 216 via link 230, which extends from port 258 of NVD 212 to TOR switch 216.

[0116] The NVD receives packets and frames from the host machine (e.g., packets and frames generated by compute instances hosted by the host machine) via its host-facing port, and after performing the necessary packet processing, can forward the packets and frames to the TOR switch via its network-facing port. The NVD can also receive packets and frames from the TOR switch via its network-facing port, and after performing the necessary packet processing, can forward the packets and frames to the host machine via its host-facing port.

[0117] In some embodiments, there can be multiple ports and associated links between the NVD and TOR switches. These ports and links can be aggregated to form a link aggregation group (called a LAG) of multiple ports or links. Link aggregation allows multiple physical links between two endpoints (e.g., between the NVD and TOR switches) to be treated as a single logical link. All physical links in a given LAG can operate at the same speed in full-duplex mode. LAGs help increase the bandwidth and reliability of the connection between two endpoints. If one of the physical links in the LAG fails, traffic is dynamically and transparently reassigned to one of the other physical links in the LAG. Aggregated physical links deliver higher bandwidth than each individual link. Multiple ports associated with an LAG are treated as a single logical port. Traffic can be load-balanced across the multiple physical links of the LAG. One or more LAGs can be configured between two endpoints. These endpoints can be located between the NVD and TOR switches, between a host machine and the NVD, etc.

[0118] The NVD implements or performs network virtualization functions. These functions are performed by software / firmware executed by the NVD. Examples of network virtualization functions include, but are not limited to: packet encapsulation and decapsulation functions; functions for creating VCN networks; functions for implementing network policies, such as VCN security list (firewall) functionality; functions for facilitating packet routing and forwarding to and from compute instances within the VCN; and so on. In some embodiments, upon receiving a packet, the NVD is configured to perform a packet processing pipeline to process the packet and determine how to forward or route it. As part of this packet processing pipeline, the NVD may perform one or more virtual functions associated with the overlay network, such as performing VNICs associated with compute instances within the VCN, performing virtual routers (VRs) associated with the VCN, packet encapsulation and decapsulation to facilitate forwarding or routing within the virtual network, execution of certain gateways (e.g., local peer gateways), implementation of security lists, network security groups, Network Address Translation (NAT) functionality (e.g., host-by-host translation of public IPs to private IPs), throttling functions, and other functions.

[0119] In some embodiments, the packet processing data path in the NVD may include multiple packet pipelines, each consisting of a series of packet transformation stages. In some implementations, upon receiving a packet, the packet is parsed and classified into a single pipeline. The packet is then processed linearly, stage by stage, until the packet is either dropped or sent out through the NVD's interface. These stages provide basic functional packet processing building blocks (e.g., header verification, throttling, insertion of new Layer 2 headers, L4 firewall enforcement, VCN encapsulation / decapsulation, etc.) so that new pipelines can be built by combining existing stages, and new functionality can be added by creating new stages and inserting them into existing pipelines.

[0120] NVD can perform control plane and data plane functions corresponding to those of VCN's control plane and data plane. An example of the VCN control plane is also available in... Figure 21 , Figure 22 , Figure 23 and Figure 24 Depicted in (see reference numerals 2116, 2216, 2316 and 2416) and described below. An example of the VCN data plane is... Figure 21 , Figure 22 , Figure 23 and Figure 24The data plane is depicted (see reference numerals 2118, 2218, 2318, and 2418) and described below. Control plane functions include features for configuring how control data is forwarded on the network (e.g., setting routes and routing tables, configuring VNICs, etc.). In some embodiments, a VCN control plane is provided that centrally computes all overlay mappings to the base layer and publishes them to the NVD and virtual network edge devices (such as various gateways, such as DRGs, SGWs, IGWs, etc.). Firewall rules can also be published using the same mechanism. In some embodiments, the NVD only receives mappings associated with that NVD. Data plane functions include the ability to actually route / forward packets based on the configuration set using the control plane. The VCN data plane is implemented by encapsulating client network packets before they traverse the base network. Encapsulation / decapsulation functionality is implemented on the NVD. In some embodiments, the NVD is configured to intercept all network packets entering and leaving the host machine and perform network virtualization functions.

[0121] As indicated above, NVD performs various virtualization functions, including VNIC and VCN VR. NVD can execute VNICs associated with compute instances hosted on one or more host machines connected to the VNIC. For example, as... Figure 2 As depicted, NVD 210 performs the functionality of VNIC 276 associated with compute instance 268 hosted by host machine 202 connected to NVD 210. As another example, NVD 212 performs VNIC 280 associated with bare-metal compute instance 272 hosted by host machine 206, and VNIC 284 associated with compute instance 274 hosted by host machine 208. Host machines can host compute instances belonging to different VCNs (belonging to different customers), and NVDs connected to host machines can perform VNICs corresponding to compute instances (i.e., perform VNIC-related functionality).

[0122] NVD also executes a VCN virtual router corresponding to the VCN of the compute instance. For example, in Figure 2 In the embodiments depicted, NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN to which compute instance 268 belongs. NVD 212 executes one or more VCN VR 283 corresponding to one or more VCNs to which compute instances hosted by host machines 206 and 208 belong. In some embodiments, the VCN VR corresponding to a VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to host machines hosting at least one compute instance belonging to that VCN. If a host machine hosts compute instances belonging to different VCNs, then NVDs connected to that host machine can execute VCN VR corresponding to those different VCNs.

[0123] In addition to VNIC and VCN VR, NVD can execute various software (e.g., daemons) and include one or more hardware components that facilitate various network virtualization functions performed by NVD. For simplicity, these various components are grouped together as... Figure 2 The term "packet processing component" is illustrated. For example, NVD 210 includes packet processing component 286 and NVD 212 includes packet processing component 288. For instance, a packet processing component for an NVD may include a packet processor configured to interact with the NVD's ports and hardware interface to monitor all packets received by and transmitted using the NVD and to store network information. This network information may include, for example, network flow information identifying different network flows handled by the NVD and per-flow information (e.g., per-flow statistics). In some embodiments, network flow information may be stored on a per-VNIC basis. The packet processor may perform per-packet manipulation and implement stateful NAT and L4 firewall (FW). As another example, a packet processing component may include a replication agent configured to replicate information stored by the NVD to one or more different replication target repositories. As yet another example, a packet processing component may include a logging agent configured to perform logging functions of the NVD. The packet processing component may also include software for monitoring the performance and health of the NVD and may also monitor the status and health of other components connected to the NVD.

[0124] Figure 1 The components of an example virtual or overlay network are shown, including a VCN, subnets within the VCN, compute instances deployed on the subnets, VNICs associated with the compute instances, VRs for the VCN, and a collection of gateways configured for the VCN. Figure 1 The overlay component described in the text can be made by Figure 2 One or more executions or hosts are described in the physical components. For example, a compute instance in a VCN can be executed or managed by... Figure 2 The VNIC described herein is executed or hosted by one or more host machines. For a compute instance hosted by a host machine, the VNIC associated with that compute instance is typically executed by an NVD connected to that host machine (i.e., VNIC functionality is provided by an NVD connected to that host machine). The VCN VR functionality for a VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to the host machine hosting or executing a compute instance as part of that VCN. The gateway associated with a VCN can be executed by one or more different types of NVDs. For example, some gateways can be executed by smartNICs, while others can be executed by one or more host machines or other implementations of NVDs.

[0125] As described above, compute instances in a client VCN can communicate with various endpoints, which can be within the same subnet as the source compute instance, in a different subnet but within the same VCN as the source compute instance, or communicate with endpoints located outside the VCN of the source compute instance. These communications are facilitated using VNICs, VCN VRs, and gateways associated with the VCNs.

[0126] For communication between two compute instances on the same subnet within a VCN, a VNIC associated with both the source and destination compute instances facilitates the communication. The source and destination compute instances can be hosted by the same host machine or different host machines. Packets originating from the source compute instance can be forwarded from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to an NVD connected to that host machine. On the NVD, packets are processed using a packet processing pipeline, which may include the execution of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Because the destination endpoint for the packet is within the same subnet, the execution of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance results in the packet being forwarded to the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance, whereupon the NVD processes the packet and forwards it to the destination compute instance. The VNIC associated with the source and destination compute instances can execute on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs). The VNIC can use a routing / forwarding table stored by the NVD to determine the next hop for the packet.

[0127] For packets destined for endpoints in different subnets within the same VCN, the packet originating from the source compute instance is forwarded from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to an NVD connected to that host machine. On the NVD, the packet is processed using a packet processing pipeline, which may include the execution of one or more VNICs and the VR associated with the VCN. For example, as part of the packet processing pipeline, the NVD executes or invokes functionality (also known as executing the VNIC) associated with the source compute instance. Functionality executed by the VNIC may include viewing VLAN tags on the packet. Since the packet's destination is outside the subnet, the VCN VR functionality is then invoked and executed by the NVD. The VCN VR then routes the packet to the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance. The VNIC associated with the destination compute instance then processes the packet and forwards it to the destination compute instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances may execute on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs).

[0128] If the destination of the packet is outside the VCN of the source compute instance, the packet originating from the source compute instance is forwarded from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. The NVD executes the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Since the destination endpoint of the packet is outside the VCN, the packet is subsequently processed by the VCN VR used by that VCN. The NVD invokes the VCN VR functionality, which results in the packet being forwarded to the NVD executing the appropriate gateway associated with the VCN. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within a customer's on-premises network, the packet may be forwarded by the VCN VR to the NVD executing the DRG gateway configured for the VCN. The VCN VR may execute on the same NVD as the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, or it may be executed by a different NVD. The gateway may be executed by the NVD, which may be a smartNIC, a host machine, or another NVD implementation. The packet is then processed by the gateway and forwarded to the next hop, which facilitates the forwarding of the packet to its intended destination endpoint. For example, in Figure 2 In the embodiment depicted, packets originating from compute instance 268 can be transmitted from host machine 202 to NVD 210 via link 220 (using NIC 232). On NVD 210, VNIC 276 is invoked because it is the VNIC associated with the source compute instance 268. VNIC 276 is configured to examine the information encapsulated in the packet and determine the next hop for forwarding the packet, with the aim of facilitating the transmission of the packet to its intended destination endpoint, and then forwarding the packet to the determined next hop.

[0129] Compute instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with a variety of endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints outside of CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 can include instances within the same VCN or other VCNs, which can be the customer's VCN or a VCN not belonging to the customer. Communication between endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 can be performed via physical network 218. Compute instances can also communicate with endpoints not hosted by CSPI 200 or outside of CSPI 200. Examples of these endpoints include endpoints within the customer's on-premises network or data center, or public endpoints accessible via public networks such as the Internet. Communication with endpoints outside of CSPI 200 can use various communication protocols over public networks (e.g., the Internet). Figure 2 (not shown in the image) or a dedicated network ( Figure 2 (Not shown in the image) to execute.

[0130] Figure 2The architecture of the CSPI 200 depicted herein is merely an example and is not intended to be limiting. Variations, alternatives, and modifications are possible in alternative embodiments. For example, in some implementations, the CSPI 200 may have a more advanced architecture than... Figure 2 The systems or components shown may include more or fewer systems or components, and may combine two or more systems, or may have different system configurations or arrangements. Figure 2 The systems, subsystems, and other components described herein may be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the respective system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., a memory device).

[0131] Figure 4 The diagram depicts a connection between a host machine and an NVD, according to certain embodiments, for providing I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy. For example... Figure 4 As depicted, host machine 402 executes a hypervisor 404 that provides a virtualized environment. Host machine 402 executes two virtual machine instances, VM1 406 belonging to customer / tenant #1 and VM2 408 belonging to customer / tenant #2. Host machine 402 includes a physical NIC 410 connected to NVD 412 via link 414. Each compute instance is attached to a VNIC executed by NVD 412. Figure 4 In one embodiment, VM1 406 is attached to VNIC-VM1 420 and VM2 408 is attached to VNIC-VM2 422.

[0132] like Figure 4 As shown, NIC 410 includes two logical NICs, logical NIC A 416 and logical NIC B 418. Each virtual machine is attached to its own logical NIC and configured to work with its own logical NIC. For example, VM1 406 is attached to logical NIC A 416 and VM2 408 is attached to logical NIC B 418. Although host machine 402 includes only one physical NIC 410 shared by multiple tenants, due to the logical NICs, each tenant's virtual machines believe they have their own host machine and network interface card.

[0133] In some embodiments, each logical NIC is assigned its own VLAN ID. Therefore, a specific VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC A 416 for tenant #1, and a separate VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC B 418 for tenant #2. When a packet is transmitted from VM1 406, the hypervisor appends a tag assigned to tenant #1 to the packet, and the packet is then transmitted from host machine 402 to NVD 412 via link 414. Similarly, when a packet is transmitted from VM2 408, the hypervisor appends a tag assigned to tenant #2 to the packet, and the packet is then transmitted from host machine 402 to NVD 412 via link 414. Thus, a packet 424 transmitted from host machine 402 to NVD 412 has an associated tag 426 identifying the specific tenant and the associated VM. On the NVD, for a packet 424 received from the host machine 402, the tag 426 associated with the packet is used to determine whether the packet is processed by VNIC-VM1 420 or VNIC-VM2 422. The packet is then processed by the corresponding VNIC. Figure 4 The configuration described herein enables each tenant's compute instance to believe that it owns its own host machine and NIC. Figure 4 The setup described in [the document] provides I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy.

[0134] Figure 5 A simplified block diagram of a physical network 500 according to certain embodiments is depicted. Figure 5 The embodiments depicted are structured as Clos networks. Clos networks are a specific type of network topology designed to provide connectivity redundancy while maintaining high bandwidth and maximum resource utilization. Clos networks are non-blocking, multi-stage or multi-layer switching networks, where the number of stages or layers can be two, three, four, five, etc. Figure 5 The embodiment depicted is a Layer 3 network, including Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3. TOR switch 504 represents a Layer 0 switch in a Clos network. One or more NVDs are connected to the TOR switch. Layer 0 switches are also referred to as edge devices of the physical network. Layer 0 switches are connected to Layer 1 switches, also known as leaf switches. Figure 5In the embodiments depicted, a set of "n" Layer 0 TOR switches is connected to a set of "n" Layer 1 switches, forming a pod. Each Layer 0 switch in the pod is interconnected to all Layer 1 switches in that pod, but there is no switch connectivity between pods. In some implementations, two pods are referred to as blocks. Each block is served by or connected to a set of "n" Layer 2 switches (sometimes called backbone switches). There can be several blocks in the physical network topology. The Layer 2 switches are then connected to "n" Layer 3 switches (sometimes called super backbone switches). Communication of packets over the physical network 500 is typically performed using one or more Layer 3 communication protocols. Typically, all layers of the physical network (except the TOR layer) are n-way redundant, thus allowing high availability. Policies can be specified for pods and blocks to control the visibility of switches to each other in the physical network, thereby enabling the scaling of the physical network.

[0135] A key characteristic of Clos networks is that the maximum number of hops from one Layer 0 switch to another (or from an NVD connected to a Layer 0 switch to another NVD connected to a Layer 0 switch) is fixed. For example, in a Layer 3 Clos network, a packet takes a maximum of seven hops to reach another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layers of the Clos network. Similarly, in a Layer 4 Clos network, a packet takes a maximum of nine hops to reach another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layers of the Clos network. Therefore, the Clos network architecture maintains consistent latency throughout the network, which is important for communication within and between data centers. Clos topologies are horizontally scalable and cost-effective. Network bandwidth / throughput capacity can be easily increased by adding more switches at each layer (e.g., more leaf switches and backbone switches) and by increasing the number of links between switches in adjacent layers.

[0136] In some embodiments, each resource within the CSPI is assigned a unique identifier called a Cloud Identifier (CID). This identifier is included as part of the resource's information and can be used to manage the resource, for example, via a console or API. An example syntax for a CID is: ocid1.<RESOURCE TYPE> . <realm>[REGION][FUTURE USE].<UNIQUE ID> in, ocid1: A text string indicating the version of the CID; resource type: The type of resource (e.g., instance, volume, VCN, subnet, user, group, etc.); realm: The realm where the resource resides. Example values ​​are "c1" for the commercial realm, "c2" for the government cloud realm, or "c3" for the federal government cloud realm, etc. Each realm can have its own domain name; region: The region where the resource is located. This section may be empty if the region is not applicable to the resource. future use: to be reserved for future use.

[0137] uniqueID: The unique part of the ID. The format may vary depending on the type of resource or service.

[0138] Packet streams based on cached and non-cached configuration information

[0139] Figure 6 The illustration shows an example of a network architecture supporting packet flows based on cached configuration information, according to certain embodiments. The network architecture at least partially represents the cloud infrastructure of a CSP. As shown, the network architecture includes host machine 660, NVD 670, base network 680, and host machine 690.

[0140] Generally, host machine 660 hosts one or more compute instances, such as customer compute instance 662, and connects to NVD 670. The connection can be an Ethernet link. Among other virtualization functions, NVD 670 also hosts one or more VNICs, including VNIC 672 attached to compute instance 662. Typically, a VNIC can be associated with a single compute instance and can provide virtual network interface functionality to the compute instance. Virtual network interface functionality includes providing an interface to a virtual network (e.g., an interface from compute instance 662 to virtual network 682). NVD 670 is also connected to base network 680 via a switch (e.g., a top-of-rack (TOR) switch supporting Ethernet links). Base network 680 is also connected to host machine 690, where the connection can be via another NVD (for simplicity, in...). Figure 6 (Not shown in the image). Host machine 690 can host one or more compute instances, including endpoint 692. Compute instance 662 can communicate with endpoint 692, such as by sending and receiving packets on virtual network 682 via VNIC 672 (and similarly, via the VNIC attached to endpoint 692; for simplicity, on...). Figure 6 (Not shown in the image). Virtual network 682 can be a software-based or software-defined network overlaid on base network 680. As shown in the dashed box, a customer's VCN 600 may include compute instance 662, VNIC 672, and endpoint 692 (but endpoint 692 may not be part of VCN 600).

[0141] In this example, packet flows from and to the compute instance on host machine 660 may depend on configuration information 674 stored in the memory of NVD 670. Configuration information 674 may include any or all of security policies (e.g., policies based on firewall rules for inbound and / or outbound traffic), routing rules, overlays to base IP address mappings, routing tables, and other types of information for sending and / or receiving packets. In this example, configuration information 674 may include multiple sets, each cached for the VNIC, associated with a corresponding compute instance, and specific to the information required for outbound or inbound packet flows to that compute instance. In this example, when compute instance 662 sends a packet, host machine 660 forwards the packet to NVD 670. VNIC 672 then looks up applicable configuration information for processing (e.g., applying rules, updating packet headers, etc.) and sends the processed packet on virtual network 682. Sending it on virtual network 682 involves NVD 670 further processing and sending the packet on the base network 680 in a manner transparent to VNIC 672 and compute instance 662. Ultimately, the packet is received by endpoint 692. Conversely, packets destined for compute instance 662 are first received by NVD 670, processed by VNIC 672 based on applicable configuration information, and then sent from NVD 670 to host machine 660 to reach compute instance 662.

[0142] As mentioned above, Figure 6 The network architecture may require storing and maintaining a large amount of configuration information on the NVD 670. Furthermore, the VNICs hosted on the NVD 670 also utilize the NVD 670's processing and memory resources. Therefore, the density of VNICs on the NVD 670 (e.g., the number of VNICs that the NVD 670 can host) can be relatively limited.

[0143] Figure 7 The diagram illustrates an example of a network architecture supporting packet flows based on non-cached configuration information, according to certain embodiments. This network architecture generally increases the VNIC density per NVD, but impacts network bandwidth. Instead of the NVD storing the configuration information, the NVD hosts a simplified version of the VNIC (called a micro VNIC), and the configuration information is stored by a network interface service that provides centralized network interface services. As shown, the network architecture includes host machine 710, NVD 720, server cluster 730, base network 740, and host machine 750.

[0144] Typically, the host machine 710 hosts one or more compute instances, such as a customer's compute instance 712, and connects to the NVD 720. The connection can be an Ethernet link. In addition to other virtualization functions, the NVD 720 also hosts one or more VNICs, including VNIC 722 attached to compute instance 712. Figure 6 Unlike VNICs hosted on the NVD 670, VNICs hosted on the NVD 670 can be micro VNICs. Typically, micro VNICs are easier to implement than standard VNICs. Attached to compute instances, they can be configured to send outbound packets from the compute instance directly to the network interface service 732 on the server cluster 730 via the NVD 720 without using configuration information to handle packets, and can also be configured to send inbound packets directly to the compute instance via the NVD 720. The NVD 720 connects to the server cluster 730 (e.g., via a tunnel or some other peering mechanism).

[0145] Server cluster 730 may be a group or cluster of servers or host machines hosting network interface service 732 for one or more clients. Network interface service 732 provides network interface functionality for connectivity between computer instances. In one example, network interface service 732 may be a VNIC as a Service (VNICaaS). For example, network interface service 732 includes multiple VNICs, including VNIC 734 associated with micro VNIC 722. For clarity, these VNICs may be referred to as service VNICs (as opposed to micro VNICs). Typically, a service VNIC may be associated with multiple micro VNICs, each of which in turn is associated with a single compute instance. In other words, a service VNIC can be associated with multiple compute instances through its corresponding micro VNICs and can provide virtual network interface functionality for these compute instances. Virtual network interface functionality includes providing an interface from a compute instance to a virtual network (e.g., an interface from compute instance 712 to virtual network 742).

[0146] Server cluster 730 is connected to base network 740 via a set of switches. Base network 740 is also connected to host machine 750, where the connection may be via another NVD, server cluster 730 and / or another server cluster (for simplicity, in...). Figure 7 (Not shown in the image). Host machine 750 can host one or more compute instances, including endpoint 752. Compute instance 712 can communicate with endpoint 752, such as via miniature VNIC 722 and service VNIC 734 (and also via an NVIC attached to endpoint 752 or a pair of miniature VNICs and service VNICs attached to endpoint 752; for simplicity, in...). Figure 7 (Not shown in the image) Sending and receiving packets on virtual network 742. Virtual network 742 may be a software-based or software-defined network overlaid on base network 740. As shown in the dashed box, customer VCN 760 may include compute instance 712, micro VNIC 722, service VNIC 734, and endpoint 752 (but endpoint 752 may not be part of VCN 760).

[0147] In this example, the packet flow from and to the compute instance of host machine 710 may depend on configuration information 736 stored by network interface service 732. Configuration information 736 may include any or all of security policies (e.g., policies based on firewall rules for inbound and / or outbound traffic), routing rules, overlays to base IP address mappings, routing tables, and other types of information for sending and / or receiving packets. In this example, configuration information 736 may include multiple sets, each cached for a service VNIC, micro VNIC, and / or compute instance. In this example, when compute instance 712 sends a packet, host machine 710 forwards the packet to NVD 720. Micro VNIC 722 then forwards the packet to network interface service 732 via NVD 720. Server cluster 730 receives the packet from NVD 670 via a tunnel and forwards it to network interface service 732. Network interface service 732 selects service VNIC 734 for further processing of the packet. Next, the serving VNIC 734 looks up applicable configuration information for processing (e.g., applying rules, updating packet headers, etc.) and sends the processed packet on virtual network 742. Sending it on virtual network 742 involves server cluster 730 sending the packet on the base network 740 in a manner transparent to serving VNIC 734, micro VNIC 722, and compute instance 712. Finally, the packet is received by endpoint 752. Conversely, packets destined for compute instance 712 are processed by serving VNIC 734 based on applicable configuration information, sent to micro VNIC 722 via server cluster 730 and NVD 720, and then from micro VNIC 722 to compute instance 712 via NVD 720 and host machine 710.

[0148] As stated above in this article, Figure 7 The network architecture may require packets to and from host machine 710 to flow through network interface service 732. This flow will affect network bandwidth, especially as the number of packets increases.

[0149] Figure 8 The illustration shows an example of a network architecture supporting packet flows using cached flow information and non-cached configuration information according to certain embodiments. Here, the network architecture can optimize the balance between memory usage (and VNIC density on the NVD) and network bandwidth. In the example, the network interface service can maintain configuration information that can be used to manage packet flows. The NVD can also host VNICs and store only a relevant subset of the configuration information, referred to herein as flow information. This subset can be the minimum or reduced amount of configuration information required to send and / or receive packets directly from the virtual network without utilizing the network interface service. Packet flows only need to involve the network interface service when this subset is unavailable or outdated. As shown, the network architecture includes host machine 810, NVD 820, server cluster 830, base network 840, and host machine 850.

[0150] Generally, host machine 810 hosts one or more compute instances, such as customer compute instance 812, and is connected to NVD 820. The connection may be an Ethernet link. In addition to other virtualization functions, NVD 820 also hosts one or more VNICs, including VNIC 822 attached to compute instance 812. NVD 820 also stores flow information 824 that can be used by such VNICs to send and / or receive packets on one or more virtual networks, such as virtual network 842. NVD 820 is connected to server cluster 830 (e.g., via tunnel or some other peer-to-peer mechanism). NVD 820 is also connected to the base network 840 (e.g., via a TOR switch).

[0151] Server cluster 830 may be a group or cluster of servers or host machines that host network interface service 832 for one or more clients. Network interface service 832 provides network interface functionality for connectivity between computer instances. In one example, network interface service 832 may be a VNICaaS. For example, network interface service 832 includes multiple service VNICs, including service VNIC 834 associated with VNIC 822 and compute instance 812. These service VNICs rely on configuration information 836 stored by network interface service 832 to process and send packets.

[0152] Server cluster 830 is connected to base network 840 via a set of switches. Base network 840 is also connected to host machine 850, where the connection may be via another NVD, server cluster 830 and / or another server cluster (for simplicity, in...). Figure 8 (Not shown in the image). Host machine 850 may host one or more compute instances, including endpoint 852. Compute instance 812 may communicate with endpoint 852, such as via VNIC 822 and / or service VNIC 834 (and also via the VNIC attached to endpoint 852 and / or another service VNIC; for simplicity, in...). Figure 8 (Not shown in the image) Sending and receiving packets on virtual network 842. Virtual network 842 may be a software-based or software-defined network overlaying the base network 840. As shown in the dashed box, the client's VCN 860 may include compute instance 812, VNIC 822, service VNIC 834, and endpoint 852 (but endpoint 852 may not be part of VCN 860).

[0153] In the example, packet flows from and to the compute instance of host machine 810 may depend on configuration information 836 stored by network interface service 832 and flow information 824 stored by NVD 820. Configuration information 836 may include any or all of security policies (e.g., policies based on firewall rules for inbound and / or outbound traffic), routing rules, overlay-to-base IP address mappings, routing tables, and other types of information for sending and / or receiving packets. In contrast, flow information 824 may include a subset of configuration information 836, where this subset represents the minimum or reduced amount of configuration information required to process and manage packet flows via NVD 820. For example, flow information 824 may include one or more security policies, one or more overlay-to-base IP address mappings, one or more routing tables, and / or any one or more of their summaries or combinations. Flow information 824 may be refined to a specific resolution, such as to packet type (e.g., indicating rewrite rules applicable to a specific packet type), or may be generalized to a higher resolution level (e.g., applicable to multiple packet types and indicating how packets should be processed, for example, given a specific firewall rule). Generally, the amount of flow information 824 is smaller than the amount of configuration information 836 because flow information 824 is specific to packet flows from and / or to one or more compute instances on host machine 810 connected to NVD 820, while configuration information 836 is applicable to packet flows to and / or from a large number of compute instances hosted on a large number of host machines. In this example, configuration information 836 may include multiple sets, each cached for serving VNICs, VNICs attached to compute instances, and / or compute instances. Similarly, in this example, flow information 824 may include multiple sets, each cached for VNICs attached to compute instances and / or compute instances.

[0154] To illustrate, consider two scenarios. In the first scenario, compute instance 812 sends packets to endpoint 852, where streaming information 824 is available to support this transmission. In this scenario, packets are sent directly by VNIC 822 on virtual network 842 (as shown by the dotted line above), and correspondingly, directly by NVD 820 on base network 840 (as shown by the solid line below). In the second alternative scenario, streaming information 824 is unavailable. In this case, packets are processed and sent by serving VNIC 834 on virtual network 842 (as shown by the dotted line below), and correspondingly, by server cluster 830 on base network 840 (as shown by the solid line above).

[0155] In the first scenario, when compute instance 812 sends a packet, host machine 810 forwards the packet to NVD 820. VNIC 822 then looks up the applicable flow information to be processed (e.g., apply rules, update packet headers, etc.) and sends the processed packet on virtual network 842. Sending it on virtual network 842 involves NVD 820 further processing and sending the packet on the base network 840 in a manner transparent to VNIC 822 and compute instance 812. Finally, the packet is received by endpoint 852.

[0156] In the second scenario, when compute instance 812 sends a packet, host machine 810 forwards the packet to NVD 820. VNIC 822 then determines that no flow information is available to process the packet and instead sends it to network interface service 832 via NVD 820. Server cluster 830 receives the packet from NVD 820 through a tunnel and forwards it to network interface service 832. Network interface service 832 selects service VNIC 834 for further processing of the packet. Service VNIC 834 then looks up applicable configuration information for processing (e.g., applying rules, updating packet headers, etc.) and sends the processed packet on virtual network 842. Sending it on virtual network 842 involves server cluster 830 sending the packet on the base network 840 in a manner transparent to service VNIC 834, VNIC 822, and compute instance 812. Finally, the packet is received by endpoint 852.

[0157] As mentioned above, and relative to Figure 6 In terms of network architecture, the NVD 820 stores less configuration information (e.g., flow information 824), thus allowing for higher density VNICs. Compared to Figure 7 The network architecture ensures that packet flows only involve network interface service 832 when needed (e.g., when no flow information is available), thereby reducing bandwidth burden. The various aspects of generating, distributing, updating flow information, and managing packet flows will be further described in the following figures.

[0158] As described above, packet flows on a virtual network involve not only overlay resources but also the corresponding packet flows on the base network via the hardware resources hosting the overlay resources. In the following figures, and for clarity and brevity, details regarding packet flows on the base network may be omitted when describing packet flows on a virtual network; these details are implied by reference to the above description.

[0159] Figure 9 The illustration depicts an example of an outbound packet flow that results in cached flow information according to certain embodiments. An NVD 910 hosting a VNIC 912 is connected to a server cluster 920 hosting a network interface service 922. Initially, the NVD 910 does not store flow information that allows the VNIC 912 to send packets directly on the virtual network. Instead, packets are sent indirectly on the virtual network via the network interface service 922 (e.g., via a specific service VNIC). Subsequently, the NVD 910 receives and stores the applicable flow information from the network interface service 922, thereby allowing the VNIC 912 to send packets directly on the virtual network from that point, such as... Figure 10 Further description is provided. The NVD 910, VNIC 912, server cluster 920, and network interface service 922 are examples of the NVD 820, VNIC 822, server cluster 830, and network interface service 832, respectively. Figure 9 In the diagram, the numbers shown in the circles represent the sequence of events.

[0160] In the example, VNIC 912 receives a packet from, for example, a compute instance to which VNIC 912 is attached, where the packet will be sent over a virtual network (e.g., an outbound packet). Given the header information in the packet, VNIC 912 looks up the cache 914 of NVD 910 to determine if the cached flow information is available for processing the packet. This lookup can use n-tuple matching of source information, destination information, source subnet, destination subnet, packet type, etc. This lookup results in a cache miss. Therefore, VNIC 912 sends the packet to network interface service 922. Subsequently, given configuration information 924, network interface service 922 processes the packet (e.g., applies rules, rewrites header information, performs encapsulation, etc.) and sends the processed packet over the base network. Furthermore, network interface service 922 generates a cache entry that includes flow information and version information associated with the flow information. The flow information may be a subset of specific configuration information used to send packets over the base number. For example, the flow information includes at least one of security policies, overlay mappings to base IP addresses, or routing rules. Version information can indicate the current version of flow information or a portion of flow information. For example, version information is an indicator of the current version of flow information or the current version of each part of flow information (e.g., the current version of security policy, the current version of the overlay to the base IP address mapping, and the current version of routing rules). Version information can be used to invalidate cache entries, as discussed further in the following diagram. Network interface service 922 sends cache entries to NVD 910. NVD 910 then stores the flow information 916 and version information 918 from the received cache entries as entries in cache 914.

[0161] Figure 10 An example of an outbound packet flow based on cached streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated. Figure 10 The example is Figure 9 Continuing from the example. NVD 1010, which hosts VNIC 1012, connects to server cluster 1020, which hosts network interface service 1022. NVD 1010 stores flow information 1016 and version information 1018 in cache 1014. In contrast, network interface service 1022 stores configuration information 1024. NVD 1010, VNIC 1012, cache 1014, flow information 1016, version information 1018, server cluster 1020, network interface service 1022, and configuration information 1024 are examples of NVD 910, VNIC 912, cache 914, flow information 916, version information 918, server cluster 920, network interface service 922, and configuration information 924, respectively.

[0162] In the example, VNIC 1012 receives a packet from, for example, a compute instance to which VNIC 1012 is attached, where this packet will be transmitted over the virtual network (e.g., an outbound packet). Given the header information in the packet, VNIC 1012 looks up cache 1014 to determine if the cached flow information is available for processing the packet. The lookup results in a cache hit flow information 1016. Version information 1018 indicates that flow information 1016 is valid. Thus, VNIC 1012 transmits the packet directly over the virtual network without needing to transmit it via network interface service 1022.

[0163] Figure 11 An example of an inbound packet stream that results in cached streaming information is illustrated according to certain embodiments. Figure 9 It describes flow generation and cached flow information based on outbound traffic, while Figure 11 The example illustrates this process based on inbound traffic flows. The NVD 1110, which hosts the VNIC 1112, connects to a server cluster 1120 of the managed network interface service 1122. Initially, the NVD 1110 does not store flow information that allows the VNIC 1112 to receive packets directly from the virtual network, such as... Figure 12 As further described below. Alternatively, the packet is further processed by network interface service 1122 (e.g., via a specific service VNIC). Subsequently, NVD 1110 receives the processed packet from network interface service 1122 and stores the applicable flow information, thereby allowing VNIC 1112 to send packets directly on the virtual network. NVD 1110, VNIC 1112, server cluster 1120, and network interface service 1122 are examples of NVD 820, VNIC 822, server cluster 830, and network interface service 832, respectively.

[0164] In the example, VNIC 1112 receives an inbound packet on a virtual network. Given the header information in the packet, VNIC 1112 looks up cache 1114 of NVD 1110 to determine if the cached flow information is available for processing the packet. The lookup results in a cache miss. Therefore, VNIC 1112 sends the packet to network interface service 1122. Subsequently, given configuration information 1124, network interface service 1122 processes the packet (e.g., applies rules, rewrites header information, performs encapsulation, etc.) and sends the processed packet back to VNIC 1112, which then sends it to the compute instance to which VNIC 1112 is attached. Furthermore, network interface service 1122 generates a cache entry that includes flow information and version information associated with the flow information. The flow information may be a subset of specific configuration information used to send packets on the base network. For example, the flow information includes at least one of a security policy, an overlay to a base IP address mapping, or a routing rule. The version information may indicate the current version of the flow information or a portion thereof. For example, version information is an indicator of the current version of the flow information or an indicator of the current version of each part of the flow information (e.g., the current version of the security policy, the current version of the overlay to the base IP address mapping, and the current version of the routing rules). Version information can be used to invalidate cache entries, as discussed further in the following diagram. Network interface service 1122 sends cache entries to NVD 1110. NVD 1110 then stores the flow information 1116 and version information 1118 from the received cache entries as entries in cache 1114.

[0165] As mentioned above Figure 11 As described, the receiving NVD (e.g., NVD 1110) caches flow information based on inbound traffic. Variations are possible. For example, after receiving a packet from the VNIC, the network interface service sends relevant flow information to both the receiving and sending NVDs for caching there. For example, and refer to... Figure 9 and Figure 11 Assume the sender NVD is NVD 910 and the receiver NVD is NVD 1110. When VNIC 912 sends a packet (e.g., via sender NVD 910), the network interface service (e.g., network interface service 922 or 1122) updates both sender NVD 910 and receiver NVD 1110.

[0166] Furthermore, and as in combination Figure 9 and Figure 11 As described, when a cache miss occurs, a packet is sent to the network interface service, triggering the network interface service to send a cache entry including the required flow information. Variations are possible. For example, the flow information may be included in the header of a packet sent by the network interface service to the NVD, or in the header of a packet sent from the sender NVD to the receiver NVD. In cases where the network interface service updates both the receiver NVD and the sender NVD, various flow information may be included in different packets (e.g., flow information is included in a packet sent to the receiver NVD and also in a response packet sent to the sender NVD). In one example variation, the sender NVD includes the flow information in the header of the receiver NVD for subsequent use by the receiver NVD. In this example, the receiver NVD may not have an ingress security policy. Instead, a signature may be included in the header and used by the receiver NVD to authenticate that the flow information was sent by an authorized entity.

[0167] Figure 12 An example of an inbound packet stream based on cached streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated. Figure 12 Examples from Figure 11 The example continues. NVD 1210, which hosts VNIC 1212, connects to server cluster 1220, which hosts network interface service 1222. NVD 1210 stores flow information 1216 and version information 1218 in cache 1214. In contrast, network interface service 1222 stores configuration information 1224. NVD 1210, VNIC 1212, cache 1214, flow information 1216, version information 1218, server cluster 1220, network interface service 1222, and configuration information 1224 are examples of NVD 1110, VNIC 1112, cache 1114, flow information 1116, version information 1118, server cluster 1120, network interface service 1122, and configuration information 1124, respectively.

[0168] In the example, VNIC 1212 receives an inbound packet on a virtual network. Given the header information in the packet, VNIC 1212 looks up cache 1214 to determine if the cached flow information is available for processing the packet. The lookup results in a cache hit for flow information 1216. Version information 1218 indicates that flow information 1216 is valid. Therefore, VNIC 1212 sends the packet to the compute instance to which it is attached, without needing to send the packet to network interface service 1222 for further processing.

[0169] Figure 13 The illustration depicts an example of invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments. In this example, invalidation can be managed by a network interface service, and updates can follow an active strategy (e.g., by implementing a push mechanism to send updated streaming information to the relevant VNIC). Alternatively, updates can follow a passive strategy (e.g., by implementing a pull mechanism, where updated streaming information is sent to the VNIC based on an update request from the VNIC). An NVD 1310 hosting VNIC 1312 is connected to a server cluster 1320 hosting a network interface service 1322. The network interface service 1322 is connected to a control plane 1330. A client's computing device (now in...) Figure 13 (As shown in the diagram) It can connect to the control plane 1330 (e.g., via application programming interface (API) calls) and update the client's VCN configuration. Updates result in changes to configuration information that can be used to manage the flow of packets.

[0170] In the example, network interface service 1322 stores configuration information 1324 and version information 1326 associated with configuration information 1324. Configuration information 1324 may include multiple parts (e.g., security policies, overlay to base IP address mappings, routing rules). Version information 1326 may include an indicator of the current version of the entire configuration information 1324 and / or an indicator of the current version of each part of configuration information 1324 (e.g., the current version of the security policy, the current version of the overlay to base IP address mapping, and the current version of the routing rules). For clarity, the following paragraphs describe the use of version indicators for each part of configuration information 1324. However, if a version indicator is used for the entire configuration information 1324, then the process applies similarly.

[0171] Network interface service 1322 sends an update request to control plane 1330, requesting an update to configuration information 1324. For example, the update request may include a vector clock populated with version indicators. Control plane 1330 determines which version indicators are outdated. If none of them are outdated, then configuration information 1324 does not need to be updated. Otherwise, if a version indicator is outdated, then the corresponding portion of configuration information 1324 is outdated, and control plane 1330 sends a replacement configuration information portion with the updated version indicators. For example, if the version indicator for a security policy indicates that it is still the latest version, but the version indicator overriding the base IP address mapping is outdated, then control plane 1330 only sends the updated overriding base IP address mapping and its updated version indicator.

[0172] Subsequently, network interface service 1322 receives updates from control plane 1330. Network interface service 1322 tracks one or more VNICs using flow information portions corresponding to outdated configuration information portions, generates updated flow information portions and corresponding version indicators, and pushes the updated flow information portions and corresponding version indicators to one or more NVDs hosting the one or more VNICs. For example, NVD 1310 receives updated flow information 1316 and updated version information 1318 and stores them in its cache 1314 for use by VNIC 1312.

[0173] As described above, a passive strategy can be used alternatively. Here, instead of pushing updates to one or more NVDs, network interface service 1322 notifies the affected VNICs that their flow information (or a portion thereof) is outdated and sends updates only upon request. For example, upon receiving notification that flow information 1316 (or a portion thereof) is outdated, VNIC 1312 can request an update for it from network interface service 1322. In response, network interface service 1322 sends the updated flow information (or a portion thereof) and the corresponding version information.

[0174] Figure 14 The illustration shows another example of invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments. In this example, invalidation can be managed by the NVD, and updating can follow an active strategy (e.g., by requesting an update before receiving a packet to which streaming information is applied). Alternatively, updating can follow a passive strategy (e.g., by sending packets to a network interface service for further processing and subsequently receiving the updated streaming information). An NVD 1410 hosting a VNIC 1412 is connected to a server cluster 1420 hosting a network interface service 1422. The network interface service 1422 is connected to a control plane 1430. The client's computing device (now in...) Figure 14 (As shown in the diagram) It can connect to control plane 1430 and update the configuration of the client's VCN. The update results in changes to the configuration information of the flows that can be used to manage the packets.

[0175] In the example, NVD 1410 stores flow information 1416 and version information 1418 associated with flow information 1416 in cache 1414. Flow information 1416 may include multiple parts (e.g., security policies, overlay mappings to base IP addresses, routing rules). Version information 1418 may include an indicator of the current version of the entire flow information 1416 and / or an indicator of the current version of each part of flow information 1416 (e.g., the current version of the security policy, the current version of the overlay mapping to base IP addresses, and the current version of the routing rules). For clarity, the following paragraphs describe the use of version indicators for each part of flow information 1416. However, if a version indicator is used for the entire flow information 1416, the process applies similarly.

[0176] NVD 1410 sends an update request to control plane 1430, requesting an update to stream information 1416. For example, the update request may include a vector clock filled with version indicators. Control plane 1430 determines which version indicators are outdated. If none of them are outdated, then stream information 1416 does not need to be updated. Otherwise, if a version indicator is outdated, then the corresponding portion of stream information 1416 is outdated, and control plane 1430 sends a notification to NVD 1410 indicating that an update is available. This notification may indicate which portions(s) of stream information 1416 are outdated.

[0177] In the passive strategy, NVD 1410 does not immediately update flow information 1416. Instead, VNIC 1412 receives the packet and determines that flow information 1416 applies to it (e.g., based on a cache hit). VNIC also determines that version information 1418 is outdated (e.g., based on a notification from control plane 1430, one or more portions of flow information 1416 are outdated). Alternatively, upon receiving a notification, NVD 1410 invalidates the cached flow information 1416, causing a cache miss when a cache lookup is performed. In both cases, VNIC 1412 sends the packet to network interface service 1422 for further processing there. This packet transmission represents a passive update request. Network interface service 1422 uses information 1426 with the latest version (which can be updated with...) Figure 13 Packets are processed using configuration information 1424 (updated from control plane 1430) in a similar manner. Additionally, network interface service 1422 sends an update to NVD 1410, which includes updated flow information (e.g., the entire flow information, not just a portion thereof) and a corresponding version indicator. NVD 1410 then replaces existing flow information 1416 (or one or more of its outdated portions) and version information 1418 (or one or more of its outdated version indicators) with the updated (one or more) portions of the flow information and one or more corresponding version indicators.

[0178] For example, in flow information 1416, only the base IP mapping is outdated. NVD 1410 receives a notification from control plane 1430 indicating that the corresponding version indicator is outdated. Next, VNIC 1412 sends the packet to network interface service 1422; otherwise, the packet would be sent directly on the virtual network. In response, network interface service 1422 sends updated flow information and the corresponding version indicator. NVD 1410 replaces the outdated base IP address mapping in flow information 1416 and the corresponding version indicator in version information 1418 with the updated base IP address mapping and the corresponding version indicator, respectively.

[0179] As described above, an active strategy can be used instead. Here, instead of sending packets to network interface service 1422 and receiving updates, NVD 1410 can automatically send an update request to network interface service 1422. This request can indicate which parts of the flow information 1416 are outdated, and network interface service 1422 can send only the updated parts. Alternatively, no such indication can be made, and network interface service 1422 can send the entire flow information.

[0180] Figure 15-20 An example of a method for distributing configuration information and managing packet flows is illustrated. The operation of the method can be performed by a system including NVD and / or network service interfaces. Some or all of the instructions used to perform the operations can be implemented as hardware circuit systems and / or stored as computer-readable instructions on a non-transitory computer-readable medium of the system. When implemented, the instructions represent modules comprising circuit systems or code executable by the system's processor. The use of such instructions configures the system to perform the specific operations described herein. Each circuit system or code, combined with one or more associated processors, represents a means for performing one or more corresponding operations. Although the operations are shown in a specific order, it should be understood that the specific order is not required, and one or more operations can be omitted, skipped, performed in parallel, and / or reordered.

[0181] Figure 15 An example of a method for sending a packet that results in caching, according to certain embodiments, is illustrated. Here, the packet is an outbound packet to be sent on a virtual network. In the example, the method includes operation 1502, where a VNIC hosted on an NVD receives the packet. The packet can be sent from the VNIC and its attached compute instance. At operation 1504, the VNIC determines whether the Flow Information is available from the NVD's memory for processing the packet. For example, the VNIC performs a cache lookup based on information from the packet's header. If the lookup results in a cache hit, then the Flow Information is available. In this case, operation 1510 follows operation 1504. Otherwise, operation 1520 follows operation 1504. At operation 1510, the VNIC sends the packet directly on the virtual network. For example, the VNIC processes the packet based on the Flow Information and then sends the processed packet (e.g., with updated header information) on the virtual network. Sending on the virtual network may include further processing of the packet by the NVD for transmission on the underlying infrastructure network. At operation 1520, no Flow Information is available (e.g., not cached) for local processing of the packet at the NVD. Instead, the VNIC sends packets to a network interface service that stores configuration information that can be used to process the packets. At operation 1522, the NVD receives flow information. This flow information may be a subset of the configuration information used by the network interface service (e.g., the VNIC service hosted thereon) to process and send packets on the virtual network. Additionally, version information associated with the flow information may be received. At operation 1524, the NVD stores the flow information and version information (if applicable) in memory (e.g., as cache entries). This process can be repeated to send additional packets on the virtual network, where the additional packets are received from the compute instance.

[0182] Figure 16 An example of a method for receiving packets that result in caching, according to certain embodiments, is illustrated. Here, the packets are inbound packets received on a virtual network. In the example, the method includes operation 1602, where a VNIC hosted on an NVD receives the packets. The packets can be sent from an endpoint on the virtual network and destined for the VNIC and the compute instance to which they are attached. At operation 1604, the VNIC determines whether flow information is available from the NVD's memory for processing the packets. For example, the VNIC performs a cache lookup based on information from the packet's header. If the lookup results in a cache hit, then the flow information is available. In this case, operation 1610 follows operation 1604. Otherwise, operation 1620 follows operation 1604. At operation 1610, the VNIC sends the packets directly on the compute instance. For example, the VNIC processes the packets according to the flow information and then sends the processed packets (e.g., with updated header information) to the compute instance via the NVD and the host machine of the compute instance. At operation 1620, no flow information is available (e.g., not cached) for local processing of the packets at the NVD. Instead, the VNIC sends packets to a network interface service that stores configuration information that can be used to process the packets. At operation 1622, the NVD receives the returned packets processed by the network interface service, along with flow information. This flow information may be a subset of the configuration information used by the network interface service (e.g., the VNIC service hosted thereon) to process the packets. Additionally, version information associated with the flow information may be received. At operation 1624, the NVD stores the flow information and version information (if applicable) in memory (e.g., as cache entries). The received packets are also sent directly to the compute instance, as illustrated in the loop from operation 1624 to operation 1610. This process can be repeated to send additional packets to the compute instance, where the additional packets are received on the virtual network.

[0183] Figure 17 An example of a method for generating and sending streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated. Here, the method can be implemented by a network interface service. In the example, the method includes operation 1702, where the network interface service receives a packet. In the example, the packet is an outbound packet originating from a compute instance and to be sent over a virtual network. In another example, the packet is an inbound packet received over a virtual network and destined for a compute instance. In both examples, the network interface service can receive packets from a VNIC via an NVD hosting the VNIC, where the NVD does not store streaming information (cacheable) that allows the VNIC to process the packets. At operation 1704, the network interface service (e.g., the service VNIC hosted thereon) determines configuration information for processing the packet. This determination can be based on the packet's header information. At operation 1706, the network interface service (e.g., the service VNIC) sends the packet based on the configuration information. Referring back to the first example, the service VNIC processes the packet according to the configuration information and sends the processed packet over the virtual network. In the second example, the service VNIC also processes the packet according to the configuration information and instead sends the processed packet to the VNIC of the NVD. At operation 1708, the network interface service generates flow information. For example, the flow information is a subset of the configuration information and allows the NVD's VNIC to process packets of the same or similar type locally. This flow information can correspond to the latest configuration information and can be associated with version information. At operation 1710, the network interface service sends the flow information to the NVD. Additionally, version information can also be sent to the NVD.

[0184] Figure 18 An example of a method for invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments is illustrated. Here, the method can be implemented by an NVD hosting a VNIC. In the example, the method includes operation 1802, where the VNIC receives a packet. In this example, the packet is an outbound packet originating from a compute instance and intended for transmission over a virtual network. In another example, the packet is an inbound packet received over a virtual network and destined for a compute instance. At operation 1804, the VNIC determines whether the streaming information is outdated, where the streaming information is available from the NVD's memory for processing the packet. For example, the VNIC determines whether version information of the streaming information is outdated (or whether a version indicator for a portion of the streaming information is outdated). This determination may include sending a vector clock to the control plane and receiving notification of the updated version information. Although operation 1804 is shown after operation 1802, operation 1804 can be performed independently of operation 1804, where the cached streaming information is invalidated before receiving the packet. If the streaming information is not outdated, then operation 1810 follows operation 1804. Otherwise, operation 1820 follows operation 1804. At operation 1810, the VNIC sends packets directly on the virtual network in the case of outbound traffic, or sends packets directly to the compute instance in the case of inbound traffic. At operation 1820, no valid flow information is available for processing packets locally on the NVD. Instead, the VNIC sends packets to a network interface service that stores configuration information that can be used to process the packets. At operation 1822, the NVD receives the flow information (and, in the case of inbound traffic, the packets). This flow information may be a subset of the configuration information used by the network interface service (e.g., the service VNIC hosted thereon) to process and send packets on the overlay substrate or to send packets back to the VNIC. Additionally, version information associated with the flow information may be received. At operation 1824, the NVD stores the flow information and version information (if applicable) in memory (e.g., as cache entries). The flow may be repeated to send additional packets, which are received from the compute instance or from the virtual network.

[0185] Figure 19 The illustration shows another example of a method for invalidating and updating cached streaming information according to certain embodiments. Here, the method can be implemented by a network interface service. In the example, the method includes operation 1902, where the network interface service determines that configuration information is outdated. For example, the network interface service determines that version information of the configuration information is outdated (or a version indicator of a portion of the streaming information is outdated). This determination may include sending a vector clock to the control plane and receiving notification of updated version information and / or receiving updated configuration information (or an updated portion thereof). At operation 1904, the network interface service determines which VNICs need to be updated based on the update from the control plane. For example, the network interface service tracks the corresponding configuration information and its associated version information for each VNIC on the NVD. If the update affects the configuration information used for the VNIC, then the network interface service determines that the VNIC needs to be updated. At operation 1906, the network interface service sends the updated streaming information and optionally the version information to the affected VNICs. The updated streaming information may be generated as a subset of the updated configuration information. The entire updated stream can be pushed, or alternatively, only the updated portion of it(s) and the latest version(s) indicator(s) can be pushed.

[0186] Figure 20 The illustration shows another example of a method for invalidating and updating cached flow information according to certain embodiments. Here, the method can be implemented by a network interface service and follows a passive strategy to perform the update. In the example, the method includes operation 2002, where the network interface service determines that configuration information is outdated, similar to operation 1902. At operation 2004, the network interface service determines that the VNIC needs to be updated, similar to operation 1904. At operation 2006, the network interface service indicates to the VNIC that its flow information is outdated (or partially outdated). For example, a notification can be sent, causing the corresponding cache entry to be invalidated. At operation 2008, the network interface service receives a packet from the VNIC. This packet can be an inbound packet or an outbound packet. At operation 2010, the network interface service processes and sends the packet using the updated configuration information. In the case of outbound traffic, the packet is sent over the virtual network (e.g., via the serving VNIC). In the case of inbound traffic, the packet is sent back to the VNIC. At operation 2012, the network interface service sends the updated flow information and optionally version information to the VNIC. The updated stream information can be generated as a subset of the updated configuration information. The entire updated stream information can be sent, or alternatively, only one or more of its updated portions and one or more version-date indicators can be sent.

[0187] Example Infrastructure as a Service architecture

[0188] As noted above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing. IaaS can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, cloud providers can host infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., hypervisor layer), etc.). In some cases, IaaS providers can also offer various services accompanying these infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.). Therefore, because these services may be policy-driven, IaaS users can implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance.

[0189] In some cases, IaaS customers can access resources and services over a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet and can use the cloud provider's services to install the remaining elements of the application stack. For example, a user can log in to the IaaS platform to create virtual machines (VMs), install an operating system (OS) on each VM, deploy middleware such as databases, create buckets for workloads and backups, and even install enterprise software into that VM. The customer can then use the provider's services to perform various functions, including balancing network traffic, troubleshooting application issues, monitoring performance, and managing disaster recovery.

[0190] In most cases, cloud computing models will require the involvement of cloud providers. Cloud providers can, but are not necessarily, third-party providers specializing in (e.g., provisioning, renting, selling) IaaS services. Entities may also choose to deploy private clouds, thus becoming their own infrastructure service providers.

[0191] In some examples, IaaS deployment is the process of placing a new application or a new version of an application onto a prepared application server, etc. It may also include the processing of server preparation (e.g., installation libraries, daemons, etc.). This is typically managed by the cloud provider, below the hypervisor layer (e.g., servers, storage devices, network hardware, and virtualization). Therefore, the customer can be responsible for processing (OS), middleware, and / or application deployment (e.g., on self-service virtual machines, etc., which can be started on demand).

[0192] In some examples, IaaS provisioning can refer to acquiring computers or virtual hosts for use, or even installing necessary libraries or services on them. In most cases, deployment does not include provisioning, and provisioning may need to be performed first.

[0193] In some cases, IaaS provisioning presents two distinct challenges. First, there's the initial challenge of provisioning the initial infrastructure set before anything is operational. Second, once everything is provisioned, there's the challenge of evolving the existing infrastructure (e.g., adding new services, changing services, removing services, etc.). In some cases, both challenges can be addressed by enabling configuration that declaratively defines the infrastructure. In other words, the infrastructure (e.g., which components are needed and how they interact) can be defined by one or more configuration files. Therefore, the overall topology of the infrastructure (e.g., which resources depend on which resources and how they work together) can be described declaratively. In some cases, once the topology is defined, workflows for creating and / or managing the different components described in the configuration files can be generated.

[0194] In some examples, the infrastructure can have many interconnected components. For example, there may be one or more Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) (e.g., potential on-demand pools of configurable and / or shared computing resources), also known as the core network. In some examples, one or more security group rules may also be provided to define how the network's security is configured, as well as one or more virtual machines (VMs). Other infrastructure elements, such as load balancers, databases, etc., may also be provided. The infrastructure can evolve incrementally as more and / or more infrastructure elements are expected and added.

[0195] In some cases, continuous deployment techniques can be used to enable the deployment of infrastructure code across various virtual computing environments. Furthermore, the described techniques enable infrastructure management within these environments. In some examples, service teams may write code that they expect to deploy to one or more, but often many, different production environments (e.g., across various geographical locations, sometimes spanning the entire world). However, in some examples, the infrastructure on which the code will be deployed must first be set up. In some cases, provisioning can be done manually, resources can be provisioned using provisioning tools, and / or once the infrastructure is provisioned, the code can be deployed using deployment tools.

[0196] Figure 21 This is a block diagram 2100 illustrating an example pattern of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service provider 2102 may communicatively couple to a secure host lease 2104, which may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2106 and a secure host subnet 2108. In some examples, the service provider 2102 may use one or more client computing devices, which may be portable handheld devices (e.g., iPhone®, cellular phone, iPad®, computing tablet, personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearable devices (e.g., Google Glass® head-mounted display), running software (such as Microsoft Windows Mobile®) and / or various mobile operating systems (such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 8, Palm OS, etc.), and supporting the Internet, email, short message service (SMS), Blackberry®, or other communication protocols. Alternatively, the client computing device may be a general-purpose personal computer, including, for example, personal computers and / or laptops running various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and / or Linux operating systems. Client computing devices can be workstation computers running a variety of commercially available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems, including but not limited to any of the various GNU / Linux operating systems (such as, for example, Google Chrome OS). Alternatively or additionally, client computing devices can be any other electronic device, such as thin client computers, internet-enabled gaming systems (e.g., Microsoft Xbox game consoles with or without Kinect® gesture input devices), and / or personal messaging devices capable of communicating over a network that can access VCN 2106 and / or the internet.

[0197] VCN 2106 may include a local peering gateway (LPG) 2110, which may be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 2112 via the LPG 2110 contained in SSH VCN 2112. SSH VCN 2112 may include an SSH subnet 2114, and SSH VCN 2112 may be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 2116 via the LPG 2110 contained in a control plane VCN 2116. Furthermore, SSH VCN 2112 may be communicatively coupled to a data plane VCN 2118 via the LPG 2110. Control plane VCN 2116 and data plane VCN 2118 may be contained in a service lease 2119 that may be owned and / or operated by an IaaS provider.

[0198] The control plane VCN 2116 may include a control plane demilitarized zone (DMZ) layer 2120 that acts as a peripheral network (e.g., a portion of a corporate network between a corporate intranet and an external network). DMZ-based servers can assume limited liability and help control vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the DMZ layer 2120 may include one or more load balancer (LB) subnets 2122, a control plane application layer 2124 that may include one or more application subnets 2126, and a control plane data layer 2128 that may include one or more database (DB) subnets 2130 (e.g., one or more front-end DB subnets and / or one or more back-end DB subnets). One or more LB subnets 2122 included in the control plane DMZ layer 2120 can be communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2126 included in the control plane application layer 2124 and an Internet gateway 2134 that can be included in the control plane VCN 2116. The one or more application subnets 2126 can be communicatively coupled to one or more DB subnets 2130 included in the control plane data layer 2128, as well as a service gateway 2136 and a Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway 2138. The control plane VCN 2116 may include the service gateway 2136 and the NAT gateway 2138.

[0199] The control plane VCN 2116 may include a data plane mirror application layer 2140, which may include one or more application subnets 2126. The one or more application subnets 2126 included in the data plane mirror application layer 2140 may include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 2142 capable of executing a compute instance 2144. The compute instance 2144 may communicatively couple the application subnets 2126 of the data plane mirror application layer 2140 to one or more application subnets 2126 that may be included in the data plane application layer 2146.

[0200] Data plane VCN 2118 may include data plane application layer 2146, data plane DMZ layer 2148, and data plane data layer 2150. Data plane DMZ layer 2148 may include one or more LB subnets 2122 communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2126 of data plane application layer 2146 and Internet gateway 2134 of data plane VCN 2118. One or more application subnets 2126 communicatively coupled to service gateway 2136 and NAT gateway 2138 of data plane VCN 2118. Data plane data layer 2150 may also include one or more DB subnets 2130 communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2126 of data plane application layer 2146.

[0201] The Internet gateway 2134 of the control plane VCN 2116 and data plane VCN 2118 can be communicatively coupled to the metadata management service 2152, which in turn can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 2154. The public Internet 2154 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 2138 of the control plane VCN 2116 and data plane VCN 2118. The service gateway 2136 of the control plane VCN 2116 and data plane VCN 2118 can be communicatively coupled to the cloud service 2156.

[0202] In some examples, the service gateway 2136 of the control plane VCN 2116 or data plane VCN 2118 can make application programming interface (API) calls to the cloud service 2156 without traversing the public internet 2154. API calls from the service gateway 2136 to the cloud service 2156 can be unidirectional: the service gateway 2136 can make API calls to the cloud service 2156, and the cloud service 2156 can send the requested data to the service gateway 2136. However, the cloud service 2156 may not initiate API calls to the service gateway 2136.

[0203] In some examples, secure host lease 2104 can be directly connected to service lease 2119; otherwise, service lease 2119 can be isolated. Secure host subnet 2108 can communicate with SSH subnet 2114 via LPG 2110, which enables bidirectional communication on otherwise isolated systems. Connecting secure host subnet 2108 to SSH subnet 2114 grants secure host subnet 2108 access to other entities within service lease 2119.

[0204] Control plane VCN 2116 may allow users of service lease 2119 to configure or otherwise provision desired resources. The desired resources provided in control plane VCN 2116 may be deployed or otherwise used in data plane VCN 2118. In some examples, control plane VCN 2116 may be isolated from data plane VCN 2118, and the data plane mirror application layer 2140 of control plane VCN 2116 may communicate with the data plane application layer 2146 of data plane VCN 2118 via VNIC 2142, which may be included in both the data plane mirror application layer 2140 and the data plane application layer 2146.

[0205] In some examples, a user or client of the system may issue a request, such as a Create, Read, Update, or Delete (CRUD) operation, via the public internet 2154. The public internet 2154 can then forward the request to the metadata management service 2152. The metadata management service 2152 can forward the request to the control plane VCN 2116 via the internet gateway 2134. The request may be received by one or more LB subnets 2122 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 2120. The one or more LB subnets 2122 can determine that the request is valid, and in response to this determination, the one or more LB subnets 2122 can forward the request to one or more application subnets 2126 contained in the control plane application layer 2124. If the request is valid and requires a call to the public internet 2154, then the call to the public internet 2154 can be forwarded to the NAT gateway 2138, which can make calls to the public internet 2154. The request may expect the storage to be located in one or more DB subnets 2130.

[0206] In some examples, the data plane mirroring application layer 2140 can facilitate direct communication between the control plane VCN 2116 and the data plane VCN 2118. For example, it may be desirable to apply configuration changes, updates, or other suitable modifications to resources contained in the data plane VCN 2118. Through VNIC 2142, the control plane VCN 2116 can communicate directly with the resources contained in the data plane VCN 2118, and thereby perform configuration changes, updates, or other suitable modifications to the resources contained in the data plane VCN 2118.

[0207] In some embodiments, the control plane VCN 2116 and data plane VCN 2118 may be included in service lease 2119. In this case, the system's users or customers may not own or operate the control plane VCN 2116 or data plane VCN 2118. Alternatively, the IaaS provider may own or operate both the control plane VCN 2116 and data plane VCN 2118, both of which may be included in service lease 2119. This embodiment can enable network isolation, which can prevent users or customers from interacting with the resources of other users or customers. Moreover, this embodiment can allow the system's users or customers to privately store databases without relying on the public Internet 2154 for storage, which may not have the desired level of security.

[0208] In other embodiments, one or more LB subnets 2122 included in the control plane VCN 2116 may be configured to receive signals from the service gateway 2136. In this embodiment, the control plane VCN 2116 and the data plane VCN 2118 may be configured to be invoked by the IaaS provider's customers without needing to invoke the public internet 2154. The IaaS provider's customers may expect this embodiment because the database(s) used by the customer can be controlled by the IaaS provider and can be stored on a service lease 2119 that is isolated from the public internet 2154.

[0209] Figure 22 This is a block diagram 2200 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. Service operator 2202 (e.g., Figure 21 The service provider 2102) can communicatively couple to the secure host lease 2204 (e.g., Figure 21 Secure hosting lease 2104), the secure hosting lease 2204 may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2206 (e.g., Figure 21 VCN 2106) and Secure Host Subnet 2208 (e.g., Figure 21 The secure host subnet 2108). VCN 2206 may include a local peering gateway (LPG) 2210 (e.g., Figure 21 The LPG 2210 can be contained within a secure shell (SSH) VCN 2212 (e.g., LPG 2110). Figure 21 The LPG 2210 in SSH VCN 2212 is communicatively coupled to SSH VCN 2212. SSH VCN 2212 may include SSH subnet 2214 (e.g., Figure 21 SSH subnet 2114), and SSH VCN 2212 can be communicatively coupled to control plane VCN 2216 via LPG 2210 included in control plane VCN 2216 (e.g., Figure 21 Control plane VCN 2216). Control plane VCN 2216 may be included in service lease 2219 (e.g., Figure 21 In the service lease 2119), and the data plane VCN 2218 (e.g., Figure 21 The data plane VCN 2118 can be included in a customer lease 2221 that can be owned or operated by the system's users or customers.

[0210] The control plane VCN 2216 may include one or more LB subnets 2222 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane DMZ layer 2220 of (one or more) LB subnets 2122) (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane DMZ layer 2120 may include (one or more) application subnets 2226 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane application layer 2224 of (one or more) application subnets 2126 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane application layer 2124) may include one or more database (DB) subnets 2230 (e.g., similar to...). Figure 21 The control plane data layer 2228 of (one or more) DB subnets 2130 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane data layer 2128). One or more LB subnets 2222 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 2220 can be communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2226 contained in the control plane application layer 2224 and an Internet gateway 2234 that can be contained in the control plane VCN 2216 (e.g., Figure 21 Internet gateway 2134), and application subnet(s) 2226 can communicatively couple to DB subnet(s) 2230 contained in control plane data layer 2228 and service gateway 2236 (e.g., Figure 21 The service gateway) and the Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway 2238 (e.g., Figure 21 (NAT gateway 2038). The control plane VCN 2216 may include the service gateway 2236 and the NAT gateway 2238.

[0211] The control plane VCN 2216 may include a data plane mirror of the application layer 2240 (e.g., Figure 21 The data plane mirroring application layer 2140 may include one or more application subnets 2226. The one or more application subnets 2226 included in the data plane mirroring application layer 2240 may include a Virtual Network Interface Controller (VNIC) 2242 (e.g., the VNIC of 2142) that can execute compute instances 2244 (e.g., similar to...). Figure 21 Computation instance 2244). Computation instance 2244 can facilitate the mirroring of data plane application layer 2240 with application subnets 2226(2246) that can be contained in data plane application layer 2246 (e.g., Figure 21 The application subnet 2226 in the data plane application layer 2146 communicates via VNIC 2242 contained in the data plane mirror application layer 2240 and VNIC 2242 contained in the data plane application layer 2246.

[0212] The Internet gateway 2234 included in the control plane VCN 2216 can be communicatively coupled to the metadata management service 2252 (e.g., Figure 21 Metadata management service 2252), which can communicatively couple to the public Internet 2254 (e.g., Figure 21 The public internet 2254 can communicatively couple to a NAT gateway 2238 contained in a control plane VCN 2216. The service gateway 2236 contained in the control plane VCN 2216 can communicatively couple to a cloud service 2256 (e.g., ...). Figure 21 Cloud services 2156).

[0213] In some examples, data plane VCN 2218 may be included in customer lease 2221. In this case, the IaaS provider may provide control plane VCN 2216 for each customer, and the IaaS provider may set up a unique compute instance 2244 for each customer, included in service lease 2219. Each compute instance 2244 may allow communication between control plane VCN 2216 included in service lease 2219 and data plane VCN 2218 included in customer lease 2221. Compute instance 2244 may allow resources provisioned in control plane VCN 2216 included in service lease 2219 to be deployed or otherwise used in data plane VCN 2218 included in customer lease 2221.

[0214] In other examples, an IaaS provider's customer may have a database residing in customer lease 2221. In this example, control plane VCN 2216 may include data plane mirror application layer 2240, which may include one or more application subnets 2226. Data plane mirror application layer 2240 may reside in data plane VCN 2218, but may not reside in data plane VCN 2218. That is, data plane mirror application layer 2240 may have access to customer lease 2221, but may not reside in data plane VCN 2218 or be owned or operated by an IaaS provider's customer. Data plane mirror application layer 2240 may be configured to invoke data plane VCN 2218, but may not be configured to invoke any entity contained in control plane VCN 2216. Customers may expect to deploy or otherwise use resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 2216 in the data plane VCN 2218, and the data plane mirroring application layer 2240 can facilitate the customer's expected deployment or other use of resources.

[0215] In some embodiments, an IaaS provider's customer may apply filters to data plane VCN 2218. In this embodiment, the customer may determine what data plane VCN 2218 can access, and the customer may restrict access from data plane VCN 2218 to the public Internet 2254. The IaaS provider may not be able to apply filters or otherwise control data plane VCN 2218's access to any external networks or databases. Applying filters and controls to data plane VCN 2218 contained in customer lease 2221 can help isolate data plane VCN 2218 from other customers and the public Internet 2254.

[0216] In some embodiments, cloud service 2256 may be invoked by service gateway 2236 to access services that may not exist on public internet 2254, control plane VCN 2216, or data plane VCN 2218. The connection between cloud service 2256 and control plane VCN 2216 or data plane VCN 2218 may not be real-time or continuous. Cloud service 2256 may reside on different networks owned or operated by an IaaS provider. Cloud service 2256 may be configured to receive calls from service gateway 2236 and may be configured not to receive calls from public internet 2254. Some cloud services 2256 may be isolated from other cloud services 2256, and control plane VCN 2216 may be isolated from cloud services 2256 that may not be in the same region as control plane VCN 2216. For example, control plane VCN 2216 may be located in "Region 1," and cloud service "Deployment 21" may be located in both "Region 1" and "Region 2." If the service gateway 2236, contained in the control plane VCN 2216 located in region 1, makes a call to deployment 21, then that call can be transmitted to deployment 21 in region 1. In this example, the control plane VCN 2216 or deployment 21 in region 1 may not be communicatively coupled to or otherwise communicate with deployment 21 in region 2.

[0217] Figure 23 This is a block diagram 2300 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. Service operator 2302 (e.g., Figure 21 Service providers (2102) can communicatively couple to secure host rentals (2304, e.g., Figure 21 The secure hosting lease 2104 may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2306 (e.g., Figure 21 VCN 2106) and Secure Host Subnet 2308 (e.g., Figure 21 The secure host subnet 2108). VCN 2306 may include LPG 2310 (e.g., Figure 21 The LPG 2110), which can be communicatively coupled to the SSH VCN 2312 via the LPG 2310 included in the SSH VCN 2312 (e.g., Figure 21 SSH VCN 2112). SSH VCN 2312 can include SSH subnet 2314 (e.g., Figure 21 SSH subnet 2114), and SSH VCN 2312 can be communicatively coupled to control plane VCN 2316 via LPG 2310 included in control plane VCN 2316 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane VCN 2116) and coupled to the data plane VCN 2318 via the LPG 2310 contained in the data plane VCN 2318 (e.g., Figure 21 Data plane 2118). Control plane VCN 2316 and data plane VCN 2318 may be included in service lease 2319 (e.g., Figure 21 In the service rental (2119).

[0218] The control plane VCN 2316 may include a load balancer (LB) subnet 2322 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane DMZ layer 2320 of (one or more) LB subnets 2122) (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane DMZ layer 2120 may include one or more application subnets 2326 (e.g., similar to...). Figure 21 The control plane application layer 2324 of (one or more) application subnets 2126 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane application layer 2124), may include (one or more) control plane data layers 2328 of DB subnets 2330 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane data layer 2128). One or more LB subnets 2322 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 2320 can be communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2326 contained in the control plane application layer 2324 and an Internet gateway 2334 that can be contained in the control plane VCN 2316 (e.g., Figure 21 Internet gateway 2134), and application subnet(s) 2326 can communicatively couple to DB subnet(s) 2330 contained in control plane data layer 2328 and service gateway 2336 (e.g., Figure 21 The service gateway) and the Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway 2338 (e.g., Figure 21 (NAT gateway 2138). The control plane VCN 2316 may include the service gateway 2336 and the NAT gateway 2338.

[0219] Data plane VCN 2318 may include data plane application layer 2346 (e.g., Figure 21 Data plane application layer 2146), data plane DMZ layer 2348 (e.g., Figure 21 Data plane DMZ layer 2148), and data plane data layer 2350 (e.g., Figure 21 The data plane data layer 2150). The data plane DMZ layer 2348 may include one or more trusted application subnets 2360 and one or more untrusted application subnets 2362 that can be communicatively coupled to the data plane application layer 2346, and one or more LB subnets 2322 of the Internet gateway 2334 contained in the data plane VCN 2318. The one or more trusted application subnets 2360 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2336 contained in the data plane VCN 2318, the NAT gateway 2338 contained in the data plane VCN 2318, and one or more DB subnets 2330 contained in the data plane data layer 2350. The one or more untrusted application subnets 2362 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2336 contained in the data plane VCN 2318 and the one or more DB subnets 2330 contained in the data plane data layer 2350. The data plane data layer 2350 may include one or more DB subnets 2330 that can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2336 contained in the data plane VCN 2318.

[0220] One or more untrusted application subnets 2362 may include one or more primary VNICs 2364(1)-(N) that can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 2366(1)-(N). Each tenant VM 2366(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to a corresponding application subnet 2367(1)-(N) that may be contained in a corresponding container egress VCN 2368(1)-(N), which may be contained in a corresponding customer lease 2370(1)-(N). A corresponding secondary VNIC 2372(1)-(N) may facilitate communication between one or more untrusted application subnets 2362 contained in data plane VCN 2318 and application subnets contained in container egress VCN 2368(1)-(N). Each container exit VCN 2368(1)-(N) may include a NAT gateway 2338, which may communicatively couple to the public Internet 2354 (e.g., Figure 21 The public internet (2154).

[0221] The Internet gateway 2334, contained in the control plane VCN 2316 and the data plane VCN 2318, can be communicatively coupled to the metadata management service 2352 (e.g., Figure 21 The metadata management system 2152, and the metadata management service 2352, can communicatively couple to the public internet 2354. The public internet 2354 can communicatively couple to a NAT gateway 2338 contained in a control plane VCN 2316 and a data plane VCN 2318. The service gateway 2336 contained in the control plane VCN 2316 and the data plane VCN 2318 can communicatively couple to a cloud service 2356.

[0222] In some embodiments, the data plane VCN 2318 may be integrated with the customer lease 2370. Such integration may be useful or desired by the IaaS provider's customers in certain situations, such as when support may be expected during code execution. Customers may provide code that could be destructive, might communicate with other customer resources, or might otherwise cause undesirable effects. In response, the IaaS provider may determine whether to run the code provided by the customer to the IaaS provider.

[0223] In some examples, an IaaS provider's customer may grant the IaaS provider temporary network access and request functionality to be attached to data plane layer application 2146. The code running this functionality may execute in VM 2366(1)-(N) and may not be configured to run anywhere else on data plane VCN 2318. Each VM 2366(1)-(N) may be connected to a customer lease 2370. The corresponding container 2371(1)-(N) contained in VM 2366(1)-(N) may be configured to run the code. In this case, there may be dual isolation (e.g., container 2371(1)-(N) running the code, where container 2371(1)-(N) may be contained in at least one or more untrusted application subnets 2362 containing VM 2366(1)-(N)), which can help prevent incorrect or otherwise unintended code from corrupting the IaaS provider's network or the networks of different customers. Containers 2371(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to customer lease 2370 and may be configured to transmit or receive data from customer lease 2370. Containers 2371(1)-(N) may not be configured to transmit or receive data from any other entity in the data plane VCN 2318. After the code execution is complete, the IaaS provider may terminate or otherwise dispose of containers 2371(1)-(N).

[0224] In some embodiments, one or more trusted application subnets 2360 may run code that may be owned or operated by an IaaS provider. In this embodiment, one or more trusted application subnets 2360 may be communicatively coupled to one or more database subnets 2330 and configured to perform CRUD operations in one or more database subnets 2330. One or more untrusted application subnets 2362 may be communicatively coupled to one or more database subnets 2330, but in this embodiment, one or more untrusted application subnets may be configured to perform read operations in one or more database subnets 2330. Containers 2371(1)-(N) that may be contained in each customer's VM 2366(1)-(N) and may run code from the customer may not be communicatively coupled to one or more database subnets 2330.

[0225] In other embodiments, the control plane VCN 2316 and the data plane VCN 2318 may be coupled without direct communication. In this embodiment, there may be no direct communication between the control plane VCN 2316 and the data plane VCN 2318. However, communication can occur indirectly through at least one method. The LPG 2310 may be established by an IaaS provider, which can facilitate communication between the control plane VCN 2316 and the data plane VCN 2318. In another example, either the control plane VCN 2316 or the data plane VCN 2318 may invoke the cloud service 2356 via the service gateway 2336. For example, an invocation of the cloud service 2356 from the control plane VCN 2316 may include a request for a service that can communicate with the data plane VCN 2318.

[0226] Figure 24 This is a block diagram 2400 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. Service operator 2402 (e.g., Figure 21 The service provider 2102) can communicatively couple to the secure host lease 2404 (e.g., Figure 21 Secure hosting lease 2104), the secure hosting lease 2404 may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2406 (e.g., Figure 21 VCN 2106) and Secure Host Subnet 2408 (e.g., Figure 21 The secure host subnet 2108). VCN 2406 may include LPG 2410 (e.g., Figure 21 The LPG 2110), the LPG 2410 can be contained in the SSH VCN 2412 (e.g., Figure 21 The LPG 2410 in SSH VCN 2112 is communicatively coupled to SSH VCN 2412. SSH VCN 2412 may include SSH subnet 2414 (e.g., Figure 21 The SSH subnet 2114), and the SSH VCN 2412 can be communicatively coupled to the control plane VCN 2416 via the LPG 2410 contained in the control plane VCN 2416 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane VCN 2116) and coupled to the data plane VCN 2418 via the LPG 2410 contained in the data plane VCN 2418 (e.g., Figure 21 Data plane 2118). Control plane VCN 2416 and data plane VCN 2418 may be contained in service lease 2419 (e.g., Figure 21 In the service rental (2119).

[0227] The control plane VCN 2416 may include one or more LB subnets 2422 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane DMZ layer 2420 of (one or more) LB subnets 2122) (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane DMZ layer 2120 may include (one or more) application subnets 2426 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane application layer 2424 of (one or more) application subnets 2126 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane application layer 2124) may include (one or more) DB subnets 2430 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane data layer 2428 of (one or more) DB subnets 2130 (e.g., Figure 21 The control plane data layer 2128). One or more LB subnets 2422 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 2420 can be communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2426 contained in the control plane application layer 2424 and an Internet gateway 2434 that can be contained in the control plane VCN 2416 (e.g., Figure 21 Internet gateway 2134), and application subnet(s) 2426 can communicatively couple to DB subnet(s) 2430 contained in control plane data layer 2428 and service gateway 2436 (e.g., Figure 21 The service gateway) and Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway 2438 (e.g., Figure 21 (NAT gateway 2138). The control plane VCN 2416 may include the service gateway 2436 and the NAT gateway 2438.

[0228] Data plane VCN 2418 may include data plane application layer 2446 (e.g., Figure 21 Data plane application layer 2146), data plane DMZ layer 2448 (e.g., Figure 21 Data plane DMZ layer 2148), and data plane data layer 2450 (e.g., Figure 21 The data plane data layer 2150). The data plane DMZ layer 2448 may include one or more LB subnets 2422, which may be communicatively coupled to one or more trusted application subnets 2460 of the data plane application layer 2446 (e.g., Figure 23 (one or more) trusted application subnets 2360) and (one or more) untrusted application subnets 2462 (e.g., Figure 23 The data plane VCN 2418 may include one or more untrusted application subnets 2462 and an Internet gateway 2434. One or more trusted application subnets 2460 may be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 2436, a NAT gateway 2438, and a DB subnet 2430 within the data plane VCN 2418. One or more untrusted application subnets 2462 may be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 2436 and a DB subnet 2430 within the data plane VCN 2418. The data plane VCN 2450 may include one or more DB subnets 2430 that may be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 2436 within the data plane VCN 2418.

[0229] One or more untrusted application subnets 2462 may include a primary VNIC 2464(1)-(N) communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 2466(1)-(N) residing within one or more untrusted application subnets 2462. Each tenant VM 2466(1)-(N) may run code in a corresponding container 2467(1)-(N) and is communicatively coupled to an application subnet 2426 that may be contained in a data plane application layer 2446 contained in a container egress VCN 2468. A corresponding secondary VNIC 2472(1)-(N) may facilitate communication between one or more untrusted application subnets 2462 contained in a data plane VCN 2418 and the application subnets contained in a container egress VCN 2468. The container egress VCN may include a public internet 2454 (e.g., Figure 21 NAT gateway 2438 for the public Internet (2154).

[0230] Internet gateway 2434, contained in control plane VCN 2416 and data plane VCN 2418, can be communicatively coupled to metadata management service 2452 (e.g., Figure 21 The metadata management system 2452 can be communicatively coupled to the public internet 2454. The public internet 2454 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 2438 contained in a control plane VCN 2416 and a data plane VCN 2418. The service gateway 2436 contained in a control plane VCN 2416 and a data plane VCN 2418 can be communicatively coupled to a cloud service 2456.

[0231] In some examples, Figure 24 The architecture shown in the block diagram 2400 can be considered as... Figure 23 This is an exception to the pattern shown in the architecture of block diagram 2300, and this pattern may be what the IaaS provider's customers would expect if the IaaS provider cannot communicate directly with the customer (e.g., in a disconnected region). The customer can access in real time the corresponding container 2467(1)-(N) contained in each customer's VM 2466(1)-(N). Container 2467(1)-(N) can be configured to invoke a corresponding auxiliary VNIC 2472(1)-(N) contained in one or more application subnets 2426 of the data plane application layer 2446, which may be contained in a container egress VCN 2468. The auxiliary VNIC 2472(1)-(N) can transmit the call to a NAT gateway 2438, which can then transmit the call to the public internet 2454. In this example, containers 2467(1)-(N), which can be accessed by clients in real time, can be isolated from the control plane VCN 2416 and from other entities contained in the data plane VCN 2418. Containers 2467(1)-(N) can also be isolated from resources from other clients.

[0232] In other examples, a client can use container 2467(1)-(N) to invoke cloud service 2456. In this example, the client can run code within container 2467(1)-(N) requesting a service from cloud service 2456. Container 2467(1)-(N) can then transmit the request to auxiliary VNIC 2472(1)-(N), which can then transmit the request to a NAT gateway, which can then transmit the request to the public internet 2454. The public internet 2454 can then transmit the request via internet gateway 2434 to one or more LB subnets 2422 contained in control plane VCN 2416. In response to determining that the request is valid, the one or more LB subnets can then transmit the request to one or more application subnets 2426, which can then transmit the request to cloud service 2456 via service gateway 2436.

[0233] It should be recognized that the IaaS architectures 2100, 2200, 2300, and 2400 depicted in the figures may have other components besides those depicted. Furthermore, the embodiments shown in the figures are merely some examples of cloud infrastructure systems that can be incorporated into embodiments of this disclosure. In some other embodiments, the IaaS system may have more or fewer components than shown in the figures, may combine two or more components, or may have different configurations or component arrangements.

[0234] In some embodiments, the IaaS system described herein may include application suites, middleware, and database service offerings delivered to customers in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. An example of such an IaaS system is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provided by this assignee.

[0235] Figure 25 An example computer system 2500, in which various embodiments can be implemented, is illustrated. System 2500 can be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. As shown, computer system 2500 includes a processing unit 2504 that communicates with a plurality of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 2502. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 2506, an I / O subsystem 2508, a storage subsystem 2518, and a communication subsystem 2524. Storage subsystem 2518 includes a tangible computer-readable storage medium 2522 and system memory 2510.

[0236] Bus subsystem 2502 provides a mechanism for allowing various components and subsystems of computer system 2500 to communicate with each other as intended. While bus subsystem 2502 is schematically shown as a single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses. Bus subsystem 2502 can be any of several types of bus architectures, including memory buses or memory controllers, peripheral buses, and local buses using any of the various bus architectures. For example, such architectures may include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) buses, Microchannel Architecture (MCA) buses, Enhanced ISA (EISA) buses, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local buses, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) buses, which may be implemented as Mezzanine buses manufactured according to the IEEE P1386.1 standard.

[0237] A processing unit 2504, which may be implemented as one or more integrated circuits (e.g., a conventional microprocessor or microcontroller), controls the operation of the computer system 2500. One or more processors may be included in the processing unit 2504. These processors may include single-core or multi-core processors. In some embodiments, the processing unit 2504 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units 2532 and / or 2534, each including a single-core or multi-core processor. In other embodiments, the processing unit 2504 may also be implemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating two dual-core processors into a single chip.

[0238] In various embodiments, processing unit 2504 can execute various programs in response to program code and can maintain multiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At any given time, some or all of the program code to be executed can reside in processor(s) 2504 and / or storage subsystem 2518. With appropriate programming, processor(s) 2504 can provide the various functions described above. Computer system 2500 may additionally include processing acceleration unit 2506, which may include digital signal processor (DSP), dedicated processor, etc.

[0239] I / O subsystem 2508 may include user interface input devices and user interface output devices. User interface input devices may include keyboards, pointing devices such as mice or trackballs, touchpads or touchscreens integrated into a display, scroll wheels, click wheels, dials, buttons, switches, audio input devices with voice command recognition systems, microphones, and other types of input devices. User interface input devices may include, for example, motion sensing and / or gesture recognition devices, such as the Microsoft Kinect® motion sensor, which enables users to control and interact with input devices such as the Microsoft Xbox® 360 game controller via a natural user interface using gestures and voice commands. User interface input devices may also include eye posture recognition devices, such as the Google Glass® blink detector, which detects eye activity from the user (e.g., "blinking" when taking a photo and / or making menu selections) and translates the eye posture into input in an input device (e.g., Google Glass®). Furthermore, user interface input devices may include voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interact with a voice recognition system (e.g., the Siri® navigator) via voice commands.

[0240] User interface input devices may also include, but are not limited to, 3D mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, game panels and drawing tablets, as well as audio / video devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode readers, 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser rangefinders, and eye-tracking devices. Furthermore, user interface input devices may include, for example, medical imaging input devices such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and medical ultrasound equipment. User interface input devices may also include, for example, audio input devices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments, etc.

[0241] User interface output devices may include display subsystems, indicator lights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. Display subsystems may be cathode ray tubes (CRTs), flat panel devices such as those using liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or plasma displays, projection devices, touchscreens, etc. Generally, the term "output device" is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system 2500 to the user or other computers. For example, user interface output devices may include, but are not limited to, various display devices that visually convey text, graphics, and audio / video information, such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, car navigation systems, plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

[0242] Computer system 2500 may include a storage subsystem 2518 containing software elements, shown as currently located in system memory 2510. System memory 2510 may store program instructions that can be loaded and executed on processing unit 2504, as well as data generated during the execution of these programs.

[0243] Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 2500, system memory 2510 can be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and / or non-volatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.). RAM typically contains data and / or program modules that can be immediately accessed by processing unit 2504 and / or are currently being operated and executed by processing unit 2504. In some implementations, system memory 2510 may include various types of memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In some implementations, a basic input / output system (BIOS), which contains basic routines that facilitate the transfer of information between elements of computer system 2500 during startup, may typically be stored in ROM. As an example, but not a limitation, system memory 2510 also includes application programs 2512, program data 2514, and an operating system 2516, which may include client applications, web browsers, middleware applications, relational database management systems (RDBMS), etc. As an example, operating system 2516 may include various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh® and / or Linux operating systems, various commercially available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems (including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems, Google Chrome® operating system, etc.) and / or mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS, BlackBerry® 25 OS and Palm® OS.

[0244] Storage subsystem 2518 may also provide a tangible computer-readable storage medium for storing basic programming and data structures that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that provides the above-described functionality when executed by a processor may be stored in storage subsystem 2518. These software modules or instructions may be executed by processing unit 2504. Storage subsystem 2518 may also provide a repository for storing data used according to this disclosure.

[0245] The storage subsystem 2500 may also include a computer-readable storage medium reader 2520 that can be further connected to the computer-readable storage medium 2522. Together with and optionally in conjunction with the system memory 2510, the computer-readable storage medium 2522 can comprehensively represent a remote, local, fixed, and / or removable storage device plus storage medium for temporarily and / or more persistently containing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information.

[0246] The computer-readable storage medium 2522 containing code or portions thereof may also include any suitable medium known or used in the art, including storage and communication media, such as, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented by any method or technology for storing and / or transmitting information. This may include tangible computer-readable storage media such as RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technologies, CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic tape cassettes, magnetic tape, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible computer-readable media. This may also include non-tangible computer-readable media such as data signals, data transmissions, or any other medium that can be used to transmit desired information and can be accessed by the computing system 2500.

[0247] For example, computer-readable storage medium 2522 may include hard disk drives that read from or write to non-removable non-volatile magnetic media, disk drives that read from or write to removable non-volatile magnetic disks, and optical disc drives that read from or write to removable non-volatile optical discs (such as CD ROMs, DVDs, and Blu-ray® discs or other optical media). Computer-readable storage medium 2522 may include, but is not limited to, Zip® drives, flash memory cards, Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash memory drives, Secure Digital (SD) cards, DVD discs, digital audio tapes, and so on. Computer-readable storage medium 2522 may also include solid-state drives (SSDs) based on non-volatile memory (such as flash memory-based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid-state ROMs, etc.), volatile memory-based SSDs (such as solid-state RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM), DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, and hybrid SSDs using a combination of DRAM-based and flash memory-based SSDs. Disk drives and their associated computer-readable media can provide non-volatile storage for computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for computer system 2500.

[0248] Communication subsystem 2524 provides interfaces to other computer systems and networks. Communication subsystem 2524 serves as an interface for receiving data from other systems and sending data from computer system 2500 to other systems. For example, communication subsystem 2524 enables computer system 2500 to connect to one or more devices via the Internet. In some embodiments, communication subsystem 2524 may include radio frequency (RF) transceiver components (e.g., advanced data network technologies using cellular telephone technology, such as 3G, 4G, or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 series standards), or other mobile communication technologies, or any combination thereof), GPS receiver components, and / or other components for accessing wireless voice and / or data networks. In some embodiments, as an addition to or alternative to the wireless interface, communication subsystem 2524 may provide wired network connectivity (e.g., Ethernet).

[0249] In some embodiments, the communication subsystem 2524 may also represent one or more users who can use the computer system 2500 to receive input communications in the form of structured and / or unstructured data feeds 2526, event streams 2528, event updates 2530, etc.

[0250] For example, the communication subsystem 2524 can be configured to receive data feeds 2526 in real time from users of social networks and / or other communication services, such as Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and / or real-time updates from one or more third-party information sources.

[0251] Furthermore, the communication subsystem 2524 can also be configured to receive data in the form of a continuous data stream, which may include event streams 2528 and / or event updates 2530 that are essentially continuous or unbounded real-time events without a clearly defined termination. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, for example, sensor data applications, financial quotation machines, network performance measurement tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, vehicle traffic monitoring, and so on.

[0252] The communication subsystem 2524 can also be configured to output structured and / or unstructured data feeds 2526, event streams 2528, event updates 2530, etc. to one or more databases, which can communicate with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to the computer system 2500.

[0253] The computer system 2500 can be one of a variety of types, including handheld portable devices (e.g., iPhone® cellular phones, iPad® computing tablets, PDAs), wearable devices (e.g., Google® Glass head-mounted displays), PCs, workstations, mainframes, information stations, server racks, or any other data processing systems.

[0254] In the foregoing description, specific details have been set forth for purposes of explanation to provide a thorough understanding of the examples of this disclosure. However, it will be apparent that various examples can be practiced without these specific details. The following description is illustrative only and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of this disclosure. Rather, the subsequent description of the examples will provide an enabling description for those skilled in the art to implement the examples. It should be understood that various changes can be made to the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure as set forth in the appended claims. The drawings and descriptions are not intended to be restrictive. Circuits, systems, networks, processes, and other components may be shown as components in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the examples with unnecessary details. In other cases, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary details to avoid obscuring the examples. The teachings disclosed herein can also be applied to various types of applications, such as mobile applications, non-mobile applications, desktop applications, web applications, enterprise applications, etc. Furthermore, the teachings of this disclosure are not limited to a particular operating environment (e.g., operating system, device, platform, etc.), but can instead be applied to multiple different operating environments.

[0255] Furthermore, it should be noted that individual examples can be described as processes, which may be represented as flowcharts, flow diagrams, data flow diagrams, structure diagrams, or block diagrams. While flowcharts can describe operations as sequential processes, many operations can be executed in parallel or concurrently. Additionally, the order of operations can be rearranged. A process terminates when its operations are completed, but a process can have additional steps not included in the diagram. Processes can correspond to methods, functions, procedures, subroutines, subroutines, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination can correspond to the function returning to the calling function or the main function.

[0256] The terms "example" and "exemplary" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs.

[0257] The terms "machine-readable storage medium" or "computer-readable storage medium" include, but are not limited to, portable or non-portable storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other media capable of storing, containing, or carrying one or more instructions and / or data. Machine-readable or computer-readable storage media may include non-transitory media in which data can be stored but do not include carrier waves and / or transient electronic signals propagated wirelessly or via a wired connection. Examples of non-transitory media may include, but are not limited to, disks or tapes, optical storage media such as CDs or DVDs, flash memory, or memory or storage devices thereof. Computer program products may include code and / or machine-executable instructions that may represent procedures, functions, subroutines, programs, routines, subroutines, modules, software packages, classes, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. Code segments may be coupled to another code segment or hardware circuitry by passing and / or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc., may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means, including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

[0258] Furthermore, the examples can be implemented using hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented as software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, program code or code segments (e.g., computer program products) that perform the necessary tasks can be stored on a machine-readable medium. One or more processors can perform the necessary tasks. The systems depicted in some of these figures can be provided in various configurations. In some examples, the system can be configured as a distributed system, where one or more components of the system are distributed across one or more networks in a cloud computing system. Where a component is described as being "configured" to perform certain operations, this configuration can be accomplished, for example, by designing electronic circuits or other hardware to perform the operations, by programming or controlling electronic circuits (e.g., microprocessors or other suitable electronic circuits) to perform the operations, or any combination thereof.

[0259] While specific embodiments of this disclosure have been described, various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, and equivalents are also included within the scope of this disclosure. The embodiments of this disclosure are not limited to operation within certain specific data processing environments, but can be freely operated within multiple data processing environments. Furthermore, although embodiments of this disclosure have been described using a specific series of transactions and steps, those skilled in the art will understand that the scope of this disclosure is not limited to the described series of transactions and steps. Various features and aspects of the above embodiments can be used individually or in combination.

[0260] Furthermore, while embodiments of this disclosure have been described using specific combinations of hardware and software, it should be recognized that other combinations of hardware and software are also within the scope of this disclosure. Embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented using only hardware, or only software, or a combination thereof. The various processes described herein can be implemented in any combination on the same processor or on different processors. Thus, where a component or module is described as being configured to perform certain operations, such configuration can be accomplished, for example, by designing electronic circuits to perform operations, by programming programmable electronic circuits (such as microprocessors), or any combination thereof. Processes may communicate using a variety of technologies, including but not limited to conventional technologies for inter-process communication, and different pairs of processes may use different technologies, or the same pair of processes may use different technologies at different times.

[0261] Therefore, the specification and drawings are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive. However, it will be apparent that additions, omissions, deletions, and other modifications and changes can be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope set forth in the claims. Thus, while specific disclosed embodiments have been described, they are not intended to be limiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope of the following claims.

[0262] In the context of describing the disclosed embodiments (particularly in the context of the following claims), the terms "a," "an," and "the," and similar designations, are to be interpreted as covering both singular and plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or obviously contradicted by the context. Unless otherwise stated, the terms "comprising," "having," "including," and "containing" are to be interpreted as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including but not limited to"). The term "connected" should be interpreted as partially or wholly contained in, attached to, or joined together, even if something exists in between. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the enumeration of value ranges herein is intended only as a shorthand method for individually referencing each individual value falling within that range, and each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually enumerated herein. Unless otherwise indicated herein or obviously contradicted by the context, all methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order. The use of any and all examples or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein is intended only to better illustrate embodiments of this disclosure and does not constitute a limitation on the scope of this disclosure, unless otherwise stated. Nothing in the specification should be construed as indicating that any unclaimed element is essential to the practice of this disclosure.

[0263] Exclusion language, such as the phrase "at least one of X, Y, or Z", is intended to be understood in the context generally used to represent items, terms, etc., unless otherwise explicitly stated, and may be X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and / or Z). Therefore, such exclusion language is generally not intended to, and should not, imply that some embodiments require the presence of at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z.

[0264] Examples of embodiments of this disclosure may be described by considering the following terms: Clause 1. A system comprising: a collection of servers connected to an underlying network and hosting a network interface service; a network virtualization device hosting virtual network interface cards and connected to the underlying network; and a host machine connected to the network virtualization device and hosting computing instances of a virtual network from a client, wherein the network interface service is configured to: store configuration information about the configuration of the virtual network; store version information about the configuration information; determine that the virtual network interface cards are associated with at least a portion of the configuration information; determine, based on the version information, that at least said portion of the configuration information is outdated; and send an indication to the network virtualization device that at least said portion is outdated.

[0265] Clause 2. The system of Clause 1, wherein the configuration information includes flow information for transmitting packets on a virtual network by a virtual network interface card, and wherein the virtual network interface card is configured to store the flow information.

[0266] Clause 3. The system of Clause 2, wherein configuration information includes security policies for one or more packet flows, overlays to the underlying Internet Protocol (IP) address mapping and routing rules, and wherein flow information includes at least one of security policies, overlays to the underlying IP address mapping or routing rules.

[0267] Clause 4. A system of any one of Clauses 1-3, wherein the configuration information comprises multiple parts, and wherein the network interface service is further configured to: store an indicator of the version of each of the multiple parts; and determine, based on the stored version indicator, that the version of the part associated with the virtual network interface card is obsolete.

[0268] Clause 5. The system of Clause 4, wherein the network interface service is further configured to: send an updated version of the portion and an indicator of the updated version to the network virtualization device, wherein the indicator includes the updated version and the indicator of the updated version.

[0269] Clause 6. The system of Clause 4, wherein the network interface service is further configured to: receive from the network virtualization device a request for an updated version of a portion associated with the virtual network interface card, wherein the request indicates to notify the network virtualization device that the updated version is available; and send the updated version to the network virtualization device in response to the request.

[0270] Clause 7. The system of Clause 4, wherein the network interface service is further configured to: send version information to the control plane; and receive from the control plane an updated version of the portion associated with the virtual network interface card and an indicator of the updated version.

[0271] Clause 8. The system of Clause 7, wherein sending version information includes sending a vector clock populated with an indicator of the version of each of the plurality of parts forming configuration information.

[0272] Clause 9. A method comprising: storing at least a portion of configuration information about a client's virtual network, the network virtualization device hosting a virtual network interface card for the client's compute instances to the virtual network and connected to an underlying network; storing version information about said portion of the configuration information; determining, based on communication with a control plane regarding the version information, that said portion is obsolete; receiving, by the network virtualization device, an updated version of said portion from the control plane or a network interface service hosted on a set of servers connected to the underlying network; and replacing said portion with the updated version by the network virtualization device.

[0273] Clause 10. The method of Clause 9 further includes: sending version information from the network virtualization device to the control plane; and receiving from the control plane by the network virtualization device an indication that the portion is outdated.

[0274] Clause 11. The method of Clause 10, wherein sending version information includes sending a vector clock that includes a version indicator for the portion of configuration information and version indicators for other portions, wherein the portion and other portions form stream information for sending packets on a virtual network via a virtual network interface card, and wherein receiving indication includes receiving an updated version indicator for the portion.

[0275] Clause 12. The method of any one of Clauses 9-11 further includes: sending a request from the network virtualization device to the network interface service to receive an updated version; receiving the updated version from the network interface service based on the request; and sending a packet based on the updated version.

[0276] Clause 13. The method of Clause 12, wherein in response to an indication that the portion of the configuration information received from the control plane is outdated and before receiving packets from the compute instance, a request is sent to the network interface service.

[0277] Clause 14. The method of any one of Clauses 9-13 further includes: receiving a packet from the host machine of the computing instance by the network virtualization device; sending a packet to the network interface service by the network virtualization device based on the fact that the portion of the configuration information is outdated; and receiving an updated version from the network interface service by the network virtualization device based on the packet.

[0278] Clause 15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable instructions, which, when executed on a network virtualization device, cause the network virtualization device to perform operations, including: storing at least a portion of configuration information about the configuration of a client's virtual network, wherein the network virtualization device hosts a virtual network interface card for the client's computing instances to the virtual network and is connected to the base network; storing version information about said portion of the configuration information; determining, based on communication with the control plane about the version information, that said portion is obsolete; receiving an updated version of said portion from the control plane or a network interface service hosted on a set of servers connected to the base network; and replacing said portion with the updated version.

[0279] Clause 16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable instructions of Clause 15, wherein the operation further includes receiving the portion and version information of configuration information from the network interface service, wherein the portion and version information is stored in a cache associated with the virtual network interface card.

[0280] Clause 17. One or more nontransitory computer-readable instructions of any of Clauses 15-16, wherein the configuration information includes multiple parts of forming stream information to send packets through a virtual network interface card, and wherein the operation further includes receiving and storing each of the multiple parts and a corresponding version indicator from a network interface service.

[0281] Clause 18. One or more non-transitory computer-readable instructions of Clause 17, wherein the operation further includes: receiving packets from the host machine of the computing instance; determining, based on communication with the control plane, that the flow information includes at least one obsolete portion; and sending packets to the virtual network interface card based on the flow information including at least one obsolete portion.

[0282] Clause 19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable instructions of Clause 18, wherein the operation further includes: receiving an updated version of the at least one obsolete portion from a virtual network interface card in response to sending a packet.

[0283] Clause 20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable instructions of Clause 17, wherein configuration information includes security policies for one or more packet flows, overlays to the underlying Internet Protocol (IP) address mapping, and routing rules, and wherein flow information includes at least one of security policies, overlays to the underlying IP address mapping, or routing rules.

[0284] This document describes preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, including the best modes known for carrying out the present disclosure. Variations of those preferred embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Those skilled in the art should be able to suitably employ such variations and may practice the present disclosure in ways other than those specifically described herein. Thus, the present disclosure includes all modifications and equivalents to the subject matter recited in the appended claims, where permitted by applicable law. Furthermore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the present disclosure includes any combination of the foregoing elements in all its possible variations.

[0285] All references cited in this article, including publications, patent applications and patents, are incorporated into this article by reference to the same extent as if each reference individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and elaborated in full in this article.

[0286] In the foregoing specification, various aspects of this disclosure have been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof; however, those skilled in the art will recognize that this disclosure is not limited thereto. The various features and aspects of the foregoing disclosure may be used individually or in combination. Furthermore, embodiments may be used in any number of settings and applications other than those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of this specification. Therefore, this specification and the accompanying drawings should be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.< / realm>

Claims

1. A system for invalidating streaming information cached in a cloud infrastructure, comprising: A collection of servers that connect to the underlying network and host network interface services; A network virtualization device that hosts a virtual network interface card (NIC), connects to the underlying network, and stores flow information that can be used by the NIC to manage traffic associated with the virtual network; and The host machine connects to and hosts compute instances from the virtual network via a network virtualization device. The network interface service hosted on the set of servers is configured as follows: Stores configuration information about the virtual network; Stores version information about configuration information; Determine the association between the virtual network interface card and the flow information; Determining that flow information on network virtualization devices is outdated based on version information; Based on the configuration information and the version information, an update to the flow information is generated; as well as Send updates to the network virtualization device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes security policies for one or more packet flows, overlays to the underlying Internet Protocol (IP) address mapping, and routing rules, and wherein the flow information includes at least one of the security policies, overlays to the underlying IP address mapping, or routing rules included in the configuration information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises multiple parts, the flow information corresponds to a part of the multiple parts of the configuration information, and wherein the network interface service is further configured as follows: For each of the plurality of parts, an indicator of the version of that part is stored; and The version of the stream information is determined to be outdated based on the stored indicator for the corresponding part of the configuration information.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the network interface service is further configured as follows: Send an indicator to the network virtualization device to indicate the updates that will be stored on the network virtualization device.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the network interface service is further configured as follows: Receive a request for an update to the streaming information from the network virtualization device, wherein the stored indicator notifies the network virtualization device that the update is available; and In response to the request, an update is sent to the network virtualization device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the request for an update is based on an indication that the flow information from the control plane is outdated.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the network interface service is further configured as follows: Send version information to the control plane; and Receive updates to the stream information and update indicators from the control plane.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein sending version information includes sending a vector clock filled with an indicator of the version of each of the plurality of portions forming configuration information.

9. A method for invalidating streaming information cached in a cloud infrastructure, comprising: The network virtualization device stores flow information that can be used by the virtual network interface card (VNIC) to associate with the virtual network. The network virtualization device hosts the VNIC and connects to the base network. The VNIC is associated with a computing instance. Version information about the stream is stored by the network virtualization device; The network virtualization device determines that the streaming information is outdated based on communication with the control plane regarding version information; The network virtualization device receives updates of flow information from the control plane or network interface service. The network interface service is hosted on a collection of servers connected to the base network. The network interface service stores configuration information and version information of the configuration information of the virtual network. Updates to the flow information are generated based on the configuration information and version information. as well as The network virtualization device updates the flow information based on updates.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: Version information is sent from the network virtualization device to the control plane; as well as The network virtualization device receives an indication from the control plane that the stream information is outdated.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein sending version information includes sending a vector clock, the vector clock including one or more version indicators of the stream information, and wherein receiving indication includes receiving an indicator of receiving an update to the stream information.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising: The network virtualization device sends a request to the network interface service to receive updates; The network virtualization device receives updates from the network interface service based on a request; as well as Packets are sent by the network virtualization device based on updates.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein in response to receiving an indication from the control plane that the flow information is outdated and before receiving packets from the computing instance, a request is sent to the network interface service.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising: Packets are received from the host machine of the compute instance by the network virtualization device; The network virtualization device sends packets to the network interface service based on the fact that the flow information is outdated; as well as The network virtualization device receives updates from the network interface service based on this packet.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media, including instructions stored thereon that, when executed on a network virtualization device, cause the network virtualization device to perform operations, including: The storage contains flow information that can be used by the virtual network interface card (VNIC) to associate with traffic in relation to the virtual network. The network virtualization device hosts the VNIC and connects to the underlying network. The VNIC is associated with a compute instance. Store version information about the stream; Determining that stream information is outdated is based on communication with the control plane regarding version information; Updates to the flow information are received from the control plane or network interface service. The network interface service is hosted on a collection of servers connected to the base network. The network interface service stores configuration information and version information about the configuration of the virtual network. Updates to the flow information are generated based on the configuration information and version information. as well as Update the stream information based on the update.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the operation further includes receiving streaming information and version information from a network interface service, wherein the streaming information and version information are stored in a cache associated with the virtual network interface card.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as claimed in claim 15, wherein the configuration information comprises a plurality of parts, and wherein the operation further comprises receiving and storing each of the plurality of parts and a corresponding version indicator from a network interface service.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the operation further comprises: Receive packets from the host machine of the compute instance; Based on communication with the control plane, it is determined that the flow information includes at least one outdated portion; as well as Packets are sent to the network interface service based on the fact that the flow information includes at least one outdated part.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the operation further comprises: In response to sending a packet, an updated version of the at least one outdated portion is received from the network interface service.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the configuration information includes security policies for one or more packet flows, overlays to the underlying Internet Protocol (IP) address mapping, and routing rules, and wherein the flow information includes at least one of the security policies, overlays to the underlying IP address mapping, or routing rules included in the configuration information.

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