Connectivity for virtual private label clouds

Abstract

Techniques for facilitating connectivity with vPLCs created in an infrastructure provided by a CSP in an area. Within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the area, the data packet is marked with information related to the particular vPLC when it is determined that the destination of the data packet is an endpoint associated with the particular vPLC. The vPLC-related information for a particular vPLC may include, for example, a vPLC identifier identifying the particular vPLC, an identifier identifying a customer associated with an endpoint, a virtual cloud network identifier identifying a virtual cloud network (VCN) belonging to the particular vPLC (and where the endpoint is part of the VCN), and other vPLC-related information. The data packets are then routed or transmitted along with the marked vPLC-related information within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the area. The vPLC-related information is used as part of connectivity and is used to route data packets within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in an area.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application is a non-provisional application and claims the benefit and priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 407,571, filed on September 16, 2022, entitled “VIRTUAL PRIVATE LABEL CLOUD,” under 35 U.S.C. 119(e), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

[0003] This application is also related to the following applications. The entire contents of each of the following applications are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

[0004] (1) Nonprovisional application Ser. No. __ / ___, ___, entitled “VIRTUAL PRIVATE LABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311130 (344800US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0005] (2) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “CONSOLE CUSTOMIZATION FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATELABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311132 (344900US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0006] (3) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATELABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311140 (345000US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0007] (4) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “ENDPOINTS FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATE LABELCLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311138 (345100US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0008] (5) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “IDENTITY MANAGEMENT FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATELABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311139 (345200US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0009] (6) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “METADATA CUSTOMIZATION FOR VIRTUALPRIVATE LABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311136 (345300US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0010] (7) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “REMOTE DATA PLANES FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATELABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1311141 (345400US)), filed concurrently with this application;

[0011] (8) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “RESOURCE USAGE MONITORING, BILLING AND ENFORCEMENT FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATE LABEL CLOUDS” (Attorney Docket No. 088325-1315390 (346900US)), filed concurrently with this application; and

[0012] (9) Non-provisional application Ser. No. __ / __, __, entitled “CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE-BASED ONLINE PUBLISHING PLATFORMS FOR VIRTUAL PRIVATE LABEL CLOUDS” (Agent Docket No. 088325-1315384 (346800US)), filed concurrently with this application. Technical Field

[0013] The present disclosure generally relates to technologies for providing cloud services. More specifically, novel technologies are disclosed that enable cloud infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region for providing CSP-provided cloud services to the CSP's customers to be used to create one or more virtual private clouds (referred to herein as virtual private label clouds or "vPLCs"). The vPLCs can be created for a reseller and used to provide one or more reseller-provided cloud services to the reseller's customers. Background Art

[0014] In recent years, the popularity of cloud services provided by cloud service providers (CSPs) has soared. Cloud services can include various types of services, including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), database as a service (DBaaS), etc. Consumers get several benefits from using cloud services, where consumers can be individuals or enterprises. Unlike before, consumers no longer need to invest in purchasing and maintaining hardware and software resources associated with enterprise-based installations. CSPs are responsible for providing, maintaining and updating the infrastructure for providing cloud services to one or more customers of CSPs. CSPs are also responsible for managing the security associated with the infrastructure. Consumers can also scale the use of services based on their needs. In addition, consumers can access the services they subscribe to and the workloads or data of their cloud deployments from anywhere with an Internet connection. This "access from anywhere" feature enables better collaboration between teams in an enterprise. All of these factors and other factors provide consumers using cloud services with significant competitive advantages. For example, consumers using infrastructure as a service (IaaS) services provided by CSPs can build applications and bring them to market faster and more efficiently than their competitors. Therefore, the demand for cloud services has increased significantly.

[0015] As demand for cloud services increases, more and more businesses and enterprises want to become CSPs and supply cloud services to their customers. However, the barriers to becoming a CSP are very high. Becoming a CSP requires very high upfront and ongoing capital expenditures to procure, maintain, and update the infrastructure required to provide cloud services. The technical knowledge to provide cloud services (e.g., configuring infrastructure to provide services, ensuring the security of infrastructure, etc.) is also very limited. As a result, there are only a few players in the CSP business. Summary of the invention

[0016] The present disclosure generally relates to technologies for providing cloud services. More specifically, novel technologies are disclosed that enable cloud infrastructure in a region provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) for providing the CSP-provided cloud services to the CSP's customers to be used to create one or more virtual private clouds (referred to herein as virtual private label clouds or "vPLCs"). Various embodiments are described herein, including methods, systems, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing programs, codes, or instructions executable by one or more processors, and the like.

[0017] A vPLC created according to the various techniques described in this disclosure can be used for different purposes. For example, in one use case, a vPLC can be created for a dealer that is a customer of a CSP, and the dealer can use the vPLC to provide one or more dealer-provisioned cloud services to the dealer's customers. As another use case, the vPLC can be used as a virtual data center and can be associated with a realm that is different from the realm associated with the cloud infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0018] In certain embodiments, a vPLC represents a virtual cloud that includes a collection of resources that have been allocated to the vPLC from infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. One or more vPLCs may be created using infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region.

[0019] In some embodiments, the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region can be used to provide cloud services to the CSP's customers, and can also be used to provide dealer-supplied cloud services to customers of dealers who are customers of the CSP. This is achieved by creating one or more vPLCs for one or more dealers from the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP, where the vPLC created for a specific dealer can be used to provide dealer-supplied and dealer-branded cloud services to customers of the specific dealer. This enables dealers to become providers of dealer-branded cloud services for their customers without investing in the infrastructure required to provide these cloud services. Alternatively, dealers use the infrastructure provided by the CSP to provide dealer-branded cloud services to the dealer's customers. In this way, the first part of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region can be used to provide CSP-supplied cloud services to the CSP's customers, the second part of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region and assigned to the first vPLC created for the first dealer can be used to provide the first dealer's customers with cloud services supplied by the first dealer, and the third part of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region and assigned to the second vPLC created for the second dealer can be used to provide the second dealer's customers with cloud services supplied by the second dealer, and so on.

[0020] The present disclosure relates to facilitating connectivity with vPLCs created in infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. Within the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, when a data packet is destined for an endpoint associated with a particular vPLC, the data packet is tagged with information associated with the particular vPLC. The vPLC-related information of the particular vPLC may include, for example, a vPLC identifier identifying the particular vPLC, an identifier identifying a customer associated with the endpoint, a virtual cloud network identifier identifying a virtual cloud network (VCN) belonging to the particular vPLC (and where the endpoint is part of the VCN), and other vPLC-related information.

[0021] The data packet is then routed or transmitted within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region along with the tagged vPLC related information. The vPLC related traffic is tagged with the vPLC related information to clearly identify that the traffic is related to the vPLC. In this way, the vPLC related information (e.g., vPLC ID) is used as part of the connectivity and is used to route the data packet within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0022] In a computing instance, one or more vPLCs may be created within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. The infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region may include multiple physical and logical components. A first component within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region may receive a data packet. The first component may determine that the destination of the data packet is an endpoint associated with a first virtual private tag cloud (vPLC), the first vPLC being created for a first dealer using one or more resources from an infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region, and the first vPLC being created to provide one or more cloud service sets supplied by the first dealer to one or more customers of the first dealer. The first component may mark the received data packet with first vPLC related information to create a marked data packet. The marked data packet with the first vPLC related information may then be transmitted from the first component to a second component within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region, wherein the second component is associated with the endpoint. The first vPLC related information may include a first vPLC identifier identifying the first vPLC. The first vPLC related information may include an identifier identifying a virtual cloud network (VCN) associated with the first vPLC, and wherein the endpoint is part of the VCN.

[0023] In addition to including a first vPLC for providing a first dealer-provided service to one or more customers of a first dealer, the first portion of the CSP-provided infrastructure in the region may also provide one or more CSP-provided cloud services to one or more customers of the CSP. Additional vPLCs may be created in the CSP-provided infrastructure in the region, each vPLC being created for a corresponding dealer and used to provide dealer-provided cloud services to the dealer's customers.

[0024] The first component may use different techniques to mark the data packet with vPLC related information. In some embodiments, marking involves: creating, by the first component, an encapsulated data packet by adding an encapsulation header to the data packet, and including, by the first component, the first vPLC related information in the encapsulation header.

[0025] In some embodiments, the processing performed by the first component to determine that an endpoint associated with the first vPLC is a destination for the data packet may include determining a destination address included in a header of the data packet, wherein the destination address is associated with the endpoint. The first component may then determine that the destination address falls within an address range assigned to the first vPLC.

[0026] In some embodiments, first information may be stored for a set of vPLCs including a first vPLC created using infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. The first information may then be used to determine that a destination of a data packet belongs to the first vPLC. The first information may include information for identifying, for each vPLC in the set of vPLCs, an address range assigned to the vPLC. The first component may use the first information to identify within which particular address range the destination address is located, and use the first information to determine that the particular address range is assigned to the first vPLC.

[0027] In some embodiments, the first component may determine that the endpoint is associated with a first customer of the first reseller. The first vPLC-related information tagged to the data packet may include an identifier that identifies the first customer. For example, the first component may determine a destination address included in a header of the data packet, wherein the destination address is associated with the endpoint. The first component may then determine that the destination address falls within a sub-range of addresses assigned to the first customer of the first reseller.

[0028] In some embodiments, first information may be stored for a set of vPLCs created using infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, the set of vPLCs including a first vPLC. The first information may include information identifying an address range assigned to the vPLC for each vPLC in the set of vPLCs. The first information may also include a sub-range of addresses assigned to each of one or more customers of the first distributor from the address range assigned to the customer. The first component may use the first information to identify within which specific address sub-range the destination address is, and use the first information to determine that the specific address sub-range is assigned to the first customer.

[0029] The first component and the second component may refer to various different components within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. For example, in one use case: the endpoint is a destination computing instance in the first vPLC; the first component is a gateway within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region; and the second component is a network virtualization device (NVD) that implements a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) associated with the destination computing instance. The gateway may receive packets from a source outside the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0030] As another example: a packet originates from a source computing instance within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region; the endpoint is a destination computing instance associated with a first vPLC; the first component is an NVD that implements a VNIC associated with the source computing instance; and the second component is an NVD that implements a VNIC associated with the destination computing instance. In one scenario, the source computing instance may be associated with a second vPLC created for a second reseller using one or more resources from an infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region, the second vPLC being created to provide one or more sets of cloud services supplied by the second reseller to one or more customers of the second reseller. In another scenario, the source computing instance may be associated with a first customer of a first reseller, and the destination computing instance may be associated with a second customer of the first reseller, where the second customer is different from the first customer. As another example, the source computing instance may be associated with a first customer of a first reseller, and the destination computing instance is associated with a first customer of the first reseller. In some embodiments, the first component may be a component dedicated to handling traffic for the first vPLC.

[0031] vPLC can be used for various other applications that do not involve dealers. As an example, a vPLC can be created and associated with a domain different from the domain associated with the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP used to create the vPLC. For example, the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP can be associated with a first domain, and the vPLC can be associated with a second domain different from the first domain. In this case, the infrastructure corresponding to the vPLC is hosted by the first domain, but is considered to belong to the second domain. This can be used for a variety of different purposes. For example, since the vPLC is associated with the second domain, it can communicate with other infrastructures (e.g., other data centers) in the second domain. Accordingly, the data center in the second domain can communicate with the vPLC because they are all located in the same domain and share the second domain trust and identity profile.

[0032] In various embodiments, a system is provided that includes one or more data processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform part or all of one or more methods disclosed herein.

[0033] In various embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors of a computer system to perform one or more methods disclosed herein.

[0034] In various embodiments, a computer program product is disclosed herein, including a computer program / instructions, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform any of these methods. Embodiments may be implemented using a computer program product, including a computer program / instructions, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform any of the methods described in the present disclosure.

[0035] The techniques described above and below can be implemented in a variety of ways and in a variety of contexts. Several example implementations and contexts are provided with reference to the following figures, as described in more detail below. However, the following implementations and contexts are only a small part of the numerous implementations and contexts. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] Figure 1 is a high-level diagram illustrating a distributed environment of a virtual or overlay cloud network hosted by a cloud service provider infrastructure, according to certain embodiments.

[0037] Figure 2 Depicted is a simplified architectural diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0038] Figure 3 An example arrangement within a CSPI is shown in accordance with certain embodiments, where a host machine is connected to multiple network virtualization devices (NVDs).

[0039] Figure 4 Depicted is connectivity between a host machine and an NVD for providing I / O virtualization to support multitenancy, according to some embodiments.

[0040] Figure 5 Depicted is a simplified block diagram of a physical network provided by CSPI in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0041] Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example distributed environment of a virtual private label cloud (vPLC) hosted by an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0042] Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between a CSP, the CSP's direct and reseller customers and their associated users, and various resellers' customers and their associated users, according to certain embodiments.

[0043] Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between leases assigned to a direct customer of a CSP, leases to dealers of the CSP, and leases to customers of the respective dealers, according to certain embodiments.

[0044] Fig.9A is a diagram illustrating a mechanism for storing information in the leases of customers of various resellers of a CSP, according to certain embodiments.

[0045] Fig. 9B is a diagram illustrating a mechanism for storing information in the leases of customers of various resellers of a CSP, according to certain embodiments.

[0046] Fig.10 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a vPLC setup process for a distributor of a CSP according to certain embodiments.

[0047] Fig.11 is a block diagram illustrating an example distributed environment of a virtual private label cloud (vPLC) hosted by an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0048] Fig.12 is a block diagram illustrating a vPLC segmentation model for resource partitioning according to certain embodiments.

[0049] Fig.13 is a block diagram illustrating a vPLC nesting model for resource partitioning according to certain embodiments.

[0050] Fig.14 is a flow chart illustrating a sign-up process for a customer of a dealer associated with a vPLC according to certain embodiments.

[0051] Fig.15 is a flow diagram illustrating a login process for a user associated with a customer of a dealer associated with a vPLC, according to certain embodiments.

[0052] Fig.16 is a flow diagram illustrating a resource allocation and provisioning process for a dealer's customers associated with a vPLC in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0053] Fig.17 is a flow diagram illustrating a resource allocation and provisioning process for a dealer's customers associated with a vPLC in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0054] Fig.18 is a simplified diagram illustrating a use case in which a vPLC is hosted by infrastructure in a first realm but is associated with a second, different realm, in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0055] Fig.19 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for creating a vPLC hosted by infrastructure provided by a CSP in a particular region in a particular domain but virtually associated with a different region in a different domain, in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0056] Fig. 20 is a simplified block diagram of a distributed environment including an infrastructure including one or more vPLCs provided by a CSP in a region, according to certain embodiments.

[0057] Fig.21 An example flow chart depicting a method for routing data packets originating from a source outside of infrastructure provided by a regional CSP and destined for an endpoint belonging to a vPLC is illustrated in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0058] Fig. 22 An example flow chart depicting a method for routing packets originating from within a vPLC in a source outside of infrastructure provided by a regional CSP and destined for an endpoint outside of infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region is illustrated in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0059] Fig.23 An example flow chart depicting a method for routing packets between vPLCs in infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region according to certain embodiments is illustrated.

[0060] Fig.24 An example flow chart depicting a method of routing packets between compute instances in the same vPLC in infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region (eg, intra-vPLC communication) is illustrated in accordance with certain embodiments.

[0061] Fig.25 An example flow chart 2500 depicting a generalized method for marking a packet route destined for a vPLC within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, according to certain embodiments, is illustrated.

[0062] Fig.26 is a block diagram illustrating one mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0063] Fig. 27 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0064] Fig.28 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0065] Fig.29 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0066] Fig.30 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system in accordance with at least one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0067] In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of certain embodiments. However, it is apparent that various embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. The figures and descriptions are not intended to be limiting. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or superior to other embodiments or designs.

[0068] The present disclosure generally relates to technologies for providing cloud services. More specifically, novel technologies are disclosed that enable cloud infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region to be used to provide the CSP's customers with cloud services provided by the CSP for creating one or more virtual private clouds (referred to herein as virtual private label clouds or "vPLCs"). Various embodiments are described herein, including methods, systems, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing programs, codes, or instructions executable by one or more processors, and the like.

[0069] A vPLC created according to the various techniques described in this disclosure can be used for different purposes. For example, in one use case, a vPLC can be created for a reseller that is a customer of a CSP, and the reseller can use the vPLC to provide one or more reseller-provisioned cloud services to the reseller's customers. As another use case, the vPLC can be used as a virtual data center and can be associated with a domain that is different from the domain associated with the cloud infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0070] In some embodiments, a vPLC represents a virtual cloud that includes a collection of resources that have been allocated to the vPLC from infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. One or more vPLCs can be created using infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. In some embodiments, a virtual private label cloud (vPLC) refers to a model and architecture that enables and facilitates reseller-provided and reseller-branded cloud services provided by a CSP within infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region.

[0071] Just as the infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region provides cloud resources that the CSP's customers can access, the vPLC created for the reseller provides a collection of resources that the reseller's customers can access. From the perspective of the reseller's customers, the vPLC is like the infrastructure provided by the reseller in a region providing resources that the reseller's customers can access. The vPLC is similar to the data center provided by the reseller in a region providing the reseller's customers with cloud services.

[0072] In certain embodiments, the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region can be used to provide both cloud services to the CSP's customers and dealer-provisioned cloud services to customers of dealers that are customers of the CSP. This is accomplished by creating one or more vPLCs for one or more dealers from the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP, where the vPLC created for a particular dealer can be used to provide dealer-provisioned and dealer-branded cloud services to the particular dealer's customers. This enables the dealer to become a provider of dealer-branded cloud services to its customers without having to invest in the infrastructure required to provide those cloud services. Alternatively, the dealer uses the infrastructure provided by the CSP to provide dealer-branded cloud services to the dealer's customers.

[0073] In the dealer use case, a vPLC is created for the dealer using a cloud infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region. The dealer can use the vPLC created for the dealer to provide one or more dealer-supplied cloud services to the dealer's customers. In some embodiments, the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP that the dealer uses to provide one or more dealer-supplied services is partitioned into securely isolated parts, and the isolated parts (or partitions) are assigned to different dealers so that the partitions assigned to the dealers are isolated from other dealers. In this way, the first part of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region can be used to provide the CSP-supplied cloud services to the CSP's customers, the second part of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region and assigned to the first vPLC created for the first dealer can be used to provide the first dealer's customers with the first dealer's cloud services, the third part of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region and assigned to the second vPLC created for the second dealer can be used to provide the second dealer's customers with the second dealer's cloud services, and so on. Each part of the infrastructure allocated to the dealer can also be further partitioned into a second level of securely isolated parts to provide multi-tenant cloud infrastructure services to the dealer's customers.

[0074] A reseller may be an entity such as an enterprise or business or an individual. Using the techniques described herein enables a reseller entity to quickly become a cloud service provider while avoiding all of the barriers to entry discussed in the background section of this disclosure. For example, a reseller does not have to procure infrastructure for providing cloud services because the cloud services being provided are using infrastructure provided by the CSP. To the reseller's customers, it looks like the reseller is providing a reseller-supplied cloud service. From the perspective of the reseller's customers, the reseller is therefore a cloud service provider that provides the services to which the customers have subscribed. The reseller's customers may not even know or be aware of the CSP whose infrastructure is being used by the reseller to provide a reseller-supplied and reseller-branded cloud service.

[0075] The ability to provide vPLC can be provided as a service by the CSP and can be subscribed to by one or more customers. For example, an entity that desires to provide cloud services to its customers but does not want to invest in purchasing the infrastructure required to provide the service can subscribe to such a CSP-provided vPLC service. Once the vPLC service is subscribed, the entity is a customer of the CSP, but as a "special" customer, because the CSP-provided infrastructure allocated to the entity in the form of a vPLC is then used to provide the entity's customers with services provided and branded by the entity. Therefore, the customer is a customer of the CSP and is also a dealer of cloud services using the vPLC created for the entity. Therefore, the entity is called a "dealer" to distinguish it from the actual direct customer of the CSP. A direct customer of a CSP is an entity that subscribes to and consumes services provided and branded by one or more CSPs, and does not use the CSP infrastructure to sell cloud services to its customers. For the purposes of this disclosure, a direct customer of a CSP is also referred to as a "non-dealer customer" to distinguish it from a dealer. For dealers, as part of the vPLC service, the CSP provides infrastructure to the dealer in the form of a vPLC, and the dealer uses the vPLC to supply dealer-branded cloud services to the dealer's customers.

[0076] vPLC can be used for various other applications that do not involve dealers. As an example, a vPLC can be created and associated with a domain different from the domain associated with the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP used to create the vPLC. For example, the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP can be associated with a first domain, and the vPLC can be associated with a second domain different from the first domain. In this scenario, the infrastructure corresponding to the vPLC is hosted by the first domain, but is considered to belong to the second domain. This can be used for a variety of different purposes. For example, since the vPLC is associated with the second domain, it can communicate with other infrastructures (e.g., other data centers) in the second domain. Accordingly, the data center in the second domain can communicate with the vPLC because they are all located in the same domain and share the second domain trust and identity profile.

[0077] The creation and management of vPLCs are performed using infrastructure and services provided by the CSP and technically very complex tasks. When a vPLC is created for a dealer, technical functions are provided to enable the dealer to use the vPLC to provide dealer-supplied cloud services to the dealer's customers using the vPLC. This includes isolating traffic between dealers, isolating traffic from different customers of the dealer, dynamically managing the allocation of resources provided by the CSP to the vPLC, managing the allocation of resources allocated to the vPLC between different customers of the vPLC, measuring the usage of the vPLC allocated to the dealer and performing related billing functions, measuring the usage of the vPLC allocated between different customers of the vPLC and performing related billing functions, enabling market environments for different dealers, performing identity management functions for dealers and their customers, etc. The present disclosure describes various embodiments, depicting various architectures and corresponding methods for performing and enabling vPLC-related functions.

[0078] A dealer can use a vPLC created for the dealer to provide dealer-supplied and dealer-branded cloud services that provide specialized services in areas where the dealer specializes. The dealer-supplied services can be tailored for different customer groups. In some embodiments, the dealer-supplied cloud services may be different from the cloud services provided by the CSP. In some other embodiments, the dealer-supplied cloud services may be based on the cloud services provided by the CSP, for example, the dealer-supplied services may be customized versions of the cloud services provided by the CSP.

[0079] For example, a first vPLC can be created for a first dealer who specializes in providing financial services from the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the first region. The first dealer's customers can be banks and other financial institutions. Accordingly, the first dealer can use the first vPLC to provide customized and first dealer branded financial cloud services to its customers. A second vPLC can be created for a second dealer who specializes in providing telecommunication services from the infrastructure provided by the same CSP in the first region. The second dealer's customers can be users of telecommunication services. The second dealer can use the second vPLC to provide customized and second dealer branded telecommunication cloud services to its customers. In addition to the first vPLC and the second vPLC, the CSP can use the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the first region to provide CSP supplied and branded cloud services to one or more direct (non-dealer) customers of the CSP. In this way, the infrastructure provided by the same CSP in the region is used to provide CSP supplied and branded cloud services to one or more direct (non-dealer) customers of the CSP, provide customized and first dealer branded financial cloud services to the customers of the first dealer, and provide customized and second dealer branded telecommunication cloud services to the customers of the second dealer.

[0080] The present disclosure relates to facilitating connectivity with vPLCs created in infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region. Within the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, when a data packet is destined for an endpoint associated with a particular vPLC, the data packet is tagged with information associated with the particular vPLC. The vPLC-related information of the particular vPLC may include, for example, a vPLC identifier identifying the particular vPLC, an identifier identifying a customer associated with the endpoint, a virtual cloud network identifier identifying a virtual cloud network (VCN) belonging to the particular vPLC (and where the endpoint is part of the VCN), and other vPLC-related information.

[0081] The data packet is then routed or transmitted within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region along with the tagged vPLC related information. The vPLC related traffic is tagged with the vPLC related information to clearly identify that the traffic is related to the vPLC. In this way, the vPLC related information (e.g., vPLC ID) is used as part of the connectivity and is used to route the data packet within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0082] There are many technical advantages to marking traffic associated with vPLC with vPLC related information. For example, it allows components within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region (especially those physical or overlay or virtual components responsible for routing traffic within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region) to distinguish between vPLC related traffic and non-vPLC related traffic and identify the vPLC context. This context can be used to ensure that packets are correctly routed within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. This eliminates the possibility that traffic directed to the vPLC is routed to an incorrect endpoint. It also eliminates the possibility that traffic directed to an endpoint associated with a specific customer of a dealer is directed to an incorrect endpoint belonging to another customer, another vPLC, or even a non-vPLC endpoint. This increases the security and reliability of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. Therefore, vPLC related information can be used for efficient traffic separation within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. This also enables ultra-fast packet processing using existing CSP provided resources (e.g., using existing NVD) without changes in the data layer.

[0083] In an embodiment, where the vPLC related information includes a vPLC ID that identifies a specific vPLC, the vPLC ID can be used for a quick single lookup to identify any policies or other metadata associated with the vPLC. Data packets can then be routed based on these policies and metadata information. In contrast to multiple lookups when the vPLC ID is not included, a single lookup enables faster traffic processing and faster communications. By marking data packets with vPLC-specific information, vPLC-specific transport connectivity is provided for the vPLC. Transport connectivity can provide Internet, VPN, FastConnect, and other types of connectivity for resources in the vPLC.

[0084] Figure 1-5 and the associated description provided in the “Example Virtual Networking Architecture” section below describe networking concepts including network virtualization, base networks, overlay networks, VNICs, etc., and provide examples of environments in which certain embodiments described in the present disclosure may be implemented. Figure 6-25 Examples and embodiments related to the virtual private label cloud (vPLC) described in this disclosure are described. Figure 26-29 An example of an architecture for implementing a cloud infrastructure that provides one or more cloud services is depicted, where the infrastructure can incorporate the teachings described herein. Fig.30 A block diagram of an example computer system or device is depicted in accordance with at least one embodiment.

[0085] Example Virtual Networking Architecture

[0086] The term cloud service is generally used to refer to services that are made available on demand (e.g., via a subscription model) to users or customers by a cloud service provider (CSP) 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 take advantage of cloud services provided by a CSP without having to purchase separate hardware and software resources for the service. Cloud services are designed to provide subscribing customers with simple, scalable access to applications and computing resources without requiring customers to invest in the infrastructure used to provide the service.

[0087] There are several cloud service providers that offer various types of cloud services. There are various different types or models of cloud services including Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), etc.

[0088] A customer can subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by a CSP. A customer can be any entity, such as an individual, an organization, a business, etc. When a customer subscribes to or registers for a service provided by a CSP, a lease or account is created for the customer. The customer can then access the subscribed one or more cloud resources associated with the account via this account.

[0089] As mentioned above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing service. In the IaaS model, the 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 is different from traditional computing, in which the customer's resources and network are hosted by the infrastructure provided by the customer.

[0090] CSPI may include interconnected high-performance computing resources, including various host machines, memory resources, and network resources, forming a physical network, which is also referred to as a base network or underlying network. The resources in CSPI may be spread across one or more data centers, which may be geographically spread across one or more geographic regions. Virtualization software may be executed by these physical resources to provide a virtualized distributed environment. Virtualization creates an overlay network (also referred to as a software-based network, a software-defined network, or a virtual network) on a physical network. The CSPI physical network provides an underlying foundation for creating one or more overlay or virtual networks on top of a physical network. A 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 running on top of a physical base network. A given physical network may support one or more overlay networks. Overlay networks typically use encapsulation technology to distinguish traffic belonging to different overlay networks. A virtual or overlay network is also referred to as a virtual cloud network (VCN). Virtual networks are implemented by using software virtualization technology (e.g., hypervisors, virtualization functions implemented by network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., smartNICs), top-of-rack (TOR) switches, smart TORs that implement one or more functions performed by NVDs, and other mechanisms) to create a layer of network abstraction that can run on top of a physical network. Virtual networks can take many forms, including peer-to-peer networks, IP networks, etc. Virtual networks are typically layer 3 IP networks or layer 2 VLANs. This method of virtual or overlay networking is often referred to as a virtual or overlay layer 3 network. 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 Networks (VPNs) (e.g., MPLS Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (RFC 4364)), VMware's NSX, GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), etc.

[0091] For IaaS, the infrastructure (CSPI) provided by the CSP can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, cloud computing 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 supply 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 and storage capacity in a flexible virtual network that can be securely accessed from various networked locations (such as from the customer's on-premises network). When a customer subscribes to or signs up for an IaaS service provided by a CSP, the tenancy created for that customer is a secure and isolated partition within CSPI where the customer can create, organize, and manage their cloud resources.

[0092] Customers can build their own virtual networks using the computing, storage, and networking resources provided by CSPI. One or more customer resources or workloads, such as computing instances, can be deployed on these virtual networks. For example, customers can use the resources provided by CSPI to build one or more customizable and private virtual networks, called virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as computing instances, on customer VCNs. Computing instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, and the like. 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 virtual hosted environment. Customers do not manage or control the underlying physical resources provided by CSPI, but have control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and may also have limited control over selected networking components (e.g., firewalls).

[0093] The CSP may provide a console that enables customers and network administrators to use CSPI resources to configure, access, and manage resources deployed in the cloud. In some embodiments, the console provides a web-based user interface that can be used to access and manage CSPI. In some implementations, the console is a web-based application provided by the CSP.

[0094] CSPI can support single-tenancy or multi-tenancy architecture. In a single-tenancy architecture, software (e.g., application, database) or hardware component (e.g., host machine or server) serves a single customer or tenant. In a multi-tenancy architecture, software or hardware component serves multiple customers or tenants. Therefore, in a multi-tenancy architecture, CSPI resources are shared among multiple customers or tenants. In the case of multi-tenancy, precautions are taken and protection measures are implemented in CSPI to ensure that each tenant's data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants.

[0095] In a physical network, a network endpoint ("endpoint") refers to a computing device or system that is connected to a physical network and communicates back and forth with the network to which it is connected. A network endpoint in a physical network can be connected 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 a physical host machine). 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 achieve flexibility by allowing network administrators to move around overlay addresses associated with network endpoints using software management (e.g., via software that implements a control plane for a virtual network). Accordingly, unlike a physical network, in a virtual network, an overlay address (e.g., an overlay IP address) can be moved from one endpoint to another using network management software. Since the virtual network is built on top of the physical network, the communication between components in the virtual network involves both the virtual network and the underlying physical network. To facilitate such communication, the components of CSPI 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. Customer traffic is encapsulated to facilitate routing in the virtual network.

[0096] Accordingly, 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 a base 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 computing 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 VCNs without knowing 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 a virtual IP address 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.

[0097] The cloud infrastructure or CSPI is physically hosted in one or more data centers in one or more regions of the world. The CSPI may include components in a physical or base network and virtualized components (e.g., virtual networks, computing instances, virtual machines, etc.) located in a virtual network built on top of the physical network components. In some embodiments, the CSPI is organized and hosted in domains, regions, and availability domains. A region is typically a localized geographic area containing one or more data centers. Regions are generally independent of each other and can be far apart, for example, across countries or even continents. For example, a first region may be in Australia, another in Japan, another in India, and so on. CSPI resources are divided between regions so that each region has its own independent subset of CSPI resources. Each region can provide a collection of core infrastructure services and resources, such as computing resources (e.g., bare metal servers, virtual machines, containers and related infrastructure, etc.); storage resources (e.g., block volume storage, file storage, object storage, archive storage); networking resources (e.g., virtual cloud network (VCN), 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 generally has multiple paths connecting it to other regions in the domain.

[0098] Generally speaking, an application is deployed in the region where it is most frequently used (i.e., on the infrastructure associated with that region) because it is faster to use nearby resources than to use distant resources. Applications may also be deployed in different regions for various reasons, such as redundancy to mitigate the risk of region-wide events (such as large weather systems or earthquakes), to meet different requirements of legal jurisdictions, tax domains, and other business or social standards, etc.

[0099] 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 a virtual cloud network (VCN), or availability domain-specific, such as a compute instance.

[0100] ADs within a region are isolated from each other, fault-tolerant, and configured so that it is extremely unlikely that they will fail simultaneously. This is achieved by ADs not sharing critical infrastructure resources (such as networking, physical cables, cable paths, cable entry points, etc.), making it unlikely that a failure at one AD within a region will affect the availability of other ADs within the same region. ADs within the same region can be connected to each other via a low-latency, high-bandwidth network, which makes it possible to provide high-availability connections to other networks (e.g., the Internet, a customer's on-premises network, etc.) and build replication systems in multiple ADs to achieve both high availability and disaster recovery. Cloud services use multiple ADs to ensure high availability and prevent resource failures. As the infrastructure provided by the IaaS provider grows, more regions and ADs can be added, as well as additional capacity. Traffic between availability domains is typically encrypted.

[0101] 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 in the same domain can communicate with each other, but regions in different domains cannot. A customer's lease or account with a CSP exists in a single domain and can be spread 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 the customer in a customer-specified region within a domain (called the "home" region). The customer can extend the customer's lease to one or more other regions within a domain. A customer cannot access regions that are not in the domain where the customer's lease is located.

[0102] An IaaS provider can offer multiple domains, each domain meeting the needs of a specific set of customers or users. For example, a business domain can be provided for business customers. As another example, for customers within a specific country, a domain can be provided for that country. As yet another example, a government domain can be provided for a government, and so on. For example, a government domain can meet the needs of a specific government and can have a higher level of security than the business domain. For example, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) currently offers a domain for the business region and two domains (e.g., FedRAMP-authorized and IL5-authorized) for the government cloud region.

[0103] In some embodiments, AD can be subdivided into one or more fault domains. Fault domains are groupings of infrastructure resources within an AD to provide anti-affinity. Fault domains allow the distribution of computing instances so that they are not located on the same physical hardware within a single AD. This is called anti-affinity. A fault domain refers to a collection of hardware components (computers, switches, etc.) that share a single point of failure. The computing pool is logically divided into fault domains. Therefore, a hardware failure or computing hardware maintenance event that affects one fault domain does not affect instances in other fault domains. Depending on the embodiment, the number of fault domains per AD may vary. For example, in some embodiments, each AD contains three fault domains. Fault domains act as logical data centers within an AD.

[0104] When a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, resources from CSPI are supplied to the customer and associated with the customer's lease. Customers can use these supplied resources to build private networks and deploy resources on these networks. Customer networks hosted by CSPI in the cloud are called virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can use CSPI resources allocated to customers to set up one or more virtual cloud networks (VCNs). VCNs are virtual or software-defined private networks. Customer resources deployed in a customer's VCN may include computing instances (e.g., virtual machines, bare metal instances) and other resources. These computing instances may represent various customer workloads, such as applications, load balancers, databases, and the like. Computing instances deployed on VCNs can communicate with publicly accessible endpoints ("public endpoints"), with other instances in the same VCN or other VCNs (e.g., other VCNs of customers or VCNs that do not belong to the customer), with customer's on-premises data centers or networks, and with service endpoints and other types of endpoints through public networks (such as the Internet).

[0105] CSPs can use CSPI to provide various services. In some cases, customers of CSPI can themselves behave like service providers and use CSPI resources to provide services. Service providers can expose service endpoints characterized by identification information (e.g., IP addresses, DNS names, and ports). Customers' resources (e.g., computing instances) can use a particular service by accessing the service endpoints exposed by the service for that particular service. These service endpoints are generally endpoints that are publicly accessible to users via a public communication network (such as the Internet) using a public IP address associated with the endpoint. Publicly accessible network endpoints are sometimes also referred to as public endpoints.

[0106] In some embodiments, a service provider may expose a service via an endpoint for the service (sometimes referred to as a service endpoint). Customers of the service may then use this service endpoint to access the service. In some embodiments, the service endpoint provided for a service may be accessed by multiple customers who intend to consume the service. In other embodiments, a dedicated service endpoint may be provided to a customer so that only the customer can access the service using the dedicated service endpoint.

[0107] In certain embodiments, when a VCN is created, it is associated with a private overlay Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) address space, which is a range of private overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0 / 16) assigned to the VCN. The VCN includes associated subnets, routing tables, and gateways. The VCN resides within a single region, but can span one or more or all of the availability domains in that region. A gateway is a virtual interface configured for the VCN and enables the transmission of traffic to and from the VCN to one or more endpoints outside the VCN. One or more different types of gateways can be configured for the VCN to enable communications to and from different types of endpoints.

[0108] A VCN may be subdivided into one or more subnetworks, such as one or more subnets. Thus, a subnet is a unit or subdivision of a configuration that can be created within a VCN. A VCN may 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) that do not overlap with other subnets in the VCN and represent a subset of the address space within the address space of the VCN.

[0109] Each computing instance is associated with a virtual network interface card (VNIC), which enables the computing instance to participate in the subnet of the VCN. VNIC is a logical representation of a physical network interface card (NIC). In general, a VNIC is an interface between an entity (e.g., a computing instance, a service) and a virtual network. VNICs exist in subnets, have one or more associated IP addresses, and associated security rules or policies. VNICs are equivalent to layer 2 ports on switches. VNICs are attached to subnets within computing instances and VCNs. VNICs associated with computing instances enable computing instances to become part of the subnet of the VCN, and enable computing instances to communicate (e.g., send and receive data packets) with endpoints located on the same subnet as the computing instance, with endpoints in different subnets in the VCN, or with endpoints outside the VCN. Therefore, the VNICs associated with computing instances determine how computing instances are connected to endpoints inside and outside the VCN. When a computing instance is created and added to a subnet within the VCN, a VNIC for the computing instance is created and associated with the computing instance. For a subnet that includes a set of compute instances, the subnet contains VNICs corresponding to the set of compute instances, each VNIC being attached to a compute instance within the set of compute instances.

[0110] A private overlay IP address is assigned to each computing instance via the VNIC associated with the computing instance. This private overlay network IP address is assigned to the VNIC associated with the computing instance when the computing instance is created and is used to route traffic to and from the computing instance. All VNICs in a given subnet use the same routing table, security list, and DHCP options. As described above, each subnet within the VCN is associated with a continuous 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 in the VCN and represent a subset of the address space within the address space of the VCN. For a VNIC on a specific subnet of the VCN, the private overlay IP address assigned to the VNIC is an address from the continuous range of overlay IP addresses allocated for the subnet.

[0111] In some embodiments, in addition to the private overlay IP address, the computing instance may optionally be assigned additional overlay IP addresses, such as, for example, one or more public IP addresses if in a public subnet. These multiple addresses are either assigned on the same VNIC or on multiple VNICs associated with the computing instance. However, each instance has a primary VNIC, which is created during instance startup and is associated with the overlay private IP address assigned to the instance-this primary VNIC cannot be deleted. Additional VNICs, called auxiliary 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. The auxiliary VNIC can be located in a subnet in the same VCN as the primary VNIC, or in a different subnet in the same VCN or in a different VCN.

[0112] If the compute instances are in a public subnet, they can optionally be assigned public IP addresses. When creating a subnet, you can specify the subnet as either a public subnet or a private subnet. A private subnet means that the resources (e.g., compute instances) and associated VNICs in the subnet cannot have public overlay IP addresses. A public subnet means that the resources in the subnet and associated VNICs can have public IP addresses. Customers can specify that a subnet exists in a single availability domain or across multiple availability domains in a region or domain.

[0113] 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 a VR) enables communication between subnets of the VCN. For a subnet within a VCN, the VR represents a logical gateway for the subnet, which enables the subnet (i.e., the computing instances on the subnet) to communicate with endpoints on other subnets within the VCN and with other endpoints outside the VCN. A VCN VR is a logical entity that is configured to route traffic between VNICs in the VCN and a virtual gateway ("gateway") associated with the VCN. Figure 1The gateway is further described. The VCN VR is a layer 3 / IP layer concept. In one embodiment, there is one VCN VR for the VCN, where the VCN VR potentially has an unlimited number of ports addressed by IP addresses, one port for each subnet of the VCN. In this way, the VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN to which the VCN VR is attached. The VR is also connected to various gateways configured for the VCN. In some embodiments, a specific coverage IP address in the coverage IP address range for a subnet is reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. For example, consider that the VCN has two subnets, and the associated address ranges are 10.0 / 16 and 10.1 / 16, respectively. For the first subnet in the VCN with an address range of 10.0 / 16, the addresses in this range are reserved for the ports of the VCN VR for that subnet. In some cases, the first IP address in the range can be reserved for the VCN VR. For example, for a subnet with a coverage IP address range of 10.0 / 16, the IP address 10.0.0.1 can be reserved for the port of the VCN VR for that subnet. For a second subnet in the same VCN with an address range of 10.1 / 16, the VCN VR can have a port with an IP address of 10.1.0.1 for the second subnet. The VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN.

[0114] In some other embodiments, each subnet within a VCN may have its own associated VR that may 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 in the subnet may communicate (e.g., send and receive packets) with the VRs associated with the subnet using this default or reserved IP address. In such embodiments, the VR is the entry / exit point for the subnet. A VR associated with a subnet within the VCN may communicate with other VRs associated with other subnets within the VCN. The VR may also communicate with a gateway associated with the VCN. The VR functions of the subnet run on or are performed by one or more NVDs that perform the VNIC functions of the VNICs in the subnet.

[0115] Routing tables, security rules, and DHCP options can be configured for a VCN. A routing table is a virtual routing table for a VCN and includes rules for routing traffic from subnets within the VCN to destinations outside the VCN through gateways or specially configured instances. A VCN's routing table can be customized to control how packets are forwarded / routed to and from the VCN. DHCP options refer to configuration information that is automatically provided to an instance when it boots.

[0116] The security rules configured for a VCN represent the overlay firewall rules for the VCN. Security rules can include ingress and egress rules and specify the type of traffic allowed in and out of instances within the VCN (e.g., based on protocol and port). Customers can choose whether a given rule is stateful or stateless. For example, a customer can allow incoming SSH traffic from anywhere to a collection of instances by setting up a stateful ingress rule with source CIDR 0.0.0.0 / 0 and destination TCP port 22. Security rules can be implemented using network security groups or security lists. A network security group consists of a collection of security rules that apply only to resources in that group. On the other hand, a security list includes rules that apply to all resources in any subnet that uses the security list. A default security list with default security rules can be provided for the VCN. The DHCP options configured for the VCN provide configuration information that is automatically provided to instances in the VCN when the instances are launched.

[0117] In some embodiments, configuration information for a VCN is determined and stored by a VCN control plane. For example, configuration information for a VCN may include information about address ranges associated with the VCN, subnets within the VCN and associated information, one or more VRs associated with the VCN, compute instances in the VCN and associated VNICs, NVDs that perform various virtualized network functions associated with the VCN (e.g., VNICs, VRs, gateways), state information for the VCN, and other VCN-related information. In some embodiments, a VCN distribution service publishes configuration information, or portions thereof, stored by the VCN control plane to the NVD. The distributed information may be used to update information (e.g., forwarding tables, routing tables, etc.) stored by the NVD and used to forward packets to and from compute instances in the VCN.

[0118] In some embodiments, the creation of VCNs and subnets is handled by the VCN control plane (CP) and the launch 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 calling the VCN control plane to create and attach VNICs to the compute instances. The VCN CP also sends VCN data maps 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 that is responsible for providing updates to the VCN data plane. An example of a VCN control plane is also provided at Fig.26 , Fig. 27 , Fig.28 and Fig.29 Depicted in (see reference numerals 2116, 2716, 2816, and 2916) and described below.

[0119] Customers can create one or more VCNs using resources hosted by CSPI. Compute instances deployed on customer VCNs can communicate with different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI and endpoints external to CSPI.

[0120] The different architectures used to implement cloud-based services using CSPI are described in Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 , Figure 4 , Figure 5 , Fig.26 , Fig. 27 , Fig.28 and Fig.29 and described below. Figure 1 is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment 100 showing an overlay or customer VCN hosted by CSPI according to certain embodiments. Figure 1 The distributed environment depicted in includes multiple components in an overlay network. Figure 1 The distributed environment 100 depicted in the example 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 embodiments, Figure 1 The distributed environment depicted in Figure 1 More or fewer systems or components than those shown in FIG. 5 , two or more systems may be combined, or there may be different system configurations or arrangements.

[0121] like Figure 1 As shown in the example depicted in , the 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 An example region "Region US" 102 is shown in FIG. A customer has configured a customer VCN 104 for region 102. The customer can deploy various computing instances on VCN 104, where the computing instances can include virtual machines or bare metal instances. Examples of instances include applications, databases, load balancers, etc.

[0122] exist Figure 1 In the embodiment depicted in , customer VCN 104 includes two subnets, namely, "Subnet-1" and "Subnet-2", each with its own CIDR IP address range. Figure 1, the covered IP address range of Subnet-1 is 10.0 / 16, and the address range of Subnet-2 is 10.1 / 16. VCN virtual router 105 represents a logical gateway for the VCN that enables communication between subnets of VCN 104 and with other endpoints outside the VCN. VCN VR 105 is configured to route traffic between VNICs in VCN 104 and gateways associated with VCN 104. VCN VR 105 provides ports for each subnet of VCN 104. For example, VR 105 may 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.

[0123] Multiple computing instances can be deployed on each subnet, where the computing instances can be virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. The computing instances in a subnet can be hosted by one or more host machines within CSPI 101. The computing instances participate in the subnet via the VNICs associated with the computing instances. For example, Figure 1 As shown in , compute instance C1 becomes part of subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with the compute instance. Similarly, compute instance C2 becomes part of subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with C2. 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 the example, the overlay IP address of compute instance C1 is 10.0.0.2 and the MAC address is M1, while the private overlay IP address of compute instance C2 is 10.0.0.3 and the MAC address is 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 for subnet-1.

[0124] Multiple computing instances can be deployed on subnet-2, including virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. Figure 1 As shown in , compute instances D1 and D2 become part of subnet-2 via the VNICs associated with the respective compute instances. Figure 1 In the embodiment shown in , the overlay IP address of computing instance D1 is 10.1.0.2 and the MAC address is MM1, while the private overlay IP address of computing instance D2 is 10.1.0.3 and the MAC address is MM2. Each computing instance in subnet-2 (including computing 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 for subnet-2.

[0125] VCN A 104 may also include one or more load balancers. For example, a load balancer may be provided for a subnet, and the load balancer may be configured to load balance traffic across multiple computing instances on the subnet. A load balancer may also be provided to load balance traffic across subnets in the VCN.

[0126] A particular computing instance deployed on VCN 104 can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints external to CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 101 can include: endpoints on the same subnet as a particular computing instance (e.g., communication between two computing instances in subnet-1); endpoints on different subnets but within the same VCN (e.g., communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and a computing instance in subnet-2); endpoints in different VCNs in the same region (e.g., communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in the same region 106 or 110, communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in a service point 110 in the same region); or endpoints in VCNs in different regions (e.g., communication between a computing instance in subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in a different region 108). Compute instances in a subnet hosted by CSPI 101 can also communicate with endpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 101 (i.e., external to CSPI 101). These external endpoints include endpoints in a customer's on-premises network 116, endpoints in other remote cloud-hosted networks 118, public endpoints 114 accessible via a public network (such as the Internet), and other endpoints.

[0127] Use VNICs associated with source and destination computing instances to facilitate communication between computing instances on the same subnet. For example, computing instance C1 in subnet-1 may want to send a data packet to computing instance C2 in subnet-1. For a data packet originating from a source computing instance and whose destination is another computing instance in the same subnet, the data packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with the source computing instance. The processing performed by the VNIC associated with the source computing instance may include determining the destination information of the data packet from the data packet header, identifying any policies (e.g., security lists) configured for the VNIC associated with the source computing instance, determining the next hop of the data packet, performing any data packet encapsulation / decapsulation functions as needed, and then forwarding / routing the data packet to the next hop, with the purpose of facilitating communication of the data packet to its intended destination. When the destination computing instance is in the same subnet as the source computing instance, the VNIC associated with the source computing instance is configured to identify the VNIC associated with the destination computing instance and forward the data packet to the VNIC for processing. The VNIC associated with the destination computing instance is then executed and the data packet is forwarded to the destination computing instance.

[0128] For packets to be delivered from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, communication is facilitated through the VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances and the VCN VRs. Figure 1 Compute instance C1 in subnet-1 wants to send a packet to compute instance D1 in subnet-2, then 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. The VNIC associated with D1 then receives and processes the packet and the VNIC forwards the packet to compute instance D1.

[0129] For packets to be transmitted from a compute instance in VCN 104 to an endpoint outside of VCN 104, communication is facilitated by a VNIC associated with the source compute instance, a VCN VR 105, and a gateway associated with VCN 104. One or more types of gateways may be associated with VCN 104. A gateway is an interface between a VCN and another endpoint, where the other endpoint is outside of the VCN. A gateway is a layer 3 / IP layer concept and enables a VCN to communicate with an endpoint outside of the VCN. Thus, a gateway facilitates the flow of traffic between a VCN and other VCNs or networks. A variety of different types of gateways may be configured for a VCN to facilitate different types of communications with different types of endpoints. Depending on the gateway, communications may be over a public network (e.g., the Internet) or over a private network. Various communication protocols may be used for these communications.

[0130] For example, compute instance C1 may want to communicate with an endpoint outside of VCN 104. The packet may first be processed by a VNIC associated with source compute instance C1. VNIC processing determines that the destination of the packet is outside of C1's subnet-1. The VNIC associated with C1 may 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 a next hop for the packet based on the packet's destination. VCN VR 105 may then forward the packet to the identified specific gateway. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within a customer's on-premises network, the packet may be forwarded by VCN VR 105 to a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) gateway 122 configured for VCN 104. The packet may then be forwarded from the gateway to the next hop to facilitate delivery of the packet to its final intended destination.

[0131] A variety of different types of gateways can be configured for a VCN. Examples of gateways that can be configured for a VCN are in Figure 1 An example of a gateway associated with a VCN is also shown in FIG. Fig.26 , Fig. 27 , Fig.28 and Fig.29 4, 512, 514, 515, 526, 527, 528, 536, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 544, 546, 547, 548, 550, 551, 552, 553, 554, 547, 548, 554, 549, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 574, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 580, 581, 582, 583, 5 Figure 1As shown in the embodiment depicted in , a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) 122 can be added to or associated with a customer VCN 104 and provide a path for private network traffic communication between the customer VCN 104 and another endpoint, where the other endpoint can be a 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 a customer data center built using the customer's resources. Access to the customer's on-premises network 116 is generally very limited. 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 enables customers to build an extended hybrid environment that covers the customer's VCN 104 hosted by CSPI 101 and their on-premises network 116. DRG 122 enables this communication. To enable such communications, a communication channel 124 is established, where one endpoint of the channel is located in the customer's on-premises network 116 and the other endpoint is located in the CSPI 101 and connected to the customer VCN 104. The communication channel 124 can pass through a public communication network (such as the Internet) or a private communication network. A variety of different communication protocols can be used, such as IPsec VPN technology over a public communication network (such as the Internet), Oracle's FastConnect technology that uses a private network instead of a public network, etc. The equipment or equipment that forms one endpoint of the communication channel 124 in the customer's on-premises network 116 is called customer premises equipment (CPE), such as Figure 1 On the CSPI 101 side, the endpoint may be a host machine executing DRG 122.

[0132] In some embodiments, a remote peer connection (RPC) can be added to the DRG, which allows a customer to peer one VCN with another VCN in a different region. Using this RPC, a customer VCN 104 can connect to a VCN 108 in another region using a DRG 122. DRG 122 can also be used to communicate with other remote cloud networks 118 that are not hosted by CSPI 101 (such as Microsoft Azure Cloud, Amazon AWS Cloud, etc.).

[0133] like Figure 1As shown in , an Internet Gateway (IGW) 120 can be configured for a customer VCN 104, which enables computing instances on the VCN 104 to communicate with public endpoints 114 accessible via a public network, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 is a gateway that connects the VCN to a public network, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 enables public subnets within a VCN, such as VCN 104, where resources in the public subnet have public overlay IP addresses, to directly access public endpoints 112 on a public network 114, such as the Internet. Using the IGW 120, a connection can be initiated from a subnet within the VCN 104 or from the Internet.

[0134] A network address translation (NAT) gateway 128 may be configured for a customer's VCN 104 and enables cloud resources in the customer's VCN that do not have dedicated public overlay IP addresses to access the Internet, and it does so without exposing those resources to direct incoming Internet connections (e.g., L4-L7 connections). This enables private subnets within a VCN (such as private subnet-1 in VCN 104) to privately access public endpoints on the Internet. In a NAT gateway, connections can only be initiated from a private subnet to the public Internet, and connections cannot be initiated from the Internet to a private subnet.

[0135] In some embodiments, a service gateway (SGW) 126 may be configured for a customer's VCN 104 and provide a path for private network traffic between the VCN 104 and service endpoints supported in the service network 110. In some embodiments, the service network 110 may be provided by a CSP and may provide 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, a computing instance (e.g., a database system) in a private subnet of a customer's VCN 104 may back up data to a service endpoint (e.g., an object storage) without requiring a public IP address or access to the Internet. In some embodiments, a VCN may have only one SGW, and connections may only be initiated from a subnet within the VCN, not from the service network 110. If a VCN is peered with another, resources in the other VCN generally cannot access the SGW. Resources in an on-premises network connected to a VCN with FastConnect or VPN Connect may also use the service gateway configured for that VCN.

[0136] In some embodiments, 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 a service or group of services of interest. Customers use the service CIDR label when they configure the SGW and associated routing rules to control traffic to the service. Customers can optionally use it when configuring security rules, without having to adjust security rules if the public IP addresses of the services change in the future.

[0137] A Local Peer Gateway (LPG) 132 is a gateway that can be added to a customer VCN 104 and enables the VCN 104 to peer with another VCN in the same region. Peering refers to the VCNs communicating using private IP addresses without the traffic traversing a public network such as the Internet or without routing the traffic through the customer's on-premises network 116. In a preferred embodiment, a VCN has a separate LPG for each peering it establishes. Local peering or VCN peering is a common practice for establishing network connectivity between different applications or infrastructure management functions.

[0138] Service providers (such as providers of services in service network 110) can provide access to services using different access models. According to the public access model, the service can be exposed as a public endpoint that is publicly accessible to a computing instance in a customer VCN via a public network (such as the Internet), and / or can be privately accessed via SGW 126. According to a specific private access model, the service can be accessed as a private IP endpoint in a private subnet in the customer's VCN. This is called private endpoint (PE) access and enables a service provider to expose its services as instances in a customer's private network. Private endpoint resources represent services within a customer's VCN. Each PE appears as a VNIC (called a PE-VNIC, with one or more private IPs) in a subnet selected by the customer in the customer's VCN. Therefore, PE provides a way to present services in a private customer VCN subnet using VNICs. Since the endpoint is exposed as a VNIC, all features associated with the VNIC (such as routing rules, security lists, etc.) can now be used for the PE VNIC.

[0139] Service providers can register their services to enable access through PE. Providers can associate policies with services, which limits the visibility of the service to customer tenancies. Providers can register multiple services under a single virtual IP address (VIP), especially for multi-tenant services. There can be multiple such private endpoints (in multiple VCNs) representing the same service.

[0140] The compute instances in the private subnet can then access the service using the private IP address of the PE VNIC or the service DNS name. The compute instances in the customer VCN can access the service by sending traffic to the private IP address of the PE in the customer VCN. The private access gateway (PAGW) 130 is a gateway resource that can be attached to a service provider VCN (e.g., a VCN in the service network 110) that acts as an entry / exit 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. Providers only need to configure one PAGW for any number of services registered in a single VCN. Providers can represent services as private endpoints in multiple VCNs for one or more customers. From the customer's perspective, the PE VNIC is not attached to the customer's instance, but 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).

[0141] The PE concept can also be used to extend private access to services to the customer's on-premises networks and data centers 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 peer VCNs by allowing traffic to flow between the LPG 132 and the PEs in the customer's VCN.

[0142] The customer can control routing in the VCN at the subnet level, so the customer can specify which subnets in the customer's VCN (such as VCN 104) use each gateway. The routing table of the VCN is used to decide whether to allow traffic to leave the VCN through a particular gateway. For example, in a specific instance, the routing table for a public subnet within a customer VCN 104 can send non-local traffic through IGW 120. The routing table for a private subnet within the same customer VCN 104 can send traffic destined for CSP services through SGW 126. All remaining traffic can be sent via NAT gateway 128. The routing table only controls traffic leaving the VCN.

[0143] The security list associated with the VCN is used to control the traffic that enters the VCN via the gateway via an inbound connection. All resources in the subnet use the same routing table and security list. The security list can be used to control specific types of traffic that are allowed to enter and exit the instances in the subnet of the VCN. Security list rules can include ingress (inbound) and egress (outbound) rules. For example, an ingress rule can specify a range of allowed source addresses, and an egress rule can specify a range of allowed destination addresses. Security rules can specify specific protocols (e.g., TCP, ICMP), specific ports (e.g., 22 for SSH, 3389 for Windows RDP), etc. In some embodiments, the operating system of the instance can enforce its own firewall rules that comply with 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.

[0144] Access from a customer 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 (e.g., resources in a private subnet) in VCN 104 with private IP addresses to access services without traversing a public network such as the Internet. In certain embodiments, CSPI 101 enables customer VCN workloads with private IP addresses to access (public service endpoints of) services using a service gateway. Thus, the service gateway provides a private access model by establishing a virtual link between a customer's VCN and a public endpoint of a service that resides outside of the customer's private network.

[0145] Additionally, CSPI can provide dedicated public access using technologies such as FastConnect public peering, where a customer on-premises instance can use a FastConnect connection to access one or more services in a customer's VCN without traversing a public network such as the Internet. CSPI can also provide dedicated private access using FastConnect private peering, where a customer on-premises instance with a private IP address can use a FastConnect connection to access the customer's VCN workloads. FastConnect is a network connectivity alternative to using the public Internet to connect a customer's on-premises network to CSPI and its services. FastConnect provides 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 compared to Internet-based connections.

[0146] Figure 1and the accompanying description above describe various virtualized components in an example virtual network.As described above, a virtual network is built on an underlying physical or substrate network. Figure 2 A simplified architecture diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI 200 that provides an underlying virtual network according to certain embodiments is depicted. As shown, the CSPI 200 provides a distributed environment that includes components and resources (e.g., computing, 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 subscribing customers (i.e., customers who have subscribed to one or more services provided by the CSP). Based on the services subscribed by the customer, a subset of the resources of the CSPI 200 (e.g., computing, storage, and network resources) is provisioned to the customer. The customer can then build his or her own cloud-based (i.e., CSPI-hosted) customizable and private virtual network using the physical computing, storage, and networking resources provided by the CSPI 200. As indicated above, these customer networks are referred to as virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as computing instances, on these customer VCNs. The computing instances can be in the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. The CSPI 200 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 hosting environment.

[0147] exist Figure 2 In the example embodiment depicted in , 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 physical networks (e.g., 218), and switches in physical network 218. The physical host machines or servers can host and execute various computing instances that participate in one or more subnets of the VCN. The computing instances can include virtual machine instances and bare metal instances. For example, Figure 1 The various computational examples depicted in Figure 2 The physical host machines depicted in the figure host the virtual machine compute instances in the VCN. The virtual machine compute instances in the VCN can be executed by one host machine or multiple different host machines. The physical host machines can also host virtual host machines, container-based hosts or functions, etc. Figure 1 The VNIC and VCN VR depicted in the figure can be represented by Figure 2 The NVD implementation depicted in FIG. Figure 1 The gateway depicted in the figure may be provided by a host machine and / or Figure 2 The NVD implementation described in .

[0148] A host machine or server may execute a hypervisor (also referred to as a virtual machine monitor or VMM) that creates and enables a virtualized environment on the host machine. A virtualized or virtualized environment facilitates cloud-based computing. One or more computing instances may be created, executed, and managed on the host machine by a hypervisor on the host machine. The hypervisor on the host machine enables the physical computing resources (e.g., computing, memory, and network resources) of the host machine to be shared between the various computing instances executed by the host machine.

[0149] For example, Figure 2 As depicted in , host machines 202 and 208 execute hypervisors 260 and 266, respectively. These hypervisors may be implemented using software, firmware, or hardware, or a combination thereof. Typically, a hypervisor is a process or software layer that sits on top of an operating system (OS) of a host machine, which in turn executes on a hardware processor of the host machine. A hypervisor provides a virtualized environment by enabling the physical computing resources of the host machine (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 the present invention, the hypervisor 260 can be located on top of the OS 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 between computing instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed by the host machine 202. The virtual machine can have its own operating system (called a guest operating system), which can be the same as or different from the OS of the host machine. 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 depicted in FIG. 1 may have the same or different types of hypervisors.

[0150] Compute instances can be virtual machine instances or bare metal instances. Figure 2 , 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.

[0151] In some cases, the entire host machine can be supplied to a single customer, and one or more computing instances (or virtual machines or bare metal instances) hosted by the host machine all belong to the same customer. In other cases, the host machine can be shared between multiple customers (i.e., multiple tenants). In this multi-tenant scenario, the host machine can host virtual machine computing instances belonging to different customers. These computing instances can be members of different VCNs of different customers. In certain embodiments, the bare metal computing instance is hosted by a bare metal server without a hypervisor. When supplying a bare metal computing instance, a single customer or tenant maintains control of the physical CPU, memory, and network interface of the host machine hosting the bare metal instance, and the host machine is not shared with other customers or tenants.

[0152] As previously described, each compute instance that is part of a VCN is associated with a VNIC that enables the compute instance to be a member of a subnet of the VCN. The VNIC associated with a compute instance facilitates the communication of packets or frames to and from the compute instance. The VNIC is associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created. In some embodiments, for a compute instance executed by a host machine, the VNIC associated with the compute instance is executed by an NVD connected to the host machine. For example, in Figure 2 , host machine 202 executes 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, 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.

[0153] For compute instances hosted by a host machine, the NVD connected to the host machine also executes the VCN VR corresponding to the VCN of which the compute instance is a member. Figure 2 In the embodiment depicted in , NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN of which compute instance 268 is a member. NVD 212 may also execute one or more VCN VRs 283 corresponding to VCNs corresponding to compute instances hosted by host machines 206 and 208.

[0154] 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 enable the host machine to communicatively connect to another device. For example, the host machine may connect to the NVD using one or more ports (or interfaces) provided on the host machine and on the NVD. The host machine may also connect to other devices (such as another host machine).

[0155] For example, in Figure 2 2, host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 using 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 using 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 using link 226, which extends between port 252 provided by NIC 250 of host machine 208 and port 254 of NVD 212.

[0156] The NVD is in turn connected to top-of-rack (TOR) switches via communication links, which are connected to the physical network 218 (also referred to as a switch fabric). 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 , NVDs 210 and 212 are connected to TOR switches 214 and 216 using links 228 and 230, respectively. In some embodiments, links 220, 224, 226, 228, and 230 are Ethernet links. A collection of host machines and NVDs connected to a TOR is sometimes referred to as a rack.

[0157] 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 embodiments, physical network 218 is a multi-layer Clos network of switches, where TOR switches 214 and 216 represent leaf nodes of the multi-layer and multi-node physical switching network 218. Different Clos network configurations are possible, including but not limited to 2-layer networks, 3-layer networks, 4-layer networks, 5-layer networks, and general "n"-layer networks. Examples of Clos networks are described in Figure 5 and described below.

[0158] There may be various connection configurations between the host machine and the NVD, such as one-to-one configuration, many-to-one configuration, one-to-many configuration, etc. In a one-to-one configuration implementation, each host machine is connected to its own separate NVD. Figure 2 In , host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 via NIC 232 of host machine 202. In a many-to-one configuration, multiple host machines are connected to one NVD. Figure 2 , host machines 206 and 208 are connected to the same NVD 212 via NICs 244 and 250, respectively.

[0159] In a one-to-many configuration, one host machine connects to multiple NVDs. Figure 3 An example within CSPI 300 is shown, where a host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. Figure 3 , a host machine 302 includes a network interface card (NIC) 304 that includes a plurality of ports 306 and 308. The 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 the host machine 302 and the NVDs 310 and 312 may be Ethernet links. The NVD 310 is in turn connected to a first TOR switch 314 and the NVD 312 is connected to a second TOR switch 316. The links between the NVDs 310, 312 and the TOR switches 314, 316 may be Ethernet links. The TOR switches 314 and 316 represent layer 0 switching devices in a multi-layer physical network 318.

[0160] Figure 3 The arrangement depicted in FIG. 3 provides two separate physical network paths to and from the physical switch network 318 to the host machine 302: the first path traverses the TOR switch 314 to the NVD 310 and then to the host machine 302, and the second path traverses the TOR switch 316 to the NVD 312 and then to the host machine 302. The separate paths provide enhanced availability (referred to as high availability) of the host machine 302. If a problem occurs in one of the paths (e.g., a link in one of the paths is broken) or a device (e.g., a particular NVD is not running), then the other path can be used for communications to / from the host machine 302.

[0161] exist Figure 3 In the configuration depicted in , the host machine is connected 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.

[0162] Return to reference Figure 2NVD is a physical device or component that performs one or more network and / or storage virtualization functions. 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 performed by software / firmware executed by one or more processing units of NVD.

[0163] NVD can be implemented in a variety of different forms. For example, in some embodiments, NVD is implemented as an interface card called a smartNIC or an intelligent NIC with an onboard embedded processor. A smartNIC is a separate device from the NIC on the host machine. Figure 2 , NVDs 210 and 212 may be implemented as smartNICs connected to host machine 202 and host machines 206 and 208, respectively.

[0164] However, smartNIC is only one example of an NVD implementation. Various other implementations are possible. For example, in some other implementations, NVD or one or more functions performed by NVD can be incorporated into or performed by one or more host machines, one or more TOR switches, and other components of CSPI 200. For example, NVD can be implemented in a host machine, where the functions performed by NVD are performed by the host machine. As another example, NVD can be part of a TOR switch, or a TOR switch can be configured to perform the functions performed by NVD, which enables the TOR switch to perform various complex packet conversions for public clouds. TORs that perform the functions of NVD are sometimes referred to as smart TORs. In other implementations that provide virtual machine (VM) instances to customers instead of bare metal (BM) instances, the functions performed by NVD can be implemented inside the hypervisor of the host machine. In some other implementations, some of the functions of NVD can be offloaded to centralized services running on a group of host machines.

[0165] In some embodiments, such as when implemented as Figure 2 When using the smartNIC shown in FIG. 1 , the NVD may 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 may be classified as host-facing ports (also referred to as "south ports") or network-facing or TOR-facing ports (also referred to as "north ports"). The host-facing ports of the NVD are the ports used to connect the NVD to the host machines. Figure 2 Examples of host-facing ports include port 236 on NVD 210 and ports 248 and 254 on NVD 212. The network-facing ports of the NVD are the ports used to connect the NVD to the TOR switch. Figure 2 Examples of network-facing ports include port 256 on NVD 210 and port 258 on NVD 212. Figure 2 As shown in FIG. 1 , NVD 210 is connected to TOR switch 214 using link 228 extending from port 256 of NVD 210 to TOR switch 214. Similarly, NVD 212 is connected to TOR switch 216 using link 230 extending from port 258 of NVD 212 to TOR switch 216.

[0166] NVD receives packets and frames (e.g., packets and frames generated by a compute instance hosted by the host machine) from a host machine via a host-facing port, and after performing necessary packet processing, may forward the packets and frames to a TOR switch via a network-facing port of NVD. NVD may receive packets and frames from a TOR switch via a network-facing port of NVD, and after performing necessary packet processing, may forward the packets and frames to a host machine via a host-facing port of NVD.

[0167] In some embodiments, there may be multiple ports and associated links between the NVD and the TOR switch. These ports and links may be aggregated to form a link aggregate group (referred to as a LAG) of multiple ports or links. Link aggregation allows multiple physical links between two endpoints (e.g., between the NVD and the TOR switch) to be treated as a single logical link. All physical links in a given LAG may operate in full-duplex mode at the same speed. LAG helps increase the bandwidth and reliability of the connection between the two endpoints. If one of the physical links in the LAG fails, the traffic will be dynamically and transparently reassigned to one of the other physical links in the LAG. The aggregated physical links deliver higher bandwidth than each individual link. Multiple ports associated with the LAG are treated as a single logical port. Traffic may be load balanced across multiple physical links of the LAG. One or more LAGs may be configured between two endpoints. The two endpoints may be located between the NVD and the TOR switch, between the host machine and the NVD, and so on.

[0168] NVD implements or performs network virtualization functions. These functions are performed by software / firmware executed by 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 lists (firewall) functionality; functions for facilitating routing and forwarding of packets to and from computing instances in the VCN; and the like. In some embodiments, upon receiving a packet, NVD is configured to execute a packet processing pipeline for processing the packet and determining how to forward or route the packet. As part of this packet processing pipeline, NVD may execute one or more virtual functions associated with an overlay network, such as executing a VNIC associated with a computer instance in the VCN, executing a virtual router (VR) associated with the VCN, encapsulation and decapsulation of packets to facilitate forwarding or routing in a 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., translating public IPs to private IPs on a host-by-host basis), throttling functions, and other functions.

[0169] In some embodiments, the packet processing data path in NVD may include multiple packet pipelines, each packet pipeline consisting of a series of packet transformation stages. In some embodiments, after receiving a packet, the packet is parsed and classified into a single pipeline. The packet is then processed in a linear manner, one stage after another, until the packet is discarded or sent out through the interface of NVD. These stages provide basic functional packet processing building blocks (e.g., verifying headers, enforcing throttling, inserting new layer 2 headers, enforcing L4 firewalls, 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 plugging them into existing pipelines.

[0170] NVD can perform both control plane and data plane functions corresponding to the control plane and data plane of the VCN. An example of a VCN control plane is also provided in Fig.26 , Fig. 27 , Fig.28 and Fig.29 An example of a VCN data plane is depicted in FIG. 1 (see reference numerals 2616, 2716, 2816, and 2916) and described below. Fig.26 , Fig. 27 , Fig.28 and Fig.292618, 2718, 2818, and 2918) and described below. The control plane functions include functions for configuring the network that controls how data is forwarded (e.g., setting routes and routing tables, configuring VNICs, etc.). In some embodiments, a VCN control plane is provided that centrally calculates all overlay-to-base mappings and publishes them to NVD and virtual network edge devices (such as various gateways, such as DRG, SGW, IGW, etc.). Firewall rules can also be published using the same mechanism. In some embodiments, the NVD only obtains mappings related to the NVD. The data plane functions include functions for actually routing / forwarding packets based on the configuration established using the control plane. The VCN data plane is implemented by encapsulating the customer's network packets before they traverse the base network. The 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.

[0171] As indicated above, NVD performs various virtualization functions, including VNIC and VCN VR. NVD can execute VNICs associated with computing instances hosted by one or more host machines connected to the VNIC. For example, Figure 2 , NVD 210 executes functionality of VNIC 276 associated with compute instance 268 hosted by host machine 202 connected to NVD 210. As another example, NVD 212 executes VNIC 280 associated with bare metal compute instance 272 hosted by host machine 206, and executes VNIC 284 associated with compute instance 274 hosted by host machine 208. The host machines may host compute instances belonging to different VCNs (which belong to different customers), and the NVD connected to the host machines may execute VNICs corresponding to the compute instances (i.e., perform VNIC-related functionality).

[0172] NVD also implements a VCN virtual router corresponding to the VCN of the compute instance. Figure 2 , NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN to which compute instance 268 belongs. NVD 212 executes one or more VCN VRs 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 the VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to the host machine hosting at least one compute instance belonging to the VCN. If the host machine hosts compute instances belonging to different VCNs, then the NVDs connected to the host machine can execute VCN VRs corresponding to those different VCNs.

[0173] In addition to the VNICs and VCN VRs, NVD may also execute various software (e.g., daemons) and include components, which are one or more hardware components that facilitate the various network virtualization functions performed by NVD. For simplicity, these various components are grouped together as Figure 2 ” packet processing component” shown in . For example, NVD 210 includes packet processing component 286 and NVD 212 includes packet processing component 288. For example, a packet processing component for NVD may include a packet processor configured to interact with the port and hardware interface of NVD to monitor all packets received by NVD and transmitted using NVD and store network information. Network information may, for example, include network flow information and per-flow information (e.g., per-flow statistics) that identify different network flows handled by NVD. In some embodiments, network flow information may be stored on a per-VNIC basis. The packet processor may perform packet-by-packet manipulation and implement stateful NAT and L4 firewall (FW). As another example, the packet processing component may include a replication agent configured to copy information stored by NVD to one or more different replication target repositories. As yet another example, the packet processing component may include a logging agent configured to perform the logging function of NVD. The packet processing component may also include software for monitoring the performance and health of NVD and possibly also monitoring the status and health of other components connected to NVD.

[0174] Figure 1 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 set of gateways configured for the VCN. Figure 1 The overlay component depicted in can be represented by Figure 2 For example, a compute instance in a VCN can be executed or hosted by one or more of the physical components depicted in FIG. Figure 2 . For a compute instance hosted by a host machine, a VNIC associated with the compute instance is typically executed by an NVD connected to the host machine (i.e., VNIC functionality is provided by the NVD connected to the host machine). VCN VR functionality for a VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to the host machines that host or execute compute instances as part of the VCN. Gateways associated with a VCN may be executed by one or more different types of NVDs. For example, some gateways may be executed by smartNICs, while other gateways may be executed by one or more host machines or other implementations of NVDs.

[0175] As described above, a compute instance in a customer VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints, where the endpoint can be in the same subnet as the source compute instance, in a different subnet but in the same VCN as the source compute instance, or the endpoint is external to the source compute instance's VCN. These communications are facilitated using VNICs associated with the compute instances, VCN VRs, and gateways associated with the VCN.

[0176] For communication between two computing instances on the same subnet in a VCN, VNICs associated with the source and destination computing instances are used to facilitate communication. The source and destination computing instances can be hosted by the same host machine or different host machines. Data packets originating from the source computing instance can be forwarded from the host machine hosting the source computing instance to the NVD connected to the host machine. On the NVD, the data packet is processed using a packet processing pipeline, which can include the execution of the VNIC associated with the source computing instance. Since the destination endpoint of the data packet is located in the same subnet, the execution of the VNIC associated with the source computing instance causes the data packet to be forwarded to the NVD that executes the VNIC associated with the destination computing instance, which then processes the data packet and forwards it to the destination computing instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination computing instances can be executed on the same NVD (for example, when the source and destination computing instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (for example, when the source and destination computing instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs). The VNIC can use the routing / forwarding table stored by the NVD to determine the next hop of the data packet.

[0177] For packets to be transmitted from a computing instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, packets originating from the source computing instance are transmitted from the host machine hosting the source computing instance to the NVD connected to the host machine. On the NVD, the packets are processed using a packet processing pipeline, which may include the execution of one or more VNICs and VRs associated with the VCN. For example, as part of the packet processing pipeline, the NVD executes or calls functionality associated with the VNIC associated with the source computing instance (also referred to as executing the VNIC). The functionality executed by the VNIC may include checking the VLAN tag on the packet. Since the destination of the packet is outside the subnet, the VCN VR functionality is next called and executed by the NVD. The VCN VR then routes the packet to the NVD that executes the VNIC associated with the destination computing instance. The VNIC associated with the destination computing instance then processes the packet and forwards the packet to the destination computing instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination computing instances may be executed on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination computing instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination computing instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs).

[0178] If the destination of the packet is outside the VCN of the source compute instance, then the packet originating from the source compute instance is transmitted from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to the 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 then processed by the VCN VR for the VCN. The NVD invokes VCN VR functionality, which may cause the packet to be forwarded to the NVD executing the appropriate gateway associated with the VCN. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within the customer's on-premises network, then the packet may be forwarded by the VCN VR to the NVD executing the DRG gateway configured for the VCN. The VCN VR may be executed on the same NVD as the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, or by a different NVD. The gateway may be executed by an NVD, which may be a smartNIC, a host machine, or other NVD implementation. The packet is then processed by the gateway and forwarded to the next hop, which facilitates delivery of the packet to its intended destination endpoint. For example, in Figure 2, a packet originating from compute instance 268 may 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 source compute instance 268. VNIC 276 is configured to inspect information encapsulated in the packet and determine a next hop for forwarding the packet with the intent of facilitating delivery of the packet to its intended destination endpoint, and then forward the packet to the determined next hop.

[0179] Compute instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints may include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints external to CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 may include instances in the same VCN or other VCNs, which may be the customer's VCN or a VCN that does not belong to the customer. Communications between endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 may be performed over physical network 218. Compute instances may also communicate with endpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 200 or that are external to CSPI 200. Examples of these endpoints include endpoints within a customer's on-premises network or data center, or public endpoints accessible over a public network such as the Internet. Communications with endpoints external to CSPI 200 may be performed over a public network (e.g., the Internet) using various communication protocols. Figure 2 not shown) or a dedicated network ( Figure 2 Executed by (not shown).

[0180] Figure 2 The architecture of CSPI 200 depicted in the drawings is merely exemplary and is not intended to be limiting. In alternative embodiments, variations, alternatives, and modifications are possible. For example, in some embodiments, CSPI 200 may have a Figure 2 The systems or components shown in FIG. 5 may include more or fewer systems or components, may combine two or more systems, or may have different system configurations or arrangements. Figure 2 The systems, subsystems, and other components depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device).

[0181] Figure 4 Depicted is connectivity between a host machine and an NVD for providing I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy in accordance with certain embodiments. Figure 4As depicted in , a host machine 402 executes a hypervisor 404 that provides a virtualized environment. The host machine 402 executes two virtual machine instances, VM1 406 belonging to customer / tenant #1 and VM2 408 belonging to customer / tenant #2. The host machine 402 includes a physical NIC 410 connected to an NVD 412 via a link 414. Each compute instance is attached to a VNIC executed by the NVD 412. Figure 4 In the embodiment of FIG. 4 , VM1 406 is attached to VNIC-VM1 420 and VM2 408 is attached to VNIC-VM2 422 .

[0182] like Figure 4 As shown in FIG, NIC 410 includes two logical NICs, logical NIC A 416 and logical NIC B 418. Each virtual machine is attached to 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, each tenant's virtual machines believe they have their own host machine and network card due to the logical NICs.

[0183] In some embodiments, each logical NIC is assigned its own VLAN ID. Thus, a particular VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC A 416 for tenant #1, and a different VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC B 418 for tenant #2. When a packet is transmitted from VM1 406, a tag assigned to tenant #1 is appended to the packet by the hypervisor, and the packet is then transmitted from the host machine 402 to the NVD 412 via link 414. In a similar manner, when a packet is transmitted from VM2 408, a tag assigned to tenant #2 is appended to the packet by the hypervisor, and the packet is then transmitted from the host machine 402 to the NVD 412 via link 414. Accordingly, a packet 424 transmitted from the host machine 402 to the NVD 412 has an associated tag 426 that identifies the particular tenant and the associated VM. On the NVD, for a packet 424 received from the host machine 402, a 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 in enables each tenant's compute instances to believe that they have their own host machine and NIC. Figure 4 The setup described in provides I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy.

[0184] Figure 5A simplified block diagram of a physical network 500 is depicted in accordance with certain embodiments. Figure 5 The embodiments depicted in are structured as Clos networks. A Clos network is a specific type of network topology that is designed to provide connection redundancy while maintaining high bisection bandwidth and maximum resource utilization. A Clos network is a non-blocking, multi-stage or multi-layer switching network, where the number of stages or layers can be two, three, four, five, etc. Figure 5 The embodiment depicted in is a 3-layer 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. The layer 0 switch is also called the edge device of the physical network. The layer 0 switch is connected to the layer 1 switch, which is also called the leaf switch. Figure 5 In the embodiment depicted in , a set of "n" layer 0TOR switches is connected to a set of "n" layer 1 switches and forms a cluster (pod). Each layer 0 switch in a cluster is interconnected to all layer 1 switches in the cluster, but there is no switch connectivity between clusters. In some embodiments, two clusters 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 in turn connected to "n" layer 3 switches (sometimes called super backbone switches). Communication of data packets on 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, thereby allowing high availability. Policies can be specified for clusters and blocks to control the visibility of switches to each other in the physical network, thereby enabling scaling of the physical network.

[0185] A Clos network is characterized by a fixed maximum number of hops from one layer 0 switch to another layer 0 switch (or from an NVD connected to a layer 0 switch to another NVD connected to a layer 0 switch). For example, in a 3-layer Clos network, a packet takes at most seven hops to reach from one NVD to another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Similarly, in a 4-layer Clos network, a packet takes at most nine hops to reach from one NVD to another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Therefore, the Clos network architecture maintains consistent latency throughout the network, which is important for communications within and between data centers. The Clos topology scales horizontally and is cost-effective. The bandwidth / throughput capacity of the network can be easily increased by adding more switches at various layers (e.g., more leaf switches and spine switches) and by increasing the number of links between switches in adjacent layers.

[0186] 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 the console or through an API. An example syntax for a CID is:

[0187] ocid1.<RESOURCE TYPE> . <realm>.[REGION][.FUTURE USE].<UNIQUE ID>

[0188] in,

[0189] ocid1: a text string indicating the version of the CID;

[0190] resource type: the type of resource (for example, instance, volume, VCN, subnet, user, group, etc.);

[0191] realm: The realm where the resource is located. Example values ​​are "c1" for the commercial realm, "c2" for the government cloud realm, or "c3" for the federal government cloud realm. Each realm can have its own domain name;

[0192] region: The region where the resource is located. This part may be empty if the region does not apply to the resource;

[0193] future use: Reserved for future use.

[0194] uniqueID: The unique portion of the ID. The format can vary depending on the type of resource or service.

[0195] Virtual Private Label Cloud (vPLC)

[0196] This document describes techniques that enable cloud infrastructure in a region provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) for providing CSP-supplied cloud services to the CSP's customers to be used to create one or more virtual private clouds (referred to herein as virtual private label clouds or "vPLCs"). The vPLCs created according to the various techniques described in this disclosure can be used for different purposes. For example, in one use case, a vPLC can be created for a dealer that is a customer of the CSP, and the dealer can use the vPLC to provide one or more dealer-supplied cloud services to the dealer's customers. As another use case, the vPLC can be used as a virtual data center and can be associated with a domain that is different from the domain associated with the cloud infrastructure in the region provided by the CSP.

[0197] A cloud service provider (CSP) provides an infrastructure (referred to as cloud service provider infrastructure or CSPI or CSP-provided infrastructure) for providing one or more cloud services to the CSP's customers. CSP customers may include direct customers and / or distributors of the CSP. CSPI may include physical infrastructure components and virtual infrastructure components. Physical CSPI may include interconnected high-performance computing resources, including racks, servers and host machines, storage resources, network resources for forming a physical substrate or underlying network, network virtualization devices, and other resources. Virtual CSPI components may include components in an overly network, such as virtual machines, virtual routers and gateways, and other virtual components.

[0198] A CSP may offer various types of cloud services. These may include various types of services, including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), etc. In certain embodiments, as described in the present disclosure, a CSP may offer "vPLC cloud services". Customers of a CSP may subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by the CSP. Customers may be any entity, such as an individual, organization, enterprise, etc.

[0199] Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing service. In the IaaS model, the CSP provides infrastructure that can be used by customers 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 is different from traditional computing, in which the customer's resources and network are hosted by the infrastructure provided by the customer. In some embodiments, vPLC as a Service is an IaaS service in which the allocated infrastructure is used to create a virtual private label cloud for the customer. For example, if the CSP's customer is a dealer, then the vPLC created for the dealer can be used to provide dealer-provisioned cloud services.

[0200] When a customer subscribes to or registers for a cloud service provided by a CSP, a lease (or account) is created for the customer. The customer can then access one or more subscribed cloud resources associated with the account / lease via this account / lease. Each lease is identified by a lease identifier (T_ID) assigned to the lease and uniquely identifies the lease. The lease identifier is generated when the lease is created and is associated with the lease. For example, when a direct customer of a CSP subscribes to a service provided by the CSP, a lease is created for the customer, and a lease identifier that uniquely identifies the lease is created for the direct customer. When a dealer subscribes to a vPLC service, a lease is created for the dealer, and a lease identifier that uniquely identifies the lease is created for the dealer. A lease can be a logical and secure compartment that contains all resources and services utilized by customers associated with the lease.

[0201] Resources within the infrastructure provided by the CSP are typically identified using unique resource identifiers (resource IDs or RIDs). Since these resources are provided in the cloud and used to provide cloud services, resource IDs are also referred to as cloud resource identifiers (or cloud IDs or CIDs). For example, in a cloud environment provided by Oracle Corporation, "ocids" or "Oracle Cloud Identifiers" are used to identify resources. In some embodiments, a resource ID is a globally unique identifier string that identifies a cloud resource. In some embodiments, a lease ID is a cloud resource ID (or cloud identifier (CID)).

[0202] As an example, a resource or cloud ID (CID) may be represented in the following format:

[0203] RID_version. <resourcetype> . <realm>.[REGION][.FUTURE USE].<UNIQUE ID>

[0204] in:

[0205] RID_version——refers to the version of the resource ID.

[0206] "resource type" - Identifies the specific resource type that the resource ID refers to. Examples of different resource types can include instances, virtual network subnets, tenancies, etc. For example, an "instance RID" identifies a compute instance.

[0207] "realm" and "region" - Indicates the location (realm and region) of the resource.

[0208] "Unique ID" - is the unique portion of the ID (e.g., a unique string used to identify a specific resource). Thus, a lease ID can identify a unique id within the leased resource type of the CID.

[0209] CIDs are generated for resources when they are created. Virtual machines, accounts, tenancies, authorization policies, virtual network subnets, access control lists (ACLs), and load balancers are examples of cloud resources and can therefore be referenced by their respective CIDs. A tenancy is a logical container used to group other cloud resources that belong to the same cloud customer account.

[0210] When an entity becomes a customer of a CSP and subscribes to a vPLC service, a vPLC is created for the customer and associated with the customer's lease. For example, if the customer is a dealer, a vPLC is created for the dealer and associated with the dealer's lease. The vPLC created for the dealer is considered a resource and is assigned a unique resource identifier, which is called a vPLC identifier (vPLC ID), and the vPLC ID is associated with the dealer's lease. As described herein, for a vPLC created for a dealer, the vPLC ID of the vPLC is used to identify all resources and requests related to the vPLC. Each vPLC ID uniquely identifies a vPLC.

[0211] For example, in some embodiments, all resources allocated to a vPLC are tagged with the vPLC identifier of the vPLC. In some embodiments, the vPLC ID field is inserted into the representation of the CID. When a resource is associated with a vPLC, the vPLC ID corresponding to the vPLC may be provided in this field of the CID, otherwise if the resource is not associated with a vPLC, the field may be left blank.

[0212] For purposes of this disclosure, the following terminology is used for the sake of clarity.

[0213] CSP.Cn (or just Cn) - Identifies direct customers and non-reseller customers of the CSP. For example, "CSP.C1" refers to CSP's non-reseller direct customer C1, and "CSP.C2" refers to CSP's non-reseller direct customer C2.

[0214] CSP.Rn (or just Rn) - Identifies a reseller customer of the CSP. For example, "CSP.R1" refers to CSP's reseller customer R1, and "CSP.R2" refers to CSP's reseller customer R2.

[0215] Rn.Cm - A dealer can have its own customers. This identifies a specific customer of a specific dealer. For example, "R1.C1" refers to customer C1 of dealer R1, and "R2.C1" refers to customer C1 of dealer R2.

[0216] T.Cn - Identifies a lease for a non-reseller customer of a CSP. For example, "T.C1" refers to a lease for a direct non-reseller customer C1.

[0217] T.Rn - Identifies a lease with a dealer. For example, "T.R1" refers to a lease with dealer R1.

[0218] T.Rn.Cm - A dealer's customers each have their own lease. This identifies the lease associated with a specific customer of a specific dealer. For example, "T.R1.C1" refers to the lease associated with customer C1 of dealer R1, and "T.R2.C1" refers to the lease associated with customer C1 of dealer R2.

[0219] T_ID.T.Cn - Identifies the lease identifier that identifies the lease for a non-reseller customer of the CSP. For example, "T_ID.T.C1" refers to the lease ID for the lease of direct non-reseller customer C1.

[0220] T_ID.T.Rn - The lease identifier that identifies the dealer's lease. For example, "T_ID.T.R1" refers to the lease identifier for dealer R1.

[0221] T_ID.Rn.Cm - A rental identifier that identifies a rental associated with a specific customer of a specific dealership. For example, "T_ID.T.R1.C1" refers to a rental identifier for a rental associated with customer C1 of dealership R1, and "T_ID.T.R2.C1" refers to a rental identifier for a rental associated with customer C1 of dealership R2.

[0222] vPLC.Rn - Identifies a vPLC created for dealer Rn. For example, "vPLC.R1" identifies a lease created for and associated with dealer R1. This identifies a specific vPLC created for a dealer and associated with the dealer's lease.

[0223] vPLC_ID.vPLC.Rn - The vPLC identifier that identifies the vPLC created for a specific reseller. For example, "vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1" refers to the vPLC identifier of the vPLC created for reseller R1.

[0224] As described herein, a vPLC is created for a dealer that is a customer of a CSP. The vPLC is associated with the dealer's lease. In some embodiments, a vPLC ID identifying the vPLC may be associated with a lease ID identifying the dealer's lease. Accordingly, given a vPLC ID, the corresponding vPLC and the dealer for which the vPLC was created may be identified, including the dealer's lease and lease identifier.

[0225] The infrastructure provided by a CSPI or CSP can be organized into domains, regions, and data centers. A region refers to a local geographic area that includes one or more connected data centers. Regions are independent of other regions and can be separated by a large distance, for example, across countries or even continents. A set of application programming interfaces (APIs) is provided for the infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region, where the API is used to perform operations using the infrastructure in the region. Operations that can be performed using the infrastructure in a region may include creating resources in the infrastructure in the region, accessing resources in the infrastructure in the region, performing operations involving resources in the infrastructure in the region, deleting resources from the infrastructure in the region, and performing other operations involving the infrastructure in the region.

[0226] The API set is specific to a region. Accordingly, the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region is characterized by a set of APIs that can be used with the infrastructure in the region. The infrastructure provided by CSPs in different regions has different sets of APIs provided for the different regions. Accordingly, for the purposes of this application, the phrase "infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region" or "infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region" means that the infrastructure is characterized by a specific set of APIs provided for the region. Accordingly, a first set of APIs may be provided for a first region, a second set of APIs may be provided for a second region different from the first region, a third set of APIs may be provided for a third region different from the first and second regions, and so on. Thus, a specific set of APIs identifies the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a specific region. In other words, the infrastructure provided by CSPs in two separate regions will have two separate sets of APIs. Thus, a region is characterized by the infrastructure in the region and the set of APIs associated with the region for performing operations involving the regional infrastructure. The infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region is also referred to as "regional infrastructure" or "region-specific infrastructure."

[0227] For example, a CSP may provide a first infrastructure in Seattle and a second infrastructure in Portland. A first set of APIs may be provided for the first infrastructure in Seattle, and these APIs may be characterized by the following format:

[0228] "<service_identifier> .us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com”

[0229] A second set of APIs may be provided for the second infrastructure in Portland, and these APIs may be characterized by the following format:

[0230] "<service_identifier> .us-portland.oci.oraclecloud.com”

[0231] Note that Seattle and Portland are used here only as examples. The geographic locations of regions can be different. For example, there can be two or more regions in the same geographic city. For example, there can be a first region in a first building in a city, and a second region in a second separate building in the same city. As another example, there can be a first region on one floor of a building, and a second region on another floor of the building. As another example, for infrastructure provided by a CSP on one floor (a floor), a first portion of the infrastructure can belong to a first region associated with a first API set, and a second portion of the infrastructure can belong to a second region associated with a second API set that is different from the first API set.

[0232] The infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region may be organized into one or more data centers. For example, in a particular region where a CSP may have two buildings, each hosting infrastructure for providing cloud services, the infrastructure in the first building may be organized and referred to as a first data center, and the infrastructure in the second building may be organized and referred to as a second data center. As another example, in a particular region where a CSP may have a single building with multiple floors, each hosting infrastructure for providing cloud services, the infrastructure on the first floor may be organized and referred to as a first data center, and the infrastructure on the second floor may be organized and referred to as a second data center. As yet another example, in a particular region where a CSP may have infrastructure for providing cloud services, a first portion of the infrastructure may be organized and referred to as a first data center, and a second, independent portion of the infrastructure may be organized and referred to as a second data center.

[0233] A region may have one or more data centers. In some embodiments, all regional infrastructure may be contained in only one data center, while in other embodiments, the infrastructure in a region may be organized into multiple data centers. Each data center may include infrastructure resources provided by the CSP, such as computing, storage, and networking resources. Within a region, the data centers in a region may be organized into one or more availability domains (ADs). Availability domains are isolated from each other, fault-tolerant, and unlikely to fail at the same time. ADs are configured so that a failure at one AD in a region is unlikely to affect the availability of other ADs in the same region.

[0234] A domain refers to a logical collection of one or more areas. A domain can include one or more areas. Domains are typically isolated from each other and do not share data. Each domain has its own identity and trust profile (e.g., passwords, credentials, etc.). The identity and trust profile of the domain are configured so that cross-domain communication is not allowed. In this way, each domain represents an isolated domain. For example, a domain can be created for a government entity that is a customer of the CSP, another domain can be created for the commercial customers of the CSP, and a separate domain can also be created for certain private customers of the CSP, and so on. For areas within a domain, regional infrastructures can communicate with each other, but regional infrastructure associated with a first domain is not allowed to communicate with regional infrastructure associated with a different second domain.

[0235] A cloud service reseller may be an entity such as a corporation (eg, a telecommunications company), a system integrator, a government agency, an IT department of a large company, a school, or the like.

[0236] Figure 6 is a simplified block diagram of a distributed environment 600 including infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region and illustrating an example of a virtual private label cloud (vPLC) hosted by the CSP-provided infrastructure, according to certain embodiments. Figure 6 The distributed environment 600 depicted in the embodiment 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 embodiments, the distributed environment 600 may have more than Figure 6 More or fewer systems or components than shown in the drawings may be used, two or more systems may be combined, or there may be different system configurations or arrangements. Figure 6 The systems, subsystems, and other components depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device).

[0237] Figure 6 The infrastructure provided by the CSP in region 601 is depicted. The infrastructure 601 may be organized into one or more data centers. The infrastructure 601 may include memory or storage resources 622, computing resources 620, networking resources (not shown), and other physical and logical resources provided by the CSP. The storage resources 622 may include one or more volatile or non-volatile memory resources. The computing resources 620 may include one or more racks, each rack including one or more servers, and each server hosting one or more operating systems.

[0238] The regional infrastructure 601 provided by the CSP can be used by the CSP to provide one or more CSP-provided cloud services to one or more direct customers of the CSP, and can also be used to create one or more vPLCs. Figure 6 In the example depicted in , two vPLCs, namely vPLC.R1 604 and vPLC.R2 606, have been created for resellers R1 and R2, respectively. vPLC.R1 604 is used to provide one or more cloud services supplied by reseller R1 and branded by R1 to one or more customers 642 of R1. vPLC.R2 606 is used to provide one or more cloud services supplied by reseller R2 and branded by R2 to one or more customers 644 of R2.

[0239] As shown, infrastructure 601 can be communicatively coupled to computing devices used by users associated with direct customers 640 and computing devices used by users associated with customers of dealers (e.g., users associated with customer 642 of dealer R1 and users associated with customer 644 of dealer R2) via communication network 652. Communication network 652 can be of various types and can include one or more communication networks. Examples of communication network 652 are, but are not limited to, the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), Ethernet, a public or private network, a wired network, a wireless network, and the like, and combinations thereof. Different communication protocols can be used to facilitate communication, including both wired and wireless protocols, such as the IEEE 802.XX protocol suite, TCP / IP, IPX, SAN, In general, the communication network 652 may include any infrastructure that facilitates communication with the infrastructure 601 .

[0240] like Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 6 , infrastructure 601 is partitioned into three securely isolated portions: (1) a first portion 602 for providing CSP-supplied and CSP-branded cloud services to one or more direct (or non-reseller) customers 640 of the CSP; (2) a second portion assigned to vPLC.R1 604 created for reseller R1; and (3) a third portion assigned to vPLC.R2 606 created for reseller R2. In some embodiments, the three portions are securely partitioned from each other.

[0241] The partitioning of resources includes partitioning storage resources 622 and computing resources 620. For example, Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 6 , storage resources 622 include a storage portion 622a included in the first portion 602 for providing cloud services provided by the CSP to direct customers of the CSP. Storage resources 622 also include a storage portion 622b allocated to vPLC.R1 604 and a storage portion 622c allocated to vPLC.R2 606. The storage or memory portion allocated to the vPLC may include one or more volatile and / or non-volatile memory resources.

[0242] Also like Figure 6 As shown in FIG. 6 , computing resources 620 are also partitioned. Computing resources 620 include computing portion 620a, which is included in first portion 602 and is used to provide cloud services provided by the CSP to direct customers of the CSP. Computing resources 620 also include portion 620b allocated to vPLC.R1 604 and portion 620c allocated to vPLC.R2 606.

[0243] As described above, a set of APIs are provided for accessing and performing functions related to the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. These API sets can be accessed by users associated with the direct customers 640 of the CSP using the set of endpoints 610-1 provided by the CSP. For example, a user can use one or more of the endpoints 610-1 to access and / or use computing resources 620a or memory resources 622a allocated to the infrastructure for providing the cloud services provided by the CSP to the customers of the CSP. An endpoint in 610-1 can refer to a URL with an associated fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that is used to access the cloud services provided by the infrastructure 601. Examples of these endpoints:

[0244] "createVM.compute.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to create VM

[0245] "deleteVM.compute.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to delete a VM

[0246] "storeObject.storage.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to store data

[0247] etc.

[0248] A user associated with a direct customer 640 of the CSP and connected to the infrastructure 601 via a communication network may use one or more of the endpoints 610 - 1 .

[0249] In some embodiments, a vPLC-specific endpoint set is created for each vPLC. Figure 6 As depicted in , endpoint set 612-1 is created for vPLC.R1, and endpoint set 614-1 is created for vPLC.R2. A user associated with customer 642 of dealer R1 can use endpoint 612-1 to access resources associated with vPLC.R1 and perform one or more functions or operations involving resources allocated to vPLC.R1. A user associated with customer 644 of dealer R2 can use endpoint 614-1 to access resources associated with vPLC.R2 and perform one or more functions or operations involving resources allocated to vPLC.R2.

[0250] In some embodiments, a vPLC-specific endpoint set is created for the vPLC based on the endpoints provided by the CSP to its direct customers. Figure 6 , endpoint 612-1 of vPLC.R1 is created based on endpoint 610-1. The endpoint created for the vPLC may include an identifier that specifically identifies the vPLC for which the endpoint is created. For example, given an example endpoint provided by a CSP for its direct customers, endpoint 612-1 of vPLC.R1 may include:

[0251] "createVM.compute.vplcR1.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to create VM

[0252] "deleteVM.compute.vplcR1.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to delete the VM

[0253] "storeObject.storage.vplcR1.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to store data

[0254] And so on, where "vplcR1" uniquely identifies the vPLC corresponding to the endpoint.

[0255] Endpoint 614-1 of vPLC R2 may also be created based on endpoint 610-1. For example, endpoint 614-1 of vPLC R2 may include:

[0256] "createVM.compute.vplcR2.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to create VM

[0257] "deleteVM.compute.vplcR2.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to delete the VM

[0258] "storeObject.storage.vplcR2.us-seattle.oci.oraclecloud.com" - used to store data

[0259] And so on, where "vplcR2" uniquely identifies the vPLC corresponding to the endpoint.

[0260] Since the endpoint associated with the vPLC includes an identifier that identifies a specific vPLC, when the infrastructure 601 receives an API call, the endpoint call can be parsed to determine whether the call is for a direct customer of the CSP or for a reseller. In addition, since the endpoint uses a unique identifier for different vPLCs, the specific vPLC and the associated reseller can also be identified from the endpoint call. In this way, based on the results of the parsing of the endpoint call, the endpoint request can be appropriately forwarded for processing.

[0261] The CSP also provides a console 610-2 for use by its direct customers 640. Users associated with the CSP's direct customers 640 can use the console 610-2 to configure, access, and manage the first portion 602 of the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP. In some embodiments, the console 610-2 can provide a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) set that can be used to access and manage the cloud infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. In some embodiments, the console is a web-based application.

[0262] In some embodiments, a console is also provided for each vPLC. Figure 6 As depicted in , a console 612-2 is provided for vPLC.R1, and a console 614-2 is provided for vPLC.R2. The console 612-2 provided for vPLC.R1 can be used by a user associated with a customer 642 of dealer R1 to configure, access, and manage a second portion of a CSP-provided regional infrastructure assigned to vPLC.R1 604 created for dealer R1. The console 614-2 provided for vPLC.R2 can be used by a user associated with a customer 644 of dealer R2 to configure, access, and manage a third portion of a CSP-provided regional infrastructure assigned to vPLC.R2 606 created for dealer R2.

[0263] In some embodiments, a dealer can subscribe to two or more vPLCs, but each vPLC can still have an endpoint set and a console. For example, if a dealer subscribes to two vPLCs, vPLC 1 and vPLC 2, then vPLC 1 can have an endpoint set (e.g., 612-1) and a console (e.g., 612-2), and vPLC 2 (e.g., 614-1) can have another endpoint set and a console (e.g., 614-2). Both vPLC 1 (e.g., 604) and vPLC 2 (606) can be associated with the same dealer.

[0264] The infrastructure 601 may include networking resources that enable communications to and from the infrastructure 601. These network resources may include, for example, a network gateway 628 may be provided to enable communications of traffic from the regional infrastructure 601 provided by the CSP to and from other destinations, where the destinations may be communicatively coupled to the infrastructure 601 via a public network (e.g., the Internet) or a private network, the destinations may be in an on-premises network, in another cloud network, etc. The gateway 628 may be implemented as a physical network device (e.g., a router), a logical networking component (e.g., a virtual router), or some combination of physical and logical components.

[0265] The infrastructure 601 may include a control plane (CP) 624 and a management plane (MP) 626 provided by the CSP. In some embodiments, the CP 624 may be responsible for providing management, deployment, and orchestration functions within the cloud environment provided by the CSP. For example, the CP may receive requests from direct customers of the CSP, customers of dealer R1, and customers of dealer R2 through endpoints and consoles, collaborate with other components in the infrastructure (such as resource managers and management planes) to determine whether the request can be met, and respond accordingly to direct customers of the CSP, customers of dealer R1, and customers of dealer R2. In other words, the CSP CP 624 may be responsible for performing vPLC-related functions. In some embodiments, the CSP may also provide a vPLC-specific control plane that is specifically configured to perform vPLC operations. In some embodiments, there may be a vPLC control plane that can perform the processing of multiple vPLCs. In other embodiments, each vPLC may be provided with its own CP.

[0266] In some embodiments, MP 626 can be a collection of software components responsible for providing all the processing and workflow required for the requested operation. For example, for a service request to access a cloud service, the MP can provide a workflow involving an identity check of the requester and checking the DNS record to obtain the IP address for accessing the service backend. The MP ensures that the data plane performs different tasks appropriately and in the correct order.

[0267] In some embodiments, computing resources 620 may include one or more racks, each rack including one or more servers, and each server hosting one or more operating systems. Computing resources 620 may be partitioned into resources 620a allocated to infrastructure to serve the direct customer 640 of CSP and resources 620b and 620c allocated to vPLC along different levels or boundaries. Partitioning computing resources at a specific level may also be referred to as segmentation level in this article. In some embodiments, partitioning may be performed at the rack level (i.e., at the rack level segmentation), wherein one or more separate racks are allocated to 620a, 620b and 620c. In this embodiment, the rack is specifically allocated to a specific vPLC, and is not used by other vPLCs or CSPs to provide the services of CSP supply to its direct customer 640.

[0268] In another embodiment, partitioning can be performed at the server level (i.e., segmentation at the server level), where one or more individual servers in the same or different racks are assigned to 620a, 620b, and 620c. In this embodiment, the server is exclusively assigned to a particular vPLC and is not used by other vPLCs or CSPs to provide CSP-supplied services to its direct customers 640. Since a rack can have multiple servers, one server on the rack can be assigned to 620a, another server to 620b, and a third server to 620c. Thus, a rack can be shared between two vPLCs, or between infrastructure and vPLCs used by a CSP to provide CSP-supplied services to its direct customers 640.

[0269] In some embodiments, partitioning may be performed at the hypervisor level (i.e., segmentation at the hypervisor level), where one or more separate hypervisors from the same or different servers on the same or different racks are assigned to 620a, 620b, and 620c. In this embodiment, the hypervisor is exclusively assigned to a particular vPLC and is not used by other vPLCs or the CSP to provide CSP-provided services to its direct customers 640. Since a server can host multiple hypervisors, one hypervisor on a server may be assigned to 620a, another hypervisor on the same server may be assigned to 620b, and a third hypervisor on the same server may be assigned to 620c. Thus, a server may be shared between two vPLCs, or between infrastructure and vPLCs used by a CSP to provide CSP-provided services to its direct customers 640.

[0270] The hypervisor on the server on the rack can manage and execute multiple virtual machines (VMs). In some embodiments, partitioning can be performed at the VM level (i.e., segmented at the VM level), where VMs executed by the same hypervisor can be assigned to 620a, 620b, and 620c. In this embodiment, the VM is specifically assigned to a specific vPLC and is not used by other vPLCs or CSPs to provide CSP-supplied services to its direct customers 640. Since the hypervisor can support multiple VMs, one VM can be assigned to 620a, another VM can be assigned to 620b, and a third VM on the same hypervisor can be assigned to 620c. Therefore, the hypervisor can be shared between two vPLCs, or shared between the infrastructure and vPLCs that the CSP uses to provide CSP-supplied services to its direct customers 640.

[0271] In yet other embodiments, a combination of the above partitioning techniques may be used. Regardless of which partitioning technique is used, the partitioning is performed in a secure and reliable manner, which ensures that other dealers or their customers or other direct customers of the CSP cannot see or access the traffic and storage for a specific vPLC for a specific dealer. In addition, other customers of the dealer cannot see or access the traffic and storage for a specific customer of the dealer.

[0272] Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between a CSP, the CSP's direct and reseller customers and their associated users, and various resellers' customers and their associated users, according to certain embodiments. Figure 7 As shown in FIG. 7 , CSP 710 is located at the top or root of the hierarchy. CSP 710 can provide one or more cloud services, which can be subscribed to by customers of the CSP. Figure 7 , a customer of CSP 710 is represented by 702. A lease identified by a lease ID is created for each subscribing customer of CSP 710.

[0273] Customers 702 of CSP 710 may include direct or non-dealer customers and dealer customers. A dealer customer is an entity that subscribes to a vPLC service provided by a CSP, and the vPLC created for the dealer as a result of the subscription to the vPLC service is used to provide dealer-supplied and dealer-branded cloud services to the dealer's customers. The dealer's customers may be different from the CSP's customers. A direct or non-dealer customer of a CSP is an entity that subscribes to one or more CSP-supplied cloud services but does not use the CSP's infrastructure to provide any of its own cloud services to its customers.

[0274] exist Figure 7 In the example depicted in , direct or non-reseller customers of CSP 710 include customer C1 726 with associated lease T.CSP.C1 and customer C2 728 with associated lease T.CSP.C2. CSP 710 may have multiple such direct customers. Each direct customer of the CSP may have one or more users, where the users may use one or more of the cloud services provided by the CSP to which the corresponding direct customer subscribes. For example, a user associated with a customer of the CSP may be an employee or agent of the customer.

[0275] exist Figure 7 In the example depicted in FIG. 7 , the dealer customers of CSP 710 include dealer R1 720 having an associated lease T.CSP.R1 and dealer R2 722 having an associated lease T.CSP.R2. There may be multiple such dealer customers of CSP 710. Each dealer customer of the CSP may have one or more users ( Figure 7 not shown).

[0276] The reseller, in turn, may have its own customers who subscribe to one or more reseller-provisioned and reseller-branded cloud services, where the reseller-provisioned and branded cloud services are provided using the vPLC created by the CSP for the reseller. Figure 7 , customers of dealer R1 720 are shown using reference numeral 704, and customers of dealer R2 722 are shown using reference numerals.

[0277] A reseller's customers can have their own leases and associated user collections. For example, Figure 7 As depicted in , reseller R1 may have multiple customers, including customer R1.C1 740 with lease T.R1.C1 and associated users, customer R1.C2 742 with lease T.R1.C2 and associated users, and other customers. Reseller R1 may offer a set of R1-provided and branded cloud services, and customers of R1 may subscribe to one or more of the services offered by R1. The set of one or more R1-provided services subscribed to by R1.C1 740 may be the same as or different from the set of one or more R1-provided services subscribed to by R1.C2 742. The cloud services offered by R1 722 may be different from the cloud services offered by reseller R2 722 and the cloud services offered by CSP 710.

[0278] Reseller R2 722 may have multiple of its own customers that subscribe to R2-provisioned and branded cloud services provided using the vPLC created for R2. Figure 7 As shown in FIG. 7 , customers of R2 722 include customer R2.C1 744 having a lease T.R2.C1 and associated users, customer R2.C2 746 having a lease T.R2.C2 and associated users, and other customers. The cloud services provided by R2 722 may be different from the cloud services provided by reseller R1 720 and the cloud services provided by CSP 710. Customers of R2 may subscribe to one or more of the cloud services provided by R2. The set of one or more R2-provided services subscribed by R2.C1 744 may be the same as or different from the set of one or more R2-provided services subscribed by R2.C2 746.

[0279] like Figure 7 As shown in , when a reseller sells reseller-provisioned cloud services to the reseller's customers using vPLC, there are two levels of leases that come into play. The first level of leases corresponds to leases associated with the CSP 710's customers, including direct or non-reseller customers as well as reseller customers. These leases may also be referred to as the CSP's Customer Leases (or CoCTs). Figure 7 In the example, the CoCT includes leases associated with dealer R1 720, dealer R2 722, direct customer C1 726, and direct customer C2 728. Second-level leases include leases associated with the dealer's customers. These leases may also be referred to as the dealer's customer leases (or CoRTs). Figure 7 , CoRT includes leases associated with R1.C1 740, R1.C2 742, R2.C1 744, R2.C2746, and so on.

[0280] Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between resources allocated to leases of a CSP's direct customers, leases of the CSP's dealers, and leases of customers of the respective dealers, according to some embodiments. Figure 8 In some embodiments, the CSP-provided infrastructure in a region (e.g., data center) 810 may be partitioned into several securely isolated portions for the CSP's resellers, such as resources allocated to vPLC.R1 820 created for reseller R1 and associated with reseller R1's lease (T.R1), resources allocated to vPLC.R2 822 created for reseller R2 and associated with reseller R2's lease (T.R2), and so on. Resource partitions may also include securely isolated partitions for the CSP's non-reseller direct customers C1 and C2, such as resources 826 allocated to the lease (T.CSP.C1) of non-reseller customer CSP.C1 and resources 828 allocated to the lease (T.CSP.C2) of non-reseller customer CSP.C2. The partitions of the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP with resources allocated to the lease 820 of reseller R1, the lease 822 of reseller R2, the lease of customer CSP.C1, and the lease of customer CSP.C2 may be referred to as first-level resource partitions.

[0281] Each securely isolated resource portion associated with the dealer's first-level resource partition or lease (i.e., R1 lease and R2 lease) can be assigned or tagged with a vPLC ID (i.e., resource ID), such as vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1 820 and vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2 822. Each of these partitions of a non-dealer direct customer of the CSP can be tagged with a resource ID. Each lease of a non-dealer direct customer of the CSP can be accessed by its respective users, where the users can use one or more of the cloud services provided by the CSP to which their corresponding direct customers subscribe.

[0282] Each first-level resource partition (or portion) of a dealer may have additional second-level resource partitions within it that are assigned to leases of the dealer's customers. For example, a securely isolated resource partition (vPLC.R1.C1) 840 may be assigned to a lease (T.R1.C1) associated with customer C1 of dealer R1, and a securely isolated resource partition (vPLC.R1.C2) 842 may be assigned to a lease (T.R1.C2) associated with customer C2 of dealer R1. The isolated partition vPLC.R1.C1 may be tagged to identify the customer resource ID of the resources assigned to T.R1.C1, and the isolated partition vPLC.R1.C2 may be tagged to identify the customer resource ID of the resources assigned to T.R1.C1.

[0283] Similarly, a securely isolated resource partition (vPLC.R2.C1) 844 may be assigned to a lease (T.R2.C1) associated with a customer C1 of dealer R2, and a securely isolated resource partition (vPLC.R2.C2) 846 may be assigned to a lease (T.R2.C2) associated with a customer C2 of dealer R2. The isolated partition vPLC.R2.C1 may be tagged to identify the customer resource ID of the resources assigned to T.R2.C1, and the isolated portion vPLC.R2.C2 may be tagged to identify the customer resource ID of the resources assigned to T.R1.C1. Each lease associated with a customer of the dealer (e.g., lease 840 of R1.C1, lease 842 of R1.C2, lease 844 of R2.C1, or lease 846 of R2.C2) may be accessed by one or more users associated with the customer, where the users may use one or more of the dealer-provided cloud services subscribed to by the corresponding customer.

[0284] Fig.9A and Fig. 9B is a diagram illustrating a mechanism for storing information in the leases of customers of various resellers of a CSP according to certain embodiments. In some embodiments, the vPLC ID and lease ID (also referred to as the customer lease ID or CT ID) of a lease associated with a reseller's customer can be associated in two ways - 1) a distributed approach (or per vPLC record space), such as Fig.9A , and 7) a centralized solution (or vPLC ID as a partition key), such as Fig. 9B Although Fig.9A and Fig. 9B The information is illustrated as being stored in a tabular format, but in some embodiments, the information may be stored in a different format, such as an array, a key-value store, XML, JSON, or the like.

[0285] Fig.9A The first approach, per vPLC record space, is illustrated. In some embodiments, per vPLC record space can be an approach that stores lease related information in a vPLC-specific table under each dealer's vPLC ID. In other words, the information can be stored in a distributed manner. Each table is assigned a vPLC ID. Within each table, a row can be specified for a customer of the dealer, and another row can be specified for another customer of the dealer, and so on. For example, in Fig.9A In the example, there are two tables for storing information, such as identity information (e.g., a user's login name, associated credentials and certificates) or billing information (e.g., resource usage, pricing). Table 910 is assigned the vPLCID of vPLC.R1 associated with dealer R1 (vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1), and table 920 is assigned the vPLC ID of vPLC.R2 associated with dealer R2 (vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2). Inside table 910, there are three records for three customers C1, C2, and C3 of dealer R1. The first record / row may include the rental ID (T_ID.T.R1.C1) of the lease associated with customer C1 of dealer R1 and associated information of customer C1, such as identity, billing, etc. The second record / row may include the rental ID (T_ID.T.R1.C2) of the lease associated with customer C2 of dealer R1 and associated information of customer C2. The third record / row may include the lease ID (T_ID.T.R1.C3) of the lease associated with customer C3 of dealer R1 and associated information for customer C3.

[0286] The same structure can also be used for table 920, which stores three records for three customers C1, C2, and C3 of dealer R2. The first record / row may include the rental ID (T_ID.T.R2.C1) of the rental associated with customer C1 of dealer R2 and associated information of customer C1, such as identity, billing, etc. The second record / row may include the rental ID (T_ID.T.R2.C2) of the rental associated with customer C2 of dealer R2 and associated information of customer C2. The third record / row may include the rental ID (T_ID.T.R2.C3) of the rental associated with customer C3 of dealer R2 and associated information of customer C3.

[0287] Fig. 9B The figure shows the second approach, using the vPLC ID as the partition key. Fig. 9B In the second approach, the information is stored in a table with the customer lease ID and vPLC ID as two table columns so that the vPLC ID can be used as the partition key for lookup. In other words, the information can be stored in a centralized manner in the table. For example, in Fig. 9B , dealer R1 associated with the vPLC ID (vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1) has three customers C1, C2, and C3, which are associated with the rental IDs that identify the rentals of these three customers respectively: T_ID.T.R1.C1, T_ID.T.R1.C2, and T_ID.T.R1.C3. Then, the first three rows under the vPLC ID column of table 930 can be labeled as vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1, which is the vPLC ID of vPLC.R1 created for dealer R1. The customer rental ID column of the first row can be labeled as the rental ID (T_ID.T.R1.C1) of the rental associated with customer C1 of dealer R1, while the rental ID column of the second row can be labeled as the rental ID (T_ID.T.R1.C2) of the rental associated with customer C2 of dealer R1, and the rental ID column of the third row can be labeled as the rental ID (T_ID.T.R1.C3) of the rental associated with customer C3 of dealer R1. The information stored in the first three rows belongs to customers C1, C2, and C3 of dealer R1.

[0288] The same structure may also be used to store records for dealer R2's customers C1, C2, and C3 in the same table 930, such as the fourth, fifth, and sixth rows. For example, the last three rows under the vPLC ID column in table 930 may be labeled vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2, which is the vPLC ID of vPLC.R2 created for dealer R2. The customer lease ID column of the fourth row may be labeled as the lease ID (T_ID.T.R2.C1) of the lease associated with dealer R2's customer C1, while the lease ID column of the fifth row may be labeled as the lease ID (T_ID.T.R2.C2) of the lease associated with dealer R2's customer C2, and the lease ID column of the sixth row may be labeled as the lease ID (T_ID.T.R2.C3) of the lease associated with dealer R2's customer C3. The information stored in the last three rows belongs to dealer R2's customers C1, C2, and C3.

[0289] Fig.10 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a vPLC setup process according to certain embodiments. Fig.10 The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Fig.10 The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Fig.10 Various processing steps are depicted as occurring in a particular order or sequence, but this is not meant to be limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the processing may be performed in a different order, or some steps may be performed in parallel. It should be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, Fig.10 The processing described in may include Fig.10 There may be more or fewer steps than those depicted in the example.

[0290] In some embodiments, for example, Fig.10 The processing depicted in the figure may be performed by a CSP. Some steps may be performed by components (e.g., control plane (CP), resource manager (RM), and management plane (MP), etc.) within a regional infrastructure provided by a CSP or one or more cloud services provided by a CSP (such as an endpoint management service (EMS), an identity management service, etc.).

[0291] As previously described, a vPLC may be created when a dealer subscribes to a vPLC service provided by a CSP. At step 1002, a signal may be received to create a vPLC. In some embodiments, the signal may be a request received when a dealer subscribes to a vPLC service provided by a CSP. The request may be an agreement between a CSP and a dealer, listing virtual models (e.g., nested or segmented models), databases, resource placement, customization details, etc. In other embodiments, a signal may be received from some component indicating that a vPLC is being created.

[0292] At step 1004, configuration information for the vPLC to be created may be received. In some embodiments, the configuration information may include lease information (e.g., a lease identifier) ​​for which the vPLC is to be created and information for identifying a domain associated with the vPLC. As previously discussed, a lease is created for a reseller, and a lease identifier uniquely identifying the lease is also created for the reseller associated with the vPLC.

[0293] As discussed previously, in use cases where a vPLC can be used as a virtual data center and can be associated with a domain that is different from the domain associated with the cloud infrastructure in a region provided by the CSP, the identity and trust profile information (e.g., passwords, credentials, etc.) of the different domains needs to be associated with the vPLC. The association of the identity and trust profile information of the different domains can be achieved by creating a mapping (or "shadow copy") of the identity and trust profile information in the vPLC. More details will be provided in Fig.18 discussed in.

[0294] Step 1006, covering steps 1008 to 1018, may perform a process of creating a vPLC for dealer R. At step 1008, a vPLC identifier for the vPLC may be created. The vPLC created for the dealer is considered a resource and assigned a unique resource identifier, which is called a vPLC identifier (vPLC ID), and the vPLC ID is associated with the dealer's lease.

[0295] At step 1010, a resource set from an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region may be allocated to a vPLC. The resource set allocated to the vPLC may be selected based on a contract between a dealer and a CSP. For example, dealer R may subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by a CSP, such as computing services and object storage services. Thus, the resource set may include computing resources and object storage resources.

[0296] At step 1012, a namespace may be reserved for the vPLC. The resource allocation service (or resource manager (RM)) of the CSP may create and reserve a namespace to group different types of resources that may support the vPLC. A namespace may refer to a logical grouping or virtual boundary that helps organize and manage resources and prevent naming conflicts when multiple instances of similar resources are created. Thus, a namespace provides a structured way to organize and group related resources. In some embodiments, namespace 0 is reserved for the CSP. Namespace 1 and beyond are used for vPLCs. In some embodiments, a range of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses may be reserved for the vPLC and associated with a namespace for traffic isolation purposes.

[0297] At step 1014, a console may be created for the vPLC, allowing the dealer R, the dealer's customers, and users associated with the dealer's customers to configure, access, and manage resources deployed in the vPLC, and visualize, access, and interact with the cloud services provided by the dealer. In addition, the dealer R may configure the console to provide different customized experiences for different customers of the dealer.

[0298] At step 1016, an endpoint set for the vPLC may be created. In some embodiments, some endpoints in the endpoint set may be default endpoints (e.g., identity endpoints) that are always available, and some endpoints are determined based on the cloud services subscribed to by the reseller. For example, a reseller may subscribe to one or more CSP-provided cloud services such as computing, storage, virtual cloud network (VCN), database, etc. Thus, in addition to the default identity endpoint for accessing the identity service, an endpoint for accessing the subscribed service may also be created.

[0299] At step 1018, vPLC related information (such as vPLC ID, identity information of the dealer, and other information to facilitate the cloud services provided by the dealer) can be stored in the namespace of the vPLC. At step 1020, the CSP can send a response indicating the created vPLC and other information to the dealer R. The dealer can begin to manage the vPLC for the dealer's customers, such as creating customer accounts, configuring the cloud services provided by the dealer, etc.

[0300] Fig.11 is a block diagram illustrating an example distributed environment of a virtual private label cloud (vPLC) hosted by an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region in accordance with certain embodiments. Fig.11 Can be similar to Figure 6 , where both diagrams include securely isolated portions (or partitions) of the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP (e.g., Figure 6 The first part 602, the second part 604 and the third part 606 in FIG. 6 are for direct customers of the CSP, vPLC.R1 associated with dealer R1 and vPLC.R2 associated with dealer R2. The direct customers of the CSP, the customers of dealer R1 and the customers of dealer R2 can access their respective partitions through one or more endpoints and consoles. The regional infrastructure 602 provided by the CSP can also have a control plane, a management plane and a gateway, such as Figure 6 As described in.

[0301] but, Fig.11 A more detailed view of the interconnection between resources (such as compute, storage, gateway, CP, and management plane) in the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP is illustrated. In addition, the CSP's direct non-reseller customers, customers of reseller R1, and customers of reseller R2 can access the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP from the Internet or the enterprise network. For example, the gateway can be used to access the Internet or the enterprise network from the real application cluster (RAC) in the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP.

[0302] Fig.11 The diagram shows three cloud partitions running on the same CSP-provided regional infrastructure 1102: the CSP's native cloud 1120 and two vPLCs of dealers R1 and R2: vPLC.R1 1122 and vPLC.R2 1124. The regional infrastructure 1102 provided by the CSP is operated by the CSP. The regional infrastructure 1102 provided by the CSP may also include a control plane 1104 and a management plane 1105. As mentioned above, CP 1104 may be responsible for providing management, deployment, and orchestration functions for the cloud environment provided by the CSP. MP1105 may be a collection of software components responsible for supplying all processing and workflows required for the requested operation. In addition, the software that implements the cloud service may originate from the deployment system 1106 and enter the data center in the region through the management plane 1105. Software updates to the control plane 1104 (e.g., new services) may be delivered by the deployment system 1106 through the management plane 1105. The administrator of the CSP or the operator 1107 of the reseller who deploys the software / service can also access the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP through the management plane 1105 .

[0303] Computing resources (three real application clusters (RACs) 1140, 1142, and 1144) sharing the same storage 1150 are partitioned and respectively allocated to the CSP's native cloud 1120, vPLC.R1 1122, and vPLC.R2 1124. For example, RAC 1140 is dedicated to the CSP's direct customers, RAC 1142 is designated for vPLC.R1, and RAC 1144 is used for vPLC.R2.

[0304] Network resources can also be partitioned or shared between the CSP's direct customers and resellers, allowing their computing resources to connect to the Internet or an enterprise network. For example, each RAC 1140, 1142, and 1144 uses its network gateway 1160, 1162, and 1164 to access the Internet 1108 or the enterprise network 1109. In some embodiments, two RACs can share the same network interface. For example, RAC 1142 and RAC 1144 share the same gateway 1162 to access the Internet 1108.

[0305] Fig.11 The storage in is simplified. Storage 1150 may include overall storage, dedicated storage, and different types of storage, such as block storage and object storage. Fig.11 In FIG. 1 , vPLC.R1 and vPLC.R2 have their dedicated storage 1152 and 1154, respectively. The overall storage 1150 belongs to the CSP.

[0306] exist Fig.11 In the CSP's native cloud 1120, the CSP's native cloud 1120 can provide CSP-provisioned cloud services to the CSP's direct non-dealer customers (e.g., CSP.C1-n) (such as companies). Users associated with the dealer's customers can access the services via dedicated service endpoints, which are part of their respective namespaces, including fully qualified domain names (FQDNs), IP addresses, console experiences, identities, etc. The CSP can provide an individual console for each dealer, and the console provides services through the endpoints. The endpoints associated with the console can differ based on which services are provided to the dealer's customers based on the dealer's subscription. For example, a single dealer's customers can send access requests through a dedicated endpoint or via the console.

[0307] Users can use service endpoints 1170 and 1172 (two endpoints are shown, but there may be more endpoints) exposed by the CSP, where the endpoints have DNS names. The native cloud 1120 may also include a console 1174 with a look and feel. Direct customers of the CSP on the Internet 1108 can access the regional infrastructure 1102 provided by the CSP through public endpoints 1170 and 1172 to request instance launch or termination. Customers of dealer R1 on the Internet 1108 can also access the regional infrastructure 1102 provided by the CSP through public endpoints 1180 and 1182 to request instance launch or termination. Customers of dealer R2 on the enterprise network 1109 can access the regional infrastructure 1102 provided by the CSP through private endpoints 1190 and 1192 to request instance launch or termination. The control plane 1104 can then launch instances, terminate instances, configure connectivity for these instances, and orchestrate services in the data center. The network interfaces 1160 and 1162 (e.g., Internet Gateway (IGW)) of the CSP and vPLC.R1, respectively, can provide network interconnection with the Internet 1108. The network interface 1164 (eg, a dynamic routing gateway (DRG)) of vPLC.R2 may provide network interconnection with the enterprise network 1109 .

[0308] exist Fig.11 In , vPLC.R1 1122 and vPLC.R2 1124 share the same physical infrastructure. Their endpoints are unique to each dealer, for example, endpoints 1180 and 1182 for dealer R1, and endpoints 1190 and 1192 for dealer R2. Consoles 1184 and 1194 are customized for dealer R1 and dealer R2, respectively. The endpoints and consoles of the vPLC can be connected to the Internet or their corporate network depending on their needs. For example, in Fig.11 In , vPLC.R1 is connected to the Internet 1108 through a network gateway 1162 (e.g., IGW). However, vPLC.R2 is not connected to the Internet, and therefore is instead connected to the enterprise network 1109 through a secure network 1164 (e.g., FastConnect). Fig.11 In the example, gateway 1162 can be split and shared by vPLC.R1 and vPLC.R2, and can be part of the orchestration implemented by the CSP. In this example, part of the data of vPLC.R2 can go to the Internet 1108, and part of the data can go to its enterprise network 1109.

[0309] If the request comes in through the console 1194, it can go to the control plane 604. The control plane can determine that the request is from vPLC.R2 1124, and can find available resources (e.g., computers) from the RAC designated for vPLC.R2 (i.e., 1144 in this example), provision and then start the resource. The control plane 604 can then reply to the customer of reseller R2 through the console 1194 and provide the IP address for its network configuration (e.g., VCN). The control plane 1104 can orchestrate the gateway 1164 to the enterprise network 1109 or the Internet 1108 depending on how the gateway 1164 is configured. The control plane can not only know the request, but also know the requester, whether the requester is a direct customer of the CSP, a customer of reseller R1, or a customer of reseller R2.

[0310] As discussed previously, the partitioning of the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP can be performed for different vPLCs at various predefined infrastructure levels (e.g., at the rack level, server level, hypervisor level, or VM level). To further illustrate, for rack-level partitioning, the vPLC can have its own dedicated rack and the resources within it. For server-level partitioning, multiple vPLCs can share racks, but each vPLC has its dedicated server. In addition, in another example, for hypervisor-level partitioning, multiple vPLCs can share servers, but each vPLC has its dedicated hypervisor. For VM-level partitioning, multiple vPLCs can share hypervisors, but each vPLC has its dedicated VM. Therefore, there can be two main vPLC infrastructure partitioning models (or two ends of the continuum (spectrum)) to implement multi-vPLC solutions: segmented model and nested model. The segmented model can refer to resource partitioning at the rack level. The nested model can refer to resource partitioning at the VM level. However, considering operational efficiency (e.g., shared control plane) and fragmentation (i.e., partitioning of resources), there may be other variations between the two.

[0311] Fig.12 is a block diagram illustrating a vPLC segmentation model for resource partitioning according to certain embodiments. In this model, which represents one end of the partitioning continuum, each vPLC can have its dedicated resources, including compute resources and network resources, at the rack level. In other words, a rack can be exclusively allocated to a specific vPLC and not used by other vPLCs or CSPs to provide CSP-supplied services to their direct customers. The segmentation model performs resource and usage tracking at the physical resource level based on affinity tags (e.g., vPLC ID and customer lease ID). There may be a default behavior for each segment, but each segment can be customized by the dealer associated with the vPLCs in that segment.

[0312] exist Fig.12 In some embodiments, in a segmented model, there may be multiple vPLCs (e.g., vPLC.R1 1210, vPLC.R2 1220, and vPLC.Rn 1230) in the infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region (e.g., a data center). Fig.12 As shown in , there may be physical partitions and logical partitions. For example, for a physical partition, a vPLC may be assigned its dedicated hardware resources, such as a rack including one or more servers and each server hosting one or more operating systems. Fig.12 , the first rack is assigned to vPLC.R1 segment 1210, the second rack is assigned to vPLC.R2 segment 1220, and the third rack is assigned to vPLC.Rn segment 1230. Each vPLC may also have a dedicated networking switch (or gateway) connected to the Internet / enterprise network 1260, such as gateway 1219 for vPLC.R1 1210, gateway 1229 for vPLC.R2 1220, and gateway 1239 for vPLC.Rn 1230. Fig.12 , vPLC.R1 1210 has dedicated servers 1214a-b, a hypervisor 1216 running on server 1214b and hosting VMs 1218a-n, and a gateway (e.g., IGW) 1219. Similarly, vPLC.R2 1220 has dedicated servers 1224a-b, a hypervisor 1226 running on server 1224b and hosting VMs 1228a-n, and a gateway 1229. vPLC.Rn 1230 has dedicated servers 1234a-b, a hypervisor 1236 running on server 1234b and hosting VMs 1238a-n, and a gateway 1239.

[0313] For logical partitioning, there is a common control plane 1250 and resource manager 1252 that are managed and operated by the CSP for all vPLCs. However, the data plane can be dedicated to each vPLC in the segmentation model. For example, each vPLC.R1, vPLC.R2, and vPLC.Rn has its own data plane 1212, 1222, and 1232, respectively. In some embodiments, the resource manager 1252 can be part of the management plane. In other embodiments, the resource manager 1252 can be separate from the management plane.

[0314] In some embodiments, a user associated with a customer 1280 of dealer R1 can send a request to start a VM instance or a bare metal server through one of vPLC.R1 endpoints 1270. Assume that the request is to start a new VM instance. In this case, the control plane 1250 can collaborate with the identity service to check the correct credentials of the user for vPLC.R1, and then the resource manager 1252 can identify all resources dedicated to vPLC.R1, such as IP address ranges. Then, the VM instance (e.g., 1218a) is started on the hypervisor 1216 in the vPLC.R1 segment 1210. Thereafter, the control plane 1250 sends a response back to the requesting user through the vPLC.R1 endpoint 1270. If the request is for a bare metal server (e.g., 1214a), then the resource manager 1252 can supply the resources of vPLC.R1 and assign it to vPLC.R1 together with all necessary configurations. Similar processing may be performed for requests from users associated with customer 1282 of reseller R2 to be satisfied by vPLC.R2 segment 1220, and requests from users associated with customer 1284 of reseller Rn to be satisfied by vPLC.Rn segment 1230. Each processing of a vPLC may be performed independently of another vPLC, as well as concurrently with another vPLC.

[0315] The vPLC segmentation model may have some advantages, such as physical separation and a shared common control plane 1250 operated by the CSP. In addition, a resource manager 1252 manages resources across vPLCs 1210-1230. However, resources (including networking and storage) are replicated to be assigned to each vPLC, and therefore there may be scaling challenges. Small footprints (such as a single rack or server) are also not feasible under this model. However, the vPLC segmentation model can still have shared power, cooling, etc. As mentioned above, the segmentation model is only one end of the continuum, and there are various partitioning methods based on resources and efficiency.

[0316] Fig.13 is a block diagram illustrating a vPLC nesting model of resource partitioning according to certain embodiments. Fig.13 The nested model in illustrates the other end of the continuum of VM-level resource partitioning. In other words, a VM may be exclusively assigned to a particular vPLC and not used by other vPLCs or the CSP to provide services offered by the CSP to its direct customers. However, a hypervisor, server, or rack may be shared between customers of the CSP and customers of one or more vPLCs. In some embodiments, the nested model may have a base layer that none of the customers can see as a basis for sharing, such as a hypervisor, and an abstraction layer (e.g., VM) may be built on top of the base layer, allowing each dealer to create clones and customize the abstraction layer for the dealer's customers.

[0317] exist Fig.13 In an embodiment of the present invention, all vPLCs (e.g., vPLC.R1, vPLC.R2, and vPLC.Rn) are hosted on a single segment with a shared infrastructure, shown as a "server CSP" 1320 (e.g., a bare metal server) operated by a CSP, where the "server CSP" 1320 can have control plane functionality. The server CSP 1320 can be configured to host a hypervisor 1330 that manages virtual machines (VMs) 1332a-n running on the hypervisor. In some embodiments, a segment may include multiple racks. Here, two VM instances of vPLC.R1 1332a-b, one VM instance of vPLC.R2 1332c, and one VM instance of vPLC.Rn 1332n reside on the shared hypervisor 1330. All vPLCs share the same data plane 1312 in the segment 1310. In some embodiments, a segment may include multiple racks. Since hypervisors, servers, and racks can be shared by multiple vPLCs, the servers of those vPLCs may be from different racks.

[0318] Fig.13 A variation of the partitioning scenario is further illustrated, where a customer of reseller R2 can request an additional bare metal server, server vPLC.R2 1322, which is provisioned as a dedicated server. In the vPLC nested model, the shared server pool can be placed wherever there is space. Thus, it provides a low-cost point for the reseller.

[0319] exist Fig.13 In the example, a gateway 1340 (e.g., an IGW or DRG) shared by the vPLCs has a connection to the Internet or an enterprise network if necessary. Incoming packets from the Internet / enterprise network 1360 can be tagged (i.e., encapsulated in each packet header) with vPLC-related information (e.g., vPLC ID and customer lease ID) at the gateway 1340 to track the destination to the appropriate vPLC. Packet encapsulation helps to isolate traffic within a single segment 1310 shared by multiple vPLCs. As an example, a packet destined for a VM 1332a that belongs to a lease associated with a customer C1 of a dealer R1 associated with vPLC.R1 can be encapsulated with vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1 and a customer lease ID (T_ID.R1.C1) in the packet header. The packet can then be routed to VMs 1332a-b that are partitioned for vPLC.R1 based on the vPLC ID (vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1). The customer tenancy ID (T_ID.R1.C1) in the packet header associated with customer C1 of reseller R1 may further assist in routing the packet to tenant C1 running on VM 1332a. The packet is decapsulated before delivery to VM 1332a.

[0320] Similarly, a packet destined for VM 1332c belonging to a lease associated with customer C1 of reseller R2 associated with vPLC.R2 may be encapsulated with vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2 and the customer lease ID (T_ID.R2.C1) in the packet header. The packet may then be routed to resources partitioned for vPLC.R2 based on the vPLC ID (vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2). The customer lease ID (T_ID.R2.C1) associated with customer C1 of reseller R2 in the packet header may further assist in routing the packet to tenant C1 running on VM 1332c in vPLC.R2. The packet is decapsulated prior to delivery to VM1332c.

[0321] Outgoing packets can be executed with the opposite processing. For example, an outgoing packet originating from VM 1332a in vPLC.R1 and destined for the Internet 1360 can be encapsulated with vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1 and a customer lease ID (T_ID.R1.C1) associated with customer C1 of dealer R1 in the packet header. When the packet arrives at gateway 1340, the packet can be decapsulated before going to the Internet 1360. Similarly, an outgoing packet originating from VM 1332c in vPLC.R2 and destined for the Internet 1360 can be encapsulated with vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2 and a customer lease ID (T_ID.R2.C1) associated with customer C1 of dealer R2 in the packet header. When the packet arrives at gateway 1340, the packet can be decapsulated before going to the Internet 1360. Therefore, both incoming and outgoing traffic are isolated within a single segment 1310 shared by multiple vPLCs.

[0322] In some embodiments, in a nested model, one or more VMs may belong to direct customers of the CSP and share the same hypervisor with other vPLCs.

[0323] Users of a dealer accessing the vPLC infrastructure are authenticated in both the segmented and nested models. A user associated with a customer of a particular dealer can access an endpoint and be authenticated as a user of the vPLC associated with the particular dealer by using the user's credentials (e.g., username and customer tenancy ID). For example, in some embodiments, Fig.13 , a user associated with customer C1 of reseller R1 may send a request to launch a VM instance through one of the vPLC.R1 endpoints 1302. The specific vPLC.R1 endpoint 1302 may augment the request with the vPLC ID of vPLC.R1. The control plane 1350 may collaborate with the identity service to check the correct credentials of the user for vPLC.R1 (e.g., the user's username and the lease ID of customer C1). The resource manager 1352 may then identify all resources allocated to vPLC.R1 based on the vPLC ID, e.g., servers 1320 and hypervisor 1330, and identify VM 1332a based on the customer lease ID of customer C1. The VM instance 1332a may then be launched on the hypervisor 1330 accordingly.

[0324] Fig.14 is a flow chart illustrating a registration process for a customer of a reseller associated with a vPLC according to certain embodiments. When a direct customer of a CSP subscribes to or registers (i.e., registers for) a cloud service provided by the CSP (i.e., a CSP-provided cloud service), a lease or account is created for that customer. Similarly, when a customer of a single reseller subscribes to or registers for a cloud service provided by the reseller (i.e., a reseller-provided cloud service), a lease or account is created for that customer.

[0325] Fig.14 The diagram shows the registration process for a specific customer C1 of dealer R1. However, the registration process is applicable to customers of a single dealer. Fig.14 In the example, at step S1, customer C1 1401 of dealer R1 may register to create a new account using a registration portal on the console 1402 of vPLC.R1 by entering the user's identity credentials, such as a user name or account name (e.g., John). At step S2, the vPLC1.R1 console 1402 may augment the registration request by adding the vPLC ID (e.g., vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1) identifying the vPLC created by dealer R1 to the user's credentials, and forward the registration request to the CSP (control plane (CP) or management plane (MP)) 1404. In some embodiments, account creation for customer C1 of dealer R1 may be handled by dealer R1 with the help of the CP or MP of the CSP.

[0326] At step S3, the CSP then creates a customer lease (or account, T.R1.C1) for customer C1 1401 of dealer R1. A lease identifier (T_ID.T.R1.C1) is assigned to the newly created lease (T.R1.C1) of customer C1. The vPLC ID (e.g., vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1) identifying vPLC.R1 of dealer R1 can be associated with the customer lease ID (e.g., T_ID.T.R1.C1) of the newly created customer C1, as shown in 1430, and stored in database 1420 along with other credentials (e.g., account name and password). Other customers of dealer R1 and dealer R2 can also be stored in database 1420. For example, the customer lease ID of dealer R1's customer C2 (i.e., R1.C2) is associated with the vPLC ID of vPLC.R1—T_ID.T.R1.C2 and vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1, as shown in 1432. The customer lease ID of dealer R2's customer C2 (i.e., R2.C1) is associated with the vPLC ID of vPLC.R2—T_ID.T.R2.C1 and vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2, as shown in 1434.

[0327] The association between the vPLC ID and the lease ID of a customer of a single reseller can provide isolation between the leases of customers within a vPLC. For example, a customer lease of R1.C1 can be securely isolated from a customer lease of R1.C2 by using different customer lease IDs (T_ID.T.R1.C1 for customer C1 and T_ID.T.R1.C2 for customer C2), even though both customer leases are within the same vPLC.R1. A lease associated with reseller R1 and a lease associated with reseller R2 can be securely isolated using their respective vPLC IDs (vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1 for reseller R1, vPLC_ID.vPLC.R2 for reseller R2).

[0328] At step S4, CSP 1404 may return a handle including the customer lease ID (e.g., T_ID.T.R1.C1), a temporary default password, and an account name to vPLC.R1 console 1402. At step S5, vPLC.R1 console may receive the temporary credentials and forward the customer lease ID and password to customer C1 1401 of reseller R1. Fig.14 As shown in FIG. 1 , a customer C1 1401 of a reseller R1 can interact directly with the reseller R1 to register and subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by the reseller through the vPLC.R1 console 1402. Similarly, a customer of a CSP can interact separately with the CSP and register at the CSP's console (not shown) to subscribe to cloud services provided by the CSP.

[0329] As discussed above with respect to lease creation, the CSP’s database (e.g. Fig.14 1420) can store vPLCIDs, customer lease IDs, and their corresponding credentials. In some embodiments, multiple customer lease IDs can be associated with the same vPLC ID, as shown in 1430 (T_ID.T.R1.C1 is associated with vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1) and 1432 (T_ID.T.R1.C2 is associated with vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1). Leases can be defined at the realm level, so a lease can have a realm identifier associated with a vPLC.

[0330] Fig.15 is a flow chart illustrating a login process for a user associated with a customer of a dealer associated with a vPLC according to some embodiments. Fig.15 In the above example, steps S1 and S2 involve a single dealer's customer having completed Fig.14 The login phase follows the registration process described in .

[0331] At step S1, a user 1501 associated with a customer of dealer R1 may log in using a customer tenancy ID (or CT ID), username, and password at vPLC.R1 endpoint 1510. At S2, user 1501 and its customer tenancy may be verified at vPLC.R1 endpoint 1510 by undergoing a verification process that may include, but is not limited to, user authentication (e.g., verifying valid credentials, such as username and password), session management (e.g., session tokens or timeouts), and access control enforcement (based on access rights, permissions, and policies).

[0332] At step S3, vPLC.R1 endpoint 1510 may return a session handle. A session handle may refer to a token or unique identifier returned to a customer after successfully logging into a customer account. The session handle may be used for subsequent requests to access cloud services and resources (e.g., launch an instance) without having to re-authenticate for each individual request during an active login session (or API session).

[0333] When resources are created, cloud resource IDs (CIDs) may be generated for these resources, including customer tenancy IDs. Virtual machines, accounts, tenancies, authorization policies, virtual network subnets, ACLs, and load balancers may be examples of cloud resources and may therefore be referenced by their respective CIDs.

[0334] Fig.16 is a flow chart illustrating a resource allocation and provisioning process for a reseller's customers associated with a vPLC according to certain embodiments.A resource manager (RM) manages the resources of the cloud infrastructure provided by the CSP in a region and the resource partitions assigned to each vPLC.

[0335] As discussed above, users associated with customers of the reseller may use a vPLC-specific endpoint to access resources associated with the vPLC and perform one or more functions or operations involving resources allocated to the vPLC. Fig.16 , at step S1 , a user 1601 associated with a customer C1 of a reseller R1 may issue a request through a vPLC-specific endpoint vPLC.R1 endpoint 1602 to launch a computing instance, for example, a VM instance with 1 GB of RAM.

[0336] At step S2, vPLC.R1 endpoint 1602 may augment (or annotate) the request to indicate that the request is from a customer of reseller R1 by marking the vPLC.R1 endpoint with a corresponding vPLC ID (e.g., vPLC_ID.vPLC.R1), and forward the request to resource manager (RM) 1604. In other words, once the request has been authenticated, the annotation information (e.g., vPLC ID) allows the request to be processed using all policies associated with vPLC.R1. In some embodiments, the policies associated with the vPLC may include, for example, the type of resource, the amount of resource allowed to be allocated (i.e., capacity limit), permissions, etc.

[0337] At step S3, RM 1604 queries its database (i.e., resource database) 1606 to determine whether the requested resource is available for vPLC.R1 under the policy. Based on the query, at step S4, RM can perform resource allocation after confirming that the requested resource is available under the policy. In other words, RM allocates a portion of the resources of vPLC.R1 that have been allocated to dealer R1 to the customer lease (T.R1.C1) associated with customer C1 of dealer R1 (based on the customer lease ID when the user logs in). Such resource allocation can be performed by assigning or specifying a portion of the available cloud resources (already allocated to vPLC.R1) to the user associated with customer C1 based on the policy agreed upon between customer C1 and dealer R1 (such as capacity restrictions or licenses, etc.). For example, dealer R1 and its customer C1 may have a contract policy to allow up to 100GB of storage to be available for use. Currently 80GB has been allocated (or used). If a user associated with customer C1 requests 10GB, RM can identify the CID of the 10GB that CP will supply. If a user associated with customer C1 requests 30GB, which would exceed the total limit of 100GB, the request may be denied.

[0338] At step S5, RM 1604 obtains the cloud resource ID of the resource (vPLC.R1.C1) assigned to the lease (T.R1.C1) of customer C1 assigned to dealer R1 from the resource database. At step S6, RM passes the resource ID to vPLC.R1 endpoint 1602. At step S7, vPLC.R1 endpoint 1602 issues a resource request to control plane (CP) 1608, requesting a resource with a specific resource ID of the resource assigned to the lease (T.R1.C1) of customer C1 assigned to dealer R1. In other words, resource manager 1604 can augment (e.g., step S6) the user's request with information related to vPLC (e.g., the resource ID assigned to vPLC.R1.C1), and control plane 1608 can use this information to provision resources (e.g., step S8).

[0339] At step S8, the control plane may provision the requested resources (e.g., launch a specific VM instance and storage). The resources may include compute, networking, storage, etc. At step S9, the control plane 1608 may respond to the vPLC.R1 endpoint 1602 with a status and a resource handle. The resource handle may refer to a unique resource identifier assigned to the provisioned resource, such as a cloud resource ID assigned to a provisioned compute instance (e.g., VM), storage volume, virtual cloud network (VCN or subnet), database, etc. The resource handle may allow the customer to access and manage the provisioned resources through an API or command line tool.

[0340] At step S10, the status and resource handle are forwarded to user 1601 associated with customer C1 of reseller R1. At step S11, the control plane may notify RM about the resource provisioning status, such as success or failure. At step S12, RM may update a record in resource DB 1606 that tracks resource usage of customer C1 associated with the user. Continuing with the above example, the record may be updated to indicate that the total amount of memory used by customer C1 is 90GB after successfully provisioning 10GB (on top of the previously provisioned 80GB), or remains at 80GB after the user's request is denied. The records maintained by the resource DB may help enforce policies associated with the vPLC.

[0341] Fig.17 is a flow diagram illustrating a resource allocation and provisioning process for a dealer's customers associated with a vPLC in accordance with certain embodiments. Fig.17 yes Fig.16 Instead of using a resource manager (RM) as a central role that receives requests for communication with all subsystems and coordinates resource allocation and provisioning processes, a control plane (CP) may also be used to play this central role.

[0342] For example, in Fig.17 In the example of FIG. 1 , at step S1, a user 1701 associated with a customer C1 of a dealer R1 may issue a request to a vPLC-specific endpoint vPLC.R1 endpoint 1702. At step S2, the vPLC.R1 endpoint 1702 may augment the request by marking the corresponding vPLC ID to indicate that the request is from a customer of the dealer R1, and forward the request to a control plane (CP) 1704. At step S3, the CP 1704 forwards the request to a resource manager (RM) 1706. At step S4, the RM 1706 queries its database (i.e., resource database) 1708 to determine whether the requested resource is available for vPLC.R1. Based on the query, at step S5, if the requested resource is available, the RM performs resource allocation.

[0343] At step S6, the RM obtains the resource ID of the resource (vPLC.R1.C1) assigned to the lease (T.R1.C1) assigned to the customer C1 of dealer R1 from the resource database. At step S7, the RM passes the resource ID to the CP 1704. At step S8, the control plane can supply the requested resources. At step S9, the control plane 1704 can respond to the vPLC.R1 endpoint 1702 with the status and resource handle. At step S10, the status and resource handle can be forwarded to the user 1701. At step S11, the control plane can notify the RM about the resource supply status. At step S12, the RM can update the record in the resource DB that tracks the resource usage of the customers associated with the user.

[0344] like Fig.17 As shown in FIG. 1 , CP 1704 may play a central role by forwarding resource requests to RM 1706 (eg, step S3) and receiving resource IDs from RM (eg, step S6) and provisioning the requested resources (eg, step S8). Fig.16 In contrast, this embodiment avoids the need for the vPLC.R1 endpoint 1702 to perform additional steps, such as issuing a resource request to the CP, such as Fig.16 As shown in steps S7 and S8 in .

[0345] Fig.18 is a simplified diagram illustrating a use case in which a vPLC is hosted by infrastructure in a first domain but is associated with a second, different domain, according to certain embodiments. Fig.18 In , there are two separate domains, Domain A 1802 and Domain B 1812 provided by the CSP. Each domain is a logical collection of regions. Domains are isolated from each other and do not share data. Accordingly, Domain A 1802 is isolated from Domain B 1812 and there is no shared data or communication between the two domains. Leases created for customers of the CSP exist within a single domain and cannot be used to access another domain or regions in another domain. Domains enable the CSP to provide defined levels of service between regions in the domain that meet the needs of a specific organization. For example, a CSP may create a domain to achieve an elevated level of security and separation, such as a "Government" domain created for government entities that are customers of the CSP. The CSP may create a second domain with a lower elevated level of security and separation, such as a "Commercial" domain created for non-government commercial customers of the CSP. Examples of domains that a CSP may create: (a) Commercial domain; (b) U.S. Government FedRAMP authorized domain; (c) U.S. Government IL5 authorized domain; (d) Country A government domain; (e) Country B government domain; and so on. For example, in Fig.18 In the example, domain A 1802 may have a higher security posture than domain B 1812.

[0346] A realm can have one or more zones. Each realm has its own identity and trust profile (e.g., passwords, credentials, etc.). This identity and trust profile information is shared between zones belonging to the same realm, and thus zones within a realm can communicate with each other. The identities and trust profiles of a realm are configured so that cross-realm communication is not allowed.

[0347] exist Fig.18 In the example depicted in FIG, domain A 1802 includes region A 1804. The infrastructure provided by the CSP in region A 1804 is organized as data centers 1806. Fig.18 , data center 1806 is shown as a dedicated regional cloud data center (DRCC) hosted at a customer's premises. A DRCC may refer to a fully managed cloud region built using high-performance infrastructure designed by a CSP to help customers bring cloud primitives and services closer to the customer's existing data and applications. A DRCC may be dedicated to a single customer and run within the customer's data center but fully managed by the CSP.

[0348] exist Fig.18 In the example, domain B 1812 includes region B 1814. The infrastructure provided by the CSP in region B 1814 is organized as data center 1816. Fig.18 As shown in FIG, data center 1816 hosts vPLC 1818. Accordingly, a portion of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in data center 1816 in region B 1812 is allocated to vPLC 1818. Therefore, vPLC 1818 is physically located in region B 1814 in domain B 1812.

[0349] As previously described, when a vPLC is created, as part of configuring the vPLC, the vPLC is associated with a particular domain. Typically, the vPLC is associated with the same domain associated with the region where the regional infrastructure provided by the CSP hosting the vPLC is located. In some embodiments, when the vPLC is configured, the vPLC may be associated with a domain that is different from the domain associated with the regional infrastructure hosting the vPLC. For example, in Fig.18 , vPLC 1818 may be associated with realm A 1802, but not realm B 1812. Dashed box 1820 and associated arrow 1830 are intended to indicate that vPLC 1818 is physically hosted by data center 1816 in realm B 1812, but is logically or virtually associated with and belongs to realm A 1802. Realm B 1812 is referred to as the hosting realm or host realm of vPLC 1818. Realm A 1802 is referred to as the logical realm or virtual realm of vPLC 1818.

[0350] This makes vPLC 1818 and data center 1806 in the same domain, i.e., domain A 1802. Since the infrastructure in the same domain shares the same identity and trust profile, vPLC 1818 is configured with the identity and trust profile of domain A 1802. The configuration of the identity and trust profile information of domain A 1802 can be completed by creating a mapping in vPLC 1818. For example, the identity service API in the virtual domain (i.e., domain A 1802) can call the vPLC in the host domain (i.e., domain B 1812), and the vPLC in the host domain can accept the call and establish trust (i.e., share identity and trust profile information) between the two domains. When an instance is created in a customer lease in the vPLC in the host domain, the resource ID and lease ID associated with the newly created instance in the host domain can be mapped to the new resource ID and lease ID in the virtual domain. Therefore, a mapping table (or "shadow lease") can be maintained in the host domain (i.e., domain B 1812). The same processing and mapping is also performed in the virtual realm (i.e., realm A 1802). Therefore, both the vPLC 1818 and realm A 1802 (i.e., the virtual realm) share the same identity and trust profile information. Therefore, since the vPLC 1818 and the data center 1806 are located in realm A 1802, they are able to communicate with each other, even though the vPLC 1818 is physically hosted by infrastructure in a different realm B 1812. The vPLC 1818 may not be able to communicate with other infrastructure in region B 1814 associated with realm B 1812.

[0351] Additionally, the vPLC 1818 is also logically associated with region A 1804, even though the vPLC is physically hosted by region B 1814. Region B 1814 is referred to as a hosted region or host region of the vPLC 1818. Region A 1804 in realm A 1802 is referred to as a logical region or virtual region of the vPLC 1818. The virtual realms and virtual regions of a vPLC may be configured when the vPLC is created.

[0352] As described above, the resource ID of a resource includes a portion identifying a domain associated with the resource and a portion identifying a region associated with the resource. The vPLC is considered a resource and is therefore assigned a resource ID. In some embodiments, a vPLC ID that uniquely identifies a vPLC is a resource ID. The vPLC ID includes a portion identifying a virtual domain associated with the vPLC identified by the vPLC ID, and a portion identifying a virtual region associated with the vPLC. Accordingly, for identity management purposes in domain A 1802, the vPLC is considered to be part of the domain and region identified by the vPLC ID corresponding to the vPLC.

[0353] In certain embodiments, a vPLC may be configured in the manner described above using a virtual bootstrap environment (ViBE) technology, wherein the vPLC is hosted by one region and one domain, but is associated with different virtual regions and different virtual domains. ViBE may refer to a virtual cloud network (VCN) that is provisioned in an overlay of an existing region (e.g., a "host region"). Once provisioned, ViBE is connected to the new region using a communication channel (e.g., an IPSec tunnel VPN). Certain basic core services (or "seed" services), such as deployment orchestrators, public key infrastructure (PKI) services, etc., may be provisioned in ViBE. These services may provide the capabilities required to bring hardware online, establish a chain of trust in a new region, and deploy the remaining services in a new region. Utilizing a virtual bootstrap environment may prevent circular dependencies between boot resources by utilizing the resources of the host region. Services may be prepared and tested in ViBE before a physical region (e.g., a target region) is available.

[0354] For example, in some embodiments, Realm B 1812 may create a ViBE within its realm, where the ViBE shares identity and trust profile information with Realm A 1802. The ViBE in Realm B 1812 may then be used to bootstrap new areas in Realm A 1802. Further details related to ViBE are described in the following applications, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes:

[0355] (1) U.S. Nonprovisional Application No. 18 / 105,779, filed on February 3, 2023, entitled “VIRTUAL BOOTSTRAP ENVIRONMENT FOR BUILDING REGIONAL DATA CENTERS”;

[0356] (2) U.S. Nonprovisional Application No. 18 / 105,768, filed on February 3, 2023, entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR AVIRTUAL BOOTSTRAPENVIRONMENT IN A DISTRIBUTED VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK”; and

[0357] (3) U.S. nonprovisional application No. 18 / 105,779, filed on February 3, 2023, entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR MIGRATING SERVICES FROMA VIRTUAL BOOTSTRAP ENVIRONMENT.”

[0358] Fig.18 The architecture depicted in can be used for different purposes, where the vPLC is hosted by one zone and one realm, but is associated with different virtual zones and different virtual realms. Fig.18 In the example depicted in , vPLC 1818 can be used as a backup for data center 1806. This allows for backups for disaster recovery (DR) in different geographic locations. For example, when data center 1806 is a DRCC located at a customer's premises, the customer can ask the CSP to provide backup services for DRCC 1806. In response, the CSP can select vPLC 1818 to back up DRCC 1806, where vPLC 1818 is physically hosted in region B 1812, which is far away from region A 1802 hosting DRCC 1806 and is located in a different geographic location. This can provide a more cost-effective solution for the CSP without having to build another data center for the customer in domain A 1802 just for backup purposes. In some embodiments, the customer may not even know where the backup is performed, that is, the existence and location of vPLC 1818 may be invisible to the customer. The vPLC used for backup can be physically hosted in a cloud provided by a CSP in different domains and regions.

[0359] Since the goal of a DR site is to minimize the occurrence of correlated failures by introducing geographic separation between the primary and DR sites and avoiding simultaneous modifications to the primary and secondary locations, the DRCC 1806 can enjoy DR guarantees once the CSP can ensure that the DRCC and the paired vPLC 1818 (and by extension, its hosted area in domain B 1812) are not modified simultaneously.

[0360] Fig.19 is a flow chart 1900 illustrating an example method of creating a vPLC, in accordance with certain embodiments, where the vPLC is hosted by infrastructure provided by a CSP in a particular region in a particular domain, but is virtually associated with a different region in a different domain. Fig.19 The processing depicted in can be performed as part of the processing performed to create a vPLC. In some embodiments, Fig.19 The processing depicted in can be performed primarily by infrastructure provided by CSPs in hosting regions and domains.

[0361] Processing begins at 1902 when information is received identifying a host zone in a host domain to be physically hosted where a vPLC is to be created. Fig.18 In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 18, information may be received that a vPLC is to be created in region B 1814 in realm A 1812. The region and realm identified in 1902 represent the host region and host realm of the vPLC to be created.

[0362] At 1904, information identifying a zone in a specific realm may be received, wherein the specific realm is different from the host realm identified in 1902, wherein the zone identified in 1904 and the specific realm are to be associated as a virtual zone and a virtual realm of a vPLC to be created. Fig.18 In the embodiment depicted in , information may be received that a vPLC will be virtually associated with area A 1804 in domain A 1802 .

[0363] At 1906, identity and trust profile information is obtained for the particular realm identified in 1904. The information obtained in 1906 may include identity credentials associated with the realm that will become the virtual realm of the vPLC, including passwords, certificates, and the like.

[0364] At 1908 , a vPLC ID is generated for the vPLC to be created, wherein the vPLC ID identifies the region and specific domain identified in the information received in 1904 .

[0365] At 1910, a vPLC is created in the host domain and resources are allocated to the vPLC, wherein the allocated resources are selected from resources in the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region identified in 1902 and the domain identified in 1902. The resources may include one or more physical resources (e.g., racks, servers, routers, memory or storage resources) and / or logical resources (e.g., hypervisors, virtual machines, virtual routers). For example, for Fig.18 In the embodiment depicted in , resources are allocated from data center 1816 to the vPLC.

[0366] At 1912, the vPLC is configured using the identity and trust profile information obtained in 1906. For example, for Fig.18 In the embodiment depicted in , the vPLC may be configured using the identity and trust profile information of domain A 1802 .

[0367] At 1914, the vPLC begins communicating with the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the specific domain identified in 1904, which is the virtual domain of the vPLC. Fig.18 In the embodiment depicted in , vPLC 1818 communicates with data center 1806. The communication may be initiated by vPLC 1818 or data center 1806.

[0368] Virtual Private Cloud (vPLC) - Connectivity

[0369] At a high level, traffic (e.g., packets) received by the CSP-provided infrastructure in a region from a traffic origination point outside the infrastructure belongs to one of two categories: (1) traffic directed to one or more vPLCs created within the CSP-provided infrastructure, or (2) non-vPLC traffic (e.g., traffic associated with a non-dealer customer of the CSP). vPLC traffic can be directed to a specific vPLC corresponding to a dealer. In addition, because a dealer can have multiple customers, traffic can be directed to a specific customer of the dealer corresponding to a specific vPLC. Therefore, processing is performed to correctly identify or isolate traffic entering the CSP-provided infrastructure in the region so that the traffic is forwarded to its intended destination within the CSP-provided infrastructure in the region. More specifically, processing is performed to ensure that traffic destined for a specific customer of a dealer corresponding to a specific vPLC is correctly identified from other traffic received by the CSP-provided infrastructure in the region. In some embodiments, this is achieved by marking packets destined for the vPLC with vPLC-related information that identifies or can be used to identify the vPLC to which the packet is directed and the specific customer of the vPLC.

[0370] Accordingly, in certain embodiments, for a data packet received by an infrastructure provided by a regional CSP from an external source (external to the infrastructure provided by the regional CSP), routing the data packet to its intended destination includes: (a) determining whether the received data packet is directed to a destination associated with a vPLC; (b) upon determining that the data packet is directed to a vPLC, identifying the specific vPLC to which the data packet is directed and the specific customer of the dealer corresponding to the vPLC; (c) marking the data packet with information related to the vPLC and customer identified in (b); (d) transmitting the data packet within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region with the marked vPLC-related information; and transmitting the data packet to its intended destination (e.g., a computing instance destination). In this manner, vPLC-related information (e.g., vPLC ID) is used as part of connectivity and for routing data packets within the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0371] The vPLC-related information for a particular vPLC may include, for example, a vPLC identifier identifying the particular vPLC, an identifier identifying a customer associated with the endpoint, a virtual cloud network identifier identifying a virtual cloud network (VCN) that belongs to the particular vPLC and of which the endpoint is a part, and other vPLC-related information.

[0372] Fig. 20 is a simplified block diagram of a distributed environment 2000 including an infrastructure including one or more vPLCs provided by a CSP in a region, according to certain embodiments. Fig. 20 The distributed environment 2000 depicted in the embodiment 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 embodiments, the distributed environment 2000 may have more than Fig. 20 More or fewer systems or components than shown in the drawings may be used, two or more systems may be combined, or there may be different system configurations or arrangements. Fig. 20 The systems, subsystems, and other components depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device).

[0373] As shown, the distributed environment 2000 includes an infrastructure 2002 provided by a CSP in a region, which can be used by the CSP to provide one or more CSP-supplied cloud services to the CSP's customers. The infrastructure 2002 also includes multiple vPLCs. The CSP can create a vPLC for a specific dealer, and the vPLC can be used to provide dealer-supplied cloud services to one or more customers of the dealer. Each vPLC includes a set of physical and virtual or overlay network resources that are used to provide dealer-supplied services. Physical resources may include NVDs (e.g., implemented in the form of smartNICs or sNICs), host machines or servers, memory and storage resources, networking resources, etc. Virtual or overlay resources may include VCNs, computing instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed by one or more servers or hosts, VNICs, etc.

[0374] exist Fig. 20 In the example depicted in FIG, the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region includes two vPLCs, namely, a first vPLC 2020 created for dealer R1 and a second vPLC 2060 created for dealer R2. The vPLC 2020 can be used to provide cloud services provided by dealer R1 to one or more customers of dealer R1. The vPLC 2060 can be used to provide cloud services provided by dealer R2 to one or more customers of dealer R2.

[0375] The vPLC may include one or more virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Workloads (e.g., in the form of compute instances) belonging to or associated with the dealer's customers may be deployed on these VCNs. One or more compute instances may be deployed on each VCN. The compute instances (e.g., virtual machines) may be executed by one or more host machines or servers on a rack. Fig. 20 In the example depicted in , vPLC.R1 2020 created for dealer R1 includes two VCNs: VCN 1 2030 and VCN 2 2050. vPLC.R1 2060 created for dealer R2 includes a single VCN, namely, VCN 1 2030. VCN 1 2030 includes multiple compute instances, including compute instances 2032 and 2034. VCN 2 2050 also includes multiple compute instances, including compute instances 2052 and 2054. VCN 1 2070, which belongs to or is associated with vPLC.R2 2060, also includes multiple compute instances, including compute instances 2072 and 2074.

[0376] In some embodiments, a VCN is specifically assigned to a specific vPLC in the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. For a VCN assigned to a vPLC, the VCN is also specifically assigned to a specific customer of the reseller corresponding to the vPLC to which the VCN is assigned. In such embodiments, the VCN is not shared between vPLCs, or between the customers of the reseller for which the vPLC is created. Fig. 20 As shown in , in vPLC.R1 2020 created for reseller R1, VCN 1 2030 is created and exclusively allocated to customer C1, where C1 is a customer of reseller R1, and C1 subscribes to one or more R1-provisioned cloud services provided using vPLC.R1 2020. VCN 2 2050 is created and exclusively allocated to customer C2, where C2 is another customer of reseller R1, and C2 subscribes to one or more R1-provisioned cloud services provided using vPLC.R1 2020. For vPLC.R2 2060 created for reseller R2, VCN 1 2070 is created and exclusively allocated to customer C3, where C3 is a customer of reseller R2, and C3 subscribes to one or more R2-provisioned cloud services provided using vPLC.R2 2060.

[0377] Each VCN is identified using a VCN identifier (VCN Id). Accordingly, in embodiments where a VCN is specifically assigned to a specific vPLC and a customer of a dealer corresponding to the vPLC, given a VCN identifier, the specific vPLC to which the VCN belongs and the specific customer of the dealer to which the VCN is assigned can be identified. In some embodiments, infrastructure 2002 stores VCN mapping information 2016, which includes information identifying a set of VCN identifiers corresponding to VCNs created in infrastructure 2002 provided by a CSP in a region. For each VCN identifier identifying a VCN, VCN mapping information 2016 may include information identifying (1) a vPLC identifier identifying the vPLC to which the VCN belongs, and (2) a customer identifier identifying the customer to which the VCN belongs, where the customer is a customer of the dealer for which the vPLC was created (i.e., the dealer corresponding to the vPLC).

[0378] VCN mapping information 2016 can be used for various purposes. Given a VCN identifier, VCN mapping information 2016 can be used to determine: (1) a vPLC identifier mapped to the VCN identifier, where the vPLC identifier identifies the vPLC to which the VCN identified by the VCN identifier belongs; and (2) a customer identifier mapped to the VCN identifier, where the customer identifier identifies a customer of the dealer corresponding to the vPLC to which the VCN belongs.

[0379] As described above, a VCN may include one or more compute instances deployed or connected to the VCN. Each of these compute instances has an associated overlay address that can be used to communicate with the compute instance. For a VCN created in an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, information that maps an overlay address of a compute instance to a corresponding VCN to which the compute instance is connected may be stored. For an overlay address associated with a compute instance, the mapping information may include information identifying a VCN identifier that identifies the VCN to which the compute instance belongs. Given an overlay address of a compute instance, the mapping information may be used to determine a specific VCN to which the compute instance corresponding to the overlay address is connected.

[0380] In some embodiments, the mapping information of overlay addresses to VCNs may be stored as part of VCN mapping information 2016. As previously described, VCN mapping information 2016 stores information identifying a set of VCN identifiers corresponding to VCNs created in infrastructure 2002 provided by a CSP in a region, and for each VCN identifier identifying a VCN, stores information identifying (1) a vPLC identifier identifying a vPLC to which the VCN belongs, and (2) a customer identifier identifying a customer to which the VCN belongs, wherein the customer is a customer of a reseller for which the vPLC is created (i.e., a reseller corresponding to the vPLC). In addition, the information of VCN mapping information 2016 may include information associating a VCN identifier with one or more overlay addresses of a computing instance belonging to the VCN identified by the VCN identifier. Given an overlay address corresponding to a compute instance, VCN mapping information 2016 can be used to: (1) identify the VCN that contains the compute instance, (2) identify the vPLC that includes the identified VCN (i.e., the vPLC to which the VCN belongs), and (3) identify the customer of the reseller to which the compute instance and VCN are assigned (i.e., the customer to which the compute instance and VCN belong).

[0381] Compute instances are associated with VNICs, which provide virtual network interfaces for compute instances and enable compute instances to be part of or connected to a VCN. VNICs can be implemented or executed by NVD. Fig. 20 , for vPLC.R1 2020, compute instances 2032, 2034, 2052, and 2054 are associated with VNICs 2042, 2044, 2062, and 2064, respectively. VNICs 2042 and 2044 are implemented by NVD 2040, and VNICs 2062 and 2064 are implemented by NVD 2060. For vPLC.R2 2060, compute instances 2072 and 2074 are associated with VNICs 2082 and 2084, respectively. VNICs 2082 and 2084 are implemented by NVD 2080.

[0382] exist Fig. 20 In the example depicted in , for a compute instance in a particular VCN belonging to a vPLC, the VNICs associated with the compute instance are implemented by the same NVD. For example, VNICs 2042 and 2044 associated with compute instances 2032 and 2034 in VCN 1 2030 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 are implemented (or executed) by NVD 2040. However, this is not intended to be limiting. In some other embodiments, VNICs associated with compute instances in a VCN may be implemented by different NVDs. In some implementations, an NVD may implement VNICs associated with compute instances belonging to different VCNs or even different vPLCs.

[0383] In some embodiments, one or more NVDs are specifically assigned to and associated with a vPLC. In such embodiments, for an NVD specifically assigned to a particular vPLC, the NVD implements only the VNICs associated with the compute instances belonging to that particular vPLC. The compute instances themselves can be deployed on one or more VCNs associated with a particular vPLC.

[0384] In yet other embodiments, NVDs may be specifically assigned to a particular vPLC and a particular customer of the dealer corresponding to that particular vPLC. In such embodiments, each customer of the dealer has its own NVD or NVDs. This is done to ensure traffic isolation between the dealer's customers. In a hybrid scenario, some of the dealer's customers may have their own dedicated NVDs, while other customers of the dealer may share NVDs.

[0385] In still other embodiments, NVDs may be assigned specifically to a particular vPLC and a particular VCN within that particular vPLC.A combination of the various NVD assignment embodiments may be used.

[0386] In still other embodiments, the NVD may be specifically assigned to a specific vPLC and a specific VCN within the vPLC. In embodiments where a VCN within a vPLC is specifically assigned to a specific customer of the dealer for which the vPLC was created, specifically assigning the NVD to a specific vPLC and a specific VCN within the vPLC is equivalent to specifically assigning the NVD to a customer specifically associated with the VCN.

[0387] The CSP-provided infrastructure 2002 in the region may include one or more gateways 2004. The gateways 2004 represent entry and exit points for traffic entering and leaving the CSP-provided infrastructure 2002 in the region. In the ingress direction, packets originating from sources outside the infrastructure 2002 and directed to destinations within the infrastructure 2002 are received by the ingress gateway 2004. The received packets are then routed within the CSP-provided infrastructure 2002 in the region so that the packets are received by their intended destinations. In the egress direction, packets originating from sources within the infrastructure 2002 and directed to destinations outside the CSP-provided infrastructure 2002 in the region are routed internally within the infrastructure 2002 and received by the egress gateway 2004. The egress gateway then forwards the packets from the CSP-provided infrastructure 2002 in the region to facilitate delivery of the packets to their intended destinations outside the infrastructure 2002. The gateway may be configured as an ingress gateway, an egress gateway, or both an ingress and egress gateway. The infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region may include a communication network 2014 for facilitating communication of packets between the gateway 2004 and the vPLC.

[0388] The gateway 2004 may include different types of gateways. For example, the gateway may include a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) 2008, which is configured to facilitate traffic communication between the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region and the endpoints in the customer's on-premises network 2012. In some embodiments, the DRG may be added to or associated with a customer VCN belonging to the vPLC, and provide a path for private network traffic communication between the customer VCN and another endpoint, where the other endpoint may be located in the customer's on-premises network. The customer's on-premises network may be a customer enterprise network, or may be a customer data center built using the customer's resources. This allows the customer to extend the customer's on-premises network to enable it to communicate with the VCN implemented in the cloud using the infrastructure provided by the CSP. For example, the DRG may be associated with the VCN 2030 in the vPLC.R1 2020, and enable communication between the on-premises or enterprise network of the customer C1 of the dealer R1 and the computing instance deployed on the VCN 2030. In order to enable such communication, a communication channel is usually set up, wherein one endpoint of the channel is located in the customer's on-premises network, and the other endpoint is located in the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region. The communication channel can be through a public communication network (such as the Internet) or a private communication network. Various different communication protocols can be used, such as IPsec VPN technology through a public communication network (such as the Internet), FastConnect technology using a private network instead of a public network, etc.

[0389] As another example, gateway 2004 may include an Internet Gateway (IGW) 2006 configured to facilitate communications between infrastructure 2002 and a public endpoint accessible via a public network 2010, such as the Internet. Using IGW 2008, communications may be initiated from a point within the infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region or from a public endpoint accessible via the Internet.

[0390] Different technologies may be used to implement the gateway 2004. The gateway may be implemented using software only, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. The gateway may be implemented as a logical or virtual or overlay network construct, such as a virtual router, which is executed by a host machine or server, a Linux device, an NVD, etc. The gateway may also be implemented as a physical network device, such as a physical router. The gateway may be dynamically configured as needed.

[0391] In some embodiments, a single gateway may be configured to facilitate communications for multiple vPLCs. In some other embodiments, a gateway may be assigned to and dedicated to a particular vPLC and configured to facilitate communications to and from endpoints belonging to that vPLC. In such embodiments, a gateway assigned to a vPLC only handles communications to and from endpoints (e.g., compute instances) belonging to that vPLC. For example, in Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , NVDs 2040 and 2060 are exclusively assigned to vPLC.R1 2020 , and NVD 2080 is exclusively assigned to vPLC.R2 2060 .

[0392] In yet other embodiments, a gateway may be dedicated to a particular vPLC and a particular customer of a distributor corresponding to a particular vPLC. In such embodiments, a gateway assigned to a vPLC only handles communications to and from endpoints (e.g., compute instances) belonging to that vPLC. Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 4 , NVD 2040 is assigned exclusively to customer C1 of dealer R1 , NVD 2060 is assigned exclusively to customer C2 of dealer R1 , and NVD 2080 is assigned exclusively to customer C3 of dealer R2 .

[0393] In some embodiments, when a vPLC is created, the vPLC is assigned its own unique public address pool. The address pool corresponds to a certain range of public addresses assigned to the vPLC. Each vPLC is assigned a unique address range. In this way, all vPLCs do not have any overlapping addresses. Gateway 2004 exposes these addresses to endpoints outside the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region so that endpoints outside the infrastructure 2002 can communicate with endpoints (e.g., computing instances) belonging to the vPLC. For example, the first vPLC can be assigned an address range of 1.0.0.0 / 16 (i.e., from "1.0.0.0" to "1.0.255.255"), the second vPLC can be assigned an address range of 1.1.0.0 / 16 (i.e., from "1.1.0.0" to "1.1.255.255"), and so on. Therefore, each vPLC will get non-overlapping address fragments. As described below, the range information is used to separate traffic between different vPLCs.

[0394] Information 2018 (referred to as vPLC to address range information) may be stored that identifies the various vPLCs created using the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region, and for each vPLC, information identifying the public address range assigned to the vPLC may be stored. Information 2018 may be in the form of a lookup table. The vPLC may be identified using its vPLC identifier (vPLC ID). When a gateway receives a packet with a specific destination address corresponding to a destination within the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region, the gateway may use information 2018 to: (1) determine whether the packet is addressed to an endpoint associated with the vPLC or to an endpoint not associated with the vPLC by checking whether the destination address is within the range identified in information 2018; and (2) for an endpoint associated with a vPLC, determine the specific address range in which the destination address is located and determine the specific vPLC corresponding to the address range. The gateway may then correctly route the packet to its intended destination.

[0395] As indicated above, a single vPLC may be assigned a unique public address range. In some embodiments, at the vPLC level, from the address range assigned to the vPLC, a unique address sub-range may be assigned to the customers of the dealer corresponding to the vPLC, wherein each customer is assigned a unique address sub-range that does not overlap with the sub-ranges of other customers of the dealer corresponding to the vPLC. In this way, each customer of the dealer obtains its own unique address range (or address fragment) from the address assigned to the vPLC. In such an embodiment, the customers of the dealer corresponding to the vPLC do not have any overlapping addresses. In such an embodiment, information 2018 may additionally include: for each vPLC, a list of the customers of the dealer corresponding to the vPLC, and for each customer, information identifying the address sub-range assigned to the customer. Customers may be identified using a customer ID. When the gateway receives a packet with a specific destination address corresponding to a destination within infrastructure 2002 provided by a CSP in the region, the gateway can use information 2018 to: (1) determine whether the packet is addressed to an endpoint associated with a vPLC or to an endpoint not associated with a vPLC by checking whether the destination address is within the range identified in information 2018; (2) for endpoints associated with a vPLC, determine (a) the specific address range in which the destination address is located and determine the specific vPLC corresponding to the address range, and (b) based on the destination address, determine the specific customer of the reseller corresponding to the identified vPLC. The gateway can then correctly route the packet to its intended destination.

[0396] In some embodiments, a DDoS (distributed denial of service) scrubber 2019 may be provided to detect DDoS attacks and take corrective or preventive measures therefor. For example, a DDoS scrubber 2019 may be used to identify attacks on a vPLC. After detecting an attack against a specific vPLC, the scrubber 2019 may initiate one or more actions to mitigate the attack. In some embodiments, a security policy may be configured for a vPLC. For example, an attack detection policy may be defined for a vPLC, which specifies or controls the detection of a DDoS attack against a vPLC. A mitigation policy may be defined for a vPLC, which specifies how to handle attacks detected against a vPLC. A mitigation policy may identify one or more mitigation actions to be initiated when an attack is detected. The security policy of a vPLC (including any detection and mitigation policies) may be configured and customized by a dealer for whom the vPLC is created. In some embodiments, a CSP may also specify some security policies for a vPLC. These policies may also be customizable by dealers for their respective vPLCs.

[0397] Data packets can be delivered over infrastructure provided by regional CSPs (such as Fig. 20 A packet traverses various different paths within the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region depicted in FIG. 2 . The path traversed by the packet can depend on, among other things, the source of the packet and the intended destination of the packet. Examples of these paths include: (1) a packet is received that originates from a source outside of infrastructure 2002 and whose destination is a compute instance in a VCN belonging to a specific vPLC; (2) a packet originates from a compute instance in a VCN belonging to a specific vPLC and whose destination is an endpoint outside of infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region; (3) a packet originates from a compute instance in a VCN belonging to a specific vPLC and whose destination is a compute instance in the same or a different vPLC. Fig.21 , 22 Further details of the processing performed to route packets are described in and 23 and the accompanying instructions.

[0398] Fig.21 An example flow chart 2100 depicting a method for routing packets originating from a source outside of the infrastructure provided by a regional CSP and destined for an endpoint belonging to a vPLC is illustrated in accordance with certain embodiments. Fig.21 The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Fig.21 The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Fig.21 Various processing steps are depicted as occurring in a particular order or sequence, but this is not meant to be limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the processing may be performed in a different order, or some steps may be performed in parallel. It should be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, Fig.21 The processing described in may include Fig.21 There may be more or fewer steps than those depicted in the example.

[0399] When a packet originating from a source outside of the infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region is received at a gateway within the infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region, processing is initiated at 2102. For example, Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , IGW 2006 can receive a data packet from an endpoint accessible via public network 2010. As another example, DRG 2008 can receive a data packet from an endpoint in on-premises network 2012.

[0400] At 2104, the gateway receiving the data packet determines that the destination of the received data packet is a computing instance belonging to a specific vPLC. In 2104, there are different ways to identify the specific vPLC. According to a first technique, the processing performed in 2104 includes: (1) determining the destination address from the header of the received data packet, (2) determining the specific address range in which the destination address is located from multiple address ranges associated with the vPLC; (3) determining the vPLC associated with the determined specific address range, and (4) identifying the vPLC as the specific vPLC in 2104. Accordingly, in this technique, the specific vPLC is identified based on the public address range assigned to each vPLC.

[0401] The data packet received in 2102 may include a header including a plurality of fields. These fields may include, for example, the following fields:

[0402] (1) Source address field, where the address of the sender of the data packet (e.g., IP address) is entered;

[0403] (2) Destination Address field, in which the address (e.g., IP address) of the intended destination endpoint (e.g., destination computing instance) of the packet is entered. If the destination is an endpoint in an overlay network, then the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the endpoint is entered in this field. For example, if the destination is Fig. 20 If you are using compute instance 2032 in , enter the overlay public IP address of compute instance 2032 in this field.

[0404] (3) a protocol field, in which information identifying a communication protocol (e.g., TCP) is entered;

[0405] (4) a source port field, in which information identifying the port associated with the sender of the data packet is entered; and

[0406] (5) A destination port field, in which information identifying the port associated with the destination endpoint of the data packet is entered.

[0407] In some embodiments, the vPLC to address range information facilitates the processing performed in 2104 to identify a particular destination vPLC. Fig. 20 In the example embodiment, upon receiving a data packet from a public network endpoint, IGW 2006 can determine the destination address of the received data packet from the destination address field in the header of the received data packet. IGW 2006 can then use vPLC address range information 2018 to identify the specific address range in which the destination address is located. IGW 2006 can then determine the specific vPLC associated with the identified specific address range.

[0408] As discussed above, in some embodiments, separate dedicated gateways may be provided for separate vPLCs. In such embodiments, another technique is that when a packet is directed to an endpoint belonging to a specific vPLC using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the packet is routed to a specific dedicated gateway assigned to the specific vPLC. The vPLC to which the receiving gateway is dedicated is identified as the specific vPLC in 2104.

[0409] At 2106, the gateway receiving the data packet determines that the destination of the received data packet is a computing instance belonging to a specific customer of the reseller corresponding to the specific vPLC identified in 2104. There are different ways to identify the specific customer in 2104. Once the destination address and the corresponding vPLC allocated address range are known in 2104, the processing in 2106 involves identifying a specific sub-address range that contains the destination address from the sub-ranges allocated to the reseller's customers. The customer corresponding to the specific sub-address range is then identified as the specific customer in 2106. In some embodiments, vPLC to address range information 2018 can be used to identify the specific customer.

[0410] Although Fig.21 2104 and 2106 are shown as two separate processing steps in flowchart 2100 in FIG. 2 , but this is not intended to be limiting. The processing performed in the two steps can be performed as one step, where the destination address in the header of the received data packet is determined, and then the vPLC address range information 2018 is used to determine the specific vPLC that includes the computing instance corresponding to the destination address and the specific customer to which the computing instance belongs.

[0411] At 2108, the gateway adds an encapsulation header to the received data packet to create an encapsulated data packet, wherein the encapsulation header includes, among other information, information related to the specific vPLC identified in 2104 and / or the specific customer identified in 2106. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. In some implementations, the encapsulated header may include one or more fields, including a "vPLC field" for storing information identifying the specific vPLC determined in 2104 and a "customer field" for storing information identifying the specific customer identified in 2106.

[0412] For example, in some embodiments, the encapsulation header may include the following fields, and as part of the processing performed at 2108 information may be entered in each field as follows:

[0413] (1) Source Base Address field - Enter the base IP address associated with the receiving gateway in this field. If the gateway is implemented as a virtual router, then enter the base IP address of the NVD that implements the VNIC associated with the virtual router in this field. If the gateway is implemented as a physical router, then enter the base IP address of the router in this field.

[0414] (2) Destination Base Address field - This field contains the base IP address of the NVD implementing the VNIC associated with the compute instance corresponding to the destination address determined in 2104. For example, if the destination of the received packet is the compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020, then this field contains the base IP address of NVD 2040. As another example, if the destination of the received packet is the compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060, then this field contains the base IP address of NVD 2080.

[0415] (3) Destination VNIC Identifier Field - A VNIC identifier is entered in this field that identifies the VNIC associated with the compute instance corresponding to the destination address determined in 2104. For example, if the destination of the received packet is compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020, then the VNIC identifier of VNIC 2042 is entered in this field. As another example, if the destination of the received packet is compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060, then the VNIC identifier of VNIC 2082 is entered in this field.

[0416] (4) One or more destination vPLC related fields - fields that store information related to the destination vPLC. The information entered in these fields may specifically identify the destination vPLC (e.g., using a vPLC ID), customer, etc., or may include information that can be used to determine the destination vPLC, customer, and other information. Examples of fields include:

[0417] (a) a "vPLC field" for storing information, such as a vPLC identifier identifying the specific vPLC determined in 2104 may be entered in this field, and

[0418] (b) "Customer fields" for storing information, such as a customer identifier, for identifying the specific customer identified in 2106. In the event that the packet is not directed to a vPLC-associated endpoint, these vPLC-related fields may be left blank or marked as not applicable.

[0419] In some other embodiments, as an alternative or in addition to the vPLC and customer fields, the vPLC-related fields in the encapsulation header may include a "VCN identifier field". When this field exists, a VCN identifier corresponding to the VCN including the destination address is entered in this field. The receiving gateway can use the VCN mapping information to determine the VCN including the destination address determined in 2104. As described above, the VCN mapping information can identify the VCN, and for each VCN, one or more coverage addresses of the computing instance that is part of the VCN can be identified. Accordingly, given the destination address, the gateway can use the VCN mapping information to identify the VCN identifier, which identifies the VCN including the destination address. The identified VCN identifier is then entered into the VCN identifier field. In an embodiment using a "VCN identifier field" instead of a "vPLC field" and a "customer field" field, a single field of the header can be used instead of multiple fields to efficiently transmit vPLC related information.

[0420] The fields in the encapsulation header described in this disclosure are merely examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. In alternative embodiments, the encapsulation header may include more or fewer fields than those described in this disclosure. For example, in some embodiments, the encapsulation header may also include a field for specifying a rental identifier associated with a dealer.

[0421] At 2110, using the encapsulation header, the encapsulated data packet is transmitted from the gateway to the NVD, which implements the VNIC associated with the computing instance that is the intended destination of the data packet (i.e., the computing instance is associated with the destination address determined in 2104). A variety of different communication protocols can be used to facilitate such communication. In some embodiments, the encapsulated data packet is transmitted from the receiving gateway using a tunneling protocol. A variety of different tunneling protocols can be used, such as GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), etc.

[0422] At 2112, the NVD implementing the VNIC associated with the destination computing instance receives the encapsulated data packet. For example, if the destination of the received data packet is the computing instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R12020, then at 2112, the NVD 2040 implementing or executing the VNIC 2042 associated with the computing instance 2032 receives the encapsulated data packet.

[0423] At 2114, the NVD receiving the encapsulated data packet decapsulates the encapsulated data packet by removing the encapsulated header added to the data packet in 2110 to create a decapsulated data packet. The VNIC information contained in the encapsulation header is used to identify the VNIC to be used to route the data packet. The encapsulated header also includes information identifying a specific vPLC and a specific customer. In embodiments where the encapsulation header includes VCN identification information, this information can be used to determine the identity of the vPLC and customer corresponding to the VCN.

[0424] At 2116, using information contained in the header of the decapsulated packet, the packet is forwarded from the NVD to a destination compute instance belonging to the specific vPLC determined in 2104 and the specific customer determined in 2106. Processing in 2116 may include transmitting the decapsulated packet from the NVD to a host machine or server executing the destination compute instance, and then the packet is forwarded to the destination compute instance.

[0425] In the manner described above, upon receiving a data packet directed to an endpoint belonging to a vPLC, the data packet is marked with vPLC related information. The marked information may be in the form of vPLC related information contained in an encapsulated header added to the data packet. The vPLC related information may identify a specific vPLC associated with the destination endpoint and / or a specific customer of the dealer. In some other embodiments, the vPLC related information may include a VCN identifier that identifies the VCN that includes the endpoint. Marking vPLC-associated traffic with vPLC related information has a variety of technical advantages, as described in more detail below.

[0426] Compute instances belonging to or associated with a particular vPLC and associated with a particular customer of a reseller corresponding to the particular vPLC may be destinations for packets originating from different sources. These sources may include, for example: sources outside the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region; compute instances within the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region but not associated with any vPLC; compute instances in a vPLC different from the particular vPLC; compute instances in the same vPLC but belonging to a different customer of the reseller; compute instances belonging to the same particular vPLC and associated with the same particular customer but in a different VCN from the compute instance receiving the packet; compute instances belonging to the same particular vPLC and associated with the same particular customer and in the same VCN as the compute instance receiving the packet; and other sources.

[0427] Fig. 22 An example flow chart 2200 depicting a method for routing packets originating from within a vPLC in a source outside of the infrastructure provided by a regional CSP and destined for an endpoint outside of the infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region is illustrated in accordance with certain embodiments. Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , a data packet may originate from a compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 and may be destined for a destination endpoint outside of the infrastructure 2002 provided by the CSP in the region. Fig. 22 The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Fig. 22 The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Fig. 22 Various processing steps are depicted as occurring in a particular order or sequence, but this is not limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the processing may be performed in a different order, or some steps may be performed in parallel. It should be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, Fig. 22 The processing described in may include Fig. 22 There may be more or fewer steps than those depicted in the example.

[0428] When a packet originates from a source compute instance belonging to a vPLC, processing may be triggered in 2202. The destination of the packet may be set to an endpoint outside of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. Fig. 20 In , a data packet may originate from a computing instance 2032 and may have a destination endpoint in a public network 2010. The data packet may have a header including a plurality of fields, and information may be entered in these fields as follows:

[0429] (1) Source Address field - Enter the address (e.g., IP address) of the sender of the packet here. If the source compute instance is in an overlay network, enter the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the source compute instance in this field. For example, if the source compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2032 is depicted in FIG, then enter the overlay public IP address of the compute instance 2032 in this field;

[0430] (2) Destination Address Field - Enter the address (e.g., IP address) of the intended destination endpoint of the packet here. If the destination is an endpoint in an overlay network, then enter the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the endpoint in this field.

[0431] (3) Protocol field - Enter information identifying the communication protocol (e.g., TCP) in this field;

[0432] (4) Source Port field - enter information identifying the port associated with the sender of the packet. For example, if the source of the packet is computing instance 2032, then enter the port associated with computing instance 2032 in this field; and

[0433] (5) Destination Port Field - Enter information identifying the port associated with the destination endpoint of the packet in this field.

[0434] At 2202, the NVD of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance receives the packet. For example, if the source of the packet is the compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020, then at 2202, the NVD 2040 of the VNIC 2042 associated with the compute instance 2032 receives the packet at 2202.

[0435] At 2204, the NVD receiving the packet determines that the destination of the received packet is an endpoint outside of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. As part of the processing at 2204, the NVD may: (1) determine the destination address inserted into the destination address field of the header of the received packet, (2) determine that the destination address is an endpoint outside of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

[0436] At 2206, the NVD determines a gateway for the CSP-provided infrastructure in the region to be used to egress the data packet from the CSP-provided infrastructure.

[0437] At 2208, the NVD adds an encapsulation header to the received data packet to create an encapsulated data packet, wherein the encapsulation header includes, among other information, information for routing the encapsulated data packet from the NVD to the gateway determined in 2206. In some embodiments, the encapsulated header may include the following fields with the following input information:

[0438] (1) Source Base Address Field - Enter the base IP address of the NVD that received the packet in 2202 in this field. For example, if the source compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2032 is depicted in FIG. 2040 , then enter the base IP address of the NVD 2040 in this field.

[0439] (2) Destination Base Address field - Enter here the base IP address of the gateway determined in 2206. If the gateway is implemented as a virtual router, then enter in this field the base IP address of the NVD that implements the VNIC associated with the virtual router. If the gateway is implemented as a physical router, then enter the base IP address of the router in this field.

[0440] (3) Destination VNIC Identifier field - If the gateway is implemented as a virtual router, then information identifying the VNIC associated with the virtual router is entered here.

[0441] (4) One or more destination vPLC related fields - Since the destination endpoint does not belong to any vPLC, these vPLC related fields can be left blank or marked as not applicable.

[0442] At 2210, the encapsulated data packet is transmitted from the NVD to the gateway identified in 2206 using the encapsulation header added in 2208. A variety of different communication protocols may be used to facilitate such communication. In some embodiments, the encapsulated data packet is transmitted using a tunneling protocol, such as GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), etc.

[0443] At 2212, the gateway receives the encapsulated data packet. At 2214, the gateway decapsulates the encapsulated data packet by removing the encapsulated header added to the data packet in 2208 to create a decapsulated data packet.

[0444] At 2216, using the information contained in the header of the decapsulated packet (the header of the packet was described above with respect to 2201), the gateway forwards the packet out of the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region to facilitate delivery of the packet to its intended destination.

[0445] Fig.23 An example flow chart 2300 is illustrated depicting a method for routing packets between vPLCs in an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region according to certain embodiments. Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , a data packet may originate from a compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 and the destination may be a compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060 in the infrastructure 2002 provided by a CSP in the region. Fig.23 The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Fig.23 The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Fig.23 Various processing steps are depicted as occurring in a particular order or sequence, but this is not limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the processing may be performed in a different order, or some steps may be performed in parallel. It should be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, Fig.23 The processing described in may include Fig.23 There may be more or fewer steps than those depicted in the example.

[0446] When a data packet originates from a source computing instance belonging to a first vPLC, processing may be triggered in 2302. The destination of the data packet may be set to a computing instance in a second vPLC in an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region, where the second vPLC is different from the first vPLC. Fig. 20 , a data packet may originate from a compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 , and a destination endpoint of the data packet may be a compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060 .

[0447] A data packet may have a header including multiple fields, and information may be entered in these fields as follows:

[0448] (1) Source Address field - Enter the address (e.g., IP address) of the sender of the packet here. If the source compute instance is in an overlay network, enter the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the source compute instance in this field. For example, if the source compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2032 is depicted in FIG, then enter the overlay public IP address of the compute instance 2032 in this field;

[0449] (2) Destination Address Field - Enter the address (e.g., IP address) of the intended destination endpoint of the packet here. If the destination is an endpoint in an overlay network, then enter the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the endpoint in this field. For example, if the destination compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2072 is depicted in FIG, then enter the overlay public IP address of the compute instance 2072 in this field;

[0450] (3) Protocol field - Enter information identifying the communication protocol (e.g., TCP) in this field;

[0451] (4) Source Port field - enter information identifying the port associated with the sender of the packet. For example, if the source of the packet is computing instance 2032, then enter the port associated with computing instance 2032 in this field;

[0452] (5) Destination Port Field - Enter information identifying the port associated with the destination endpoint of the data packet in this field. For example, if the destination of the data packet is computing instance 2072, then enter the port associated with computing instance 2072 in this field.

[0453] At 2302, an NVD implementing a VNIC associated with a source compute instance receives the packet. Since the NVD is associated with a source, it may be referred to as a source NVD. For example, if the source of the packet is a compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020, then in 2302, an NVD 2040 implementing or executing a VNIC 2042 associated with the compute instance 2032 receives the packet in 2302.

[0454] At 2304, the source NVD determines that the destination of the received data packet is a computing instance belonging to a second vPLC in the infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region. The processing performed by the source NVD in 2304 may include: (1) determining a destination address entered in a destination address field of a header of the received data packet, (2) determining a specific address range in which the destination address is located from among a plurality of address ranges associated with the vPLC; and (3) determining a vPLC associated with the determined specific address range.

[0455] In some embodiments, the vPLC to address range information facilitates the processing performed in 2304 to identify the destination vPLC. Fig. 20 , source NVD 2040 may use vPLC address range information 2018 to determine that the destination address of the received packet is within the address range assigned to vPLC.R2 2060. vPLC.R1 2060 is then identified as the second vPLC in 2304.

[0456] At 2306, the source NVD may determine the identity of a customer associated with the destination compute instance. The customer identified in 2306 is a customer of the reseller corresponding to the destination vPLC. There are different ways to identify a particular customer in 2306. According to one technique, a particular sub-address range that includes the destination address is identified from an address range assigned to the destination vPLC and from sub-ranges assigned to customers of the reseller corresponding to the destination vPLC. The customer associated with the particular sub-address range is the customer associated with the destination compute instance. In some embodiments, the vPLC-to-address range information 2018 that identifies sub-ranges of different customers assigned to the reseller may be used to identify a particular customer associated with the destination compute instance.

[0457] Although Fig.23 In the flowchart 2300 in FIG. 2304 and 2306 are shown as two separate processing steps, but this is not intended to be limiting. The processing performed in the two steps can be performed in a single step.

[0458] At 2308, the source NVD adds an encapsulation header to the received data packet to create an encapsulated data packet, wherein the encapsulation header includes, among other information, information related to the second vPLC identified in 2304. For example, in some embodiments, the encapsulation header may include the following fields, and information may be entered in each field as part of the processing performed in 2308 as follows:

[0459] (1) Source Base Address field - Enter the base IP address of the source NVD in this field. For example, if the source compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2032 is depicted in FIG. 2040 , then enter the base IP address of the NVD 2040 in this field.

[0460] (2) Destination Base Address field - Enter the base IP address of the NVD implementing the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance (also referred to as the destination NVD because it is associated with the destination compute instance) in this field. For example, if the destination of the received packet is compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060, then enter the base IP address of the NVD 2080 implementing the VNIC 2082 associated with the destination compute instance 2072 in this field.

[0461] (3) Destination VNIC Identifier Field - Enter the VNIC identifier identifying the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance in this field. For example, if the destination of the received packet is compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060, then enter the VNIC identifier of VNIC 2082 in this field.

[0462] (4) One or more destination vPLC related fields - fields that store information related to the destination vPLC. The information entered in these fields may specifically identify the destination vPLC (e.g., using a vPLC ID), customer, etc., or may include information that can be used to determine the destination vPLC, customer, and other information. Examples of fields include:

[0463] (a) "vPLC field" - enter here the vPLCID identifying the destination vPLC (i.e., the second vPLC identified in 2304);

[0464] (b) "Customer Field" - Enter information about the customer identified in Identification 2306 here.

[0465] (c) "VCN Identifier Field" - In some embodiments, as an alternative to or in addition to the vPLC and Customer fields, the "VCN Identifier Field" is provided for storing information identifying the VCN to which the destination compute instance is connected. The source NVD can use the VCN mapping information to determine the VCN that includes the destination address read from the header of the data packet received in 2304. A VCN identifier that identifies the VCN can be entered in this field. For example, if the destination of the received data packet is the compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R22060, then the VCN identifier of VCN 2070 is entered in this field. In embodiments that use the "VCN Identifier Field" instead of the "vPLC Field" and "Customer Field" fields, a single field of the header can be used instead of using multiple fields to efficiently transmit vPLC related information.

[0466] At 2310, the encapsulated data packet created in 2308 is transmitted from the source NVD to the destination NVD using the encapsulation header. A variety of different communication protocols may be used to facilitate such communication. In some embodiments, the encapsulated data packet is transmitted using a tunneling protocol, such as GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), etc.

[0467] At 2312 , the destination NVD receives the encapsulated data packet. For example, if the destination of the received data packet is the compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060 , the encapsulated data packet is transmitted from the source NVD 2040 to the destination NVD 2080 in 2310 and is received by the destination NVD 2080 in 2312 .

[0468] At 2314, the destination NVD decapsulates the received encapsulated packet to create a decapsulated packet by removing the encapsulated header added to the packet at 2308. At 2316, using the information contained in the header of the decapsulated packet (the header of the packet has been described above with respect to 2301), the destination NVD forwards the packet to the destination compute instance.

[0469] As part of the processing in 2316, the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance is identified from the information contained in the encapsulation header. Any policies and rules associated with the VNIC are executed. The packet is then forwarded to the destination compute instance based on the policies and rules. After the rules and policies are satisfied, the packet is then forwarded from the destination NVD to the host machine or server executing the destination compute instance and then to the destination compute instance itself.

[0470] These policies may include, for example, the security and firewall rules of the distributor associated with the vPLC (e.g., the first vPLC) from which the data packet was sent, and the rules and policies associated with the destination vPLC (e.g., the second vPLC). These rules and policies can be used to control communications to and from the vPLC, such as controlling which traffic is allowed to be received or sent, who is allowed to communicate with the vPLC, etc.

[0471] In some embodiments, the policies and rules associated with a VNIC can be configurable at the vPLC level, the customer level, the VCN level, or the individual computing instance level. At the vPLC level, the dealer corresponding to the vPLC (i.e., the dealer for which the vPLC is created) can specify or configure one or more rules and policies to be associated with the vPLC. These vPLC-level policies can then be associated with each VNIC associated with the computing instance belonging to the vPLC. This enables the dealer to control how to transmit traffic to and from the vPLC created for the dealer.

[0472] At the customer level, a dealer corresponding to a vPLC can specify or configure one or more rules and policies to be associated with one or more individual customers of the vPLC. The customer-level policies are then associated with the VNICs associated with the computing instances in the vPLC belonging to the customer. The rules and policies configured for one customer may be the same or different from the rules and policies configured for another customer of the dealer. This enables dealers to control how traffic is transmitted at the individual customer level. In some embodiments, a customer may also be allowed to configure one or more rules and policies for the customer. This allows individual customers to control how traffic is transmitted to and from the computing instances belonging to the customer.

[0473] Rules and policies may also be configured at the VCN level. As previously described, a VCN may be specifically assigned to a particular vPLC, and may also be specifically assigned to a particular customer of a reseller corresponding to a vPLC. In such an embodiment, one or more rules and policies may be configured for a VCN associated with a customer of the reseller. These rules and policies are then applied to various computing instances that are part of the VCN, and may control the delivery of traffic to and from the VCN. Rules and policies may be configured, for example, by a customer or a reseller.

[0474] Policies and rules can also be configured for individual compute instances or collections of compute instances. Rules or policies configured for a compute instance apply to that compute instance and can control the flow of traffic to and from the compute instance. These policies and rules can be configured by a reseller or a reseller's customers.

[0475] For example, if the source compute instance is compute instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020, and the destination compute instance is compute instance 2072 belonging to vPLC.R2 2060, then the encapsulated packet is transmitted from NVD 2080 to compute instance 2072. At the destination NVD 2080, the VNIC-related information contained in the encapsulation header can be used to identify the VNIC 2082 associated with the destination compute instance 2072. Then, any rules and policies specified for VNIC 2082 can be identified and applied as part of the processing in 2316. Then, the packet can be transmitted to the destination compute instance 2072 after executing these rules and policies. If any rules or policies prohibit the transmission of the packet to the compute instance 2072, then the packet can be dropped and not forwarded to the compute instance 2072.

[0476] Fig.24 An example flow chart 2400 is illustrated depicting a method for routing packets between compute instances in the same vPLC (e.g., intra-vPLC communications) in infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region according to certain embodiments. Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , a data packet may originate from a computing instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 and customer C1, and the destination may be a computing instance 2034 also belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 and customer C1. As another example, in Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , a data packet may originate from a compute instance 2052 of vPLC.R1 2020 belonging to customer C1 and may be destined for a compute instance 2052 of a different customer C2 that also belongs to vPLC.R1 2020 but belongs to reseller R1.

[0477] Fig.24 The processes depicted in the can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Fig.24 The methods presented in and described below are intended to be illustrative and non-limiting. Fig.24 Various processing steps are depicted as occurring in a particular order or sequence, but this is not meant to be limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the processing may be performed in a somewhat different order, or some steps may be performed in parallel. It should be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, Fig.24 The processing described in the Fig.24 There may be more or fewer steps than those depicted in the example.

[0478] When a data packet originates from a source computing instance belonging to a vPLC, processing may be triggered in 2402. The destination of the data packet may be set to a computing instance in the same vPLC as the source computing instance. Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , a data packet may originate from a computing instance 2032 belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 and customer C1, and the destination may be a computing instance 2034 also belonging to vPLC.R1 2020 and customer C1. As another example, in Fig. 20 In the embodiment depicted in , a data packet may originate from a compute instance 2052 of vPLC.R1 2020 belonging to customer C1 and may be destined for a compute instance 2052 of a different customer C2 that also belongs to vPLC.R1 2020 but belongs to reseller R1.

[0479] A data packet may have a header including multiple fields, and information may be entered in these fields as follows:

[0480] (1) Source Address field - Enter the address (e.g., IP address) of the sender of the packet here. If the source compute instance is in an overlay network, enter the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the source compute instance in this field. For example, if the source compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2032 is depicted in FIG, then enter the overlay public IP address of the compute instance 2032 in this field;

[0481] (2) Destination Address Field - Enter the address (e.g., IP address) of the intended destination endpoint of the packet here. If the destination is an endpoint in an overlay network, then enter the overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) of the endpoint in this field. For example, if the destination compute instance is Fig. 20 , then enter the overlay public IP address of compute instance 2072 in this field. As another example, if the destination compute instance is Fig. 20 If the compute instance 2052 is depicted in FIG, then enter the overlay public IP address of the compute instance 2052 in this field;

[0482] (3) Protocol field - Enter information identifying the communication protocol (e.g., TCP) in this field;

[0483] (4) Source Port field - enter information identifying the port associated with the sender of the packet. For example, if the source of the packet is computing instance 2032, then enter the port associated with computing instance 2032 in this field;

[0484] (5) Destination Port field - Enter information identifying the port associated with the destination endpoint of the data packet in this field. For example, if the destination of the data packet is computing instance 2034 (or computing instance 2052), then en...

Claims

1. A method comprising: receiving a data packet at a first component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region; determining, by the first component, that the destination of the packet is an endpoint associated with a first virtual private label cloud (vPLC), the first vPLC being created for a first reseller using one or more resources from an infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region, the first vPLC being created to provide one or more first reseller-provisioned sets of cloud services to one or more customers of the first reseller; marking, by the first component, the data packet with first vPLC related information to create a marked data packet; as well as A tagged data packet with first vPLC-related information is transmitted from the first component to a second component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region, wherein the second component is associated with the endpoint.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: One or more CSP-provided cloud services are provided to one or more customers of the CSP using a first portion of infrastructure provided by the CSP in the region.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the marking comprises: creating, by the first component, an encapsulated data packet by adding an encapsulation header to the data packet; as well as The first vPLC related information is included, by the first component, in an encapsulation header. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first vPLC related information includes a first vPLC identifier that identifies the first vPLC.

5. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein determining that an endpoint associated with the first vPLC is a destination of the data packet comprises: determining a destination address contained in a header of the data packet, wherein the destination address is associated with the endpoint; as well as It is determined that the destination address falls within an address range assigned to the first vPLC.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: storing first information of a vPLC set created using infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, the vPLC set including a first vPLC, the first information including information identifying, for each vPLC in the vPLC set, an address range assigned to the vPLC; and Wherein determining that the destination address falls within the address range allocated to the first vPLC includes: identifying within which specific address range the destination address is located using the first information; and The first information is used to determine that the specific address range is allocated to the first vPLC.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: determining, by the first component, that the endpoint is associated with a first customer of a first dealer; and The first vPLC related information includes an identifier for identifying the first customer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that the endpoint is associated with a first customer of a first dealer comprises: determining a destination address contained in a header of the data packet, wherein the destination address is associated with the endpoint; as well as It is determined that the destination address falls within a sub-range of addresses assigned to a first customer of the first dealer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: storing first information of a set of vPLCs created using infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region, the set of vPLCs including a first vPLC, the first information including information identifying, for each vPLC in the set of vPLCs, an address range assigned to the vPLC, the first information also including, for each of one or more customers of the first reseller, an address sub-range assigned to the customer from the address range assigned to the first vPLC; and Wherein determining that the destination address falls within the address sub-range assigned to the first customer comprises: using the first information to identify within which particular address sub-range the destination address is; as well as The first information is used to determine that the particular address sub-range is assigned to the first customer.

10. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein: The endpoint is a destination computing instance in the first vPLC; The first component is a gateway within the infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region; and The second component is a network virtualization device (NVD) that implements a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) associated with the destination compute instance.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the gateway receives the data packet from a source outside of an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region.

12. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein: The data packet originates from a source computing instance within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region; The endpoint is a destination computing instance associated with a first vPLC; The first component is an NVD that implements a VNIC associated with a source compute instance; and The second component is the NVD that implements the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein: The source compute instance is associated with a second vPLC created for a second reseller using one or more resources from an infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in the region, the second vPLC being created to provide one or more sets of cloud services provided by the second reseller to one or more customers of the second reseller.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the source computing instance is associated with the first vPLC.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the source computing instance is associated with a first customer of the first dealer and the destination computing instance is associated with a second customer of the first dealer, wherein the second customer is different from the first customer.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the source computing instance is associated with a first customer of the first dealer and the destination computing instance is associated with the first customer of the first dealer.

17. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first component is dedicated to handling traffic of the first vPLC.

18. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first vPLC-related information includes an identifier identifying a virtual cloud network (VCN) associated with the first vPLC, and wherein the endpoint is part of the VCN.

19. A system comprising: An infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region, wherein the infrastructure provided by the cloud service provider (CSP) in the region includes a first component and a second component; a set of one or more virtual private label clouds (vPLCs) created using infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in the region, the set of vPLCs including a first vPLC created for a first reseller for providing one or more sets of cloud services provisioned by the first reseller to one or more customers of the first reseller; The first component is configured as: receiving a first data packet; determining that an endpoint associated with the first vPLC is a destination for the data packet; Marking the data packet with first vPLC related information to create a marked data packet; as well as transmitting the tagged data packet with the first vPLC-related information to a second component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region, wherein the second component is associated with the endpoint; and The first vPLC related information includes at least one of the following: a first vPLC identifier identifying the first vPLC, an identifier identifying a first customer of the first dealer, or an identifier identifying a virtual cloud network to which the endpoint is connected.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause a process to be performed comprising: receiving a data packet at a first component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region; determining, by the first component, that the destination of the packet is an endpoint associated with a first virtual private label cloud (vPLC), the first vPLC being created for a first reseller using one or more resources from an infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region, the first vPLC being created to provide one or more first reseller-provisioned sets of cloud services to one or more customers of the first reseller; marking, by the first component, the data packet with first vPLC related information to create a marked data packet; as well as transmitting a tagged data packet with the first vPLC-related information from the first component to a second component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region, wherein the second component is associated with the endpoint; and The first vPLC related information includes at least one of the following: a first vPLC identifier identifying the first vPLC, an identifier identifying a first customer of the first dealer, or an identifier identifying a virtual cloud network to which the endpoint is connected.

21. A computer program product comprising computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a process comprising: receiving a data packet at a first component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in a region; determining, by the first component, that the destination of the packet is an endpoint associated with a first virtual private label cloud (vPLC), the first vPLC being created for a first reseller using one or more resources from an infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider (CSP) in a region, the first vPLC being created to provide one or more first reseller-provisioned sets of cloud services to one or more customers of the first reseller; marking, by the first component, the data packet with first vPLC related information to create a marked data packet; as well as transmitting a tagged data packet with the first vPLC-related information from the first component to a second component within an infrastructure provided by a CSP in the region, wherein the second component is associated with the endpoint; and The first vPLC related information includes at least one of the following: a first vPLC identifier identifying the first vPLC, an identifier identifying a first customer of the first dealer, or an identifier identifying a virtual cloud network to which the endpoint is connected.

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