Secure bi-directional network connectivity system between private networks

Abstract

A secure private network connectivity system (SNCS) within a cloud service provider infrastructure (CSPI) is described that provides secure private network connectivity between external resources residing in an internal deployment environment of a customer and customer resources residing in the cloud. The SNCS provides secure private bi-directional network connectivity between external resources residing in an external site representation of a customer and resources and services residing in a customer VCN in the cloud without the need for a user (e.g., an administrator) of the enterprise to explicitly configure external resources, publish routing, or setup site-to-site network connectivity. The SNCS provides high performance, scalable, and high availability site-to-site network connectivity by implementing a robust infrastructure of network elements and compute nodes for providing secure site-to-site network connectivity to handle network traffic between the customer's internal deployment environment and the CSPI.

Description

[0001] Cross - Reference to Related Applications

[0002] This application is a partial continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 373,698, filed on September 27, 2023, and claims the benefit and priority thereof. U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 373,698 is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 078,897, filed on December 9, 2022, and claims the benefit and priority thereof. U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 078,897 is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 515,093, filed on October 29, 2021, and claims the benefit and priority thereof. U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 515,093 is now U.S. Patent No. 11,558,245. The entire content of each of the above - mentioned applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. This application claims the benefit of the following applications:

[0003] (1) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 457,695, titled "SECURE NETWORK CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN SECURE NETWORKS", filed on April 6, 2023, and

[0004] (2) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 457,700, titled "OCB NETWORK SERVICE ECAR - DATA PLANE", filed on April 6, 2023, and

[0005] (3) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 434,879, titled "CLOUD BRIDGE TECHNIQUES", filed on December 22, 2022, and

[0006] (4) U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 434,846, titled "CLOUD MIGRATION TECHNIQUES", filed on December 22, 2022.

[0007] The entire content of the above - mentioned provisional applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Technical Field

[0008] This disclosure generally relates to resource integration with cloud services, and more particularly, to techniques for extending the scope of cloud services into on - premise or off - premise environments and other cloud platforms to enable migration and multi - cloud use cases. Background Art

[0009] For many years, cloud computing has been a major business for many organizations, which provides a series of online services, such as collaboration, communication, data storage and backup, user relationship management tools, etc.; basically, it covers every technical element required for operating an enterprise. Currently, there are mainly four types of cloud computing: private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud. The private cloud architecture is a cloud environment dedicated to a single user, group or organization, which can be on-premises or externally deployed. The public cloud architecture is a cloud environment dedicated to multiple users, groups or organizations, which can be on-premises or externally deployed. The hybrid cloud architecture uses both the public cloud architecture and the private cloud architecture or on-premises infrastructure. The multi-cloud architecture is a combination of clouds (private and / or public clouds) across multiple vendors. Each of these types of clouds can be configured to provide various cloud computing services, including: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS). IaaS supplies standard computing, storage and network resources based on the scale of demand. PaaS supplies software development and deployment resources. SaaS supplies software distribution to end users. iPaaS is a set of cloud services that enables users to develop, execute and manage integration processes between different applications.

[0010] The development of cloud computing has enabled organizations to use various highly scalable resources and services on demand without the need for on-premises or external deployment to construct and maintain them. However, in some organizations, the emergence of these diverse resources and services has created information technology (IT) silos because administrators need to struggle to manage and maintain each different cloud resource and / or on-premises or externally deployed resources (non-cloud resources). For example, IT silos may occur when only a group of people (e.g., a department within an organization) can access certain resources. Cloud-based integration (also known as cloud integration) unifies all different cloud resources and / or on-premises or externally deployed resources to avoid such IT silo situations. Cloud integration is a form of system integration business delivered as a cloud computing service, which solves data, processing, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and application integration. At its most basic level, cloud integration means connecting various processing, applications, systems, data repositories and other IT environments (e.g., public cloud, private cloud, on-premises infrastructure, etc.) - whether in a hybrid cloud deployment or in a multi-cloud deployment - so that they can operate as a single, cohesive IT infrastructure for the organization. Without a cloud integration solution, administrators need to perform each integration task manually individually - this process is time-consuming and increases the chance of errors.

[0011] To take advantage of the many benefits provided by cloud services, enterprises typically need to migrate on-premises applications and data from their local data centers to public cloud infrastructure. This process often requires enterprises to establish a site-to-site network connection to create secure connectivity between their on-premises data centers and the cloud infrastructure. Configuring a high-performance, scalable, and highly available site-to-site network connection to handle network traffic between different networks can be a complex and time-consuming task for enterprises, especially when their on-premises applications and data scale across multiple different networks. Summary of the Invention

[0012] Techniques are provided herein for secure two-way network connectivity between private networks (e.g., methods, systems, non-transitory computer-readable media storing code or instructions executable by one or more processors). One aspect relates to a method. The method includes: registering, by a computing system, an external resource residing in an on-premises network as an external endpoint in a virtual cloud network (VCN); receiving a user wallet in the on-premises network, the user wallet including at least one trusted certificate; creating, in the VCN, an external resource representation for the external endpoint, the creating of the external resource representation including creating a virtual network interface card (VNIC); establishing a connection between a logical interface provisioned for the external resource and the VNIC via at least one intermediate container; and creating, at least in part based on the user wallet, a VCN wallet in each intermediate container and in the VCN. In some embodiments, accessing the external resource via the external resource representation is enabled via information included in each of the user wallet and the VCN wallet.

[0013] In some embodiments, the VCN wallet includes at least a VCN server wallet and a VCN client wallet. In some embodiments, the VCN server wallet is accessible by at least one intermediate container. In some embodiments, the VCN client wallet is accessible by the VNIC. In some embodiments, at least one intermediate container resides on a data plane VCN.

[0014] In some embodiments, at least one intermediate container includes a first container for communicatingly coupling with the on-premises network via a first tunnel shard. In some embodiments, the first container can be communicatively coupled with the on-premises network via the first tunnel shard and a public communication network. In some embodiments, at least one intermediate container includes a second container that can be communicatively coupled with the VCN. In some embodiments, the second container includes a connection manager (“CMAN”) container that can act as a proxy server to redirect packets received by the CMAN container from the VCN to the on-premises network.

[0015] In some embodiments, the first container is communicatively coupled to the second container. In some embodiments, the method includes creating a private endpoint in a VCN. In some embodiments, the private endpoint is communicatively coupled to an external resource via an external resource representation. In some embodiments, the method includes storing a wallet in an on-premises network. In some embodiments, the method includes discovering an external resource via an agent operating on the external resource. In some embodiments, the method includes transmitting a request from the external resource representation to the external resource via an intermediate container. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving, at at least one intermediate container, a result corresponding to the request and transmitting, by the at least one intermediate container, the result to the external resource representation.

[0016] One aspect relates to a system. The system includes a memory containing processor-executable storage instructions, and a processor capable of executing the storage instructions to register an external resource residing in an on-premises network as an external endpoint in a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN); receive a user wallet in the on-premises network, the user wallet including at least one trusted certificate; create an external resource representation for the external endpoint in the VCN, the creation of the external resource representation including creating a Virtual Network Interface Card (VNIC); establish a connection between a logical interface provisioned for the external resource and the VNIC via at least one intermediate container; and create a VCN wallet in each intermediate container and in the VCN at least in part based on the user wallet. In some embodiments, access to the external resource via the external resource representation is enabled via information included in each of the user wallet and the VCN wallet.

[0017] In some embodiments, the VCN wallet includes at least a VCN server wallet and a VCN client wallet. In some embodiments, the VCN server wallet is accessible by at least one intermediate container. In some embodiments, the VCN client wallet is accessible by the VNIC. In some embodiments, at least one intermediate container resides on a data plane VCN, and at least one intermediate container includes a first container for communicatively coupling to the on-premises network via a first tunnel shard. In some embodiments, the first container can be communicatively coupled to the on-premises network via the first tunnel shard and a public communication network.

[0018] On the one hand, it relates to a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing multiple instructions executable by one or more processors. When the multiple instructions are executed by one or more processors, they cause the one or more processors to: register an external resource residing in an on-premises network as an external endpoint in a virtual cloud network (VCN); receive a user wallet in the on-premises network, where the user wallet includes at least one trusted certificate; create an external resource representation for the external endpoint in the VCN, and the creation of the external resource representation includes creating a virtual network interface card (VNIC); establish a connection between a logical interface provisioned for the external resource and the VNIC via at least one intermediate container; and create a VCN wallet in each intermediate container and in the VCN at least partially based on the user wallet. In some embodiments, accessing the external resource via the external resource representation is enabled by information included in each of the user wallet and the VCN wallet.

[0019] The technologies described above and below can be implemented in various ways and in various contexts. Several example implementations and contexts are provided with reference to the following drawings, as described in more detail below. However, the following implementations and contexts are only a small part of the many implementations and contexts. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 Depicts a distributed environment 100 including secure private network connectivity services within a cloud service provider infrastructure (CSPI) according to certain embodiments.

[0021] Figure 2 Depicts, according to certain embodiments, by Figure 1 Additional details of operations performed by the systems and subsystems shown in for providing secure private network connectivity between a customer's external resources residing in the customer's on-premises network and resources and services residing in the customer's VCN.

[0022] Figure 3 Depicts, according to certain embodiments, by Figure 1 An example of a process for providing secure private network connectivity performed by the systems and subsystems shown in.

[0023] Figure 4 Is a flowchart depicting the flow of network packets between an external resource residing in a customer's on-premises network and a representation of the external resource in the customer's virtual cloud network according to certain embodiments.

[0024] Figure 5 Is a flowchart depicting the flow of network packets between a representation of an external resource in a customer's virtual cloud network and an external resource residing in the customer's on-premises network according to certain embodiments.

[0025] Figure 6 is a high-level diagram showing a distributed environment of a virtual or overlay cloud network hosted by a cloud service provider infrastructure, according to certain embodiments.

[0026] Figure 7 Depicts a simplified architecture diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI, according to certain embodiments.

[0027] Figure 8 Shows an example arrangement within a CSPI where a host machine is connected to multiple network virtualization devices (NVDs), according to certain embodiments.

[0028] Figure 9 Depicts the connectivity between a host machine and an NVD for providing I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy, according to certain embodiments.

[0029] Figure 10 Depicts a simplified block diagram of a physical network provided by a CSPI, according to certain embodiments.

[0030] Figure 11A 、 11B 、11C is a high-level diagram showing a distributed environment of a cloud bridge architecture for managing and configuring remote resources that interact with cloud services, according to certain embodiments.

[0031] Figure 12 Is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a migration.

[0032] Figure 13 Is an exemplary embodiment of an architecture that may be involved in a migration.

[0033] Figure 14 Is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a system for secure network connectivity between secure networks.

[0034] Figure 15 Is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a system for secure network connectivity between secure networks.

[0035] Figure 16 Is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process for connecting a first environment and a second environment.

[0036] Figure 17 Is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a system for secure network communication between secure networks.

[0037] Figure 18 Is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process for accessing assets in a first environment via a second environment.

[0038] Figure 19is a block diagram illustrating a mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0039] Figure 20 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0040] Figure 21 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0041] Figure 22 is a block diagram illustrating another mode for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system according to at least one embodiment.

[0042] Figure 23 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system according to at least one embodiment. Detailed Description

[0043] In the following description, for purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of certain embodiments. However, it is apparent that the various embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The figures and description are not intended to be restrictive. 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.

[0044] The present disclosure generally relates to cloud-based services. More specifically, but not limited to, the present disclosure describes a secure private network connectivity service within a cloud infrastructure, the secure private network connectivity service including improved capabilities to establish secure private two-way network connectivity between external resources residing in a customer's on-premises environment and customer resources residing in the cloud.

[0045] A cloud infrastructure can provide high-performance computing, storage, and networking capabilities in a flexible overlay virtual network that runs on top of a physical underlying network and can be securely accessed from an enterprise's on-premises network. The cloud infrastructure allows enterprises to manage their cloud-based workloads in the same way they manage their on-premises workloads. Thus, enterprises can gain all the advantages of the cloud while obtaining the same control, isolation, security, and predictable performance as their on-premises network. Enterprises can build their own networks using the computing, memory, and networking resources provided by the cloud. For example, a customer can use the resources provided by the cloud to build one or more customizable private networks, called Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs). The customer can deploy one or more customer resources, such as compute instances, on these customer VCNs. Compute instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. Thus, the cloud provides an infrastructure and a set of complementary cloud services that enable enterprises (customers) to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available hosted environment.

[0046] To take advantage of the many benefits provided by cloud infrastructure, many enterprises migrate their on-premises applications and data from their local data centers to public cloud infrastructure. Migrating workloads from an enterprise's local (i.e., on-premises) data center to the cloud can be a complex and challenging process. Common challenges encountered during cloud migration include the enterprise identifying the type of migration to perform, the types of resources that need to be moved, and the data dependencies between resources. When migrating workloads, some resources (e.g., databases, applications, etc.) may need to reside in the on-premises data center for a certain period of time until they can be successfully migrated to the cloud. Certain resources (e.g., business-critical resources, resources with data portability restrictions, or resources with strict geographical requirements) may be identified as resources that are not migrated to the cloud for security reasons and remain in the on-premises data center. To enable enterprises to securely access on-premises resources from their VCN (in the cloud) and enable resources residing in their on-premises data center to securely access resources residing in the cloud, a secure private network connectivity needs to be established between the customer (enterprise)'s on-premises data center and the customer's VCN. For enterprises, setting up a secure site-to-site network connection can be a complex and time-consuming task. This typically requires the enterprise's users (e.g., administrators) to perform network policy-level management to set up a site-to-site network (e.g., VPN) connection, set up multiple configuration parameters, set up VPN components for site-to-site network connectivity (e.g., customer gateway device, target gateway device), etc.

[0047] In addition, in order to access remote assets (e.g., on-premises resources such as databases or applications) residing in its on-premises data center from its VCN using a site-to-site network connection, or in order to enable remote assets residing in its on-premises data center to securely access resources and services in the customer's VCN, the enterprise's users must perform additional tasks such as manually configuring gateway devices to perform route advertisement and network address translation so that secure connectivity between remote assets in the customer's external environment and resources in the customer's VCN can be achieved. The users must also manually configure the remote assets so that traffic (e.g., network packets) can reach the remote assets from the customer's VCN and vice versa, configure the routing table to include routes used by the site-to-site VPN connection, enable route propagation of the routing table to automatically propagate site-to-site VPN routes, update security rules, etc.

[0048] In some embodiments, a secure private network connectivity service within a cloud service provider infrastructure (CSPI) is described. The secure private network connectivity service includes improved capabilities to establish secure private bi-directional network connectivity between external resources residing in a customer's on-premises environment and customer resources residing in the cloud. The secure private network connectivity service is implemented using a secure network connectivity system (SNCS) within the cloud service provider infrastructure (CSPI). The SNCS described in this disclosure provides several technological advancements and / or improvements over conventional cloud-based network connectivity services. Using the disclosed new and improved architecture implemented by the SNCS, secure private bi-directional network connectivity can be achieved between external resources residing in a customer's external site representation and resources and services within the customer's virtual cloud network (VCN) in the cloud, without the need for an enterprise's users (e.g., administrators) to explicitly configure the external resources, advertise routes, or establish site-to-site network connectivity. The SNCS provides a high-performance, scalable, and highly available site-to-site network connection by implementing a robust infrastructure of network elements and compute nodes for providing secure site-to-site network connectivity to handle network traffic between a customer's on-premises environment and the CSPI. By using the robust infrastructure of network elements and compute nodes implemented by the SNCS, an enterprise's users can securely access their external resources from the cloud as if they were connected to any other native resource within their VCN. Additionally, the SNCS enables one or more external resources residing in a customer's on-premises network to securely reach and access resources and services residing in the customer's VCN (i.e., the cloud). Secure private bi-directional network connectivity can be achieved between external resources in a customer's external site representation and resources and services within the customer's VCN in the cloud, without the need for an enterprise's users (e.g., administrators) to explicitly configure the external resources, advertise routes, or establish site-to-site network connectivity. The systems and methods related to this disclosure are disclosed in U.S. Application No. 17 / 515,087, filed on October 29, 2021, titled "Transparent Mounting Of External Endpoints Between Private Networks" and U.S. Application No. 17 / 515,093, filed on October 29, 2021, titled "Secure Bi-Directional Network Connectivity System Between Private Networks", the entire content of each of the above applications is incorporated herein by reference.

[0049] Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1Depicts a distributed environment 100 that includes a secure private network connectivity service within a cloud service provider infrastructure (CSPI). The distributed environment 100 includes multiple systems communicatively coupled to each other via one or more communication networks. These communication networks can include public networks and private networks. Figure 1 The distributed environment 100 depicted in Figure 1 is merely an example and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. Many variations, alternatives, and modifications are possible. For example, in some implementations, Figure 1 the distributed environment depicted in Figure 1 can have more or fewer systems or components than those shown in Figure 1 Figure 1 , two or more systems can be combined, or it can have a different system configuration or arrangement.

[0050] As Figure 1 shown in the example depicted in Figure 1 , the distributed environment 100 includes a CSPI 102 that provides services and resources that customers can subscribe to. In certain embodiments, the CSPI 102 provides a secure private network connectivity service that includes the ability to provide secure two-way private network connectivity between a customer's on-premises network and a customer VCN hosted by the CSPI 102. In Figure 1 the example shown in Figure 1 , the secure private network connectivity service can be implemented by a Secure Network Connectivity System (SNCS) 104 within the CSPI 102. The secure private network connectivity service provided by the SNCS 104 enables one or more resources (also referred to herein as external resources or remote assets) residing in the customer's on-premises network to securely access resources and services residing in the customer's VCN. The secure private network connectivity service provided by the SNCS 104 also enables resources and services in the customer's VCN to securely access external resources residing in the customer's on-premises network. A customer can access external resources from within their VCN just as if they were connected to any other native resource residing in the customer's VCN. Secure access can be enabled between on-premises external resources and resources in the customer's VCN (i.e., the cloud) without the customer (e.g., an enterprise's users) having to set up complex site-to-site network connections between their on-premises network and the cloud, without the customer having to make any changes to their external resources, or without the customer having to configure the routes to be used for the site-to-site connection. Additional details of the processes performed by the SNCS 104 to enable secure two-way connectivity between external resources residing in the customer's on-premises network and resources and services of the customer in the cloud are described in detail below.

[0051] In some methods, secure two-way connectivity between external resources residing in a customer's on-premises network and the customer's resources and services in the cloud (e.g., the customer's VCN) is achieved by the SNCS 104 using a multi-phase process. In the first phase, a user associated with the customer (e.g., an administrator) can create an "external site representation" 106 of the customer's on-premises network. For example, the user can interact with the SNCS 104 via a console user interface (UI) 108 of an application executed by the user device, via an API, or via a command-line interface (CLI) executed by the user device to create the external site representation 106. The external site representation (e.g., 106) can represent a logical or virtual representation of the customer's external site (e.g., on-premises network / on-premises data center) and can be identified by an external site identifier and a tenant (customer) identifier. As an example, the external site representation 106 can represent a high-level container resource that logically represents a portion of the customer's on-premises network and a subset of one or more external resources residing in the on-premises network.

[0052] In the second phase, the user downloads the agent 112 and installs / configures the agent 112 in the external site representation 106. In some embodiments, the agent 112 can be a software application that is downloaded by the user as part of a download package provided by the SNCS 104 when the user subscribes to the secure private connectivity service provided by the SNCS 104. The agent 112 can be installed and configured by the user in the external site representation 106 via the console UI 108.

[0053] In the third phase, after the agent 112 is successfully installed in the external site representation 106, the SNCS 104 authenticates the agent 112 and orchestrates the establishment of a tenant-specific overlay network 128 for the customer. The tenant-specific overlay network 128 can represent a virtual overlay network built by the SNCS 104 on top of the physical network for each tenant (customer) that subscribes to the service provided by the SNCS. The tenant-specific overlay network 128 is used to establish secure private network connectivity between the customer's external site representation 106 and the customer's VCN 148 in the CSPI. As Figure 1As shown in the embodiments depicted, a tenant-specific overlay network 128 can include a set of distributed and horizontally scalable computing nodes that include a set of one or more tunnel hosts (also referred to herein as tunnel virtual machines), tunnel VM-1 116 and tunnel VM-2 122, and a set of one or more resource hosts (also referred to herein as resource virtual machines), resource VM-1 130 and resource VM-2 132. A host (e.g., a tunnel host or a resource host) can be composed of a set of containers (also referred to herein as shards) that are interconnected with each other in the tenant-specific overlay network 128. Tunnel VMs 116 and 122 are used to run the tunnel shards for each tenant. For example, as Figure 1 shown, tunnel VM-1 116 is used to run tunnel shard 120, and tunnel VM-2 122 is used to run tunnel shard 126 for a specific tenant / customer of CSPI. Each tunnel shard 120 or 126 is responsible for providing a secure connectivity to the customer's external site representation 106. The set of resource VMs 130 and 132 can be used to run the resource shards for each tenant. For example, as Figure 1 shown, resource VM-1 130 is used to run resource shard 136, and resource VM-2 132 is used to run resource shard 140 for a tenant / customer. The resource shards can be used to receive traffic from the customer's VCN and forward the traffic to the customer's external site representation. Figure 1 is described in detail in Figure 1 additional details of the operations performed by the tunnel shards and resource shards shown in

[0054] to provide secure connectivity between the customer's external site representation 106 and the customer's VCN 148.

[0055] After the SNCS104 sets up the tenant-specific overlay network 128 for the customer as described above, in the fourth phase, the user registers an on-premises asset (e.g., the external resource 114A) as an external endpoint in its VCN in the external site representation 106. The external resource 114A can represent an on-premises resource or asset residing in the customer's on-premises network that the customer aims to establish secure two-way connectivity with resources and services residing in its VCN, such as databases, compute instances, applications, etc. To register the external resource 114A, the user (via the console UI 108) identifies the external resource (e.g., 114A) in its VCN 148 for which secure private network connectivity is to be enabled and registers the external resource as an external endpoint in its VCN using the console UI 108 (or via an API). As part of registering the external resource, the user provides configuration information related to the external resource, such as the on-premises physical IP address associated with the external resource, the port number through which the external resource can be accessed, and the hostname (or fully qualified domain name (FQDN)) of the external resource, via the console UI or API provided by the SNCS. The user also selects in the customer's VCN the subnet in which the external endpoint for the external resource is to be created. The SNCS receives the configuration information and creates an external endpoint for the external resource in the customer's VCN. The external endpoint is identified by an IP address, a port number, and an FQDN (hostname) in the customer's VCN.

[0056] In the fifth phase, the SNCS104 then creates an external resource representation in the customer's VCN for the external endpoint (via the control plane API). In one embodiment, the creation of the external resource representation includes creating a remote mount point VNIC and assigning the IP address associated with the external endpoint to the VNIC. The SNCS then creates resource shards on the resource VM, which are capable of logically attaching the VNIC (via the worker interface) to the resource shards.

[0057] In the sixth phase, the proxy 112 downloads and reads the configuration information 156 associated with the VNIC 142 created for the external resource representation 114A in the customer's VCN 148 and copies the configuration information 156 onto the registered external resource 114A. The configuration information can include, for example, the virtual IP address of the VNIC, the fully qualified domain name associated with the compute instance associated with the VNIC, and the cloud identifier of the virtual cloud network associated with the customer. Using the configuration information 156, the proxy 112 creates / supplies a logical interface 158 for the external resource 114A. The logical interface 158 can represent a software entity composed of an IP address. In one embodiment, the proxy 112 creating or supplying the logical interface 158 includes the proxy assigning the virtual IP address assigned to the VNIC 142 created for the external resource representation to the logical interface 158.

[0058] Since the external resource 114A is supplied to the logical interface 158, and the logical interface 158 is assigned a virtual IP address corresponding to the VNIC 142 representing the external resource residing in the customer's VCN, the external resource now becomes part of the customer's VCN and can securely access resources and services in the cloud (e.g., in the customer's VCN 148) by using the secure private network connectivity service provided by the SNCS 104. For example, the external resource 114A can securely reach / access the compute instance 150 in the customer's VCN 148 or the service 152 in the customer's VCN (e.g., a streaming service or an object storage service) via its logical interface 158 by establishing a connection with the tunnel host in the SNCS 104 via the proxy 112. Similarly, a client application in the customer's VCN 148 can use the service provided by the SNCS 104 to securely access the external resource 114A in the customer's on-premises network using the VNIC representation 142 of the external resource as if they were connected to any other native resource in the customer's VCN 148. In this way, the SNCS 104 enables secure two-way connectivity between the external resources residing in the customer's on-premises network and the customer resources and services in the cloud (e.g., the customer's VCN).

[0059] Figure 2 Depicts additional details of operations performed by the Figure 1 systems and subsystems shown in to provide secure private network connectivity between customer external resources residing in the customer's on-premises network and resources and services residing in the customer's VCN. Figure 2 The systems and subsystems depicted in can be implemented using software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of a computing system, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device). Figure 2 The distributed environment 200 depicted in is merely an example and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. Many variations, alternatives, and modifications are possible. For example, in some implementations, Figure 2 the distributed environment depicted in can have more or fewer systems or components than those shown in Figure 2 , two or more systems can be combined, or can have different system configurations or arrangements. The inventors have described the Figure 2 systems in primarily based on the system architecture (SNCS) described in Invention 1 (IaaS272.1). Please read the description below Figure 2 and add / edit it if needed for more clarity.

[0060] As previouslyFigure 1 As described in, as part of the connection handling to provide secure private network connectivity between a customer's on-premises network and the customer VCN hosted by CSPI 102, a user (e.g., an administrator) associated with the customer creates an "external site representation" (e.g., 106) of the customer's on-premises network, configures a proxy (e.g., 112) in the external site representation, registers on-premises assets in the external site representation, and creates remote mount points (also referred to herein as endpoints) in the customer's VCN for the registered external resources. After successfully installing the proxy (e.g., 112) in the external site representation, the proxy 112 establishes a virtual private network (VPN) connection (also referred to herein as a VPN tunnel) with SNCS104 via a public network (e.g., the Internet 110). The VPN connection is an encrypted connection between the customer's external site representation 106 and the customer's VCN 148. In one embodiment, the VPN connection utilizes a secure tunneling protocol (e.g., the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) protocol) to establish secure private network connectivity with SNCS104 via the Internet 110. When the proxy 112 is installed in the external site representation 106, it initiates a bootstrapping process to activate itself through SNCS104 by passing information such as the compartment identifier associated with the proxy 112 and the external site representation identifier in the configuration file to SNCS104. When the proxy 112 bootstraps itself, it communicates with the control plane of the SNCS, which initiates the registration and activation processes. During the activation process, the control plane sends back all the necessary information (e.g., certificates, public IP, etc.) required for the gateway device to establish a secure tunnel connection with the VPN server. The proxy 112 then establishes secure VPN connectivity with SNCS104 by executing a VPN client program, which opens a secure VPN tunnel connection with the VPN server installed at SNCS. The secure tunnel terminates at a tunnel shard (e.g., 120) on a tunnel VM (e.g., 116) placed in SNCS104.

[0061] In Figure 1 the specific embodiment depicted in, the proxy 112 is configured with two VPN clients: VPN Client-1 206 and VPN Client-2 208, each of which is configured to establish a tunnel terminating at two different VPN servers (VPN Server-1 224 and VPN Server-2 226) executing in two different tunnel shards (Tunnel Shard-1 120 and Tunnel Shard-2 126), respectively. In Figure 2 the embodiment depicted in, each physical installation of the proxy 112 results in the establishment of two tunnels, so that if one tunnel fails, traffic (i.e., network packets) can be automatically routed through the second tunnel. Although Figure 2The specific embodiments shown depict two tunnels, but in other embodiments, the SNCS 104 can be configured to implement more than two redundant tunnels in each physical installation of the agent 112, or only a single tunnel after the agent 112 is installed.

[0062] In some embodiments, the agent 112 uses a standard exterior gateway protocol (such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)) to establish a BGP peering session with the tunnel shards 120 and 126. Using BGP, the agent 112 exchanges routing and reachability information with the tunnel shards via a common interface 220 implemented within the agent 112. As part of the configuration information required for the BGP peering session, the agent 112 injects its internal deployment IP address into its local routing table 212 (also referred to herein as the Routing Information Base (RIB)), which is received by the tunnel shards. The tunnel shards import the routing information into their local routing tables (228 and 236) after applying appropriate routing filtering policies. Routing filtering is required to ensure that a compromised agent 112 does not inject arbitrary routes into the tunnel shards. In some examples, the agent 112 additionally includes a routing manager 214. The routing manager 214 can be implemented using an open source routing manager (e.g., Zebra), which is part of a routing suite (e.g., Quagga). When the BGP peering session learns routes and imports these routes into its routing table 212, the BGP peering session performs a best path calculation and uses the routing manager 214 to add the best routes to the local kernel.

[0063] A tunnel shard (e.g., 120, 126) can consist of a group of one or more containers. In some embodiments, a tunnel shard (120 or 126) can include an outer container that can be used to establish various network interfaces that enable the tunnel shard to communicate with the agent 112 and other shards (e.g., resource shards 136 and 140) that are part of a tenant-specific overlay network 128. In Figure 2In the embodiments depicted, the network interfaces implemented within the outer shell containers in the tunnel slices can include an external site interface (esi), a tunnel interface, and a slice backend interface. For example, the network interface implemented in tunnel slice 1120 includes tunnel interface 216, external site interface 222, and slice backend interface 234. Similarly, the network interface implemented in tunnel slice 2126 includes tunnel interface 218, external site interface 223, and slice backend interface 235. The tunnel slices (e.g., 120 or 126) additionally include VPN servers (224, 226) for establishing VPN tunnels to the VPN clients (206, 208) executing in the external gateway device 112. The external site interfaces (222, 223) can be identified by a public IP known to the agent 112 on which the VPN client runs and are used to establish tunnels to the tunnel slices. When the VPN clients (e.g., 206, 208) connect to the VPN servers (224, 226), tunnel interfaces (216, 218) are created and placed in the preconfigured VPN subnets of the tunnel slices.

[0064] In some embodiments, each tunnel slice (e.g., 120, 126) can utilize the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to establish a BGP peer session between the external gateway device and the tunnel slice, and to establish a BGP peer session between the tunnel slice and the resource slice. The BGP peer sessions are used to exchange routing and reachability information with the resource slice via the slice backend interfaces (234, 235), and to exchange routing and reachability information with the external site representation 106 via the external site interfaces (222, 223). As part of the configuration information required for the BGP peer sessions, the IP addresses identifying the tenant-specific overlay network 128 are added to the routing tables 228, 236 (i.e., the routing information base (RIB)) implemented in tunnel slices 120, 126, respectively. In one embodiment, the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) technique can be used to assign IP addresses to the tenant-specific overlay network. The routing tables (228, 236) list the routes to specific network destinations (such as to the resource slices (136, 140)) and to the external site representation 106. In some cases, the routing tables (228, 236) also list the metrics (distances) associated with these routes. When a BGP peer session is established with the resource slice, the routes in the routing table are propagated to the resource slice. As Figure 2As shown, each tunnel shard (120, 126) additionally includes a routing manager (228, 240). The routing manager (228 or 240) can be implemented in a manner similar to the routing manager (214) implemented in the external gateway device 112. When BGP learns routes and imports these routes into the routing table in the tunnel shard, it performs a best path calculation and uses the routing manager to push the best routes to the external site representation 106 and the resource shards 136, 140.

[0065] The resource shards (136, 140) can consist of a group of containers. In some embodiments, the resource shards (136, 140) can include an outer container that can be used to establish virtual tunnel endpoints VTEP (242, 243) with the tunnel shards (116, 126). Each resource shard (136, 140) can use BGP to establish a peering session with the tunnel shard and exchange routing and reachability information with the tunnel shard via the virtual tunnel endpoints (242, 243). The resource shards (136, 140) additionally include a routing manager (250, 260) that is configured to perform the same functions as the routing manager (232 or 240) implemented in the tunnel shard. Each resource shard (136, 140) additionally includes a proxy server (244, 254). The proxy server (244 or 254) can be configured to accept connections from client applications 144 in the customer's VCN 148 and initiate new connections to external resources in the external site representation.

[0066] In some embodiments, for each registered external endpoint (i.e., corresponding to an external resource in the external site representation), a unique proxy server container is started and attached to the resource shard. When registering an external resource in the customer's VCN and creating a remote mount point VNIC for the registered external endpoint, the user can provide configuration information to the SNCS 104, such as the IP address of the external resource, the port number of the external resource, and the name of the external resource. This configuration information is supplied in the proxy server and used by the client application in the customer's VCN to connect to the external resource. When the SNCS successfully registers the external resource as an external endpoint in the customer's VCN, the SNCS 104 (via the control plane API) creates a VNIC and assigns the IP address associated with the external endpoint to the VNIC.

[0067] In Figure 2In the example depicted, the registered external endpoint (i.e., the external resource in the external site representation) represents the database 202 residing in the external site representation 106. The proxy servers (244, 254) listen on the virtual IP address assigned to the VNIC 206 created for the registered external endpoint 202. This ensures that the same VNIC IP cannot be used to access other registered external resources in the external site representation. When the client application 144 running in the customer's VCN receives a query to obtain information stored in the external database 202, it transmits a network packet to the VNIC IP in the customer's VCN. The network packet is received by the worker VNICs (251, 252) attached to the resource shards (136, 140). The worker VNICs are configured with the virtual IP address of the VNIC and in turn initiate a connection to the registered external resource in the external site representation via the proxy servers (244, 254). The proxy servers (244, 254) perform network address translation (NAT) to translate the virtual IP address assigned to the VNIC 206 into the real / physical IP address of the external resource 114A in the external site representation 106. The resource shards (136, 140) using the proxy servers (244, 254) initiate a connection to the proxy 112 via the tunnel shards (120, 126). The proxy 112 receives the network packet from the tunnel shards (120, 126) and in turn routes the packet to the registered external resource (i.e., the database 202) in the external site representation 106. The proxy servers (244, 254) additionally include the ability to load balance network traffic to the external resource across the tunnel shards. In some embodiments, the proxy servers (244, 254) can be configured to multiplex connections from multiple client applications onto a single connection to the external site representation.

[0068] In a similar manner, the registered external resource (i.e., the database 202) residing in the external site representation 106 can reach and securely access resources (e.g., the compute instance 150) or services (e.g., the private endpoint VNIC 152) residing in the customer's VCN. As previously described in Figure 1 the proxy 112 creates / provisions a logical interface 204 for the external resource 202. By creating a logical interface 158 for the external resource 114A and assigning the virtual IP address of the VNIC representation 206 of the database 202 to this logical interface, the database 202 (which resides in the customer's on-premises network) can securely access the compute instance 150 or service 156 (e.g., the streaming service or object storage service in CSPI) in the customer's VCN 148 via the private endpoint VNIC 142 in the customer's VCN 148 using the secure private network connectivity service provided by the SNCS 104. For example, in Figure 2In the depicted embodiment, the proxy 112 may receive a query from the database 202 for information associated with a resource (e.g., 150) in the customer's VCN. The proxy 112 then transmits a network packet corresponding to the query to the tunnel shards (120, 126). The tunnel shards in turn initiate a connection with the resource shards (136, 140). The proxy servers (244, 254) in the resource shards (136, 140) perform network address translation (NAT) to translate the real IP address of the external resource in the external site representation 106 into the virtual IP address of the VNIC representation 206 of the external resource (e.g., database 202) in the customer's VCN. The worker VNICs (251, 252) attached to the resource shards (136, 140) in turn initiate a connection with the VNIC representation 206 of the database 202 in the customer's VCN, which transmits the network packet corresponding to the query to the requested resource (e.g., 150) in the customer's VCN. In this way, the SNCS 104 ensures secure private two-way network connectivity is established between the external resources (e.g., database 202) residing in the customer's on-premises network and the resources (e.g., 150) and services (e.g., 152) in the customer's VCN (i.e., the cloud).

[0069] In some embodiments, a registered external endpoint that requires private connectivity to the customer's VCN 148 may be implemented as a service VNIC, also referred to as a "SVNIC" in the customer's VCN 148. The SVNIC may be used by the CSPI 102 with a VNIC as a Service (VNICaaS) system ( Figure 2is implemented by a VNIC (not shown in the figure), which is a service system that can represent a horizontally scalable service implemented by the CSPI 102 that can host multiple VNICs (e.g., service VNIC 254) to process and transmit traffic between virtual cloud networks. Specifically, VNICaaS is a virtual networking feature that enables a VNIC to be represented as or used as a service (i.e., an SVNIC). VNICaaS provides the functionality of a VNIC without the need for a specific SmartNIC or a host of computing instances within a virtual network to host the VNIC. Techniques for representing a registered endpoint as an SVNIC have been described in detail in U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 175,573, titled "Techniques for high performant virtual routing capabilities". The techniques described in U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 175,573 are provided only as examples and are not intended to be limiting. In alternative embodiments, various other techniques may also be used to represent registered endpoints and to process and transmit traffic between virtual cloud networks. Since an SVNIC is created for each registered external endpoint (e.g., database 202), a flexible number of workers can be configured for each SVNIC. In a specific implementation, each SVNIC may be associated with two worker VNICs (e.g., 251, 252), which are attached to different resource shards (e.g., 136, 140). The worker VNICs are passed into the resource shards and are configured with the SVNIC IP.

[0070] In Figure 2In the specific implementation depicted, a single agent 112 is installed in the external site representation 106 and is configured to establish two tunnels, such that a total of two tunnel shards need to be placed on the tunnel queue implemented by the SNCS 104. For a fixed number of tunnel shards as described in this implementation, each resource shard can be preconfigured with a fixed set of BGP peers and static Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) entries for these peers. In some methods, the BGP container on the tunnel shard can be configured with "dynamic BGP peers", where the CIDR block of the IP address can be specified from where the BGP can accept incoming connections. This CIDR block can be set to the CIDR of the tenant-specific overlay network, so that as the resource shard grows / shrinks, the BGP peers on the tunnel shard change accordingly. From the perspective of the resource shard, each resource shard now has two BGP peer connections, and since each BGP peer propagates the same CIDR route learned from the external site representation to the on-premises network, each resource shard has two equivalent paths to the on-premises network. Similarly, from the perspective of the external gateway, the agent 112 establishes two tunnels to the SNCS 104, and the tunnel shards advertise the tenant-specific overlay network routes to the agent 112, which then installs the appropriate routes into the tenant-specific overlay network.

[0071] Using the disclosed new and improved architecture implemented by SNCS104, secure private two-way network connectivity can be achieved between external resources in a customer's external site representation and resources and services residing in the customer's VCN in the cloud, without the enterprise's users (e.g., administrators) explicitly configuring the external resources, advertising routes, or establishing site-to-site network connectivity. SNCS104 provides high-performance, scalable, and highly available site-to-site network connectivity for handling network traffic between a customer's on-premises environment and CSPI by implementing a robust infrastructure of network elements and compute nodes (i.e., tenant-specific overlay network 128) for each tenant / customer using the services provided by SNCS104. Tunnel hosts in the tenant-specific overlay network 128 are used to provide secure connectivity to the customer's external site representation 106, and resource hosts are used to receive traffic from the customer's VCN and forward that traffic to the customer's external site representation. Resource hosts are additionally capable of receiving traffic from external resources in the external site representation and forwarding that traffic to resources or services residing in the customer's VCN. By using the robust infrastructure of network elements and compute nodes implemented by the tenant-specific overlay network, an enterprise can securely access its external resources from the cloud as if connected to any other native resource within its VCN. An enterprise's users can access their external resources without setting up a complex site-to-site network between their on-premises network and the cloud, without making any changes to their external resources, and without configuring the routes to be used for the site-to-site connection. Similarly, by creating a logical interface for an external resource and associating that logical interface with the virtual IP address of the VNIC representation of the external resource, the external resource (which resides in the customer's on-premises network) can securely access resources and services in the cloud (e.g., in the customer's VCN 148) using the secure private network connectivity service provided by SNCS104.

[0072] Figure 3 Depicts an example of a process for providing secure private network connectivity performed by the Figure 1 systems and subsystems shown in. Figure 3 The process depicted in 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). Figure 3 The process 300 presented in and described below is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. While Figure 3 depicts various process steps occurring in a particular order or sequence, this is not meant to be limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the steps can be performed in a somewhat different order, or some steps can also be performed in parallel. In certain embodiments, such as inFigure 1 In the embodiments depicted in Figure 3 the processing depicted in can be performed by computing nodes (e.g., 116, 122, 130, and 132) that include a tenant-specific overlay network 128.

[0073] Figure 3 The processing depicted in assumes that a user (e.g., an administrator) associated with the customer has created an external site representation (e.g., 106) of the customer's on-premises network and has configured a proxy (e.g., 112) in the external site representation 106. Figure 4 The processing depicted in also assumes that the SNCS 104 has authenticated the proxy 112 and has configured / established a tenant-specific overlay network (e.g., 128) that includes a set of distributed and horizontally scalable computing nodes for the customer. As Figure 1 described, the set of one or more computing nodes includes resource hosts (i.e., resource virtual machines 130, 132) and tunnel hosts (i.e., tunnel virtual machines 116, 122).

[0074] Figure 3 The processing depicted in can be initiated at block 302 when the SNCS 104 executes a tenant-specific overlay network (e.g., 128) that includes a set of distributed and horizontally scalable computing nodes. The tenant-specific overlay network is used to establish secure private network connectivity between the customer's external site representation and the customer's VCN (e.g., 148) in the CSPI.

[0075] At block 304, the SNCS (via the control plane API) registers an external resource residing in the customer's on-premises network as an external endpoint in the customer's VCN. The external endpoint is identified by an IP address in the customer's VCN. As described previously, the external resource can represent a database, computing instance, or application for which the customer in the external site representation 106 intends to enable secure two-way private network connectivity within its VCN. As part of registering the external resource, the user of the SNCS provides configuration information related to the external resource, such as the on-premises physical IP address associated with the external resource, the port number through which the external resource can be accessed, and the hostname (or fully qualified domain name (FQDN)) of the external resource. The user also selects a subnet in the customer's VCN in which to create the external endpoint for the external resource. Based on the configuration information, the SCNS creates an external endpoint for the external resource in the customer's VCN. The external endpoint is identified by an IP address, port number, and FQDN (hostname) in the customer's VCN.

[0076] At block 306, a first compute node in the SNCS (e.g., resource VM 130 or resource VM 132) creates an external resource representation for an external endpoint in the customer's VCN. In some embodiments, creation of the external resource representation involves the first compute node creating a VNIC and assigning the IP address of the external endpoint to the VNIC.

[0077] At block 308, the first compute node transmits configuration information corresponding to the VNIC created for the external resource representation in the customer's VCN to the proxy 112 configured in the on-premises network. As part of the processing performed at block 308, the proxy 112 downloads and copies the configuration information to the registered external resource residing in the on-premises network. As previously described, the configuration information can include, for example, the virtual IP address of the VNIC, the fully qualified domain name associated with the compute instance associated with the VNIC, and the cloud identifier of the virtual cloud network associated with the customer. Using the configuration information, the proxy 112 creates / configures a logical interface (e.g., 158) for the external resource (e.g., 114A). In some embodiments, the proxy 112 creating or configuring a logical interface includes: the proxy assigning the virtual IP address assigned to the VNIC 142 created for the external resource representation to the logical interface 158 provisioned for the external resource 114A.

[0078] At block 310, a second compute node (e.g., tunnel VM 116 or tunnel VM 122) receives a request to query information associated with a resource (e.g., compute instance 150) residing in the customer's VCN. In some examples, the request can be transmitted by an external resource (e.g., 114A) residing in the on-premises network via its logical interface 158. For example, a user associated with the customer can (e.g., via UI 108) transmit a request to query information associated with a compute instance 150 residing in the customer's VCN to an external resource residing in the customer's on-premises network. In turn, the external resource can transmit the query to the proxy 112 residing in the on-premises network. The proxy 112 receives the query request and transmits a network packet corresponding to the query request to a tunnel shard (120 or 126) running in the tunnel VM.

[0079] At block 312, a second compute node (e.g., tunnel VM 116 or tunnel VM 122) establishes a connection between a logical interface for provisioning external resources and a VNIC created for representing an external resource in a customer's VCN via a resource shard (e.g., 136 or 140). In an embodiment, a tunnel shard (e.g., 120 or 126) can include the ability to translate a real / physical IP address assigned to an external resource into a virtual IP address of VNIC 142 and initiate a connection with VNIC 142 via a resource shard (136 or 140). The resource shard then initiates a connection with a resource (e.g., 150) in the customer's VCN.

[0080] At block 314, the second compute node (e.g., tunnel VM 116 or tunnel VM 122) transmits a request to a resource residing in the customer's VCN via the connection established in block 410. At block 412, the second compute node obtains a result corresponding to the request via the established connection. The result is then transmitted to the external resource residing in the external site representation via proxy 112. For example, if the resource is a database executed in the customer's VCN, the result can include information stored in one or more tables in the database.

[0081] Figure 4 is a flowchart depicting the flow of network packets between an external resource residing in a customer's on-premises network and a representation of the external resource in the customer's virtual cloud network according to certain embodiments. Figure 4 The processing depicted in can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of a corresponding system, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., a memory device). Figure 4 The processing 400 presented in and described below is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Although Figure 4 depicts various processing steps occurring in a particular order or sequence, this is not meant to be limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the steps can be executed in a different order, or some steps can also be executed in parallel. In certain embodiments, such as in the Figure 2 embodiments depicted in, Figure 4 the processing depicted in can be performed by compute nodes (e.g., 116, 122, 130, and 132) including a tenant-specific overlay network 128.

[0082] Figure 4The processing depicted can be initiated at block 402 when an external resource (e.g., database 202) residing in the customer's on-premises network (i.e., the customer's external site representation 106) receives a query for information associated with a resource (e.g., 150) residing in the customer's VCN (e.g., 148). As previously described, a user associated with the customer can transmit (e.g., via UI 108) a request to an external resource residing in the customer's on-premises network to query for information associated with a compute instance 150 residing in the customer's VCN. The external resource can then transmit the query to a proxy 112 residing in the on-premises network.

[0083] At block 404, the proxy 112 receives the query and transmits a network data packet corresponding to the query to a tunnel shard (120 or 126) running in a tunnel VM. In some examples, as part of the processing performed at block 404, the proxy 112 can encrypt the network data packet before transmitting it to the tunnel shard.

[0084] At block 406, the tunnel shard receives the encrypted network data packet and transmits it to a resource shard (136, 140) running in a resource VM. Specifically, and as Figure 2 shown, the encrypted network data packet can be received by a worker VNIC (251, 252) attached to the resource shard (136, 140).

[0085] At block 408, the resource shard (136, 140) decrypts the network data packet and performs network address translation (NAT) to convert the physical IP address assigned to the external resource into a virtual IP address of a VNIC (e.g., 206) associated with the external resource representation in the customer's VCN.

[0086] At block 410, the resource shard (136, 140) transmits the network data packet to the VNIC created for the external resource representation in the customer's VCN.

[0087] At block 412, the VNIC transmits the network data packet corresponding to the query to a resource (e.g., 150) residing in the customer's VCN.

[0088] Figure 5 is a flowchart depicting the flow of network data packets between an external resource representation in a customer's virtual cloud network and an external resource residing in the customer's on-premises network according to certain embodiments. Figure 5 The processing depicted can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of a 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). Figure 5The processes 500 presented and described below are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Although Figure 5 various processing steps are described as occurring in a particular order or sequence, this is not meant to be limiting. In certain alternative embodiments, the steps may be performed in a different order, or some steps may be performed in parallel. In certain embodiments, such as in the Figure 2 embodiment depicted in Figure 5 the processes depicted in may be performed by computing nodes (e.g., 116, 122, 130, and 132) that include a tenant-specific overlay network 128.

[0089] Figure 5 the processes depicted in may be initiated at block 502 when a client application (e.g., 144) in the customer's VCN receives a query for information associated with an external resource (e.g., 202) residing in the customer's on-premises network (i.e., the customer's external site representation 106). For example, the query may be received from a user associated with the customer via the client application. As part of the process performed at block 502, the client application 144 initiates a connection to the VNIC (e.g., 206) associated with the external resource representation by transmitting a network packet corresponding to the query to the virtual IP address of the VNIC assigned to the customer's VCN. In the customer VCN

[0090] At block 504, the client application transmits the network packet corresponding to the query to a resource shard (136 or 140) running in a resource VM in the SNCS. Specifically, and as Figure 2 shown in, the network packet may be received by a worker VNIC (251, 252) attached to the resource shard (136, 140). The proxy server (244, 254) in the resource shard (136, 140) performs network address translation (NAT) to convert the virtual IP address assigned to the VNIC into the physical IP address of the external resource in the external site representation 106 and initiates a connection to the proxy 112 via the tunnel shard (120, 126).

[0091] At block 506, the resource shard transmits the network packet to the tunnel shard (120, 126). As part of the process performed at block 506, the tunnel shard may encrypt the network packet received from the resource shard before transmitting it to the proxy in the external site representation 106.

[0092] At block 508, the tunnel shard transmits the network packet to the proxy 112 residing in the customer's external site representation. As part of the process performed at block 508, the proxy 112 decrypts the network packet before transmitting it to the external resource (e.g., 202) in the external site representation (e.g., 106).

[0093] At box 510, the proxy 112 transmits a network data packet to an external resource (e.g., 202) residing in the external site representation of the customer. The external resource receives the network data packet corresponding to the query and generates a response network data packet corresponding to the query. The external resource can then transmit the response network data packet back to the client application. For example, as part of the flow of the response network data packet, the network data packet corresponding to the query response is transmitted from the external resource to the proxy. The proxy encrypts the network data packet and transmits the encrypted network data packet to the tunnel shard. The tunnel shard receives the encrypted data packet and transmits it to the resource shard. The resource shard decrypts the network data packet and performs a reverse network address translation (NAT) to convert the physical / real IP address assigned to the external resource into the virtual IP address of the VNIC associated with the external resource representation in the customer's VCN. The resource shard then transmits the response network data packet to the VNIC, which in turn transmits the response packet to the requesting client application 144 in the customer's VCN 148.

[0094] Example Virtual Networking Architecture

[0095] The term cloud service is generally used to refer to services that are 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. Thus, the customer can utilize the cloud services provided by the CSP without having to purchase separate hardware and software resources for the services. Cloud services are designed to provide subscribing customers with simple, scalable access to applications and computing resources without the customer having to invest in the infrastructure for providing the services.

[0096] 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.

[0097] 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 that customer. The customer can then access the one or more subscribed cloud resources associated with that account via this account.

[0098] As described above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing service. In the IaaS model, the CSP provides the infrastructure (referred to as Cloud Service Provider Infrastructure or CSPI) that customers can use to build their own customizable networks and deploy customer resources. Thus, the customer's resources and network are hosted by the infrastructure provided by the CSP in a distributed environment. This is different from traditional computing, where the customer's resources and network are hosted by the infrastructure provided by the customer.

[0099] The CSPI can include interconnected high-performance computing resources that form a physical network, including various host machines, memory resources, and network resources, which is also referred to as the substrate network or underlying network. The resources in the CSPI can be spread across one or more data centers, which can be geographically dispersed across one or more geographical regions. Virtualization software can 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, software-defined network, or virtual network) on top of the physical network. The CSPI physical network provides the underlying foundation for creating one or more overlay or virtual networks on top of the physical network. The physical network (or substrate network or underlying network) includes physical network devices such as physical switches, routers, computers, and host machines. The overlay network is a logical (or virtual) network that runs on top of the physical substrate network. A given physical network can support one or more overlay networks. Overlay networks typically use encapsulation techniques to distinguish traffic belonging to different overlay networks. The virtual or overlay network is also referred to as a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). A virtual network is implemented using software virtualization techniques (e.g., hypervisor, virtualization functions implemented by a Network Virtualization Device (NVD) (e.g., smartNIC), Top-of-Rack (TOR) switches, intelligent TORs that implement one or more functions performed by the NVD, and other mechanisms) to create a layer of network abstraction that can run on top of the physical network. Virtual networks can take various 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 virtual or overlay Layer 3 networking. Examples of protocols developed for virtual networks include IP-in-IP (or Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN - IETF RFC 7348), Virtual Private Network (VPN) (e.g., MPLS Layer 3 Virtual Private Network (RFC 4364)), VMware's NSX, GENEVE (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation), etc.

[0100] For IaaS, the infrastructure provided by the CSP (CSPI) can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, a cloud computing service provider 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, the IaaS provider can also supply various services to accompany those infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.). Thus, since these services can be policy-driven, IaaS users can be able to implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance. CSPI provides a collection of infrastructure and complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available, hosted, distributed environment. CSPI provides high-performance computing resources and capabilities, as well as storage capacity, in a flexible virtual network that can be securely accessed from various networked locations (such as from the customer's on-premises network). When a customer subscribes to or registers for IaaS services provided by the CSP, the lease created for that customer is a secure and isolated partition within CSPI where the customer can create, organize, and manage their cloud resources.

[0101] Customers can use the computing, memory, and networking resources provided by CSPI to build their own virtual networks. One or more customer resources or workloads, such as compute 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 compute instances, on the customer VCN. Compute instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare-metal instances, etc. Thus, 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 the operating system, storage, and deployed applications; and may also have limited control over selected networking components (e.g., firewalls).

[0102] The CSP can provide a console that enables customers and network administrators to configure, access, and manage resources deployed in the cloud using CSPI resources. In certain embodiments, the console provides a web-based user interface that can be used to access and manage CSPI. In certain implementations, the console is a web-based application provided by the CSP.

[0103] CSPI can support single-tenant or multi-tenant architectures. In a single-tenant architecture, software (e.g., applications, databases) or hardware components (e.g., host machines or servers) serve a single customer or tenant. In a multi-tenant architecture, software or hardware components serve multiple customers or tenants. Thus, in a multi-tenant architecture, CSPI resources are shared among multiple customers or tenants. In a multi-tenant scenario, precautions are taken and protection measures are implemented in CSPI to ensure that each tenant's data is isolated and invisible to other tenants.

[0104] In a physical network, a network "endpoint" refers to a computing device or system that is connected to the physical network and communicates back and forth with the network to which it is connected. Network endpoints 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., MAC address), a fixed layer 3 address (e.g., 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 address) and overlay layer 3 addresses (e.g., overlay IP address). Network overlay enables flexibility by allowing network administrators to move around the overlay addresses associated with network endpoints using software management (e.g., via software that implements a control plane for the virtual network). Accordingly, different from a physical network, in a virtual network, an overlay address (e.g., overlay IP address) can be moved from one endpoint to another using network management software. Since a virtual network is built on top of a physical network, communication between components in a virtual network involves both the virtual network and the underlying physical network. To facilitate such communication, components of CSPI are configured to learn and store mappings that map overlay addresses in the virtual network to actual physical addresses in the underlying network, and vice versa. These mappings are then used to facilitate communication. Customer traffic is encapsulated to facilitate routing in the virtual network.

[0105] Accordingly, a physical address (e.g., a physical IP address) is associated with a component in a physical network, and an overlay address (e.g., an overlay IP address) is associated with an entity 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 substrate or physical network. For example, each NVD has an associated physical IP address. An overlay IP address is an overlay address associated with an entity in an overlay network, such as an overlay address associated with a compute instance in a customer's Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). Two different customers or tenants (each with its own private VCN) can potentially use the same overlay IP address in their VCNs without knowing about each other. Both physical IP addresses and overlay IP addresses are types of real IP addresses. These addresses are separate from virtual IP addresses. A virtual IP address is typically a single IP address that represents or maps to multiple real IP addresses. A virtual IP address provides a one-to-many mapping between the 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.

[0106] A cloud infrastructure or CSPI is physically hosted in one or more data centers in one or more regions of the world. The CSPI can include components in a physical or substrate network and virtualized components (e.g., virtual networks, compute 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 realms, regions, and availability domains. A region is typically a localized geographic area that contains one or more data centers. Regions are generally independent of each other and can be far apart, e.g., spanning countries or even continents. For example, a first region can be in Australia, another in Japan, another in India, etc. CSPI resources are partitioned across regions such 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 compute resources (e.g., bare metal servers, virtual machines, containers, and associated infrastructure, etc.); storage resources (e.g., block volume storage, file storage, object storage, archival storage); networking resources (e.g., Virtual Cloud Network (VCN), load balancing resources, connection to an on-premises network), 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 realm.

[0107] Generally, an application is deployed in the region where it is most frequently used (i.e., deployed on the infrastructure associated with that region) because using nearby resources is faster than using distant resources. An application can 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 such as legal jurisdiction, tax domain, and other business or social criteria.

[0108] 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 the region. A region can consist of one or more availability domains. In such a distributed environment, CSPI resources are either region-specific, such as a virtual cloud network (VCN), or availability-domain-specific, such as a compute instance.

[0109] ADs within a region are isolated from each other, fault-tolerant, and configured such that it is highly unlikely for them to fail simultaneously. This is achieved by ADs not sharing critical infrastructure resources (such as networking, physical cables, cable paths, cable entry points, etc.), such that a failure at one AD within a region is unlikely to 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 enables providing highly available connectivity to other networks (e.g., the Internet, a customer's on-premises network, etc.) and building replicated systems across 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 an IaaS provider grows, more regions and ADs, as well as additional capacity, can be added. Traffic between availability domains is typically encrypted.

[0110] In some embodiments, regions are grouped into realms. A realm is a logical collection of regions. Realms are isolated from each other and do not share any data. Regions within the same realm can communicate with each other, but regions in different realms cannot. A customer's lease or account with a CSP exists within a single realm and can be spread across one or more regions belonging to that realm. Typically, when a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, a lease or account for that customer is created in the region (referred to as the "primary" region) specified by the customer within the realm. A customer can extend the customer's lease to one or more other regions within the realm. A customer cannot access regions that are not within the realm where the customer's lease resides.

[0111] IaaS providers can offer multiple domains, each domain meeting the needs of a specific set of customers or users. For example, a business domain can be offered for business customers. As another example, for customers within a specific country, a domain can be offered for that country. As yet another example, a government domain can be offered for the government, and so on. For example, the government domain can meet the needs of a specific government and can have a higher security level than the business domain. For example, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) currently offers domains for commercial regions and two domains for government cloud regions (e.g., FedRAMP authorized and IL5 authorized).

[0112] In some embodiments, an AD can be subdivided into one or more fault domains. A fault domain is a grouping of infrastructure resources within an AD to provide anti-affinity. Fault domains allow the distribution of compute instances such that these instances do not reside on the same physical hardware within a single AD. This is known as anti-affinity. A fault domain refers to a collection of hardware components (computers, switches, etc.) that share a single point of failure. The compute pool is logically divided into fault domains. Thus, a hardware failure or a compute hardware maintenance event affecting one fault domain does not affect the instances in other fault domains. Depending on the embodiment, the number of fault domains per AD can vary. For example, in some embodiments, each AD contains three fault domains. Fault domains act as logical data centers within an AD.

[0113] When a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, resources from the CSPI are provisioned to the customer and associated with the customer's tenancy. The customer can use these provisioned resources to build private networks and deploy resources on these networks. The customer network hosted by the CSPI in the cloud is called a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). The customer can use the CSPI resources allocated to the customer to set up one or more Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs). A VCN is a virtual or software-defined private network. Customer resources deployed in the customer's VCN can include compute instances (e.g., virtual machines, bare metal instances) and other resources. These compute instances can represent various customer workloads, such as applications, load balancers, databases, etc. Compute instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with publicly accessible endpoints (“public endpoints”) over a public network such as the Internet, with other instances in the same VCN or other VCNs (e.g., other VCNs of the customer or VCNs that do not belong to the customer), with the customer's on-premises data center or network, and with service endpoints and other types of endpoints.

[0114] CSPs can use CSPI to provide various services. In some cases, the customers of CSPI themselves can act like service providers and use CSPI resources to provide services. Service providers can expose service endpoints characterized by identification information (e.g., IP address, DNS name, and port). The resources of a customer (e.g., a compute instance) can use a particular service by accessing the service endpoint 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 the public IP address associated with the endpoint. Publicly accessible network endpoints are sometimes also referred to as public endpoints.

[0115] In some embodiments, a service provider can expose a service via an endpoint for the service (sometimes referred to as a service endpoint). A customer of the service can then use this service endpoint to access the service. In some implementations, the service endpoint provided for a service can be accessed by multiple customers that intend to consume the service. In other implementations, a dedicated service endpoint can be provided for a customer such that only that customer can use the dedicated service endpoint to access the service.

[0116] In some 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 assigned to the VCN (e.g., 10.0 / 16). The VCN includes associated subnets, a routing table, and gateways. The VCN resides within a single region but can span one or more or all of the availability domains within that region. A gateway is a virtual interface configured for the VCN and enables the transmission of traffic to and from one or more endpoints outside the VCN. One or more different types of gateways can be configured for the VCN to enable communication to and from different types of endpoints.

[0117] A VCN can be subdivided into one or more sub-networks, such as one or more subnets. Thus, a subnet is a configured unit or subdivision that can be created within a VCN. A VCN can have one or more subnets. Each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24) that do not overlap with other subnets in the VCN and represent a subset of the address space within the VCN's address space.

[0118] Each compute instance is associated with a virtual network interface card (VNIC), which enables the compute instance to participate in a subnet of a VCN. A VNIC is a logical representation of a physical network interface card (NIC). Generally speaking, a VNIC is an interface between an entity (e.g., a compute instance, a service) and a virtual network. A VNIC exists within a subnet, has one or more associated IP addresses, and associated security rules or policies. A VNIC is equivalent to a layer 2 port on a switch. A VNIC is attached to a compute instance and a subnet within a VCN. The VNIC associated with a compute instance enables the compute instance to be part of a subnet of a VCN and enables the compute instance to communicate (e.g., send and receive data packets) with endpoints on the same subnet as the compute instance, with endpoints in different subnets within the VCN, or with endpoints outside the VCN. Thus, the VNIC associated with a compute instance determines how the compute instance connects to endpoints inside and outside the VCN. When a compute instance is created and added to a subnet within a VCN, a VNIC for the compute instance is created and associated with that compute instance. For a subnet that includes a collection of compute instances, the subnet contains VNICs corresponding to that collection of compute instances, with each VNIC attached to a compute instance within that collection of compute instances.

[0119] A private overlay IP address is assigned to each compute instance via the VNIC associated with the compute instance. This private overlay network IP address is assigned to the VNIC associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created and is used to route traffic to and from the compute instance. All VNICs within a given subnet use the same routing table, security list, and DHCP options. As described above, each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24) that do not overlap with other subnets in that VCN and represent a subset of the address space within the VCN's address space. For a VNIC on a particular subnet of a VCN, the private overlay IP address assigned to that VNIC is an address from the contiguous range of overlay IP addresses allocated for the subnet.

[0120] In some embodiments, in addition to a private override IP address, a compute instance can optionally be assigned additional override IP addresses, such as, for example, one or more public IP addresses if in a public subnet. These multiple addresses are assigned either on the same VNIC or on multiple VNICs associated with the compute instance. However, each instance has a primary VNIC, which is created during instance startup and is associated with the override private IP address assigned to the instance - this primary VNIC cannot be deleted. Additional VNICs, called secondary VNICs, can be added to an existing instance in the same availability domain as the primary VNIC. All VNICs are in the same availability domain as the instance. A secondary VNIC can be in a subnet in the same VCN as the primary VNIC, or in a different subnet in the same VCN or a different VCN.

[0121] If a compute instance is in a public subnet, then it can optionally be assigned a public IP address. When creating a subnet, the subnet can be designated as a public subnet or a private subnet. A private subnet means that resources in the subnet (e.g., compute instances) and associated VNICs cannot have a public override IP address. A public subnet means that resources in the subnet and associated VNICs can have a public IP address. A customer can specify that the subnet exists in a single availability domain or across multiple availability domains in a region or realm.

[0122] 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 the VCN VR or simply the VR) enables communication between the subnets of the VCN. For subnets within a VCN, the VR represents the logical gateway for that subnet, which enables the subnet (i.e., compute instances on that subnet) to communicate with endpoints on other subnets within the VCN and with endpoints outside the VCN. The VCN VR is a logical entity that is configured to route traffic between VNICs in the VCN and virtual gateways (“gateways”) associated with the VCN. Below, regarding Figure 6Further describe the gateway. VCN VR is a Layer 3 / IP layer concept. In one embodiment, there is a VCN VR for a VCN, where the VCN VR potentially has an unrestricted number of ports addressed by IP addresses, and each subnet of the VCN has one port. 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 overlay IP address within the overlay IP address range for a subnet is reserved for the port of the VCN VR of that subnet. For example, consider a VCN having two subnets with associated address ranges of 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 within this range are reserved for the ports of the VCN VR of that subnet. In some cases, the first IP address within the range can be reserved for the VCN VR. For example, for a subnet with an overlay IP address range of 10.0 / 16, the IP address 10.0.0.1 can be reserved for the port of the VCN VR of that subnet. For the second subnet in the same VCN with an address range of 10.1 / 16, the VCN VR can have a port for the second subnet with an IP address of 10.1.0.1. The VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN.

[0123] In some other embodiments, each subnet within a VCN can have its own associated VR, which can be addressed by the subnet using a reserved or default IP address associated with the VR. For example, the reserved or default IP address can be the first IP address within the IP address range associated with that subnet. The VNICs within the subnet can use this default or reserved IP address to communicate (e.g., send and receive data packets) with the VR associated with the subnet. In such an embodiment, the VR is the ingress / egress point for that subnet. The VR associated with a subnet within a VCN can communicate with other VRs associated with other subnets within the VCN. The VR can also communicate with the gateways associated with the VCN. The VR functionality of a subnet runs on or is performed by one or more NVDs that execute the VNIC functionality of the VNICs within the subnet.

[0124] A routing table, security rules, and DHCP options can be configured for the VCN. The routing table is a virtual routing table for the VCN and includes rules for routing traffic from subnets within the VCN to destinations outside the VCN via gateways or specially configured instances. The routing table of the VCN can be customized to control how data packets are forwarded / routed into and out of the VCN. The DHCP options refer to the configuration information automatically provided to an instance when the instance is launched.

[0125] The security rules configured for a VCN represent overlay firewall rules for the VCN. Security rules can include ingress and egress rules and specify the types of traffic (e.g., based on protocol and port) that are allowed to flow to and from instances within the VCN. A customer can choose whether a given rule is stateful or stateless. For example, a customer can allow incoming SSH traffic from anywhere to a set of instances by establishing 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 the resources within that group. On the other hand, a security list includes rules that apply to all resources within any subnet that uses that 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 within the VCN when they are launched.

[0126] In some embodiments, the configuration information for a VCN is determined and stored by the VCN control plane. For example, the configuration information for a VCN can include information about the address range associated with the VCN, subnets within the VCN and associated information, one or more VRs associated with the VCN, compute instances within the VCN and associated VNICs, NVDs (e.g., VNICs, VRs, gateways) that perform various virtualized network functions associated with the VCN, status information for the VCN, and other VCN-related information. In some embodiments, a VCN distribution service publishes the configuration information stored by the VCN control plane or portions thereof to the NVDs. The distributed information can be used to update the information (e.g., forwarding tables, routing tables, etc.) stored by the NVDs and used to forward packets to and from compute instances within the VCN.

[0127] 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 for the compute instances and then calls the VCN control plane to create VNICs and attach them to the compute instances. The VCN CP also sends the VCN data map to the VCN data plane that 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. Examples of the VCN control plane are also depicted in Figure 19 , Figure 20 , Figure 21 and Figure 22 (see reference numerals 1916, 2016, 2116, and 2216) and are described below.

[0128] Customers can create one or more VCNs using resources hosted by CSPI. Compute instances deployed on the customer VCN can communicate with different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI and endpoints outside of CSPI.

[0129] Various different architectures for implementing cloud-based services using CSPI are depicted in Figure 6 、 Figure 7 、 Figure 8 、 Figure 9 、 Figure 10 、 Figure 19 、 Figure 20 、 Figure 21 and Figure 23 and are described below. Figure 6 is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment 600, showing an overlay or customer VCN hosted by CSPI according to certain embodiments. Figure 6 The distributed environment depicted in Figure 6 includes multiple components in an overlay network. The distributed environment 600 depicted in Figure 6 is merely an example and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of the claimed embodiments. Many variations, alternatives, and modifications are possible. For example, in some implementations, Figure 1 the distributed environment depicted in

[0130] As shown in the example depicted in Figure 6 the distributed environment 600 includes CSPI 601 that provides services and resources that customers can subscribe to and use to build their virtual cloud networks (VCNs). In certain embodiments, CSPI 601 provides IaaS services to subscribing customers. Data centers within CSPI 601 can be organized into one or more regions. Figure 6 An example region "Region US" 602 is shown in

[0131] In Figure 6 the depicted embodiment, the customer VCN 604 includes two subnets, namely, "Subnet-1" and "Subnet-2", each with its own CIDR IP address range. In Figure 6In it, the covered IP address range of Subnet-1 is 10.0 / 16, and the address range of Subnet-2 is 10.1 / 16. The VCN virtual router 605 represents the logical gateway for the VCN, which enables communication between the subnets of the VCN 604 and other endpoints outside the VCN. The VCN VR 605 is configured to route traffic between the VNICs in the VCN 604 and the gateways associated with the VCN 604. The VCN VR 605 provides ports for each subnet of the VCN 604. For example, VR 605 can provide a port with the IP address 10.0.0.1 for Subnet-1 and a port with the IP address 10.1.0.1 for Subnet-2.

[0132] 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 the subnet can be hosted by one or more host machines within the CSPI 601. The computing instances participate in the subnet via the VNIC associated with the computing instance. For example, as Figure 6 shown in, the computing instance C1 becomes part of Subnet-1 via the VNIC associated with the computing instance. Similarly, the computing instance C2 becomes part of Subnet-1 via the VNIC associated with C2. In a similar manner, multiple computing instances (which can be virtual machine instances or bare metal instances) can be part of Subnet-1. Via its associated VNIC, each computing instance is assigned a private covered IP address and a MAC address. For example, in Figure 6 it, the covered IP address of the computing instance C1 is 10.0.0.2, and the MAC address is M1, while the private covered IP address of the computing instance C2 is 10.0.0.3, and the MAC address is M2. Each computing instance in Subnet-1 (including the computing instances C1 and C2) has a default route to the VCN VR 605 using the IP address 10.0.0.1, which is the IP address of the port of the VCN VR 605 for Subnet-1.

[0133] Multiple computing instances, including virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances, can be deployed on Subnet-2. For example, as Figure 6 shown in, the computing instances D1 and D2 become part of Subnet-2 via the VNICs associated with the respective computing instances. In the Figure 6 embodiment shown in, the covered IP address of the computing instance D1 is 10.1.0.2, and the MAC address is MM1, while the private covered IP address of the computing instance D2 is 10.1.0.3, and the MAC address is MM2. Each computing instance in Subnet-2 (including the computing instances D1 and D2) has a default route to the VCN VR 605 using the IP address 10.1.0.1, which is the IP address of the port of the VCN VR605 for Subnet-2.

[0134] VCN A 604 may also include one or more load balancers. For example, a load balancer can be provided for a subnet, and the load balancer can be configured to load balance traffic across multiple compute instances on the subnet. A load balancer can also be provided to load balance traffic across subnets within a VCN.

[0135] A particular compute instance deployed on VCN 604 can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 700 and endpoints external to CSPI 700. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 601 can include: endpoints on the same subnet as a particular compute instance (e.g., communication between two compute instances in Subnet-1); endpoints on different subnets but within the same VCN (e.g., communication between a compute instance in Subnet-1 and a compute instance in Subnet-2); endpoints in different VCNs within the same region (e.g., communication between a compute instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in the same region 606 or 610, communication between a compute instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a service point 610 in the same region); or endpoints in VCNs in different regions (e.g., communication between a compute instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in a different region 608). Compute instances in a subnet hosted by CSPI 601 can also communicate with endpoints not hosted by CSPI 601 (i.e., external to CSPI 601). These external endpoints include endpoints in the customer's on-premises network 616, endpoints in other remote cloud-hosted networks 618, public endpoints 614 accessible via a public network such as the Internet, and other endpoints.

[0136] Use the VNICs associated with the source compute instance and the destination compute instance to facilitate communication between compute instances on the same subnet. For example, a compute instance C1 in subnet-1 may want to send a packet to a compute instance C2 in subnet-1. For a packet that originates from a source compute instance and whose destination is another compute instance in the same subnet, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. The processing performed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance can include determining the destination information of the packet from the packet header, identifying any policies (e.g., security lists) configured for the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, determining the next hop of the packet, performing any packet encapsulation / decapsulation functions as needed, and then forwarding / routing the packet to the next hop with the aim of facilitating the communication of the packet to its intended destination. When the destination compute instance is in the same subnet as the source compute instance, the VNIC associated with the source compute instance is configured to identify the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance and forward the packet to that VNIC for processing. Then the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance is executed and the packet is forwarded to the destination compute instance.

[0137] For a packet to be transmitted from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet within the same VCN, communication is facilitated through the VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances and the VCN VR. For example, if Figure 6 compute instance C1 in subnet-1 in [reference to a previous context not fully provided] 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 605 using the default route or port 10.0.0.1 of the VCN VR. VCN VR 605 is configured to route the packet to subnet-2 using port 10.1.0.1. Then, the VNIC associated with D1 receives and processes the packet and the VNIC forwards the packet to compute instance D1.

[0138] For packets to be transmitted from a compute instance in VCN 604 to an endpoint outside VCN 604, communication is facilitated by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, the VCN VR 605, and the gateway associated with VCN 604. One or more types of gateways can be associated with VCN 604. A gateway is an interface between the VCN and another endpoint, where that other endpoint is outside the VCN. A gateway is a Layer 3 / IP layer concept and enables the VCN to communicate with endpoints outside the VCN. Thus, the gateway facilitates the flow of traffic between the VCN and other VCNs or networks. Various different types of gateways can be configured for the VCN to facilitate different types of communication with different types of endpoints. Depending on the gateway, communication can occur over a public network (e.g., the Internet) or over a private network. Various communication protocols can be used for these communications.

[0139] For example, compute instance C1 may want to communicate with an endpoint outside VCN 604. The packet can first be processed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance C1. The VNIC processing determines that the destination of the packet is outside C1's subnet-1. The VNIC associated with C1 can forward the packet to the VCN VR 605 for VCN 604. The VCN VR 605 then processes the packet and, as part of the processing, determines a specific gateway associated with VCN 604 as the next hop for the packet based on the destination of the packet. The VCN VR 605 can then forward the packet to the identified specific gateway. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within the customer's on-premises network, then the packet can be forwarded by the VCN VR 605 to the Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) gateway 622 configured for VCN 604. The packet can then be forwarded from the gateway to the next hop to facilitate the delivery of the packet to its final intended destination.

[0140] Various different types of gateways can be configured for the VCN. Examples of gateways that can be configured for the VCN are depicted in Figure 6 and described below. Examples of gateways associated with the VCN are also depicted in Figure 19 、 Figure 20 、 Figure 21 and Figure 22 (e.g., the gateways referenced by reference numerals 1934, 1936, 1938, 2034, 2036, 2038, 2134, 2136, 2138, 2234, 2236, and 2238) and described below. As Figure 6As shown in the embodiments depicted, a Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) 622 can be added to or associated with a customer VCN 604 and provide a path for private network traffic communication between the customer VCN 604 and another endpoint, where the other endpoint can be the customer's on-premises network 616, a VCN 608 in a different region of the CSPI 601, or another remote cloud network 618 not hosted by the CSPI 601. The customer on-premises network 616 can be a customer network or customer data center built using the customer's resources. Access to the customer on-premises network 616 is generally very restricted. For customers who have both a customer on-premises network 616 and one or more VCNs 604 deployed or hosted by the CSPI 601 in the cloud, the customer may want their on-premises network 616 and their cloud-based VCN 604 to be able to communicate with each other. This enables the customer to build an extended hybrid environment that encompasses the customer's VCN 604 hosted by the CSPI 601 and their on-premises network 616. The DRG 622 enables this communication. To enable such communication, a communication channel 624 is established, where one endpoint of the channel is in the customer on-premises network 616 and the other endpoint is in the CSPI 601 and connected to the customer VCN 604. The communication channel 624 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 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 device or equipment that forms one endpoint of the communication channel 624 in the customer on-premises network 616 is referred to as customer premises equipment (CPE), such as Figure 6 the CPE 626 depicted in

[0141] In some embodiments, a Remote Peer Connection (RPC) can be added to the DRG, which allows the customer to peer one VCN with another VCN in a different region. Using this RPC, the customer VCN 604 can be connected to a VCN 608 in another region using the DRG 622. The DRG 622 can also be used to communicate with other remote cloud networks 618 not hosted by the CSPI 601 (such as the Microsoft Azure cloud, the Amazon AWS cloud, etc.).

[0142] As Figure 6As shown, an Internet Gateway (IGW) 620 can be configured for the user VCN 604, which enables compute instances on the VCN 604 to communicate with public endpoints 614 accessible via a public network such as the Internet. The IGW 620 is a gateway that connects the VCN to a public network such as the Internet. The IGW 620 enables public subnets within the VCN (such as VCN 604), where resources in the public subnets have public covering IP addresses, to directly access public endpoints 612 on the public network 614 (such as the Internet). Using the IGW 620, connections can be initiated from subnets within the VCN 604 or from the Internet.

[0143] A Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway 628 can be configured for the customer's VCN 604 and enables cloud resources in the customer's VCN that do not have dedicated public covering 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 the VCN (such as Private Subnet-1 in VCN 604) to privately access public endpoints on the Internet. In a NAT gateway, connections to the public Internet can only be initiated from private subnets and not from the Internet to private subnets.

[0144] In some embodiments, a Service Gateway (SGW) 626 can be configured for the customer's VCN 604 and provides a path for private network traffic between the VCN 604 and service endpoints supported in the service network 610. In some embodiments, the service network 610 can be provided by a CSP and can provide various services. An example of such a service network is Oracle's service network, which provides various services available to customers. For example, a compute instance (such as a database system) in a private subnet of the customer VCN 604 can back up data to a service endpoint (such as object storage) without a public IP address or access to the Internet. In some embodiments, a VCN can have only one SGW, and the connection can only be initiated from subnets within the VCN and not from the service network 610. 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 the VCN using FastConnect or VPN Connect can also use the service gateway configured for that VCN.

[0145] In some embodiments, the SGW 626 uses the concept of a service Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) label, which is a string representing all the 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 the security rules when the public IP address of the service changes in the future.

[0146] A Local Peering Gateway (LPG) 632 is a gateway that can be added to a customer VCN 604 and enables the VCN 604 to peer with another VCN in the same region. Peering means that the VCNs communicate using private IP addresses without traffic having to cross a public network (such as the Internet) or without having to route traffic through the customer's on-premises network 616. In a preferred embodiment, the 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.

[0147] Service providers (such as providers of services in the service network 610) can provide access to services using different access models. According to the public access model, a service can be exposed as a public endpoint that can be publicly accessed by compute instances in a customer VCN via a public network (such as the Internet), and / or can be privately accessed via the SGW 626. According to a specific private access model, a 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 the service provider to expose its services as instances in the customer's private network. A private endpoint resource represents a service within the customer's VCN. Each PE appears as a VNIC (referred to as a PE-VNIC, having one or more private IPs) in a subnet selected by the customer in the customer's VCN. Thus, the PE provides a way to present a service in a private customer VCN subnet using a VNIC. Since the endpoint is exposed as a VNIC, all the features associated with the VNIC (such as routing rules, security lists, etc.) can now be used for the PE VNIC.

[0148] Service providers can register their services to enable access through the PE. The provider can associate policies with the service, which limit the visibility of the service to the customer's tenancy. The provider 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.

[0149] 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. 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) 630 is a gateway resource that can be attached to a service provider VCN (e.g., a VCN in the service network 610), which serves as the ingress / egress point for all traffic to / from the private endpoints of the customer subnets. The PAGW 630 enables the provider to scale the number of PE connections without utilizing its internal IP address resources. The provider only needs to configure one PAGW for any number of services registered in a single VCN. The provider can represent a service as private endpoints in multiple VCNs of 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 with which the customer wishes to interact. Traffic destined for the private endpoint is routed to the service via the PAGW 630. These are referred to as customer-to-service private connections (C2S connections).

[0150] By allowing traffic to flow through the FastConnect / IPsec link and the private endpoints in the customer VCN, the PE concept can also be used to extend private access to the service to the customer's on-premises networks and data centers. By allowing traffic to flow between the LPG 632 and the PE in the customer's VCN, private access to the service can also be extended to the customer's peered VCNs.

[0151] 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 604) use each gateway. The routing table of the VCN is used to decide whether to allow traffic to leave the VCN through a specific gateway. For example, in a specific instance, the routing table for the public subnet within the customer VCN 604 can send non-local traffic through the IGW 620. The routing table for the private subnet within the same customer VCN 604 can send traffic destined for the CSP service through the SGW 626. All remaining traffic can be sent via the NAT gateway 628. The routing table only controls traffic leaving the VCN.

[0152] The security list associated with the VCN is used to control the traffic entering the VCN via the gateway through the inbound connection. All resources in the subnet use the same route table and security list. The security list can be used to control the specific type of traffic allowed to and from the instances in the subnet of the VCN. The security list rules can include ingress (inbound) and egress (outbound) rules. For example, the ingress rule can specify the allowed source address range, while the egress rule can specify the allowed destination address range. The security rules can specify a specific protocol (e.g., TCP, ICMP), a specific port (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. The rules can be stateful (e.g., tracking connections and automatically allowing responses without an explicit security list rule for the response traffic) or stateless.

[0153] Access from the customer VCN (i.e., through the resources or compute instances deployed on the VCN 604) can be classified 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) with private IP addresses in the VCN 604 to access services without traversing a public network such as the Internet. In some embodiments, the CSPI 601 enables customer VCN workloads with private IP addresses to access the services (public service endpoints) using the service gateway. Thus, the service gateway provides a private access model by establishing a virtual link between the customer's VCN and the public endpoints of the services residing outside the customer's private network.

[0154] In addition, the CSPI can provide dedicated public access using technologies such as FastConnect public peering, where customer on-premises instances can use FastConnect connections to access one or more services in the customer VCN without traversing a public network such as the Internet. The CSPI can also provide dedicated private access using FastConnect private peering, where customer on-premises instances with private IP addresses can use FastConnect connections to access the customer's VCN workloads. FastConnect is a network connectivity alternative to using the public Internet to connect the customer's on-premises network to the CSPI and its services. Compared with Internet-based connections, 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.

[0155] Figure 6The above accompanying description describes various virtualized components in an example virtual network. As described above, the virtual network is built on an underlying physical or substrate network. Figure 7 FIG. 700 depicts a simplified architectural diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI 700 that provides the underlying layer for a virtual network, according to certain embodiments. As shown, CSPI 700 provides a distributed environment that includes components and resources (e.g., computing, memory, and network resources) provided by a 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 a cloud service provider (CSP)). Based on the services subscribed to by the customer, a subset of the resources of CSPI 700 (e.g., computing, memory, and network resources) are provisioned for the customer. The customer can then use the physical computing, memory, and networking resources provided by CSPI 700 to build their own cloud-based (i.e., CSPI-hosted) customizable and private virtual network. As previously indicated, these customer networks are referred to as virtual cloud networks (VCNs). The customer 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. CSPI 700 provides a collection of infrastructure and complementary cloud services that enable the customer to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available hosted environment.

[0156] In Figure 7 the example embodiment depicted in FIG. 700, the physical components of CSPI 700 include one or more physical host machines or physical servers (e.g., 702, 706, 708), network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., 710, 712), top-of-rack (TOR) switches (e.g., 714, 716), and a physical network (e.g., 718), as well as switches in the physical network 718. The physical host machines or servers can host and execute various computing instances participating in one or more subnets of the VCN. The computing instances can include virtual machine instances and bare metal instances. For example, [[ID= the various computing instances depicted in FIG. ​ can be hosted by the physical host machines depicted in FIG. ​ The VNICs and VCN VRs depicted in FIG. ​ can be executed by the NVDs depicted in FIG. ​ The gateways depicted in FIG. ​ can be executed by the host machines and / or the NVDs described in FIG.

[0157] A host machine or server can execute a hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor or VMM) that creates and enables a virtualized environment on the host machine. Virtualization or a virtualized environment facilitates cloud-based computing. One or more computing instances can be created, executed, and managed on the host machine by the hypervisor on the host machine. The hypervisor on the host machine enables the physical computing resources of the host machine (e.g., computing, memory, and network resources) to be shared among various computing instances executed by the host machine.

[0158] For example, as ​ depicted, host machines 702 and 708 execute hypervisors 760 and 766, respectively. These hypervisors can be implemented using software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof. Generally, a hypervisor is a process or software layer that resides above the operating system (OS) of the host machine, which in turn executes on the hardware processor of the host machine. The 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 ​ , hypervisor 760 can reside above the OS of host machine 702 and enable the computing resources of host machine 702 (e.g., processing, memory, and network resources) to be shared among computing instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed by host machine 702. A virtual machine can have its own operating system (referred to as 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 a host machine can be the same as or different from the operating system of another virtual machine executed by the same host machine. Thus, the hypervisor enables multiple operating systems to be executed simultaneously while sharing the same computing resources of the host machine. ​ The host machines depicted in

[0159] can have the same or different types of hypervisors. ​ Computing instances can be virtual machine instances or bare-metal instances. In [[ID=and host machine 708 16]]

[0160] 774 are examples of virtual machine instances. Host machine 706 is an example of a bare-metal instance 772 provided to a customer.In some cases, an entire host machine can be supplied to a single customer, and one or more compute instances (either virtual machine or bare metal instances) hosted by that host machine all belong to the same customer. In other cases, the host machine can be shared among multiple customers (i.e., multiple tenants). In such a multi-tenant scenario, the host machine can host virtual machine compute instances belonging to different customers. These compute instances can be members of different VCNs of different customers. In some embodiments, bare metal compute instances are hosted by bare metal servers without a hypervisor. When a bare metal compute instance is provisioned, a single customer or tenant maintains control over the physical CPUs, memory, and network interfaces of the host machine hosting the bare metal instance, and the host machine is not shared with other customers or tenants.

[0161] 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 communication of data 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 ​ the embodiment depicted in, host machine 702 executes virtual machine compute instance 768 associated with VNIC 776, and VNIC 776 is executed by NVD 710 connected to host machine 702. As another example, bare metal instance 772 hosted by host machine 706 is associated with VNIC 780 executed by NVD 712 connected to host machine 706. As yet another example, VNIC 784 is associated with compute instance 774 executed by host machine 708, and VNIC 784 is executed by NVD 712 connected to host machine 708.

[0162] For a compute instance hosted by a host machine, the NVD connected to that host machine also executes a VCN VR corresponding to the VCN of which the compute instance is a member. For example, in the embodiment depicted in ​ NVD 710 executes VCN VR 777 corresponding to the VCN of which compute instance 768 is a member. NVD 712 can also execute one or more VCN VRs 783 corresponding to the VCNs corresponding to the compute instances hosted by host machines 706 and 708.

[0163] The host machine may include one or more network interface cards (NICs) that enable the host machine to connect to other devices. The NICs 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 an 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).

[0164] For example, in<( ​ host machine 702 is connected to NVD 710 using link 720, which extends between port 734 provided by NIC 732 of host machine 702 and port 736 of NVD 710. Host machine 706 is connected to NVD 712 using link 724, which extends between port 746 provided by NIC 744 of host machine 706 and port 748 of NVD 712. Host machine 708 is connected to NVD 712 using link 726, which extends between port 752 provided by NIC 750 of host machine 708 and port 754 of NVD 712.

[0165] The NVDs are in turn connected via communication links to top-of-rack (TOR) switches, which are connected to a physical network 718 (also referred to as a switch fabric). In some embodiments, the links between the host machines and the NVDs and between the NVDs and the TOR switches are Ethernet links. For example, in ​ NVDs 710 and 712 are connected to TOR switches 714 and 716 using links 728 and 730, respectively. In some embodiments, links 720, 724, 726, 728, and 730 are Ethernet links. The collection of host machines and NVDs connected to the TORs is sometimes referred to as a rack.

[0166] The physical network 718 provides a communication fabric that enables the TOR switches to communicate with each other. The physical network 718 may be a multi-layer network. In some implementations, the physical network 718 is a multi-layer Clos network of switches, where TOR switches 714 and 716 represent the leaf-level nodes of the multi-layer and multi-node physical switching network 718. 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 depicted in ​ and described below.

[0167] ]There may be various different connection configurations between the host machines and the NVDs, such as one-to-one configurations, many-to-one configurations, one-to-many configurations, etc. In a one-to-one configuration implementation, each host machine is connected to its own separate NVD. For example, in​ In [the figure], host machine 702 is connected to NVD 710 via the NIC 732 of host machine 702. In a multi-to-one configuration, multiple host machines are connected to one NVD. For example, in ​ [the figure], host machines 706 and 708 are respectively connected to the same NVD 712 via NICs 744 and 750.

[0168] In a one-to-many configuration, one host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. ​ An example within CSPI 800 is shown, where a host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. As ​ shown in [the figure], host machine 802 includes a network interface card (NIC) 804, which includes multiple ports 806 and 808. Host machine 800 is connected to a first NVD 810 via port 806 and link 820, and is connected to a second NVD 812 via port 808 and link 822. Ports 806 and 808 can be Ethernet ports, and the links 820 and 822 between host machine 802 and NVDs 810 and 812 can be Ethernet links. NVD 810 is further connected to a first TOR switch 814 and NVD 812 is connected to a second TOR switch 816. The links between NVDs 810, 812 and TOR switches 814, 816 can be Ethernet links. TOR switches 814 and 816 represent layer 0 switching devices in the multi-layer physical network 818.

[0169] ​ The arrangement depicted in [the figure] provides two separate physical network paths to and from the physical switch network 818 to host machine 802: the first path passes through TOR switch 814 to NVD 810 and then to host machine 802, and the second path passes through TOR switch 816 to NVD 812 and then to host machine 802. The separate paths provide enhanced availability (referred to as high availability) for host machine 802. If there is a problem with a path (e.g., a link in one of the paths is broken) or a device (e.g., a particular NVD is not operating), then the other path can be used for communication to / from host machine 802.

[0170] In ​ the configuration depicted in [the figure], the host machine uses two different ports provided by the NIC of the host machine to connect to two different NVDs. In other embodiments, the host machine can include multiple NICs that enable the host machine to connect to multiple NVDs.

[0171] Referring back to ​, the NVD is a physical device or component that performs one or more network and / or storage virtualization functions. The NVD can be any device having one or more processing units (e.g., CPU, network processing unit (NPU), FPGA, packet processing pipeline, etc.), memory including caches, and ports. Various virtualization functions can be performed by software / firmware executed by one or more processing units of the NVD.

[0172] The NVD can be implemented in various different forms. For example, in some embodiments, the NVD is implemented as an interface card called a smartNIC or a smart NIC with an on-board embedded processor. A smartNIC is a device separate from the NIC on the host machine. In ​ , the NVDs 710 and 712 can be implemented as smartNICs connected to the host machine 702 and the host machines 706 and 708 respectively.

[0173] However, the smartNIC is just one example of an NVD implementation. Various other implementations are possible. For example, in some other embodiments, the NVD or one or more functions performed by the NVD can be incorporated into or performed by one or more host machines, one or more TOR switches, and other components of the CSPI 700. For example, the NVD can be implemented in a host machine, where the functions performed by the NVD are performed by the host machine. As another example, the NVD can be part of a TOR switch, or the TOR switch can be configured to perform the functions performed by the NVD, which enables the TOR switch to perform various complex packet conversions for a public cloud. A TOR that performs the functions of an NVD is sometimes referred to as a smart TOR. In other embodiments that provide virtual machine (VM) instances rather than bare metal (BM) instances to customers, the functions performed by the NVD can be implemented inside the hypervisor of the host machine. In some other embodiments, some of the functions of the NVD can be offloaded to a centralized service running on a group of host machines.

[0174] In some embodiments, such as when implemented as a smartNIC as shown in ​ , the NVD can include multiple physical ports that enable it to connect to one or more host machines and one or more TOR switches. The ports on the NVD can be classified as host-facing ports (also called "south ports") or network-facing or TOR-facing ports (also called "north ports"). The host-facing ports of the NVD are the ports used to connect the NVD to the host machine. ​ Examples of host-facing ports in​ Examples of network-facing ports include port 756 on NVD 710 and port 758 on NVD 712. As ​ shown, NVD 710 is connected to TOR switch 714 using link 728 that extends from port 756 of NVD 710 to TOR switch 714. Similarly, NVD 712 is connected to TOR switch 716 using link 730 that extends from port 758 of NVD 712 to TOR switch 716.

[0175] The NVD receives packets and frames from a host machine via host-facing ports (e.g., packets and frames generated by a compute instance hosted by the host machine), and after performing necessary packet processing, can forward the packets and frames to a TOR switch via the network-facing ports of the NVD. The NVD can receive packets and frames from a TOR switch via the network-facing ports of the NVD, and after performing necessary packet processing, can forward the packets and frames to the host machine via the host-facing ports of the NVD.

[0176] In some embodiments, there can be multiple ports and associated links between the NVD and the TOR switch. These ports and links can be aggregated to form an aggregate group of multiple ports or links (referred to as a LAG). 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 within a given LAG can operate at the same speed in full-duplex mode. A LAG helps increase the bandwidth and reliability of the connection between two endpoints. If one of the physical links within a LAG fails, then traffic will be dynamically and transparently re-assigned to one of the other physical links within the LAG. The aggregated physical links deliver a higher bandwidth than each individual link. The multiple ports associated with a LAG are treated as a single logical port. Traffic can be load-balanced across the multiple physical links of a LAG. One or more LAGs can be configured between two endpoints. These two endpoints can be located between the NVD and the TOR switch, between the host machine and the NVD, and so on.

[0177] The NVD implements or executes network virtualization functions. These functions are executed by software / firmware executed by the NVD. Examples of network virtualization functions include, but are not limited to: packet encapsulation and decapsulation functions; functions for creating VCN networks; functions for implementing network policies, such as VCN security list (firewall) functionality; functions for facilitating the routing and forwarding of packets to and from compute instances in a VCN; and so on. In certain embodiments, after receiving a packet, the NVD is configured to execute a packet processing pipeline for processing the packet and determine how to forward or route the packet. As part of this packet processing pipeline, the NVD may execute one or more virtual functions associated with an overlay network, such as executing a VNIC associated with a compute instance in a VCN, executing a virtual router (VR) associated with a VCN, encapsulating and decapsulating packets to facilitate forwarding or routing in a virtual network, executing certain gateways (e.g., local peer gateways), implementing security lists, network security groups, network address translation (NAT) functionality (e.g., translating public IPs to private IPs on a per-host basis), throttling functions, and other functions.

[0178] In certain embodiments, the packet processing data path in the NVD may include multiple packet pipelines, each packet pipeline consisting of a series of packet transformation stages. In certain implementations, after receiving a packet, the packet is parsed and classified into a single pipeline. The packet is then processed linearly, stage by stage, until the packet is discarded or sent out through an interface of the NVD. These stages provide basic functional packet processing building blocks (e.g., validating headers, enforcing throttling, inserting new layer 2 headers, enforcing L4 firewalls, VCN encapsulation / decapsulation, etc.) so that new pipelines can be constructed by combining existing stages, and new functionality can be added by creating new stages and inserting them into existing pipelines.

[0179] The NVD can execute both control plane and data plane functions corresponding to the control plane and data plane of a VCN. Examples of the VCN control plane are also depicted in ​ , ​ , ​ and ​ (see reference numerals 1916, 2016, 2116, and 2216) and are described below. Examples of the VCN data plane are also in ​ , ​ , ​ and ​Depicted (see reference numerals 1918, 2018, 2118, and 2218) and described below. The control plane functions include functions for configuring the network for how control data is forwarded (e.g., setting up routes and routing tables, configuring VNICs, etc.). In some embodiments, a VCN control plane is provided that centrally computes all overlay-to-substrate mappings and publishes them to the 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 the mappings relevant to that NVD. The data plane functions include the function of actually routing / forwarding data 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 pass through the substrate network. The encapsulation / decapsulation functionality is implemented on the NVD. In some embodiments, the NVD is configured to intercept all network packets going in and out of the host machine and perform network virtualization functions.

[0180] As indicated above, the NVD performs various virtualization functions, including VNIC and VCN VR. The NVD can perform VNICs associated with computing instances hosted by one or more host machines connected to the VNIC. For example, as ​ depicted, the NVD 710 performs the functionality of the VNIC 776 associated with the computing instance 768 hosted by the host machine 702 connected to the NVD 710. As another example, the NVD 712 performs the VNIC 780 associated with the bare-metal computing instance 772 hosted by the host machine 706 and the VNIC 784 associated with the computing instance 774 hosted by the host machine 708. The host machine can host computing instances belonging to different VCNs (which belong to different customers), and the NVDs connected to the host machine can perform the VNICs corresponding to the computing instances (i.e., perform VNIC-related functionality).

[0181] The NVD also performs the VCN virtual router corresponding to the VCN of the computing instance. For example, in the ​ embodiment depicted, the NVD 710 performs the VCN VR 777 corresponding to the VCN to which the computing instance 768 belongs. The NVD 712 performs one or more VCN VRs 783 corresponding to one or more VCNs to which the computing instances hosted by the host machines 706 and 708 belong. In some embodiments, the VCN VR corresponding to that VCN is performed by all NVDs connected to the host machine hosting at least one computing instance belonging to that VCN. If the host machine hosts computing instances belonging to different VCNs, then the NVDs connected to that host machine can perform the VCN VRs corresponding to those different VCNs.

[0182] In addition to VNICs and VCN VRs, the NVD can execute various software (e.g., daemons) and includes components, one or more of which facilitate the various network virtualization functions performed by the NVD. For simplicity, these various components are grouped together as the ​ "packet processing components" shown in. For example, NVD 710 includes packet processing component 786 and NVD 712 includes packet processing component 788. For example, the packet processing components for the NVD can include a packet processor configured to interact with the ports and hardware interfaces of the NVD to monitor all packets received by and transmitted using the NVD and store network information. The network information can include, for example, network flow information identifying different network flows handled by the NVD and per-flow information (e.g., per-flow statistics). In some embodiments, the network flow information can be stored on a per-VNIC basis. The packet processor can perform per-packet manipulation and implement stateful NAT and L4 firewall (FW). As another example, the packet processing component can include a replication agent configured to copy information stored by the NVD to one or more different replication target repositories. As yet another example, the packet processing component can include a logging agent configured to perform the logging function of the NVD. The packet processing components can also include software for monitoring the performance and health of the NVD and also potentially the state and health of other components connected to the NVD.

[0183] ​ Shows the components of an example virtual or overlay network, including a VCN, subnets within the VCN, compute instances deployed on the subnets, VNICs associated with the compute instances, a VR for the VCN, and a collection of gateways configured for the VCN. ​ The overlay components depicted in can be executed or hosted by one or more of the ​ physical components depicted in. For example, a compute instance in a VCN can be executed or hosted by one or more of the ​ host machines depicted in. For a compute instance hosted by a host machine, the VNIC associated with that compute instance is typically executed by an NVD connected to that host machine (i.e., VNIC functionality is provided by the NVD connected to that host machine). The VCN VR functionality for a VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to the host machine that hosts or executes the compute instances that are part of that VCN. Gateways associated with a VCN can be executed by one or more different types of NVDs. For example, some gateways can be executed by smartNICs, while other gateways can be executed by one or more host machines or other implementations of NVDs.

[0184] As described above, the compute instances in the customer VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints, where the endpoints can be within the same subnet as the source compute instance, in a different subnet but within the same VCN as the source compute instance, or the endpoints are outside the VCN of the source compute instance. The VNICs associated with the compute instances, the VCN VR, and the gateways associated with the VCN are used to facilitate these communications.

[0185] For communication between two compute instances on the same subnet in a VCN, the VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances are used to facilitate the communication. The source and destination compute instances can be hosted by the same host machine or different host machines. Packets originating from the source compute instance can be forwarded from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. At the NVD, the packets are processed using a packet processing pipeline, which can include the execution of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Since the destination endpoint of the packet is within the same subnet, the execution of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance causes the packet to be forwarded to the NVD that executes the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance, which then processes the packet and forwards it to the destination compute instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances can be executed on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs). The VNIC can use the routing / forwarding table stored by the NVD to determine the next hop of the packet.

[0186] For packets to be transmitted from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet within the same VCN, the packets originating from the source compute instance are transmitted from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. At the NVD, the packets are processed using a packet processing pipeline, which can include the execution of one or more VNICs and the VR associated with the VCN. For example, as part of the packet processing pipeline, the NVD executes or invokes the functionality of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance (also referred to as executing the VNIC). The functionality executed by the VNIC can include examining the VLAN tag on the packet. Since the destination of the packet is outside the subnet, the NVD then calls and executes the VCN VR functionality. The VCN VR then routes the packet to the NVD that executes the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance. The VNIC associated with the destination compute instance then processes the packet and forwards the packet to the destination compute instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances can be executed on the same NVD (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs).

[0187] If the destination of the packet is outside the VCN of the source compute instance, then the packets originating from the source compute instance are transmitted from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. The NVD executes the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Since the destination endpoint of the packet is outside the VCN, the packet is then processed by the VCN VR for that VCN. The NVD calls the VCN VR functionality, which may result in the packet being forwarded to the NVD that executes 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 can be forwarded by the VCN VR to the NVD that executes the DRG gateway configured for the VCN. The VCN VR can be executed on the same NVD as the NVD that executes the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, or by a different NVD. The gateway can be executed by the NVD, which can be a smartNIC, a host machine, or other NVD implementations. The packet is then processed by the gateway and forwarded to the next hop, which facilitates the transmission of the packet to its intended destination endpoint. For example, in ​In the illustrated embodiment, data packets originating from compute instance 768 can be transferred from host machine 702 to NVD 710 via link 720 (using NIC 732). At NVD 710, VNIC 776 is invoked because it is the VNIC associated with source compute instance 768. VNIC 776 is configured to examine the information encapsulated in the data packet and determine the next hop for forwarding the data packet, with the aim of facilitating the transfer of the data packet to its intended destination endpoint, and then forwarding the data packet to the determined next hop.

[0188] Compute instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 700 and endpoints external to CSPI 700. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 700 can include instances within the same VCN or other VCNs, which can be the customer's VCNs or VCNs that do not belong to the customer. Communication between endpoints hosted by CSPI 700 can be performed via physical network 718. Compute instances can also communicate with endpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 700 or are external to CSPI 700. Examples of these endpoints include endpoints or data centers within the customer's on-premises network, or public endpoints accessible via a public network (such as the Internet). Communication with endpoints external to CSPI 700 can be performed via a public network (e.g., the Internet) ( ​ not shown in ​ the figure) or a private network (

[0189] ​ The architecture of CSPI 700 depicted in the figure is merely an example and is not intended to be limiting. In alternative embodiments, variations, alternatives, and modifications are possible. For example, in some implementations, CSPI 700 can have more or fewer systems or components than ​ the systems or components shown in the figure, two or more systems can be combined, or it can have a different system configuration or arrangement. ​ The systems, subsystems, and other components depicted in the figure can be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the respective systems, using hardware, or a combination thereof. The software can be stored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., a memory device).

[0190] ​ Depicts the connectivity between a host machine and an NVD according to certain embodiments for providing I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy. As ​As depicted in, host machine 902 executes hypervisor 904 that provides a virtualized environment. Host machine 902 executes two virtual machine instances, VM1 906 belonging to customer / tenant #1 and VM2 908 belonging to customer / tenant #2. Host machine 902 includes physical NIC 910 connected to NVD 912 via link 914. Each computing instance is attached to a VNIC executed by NVD 912. In ​ the embodiment of, VM1 906 is attached to VNIC-VM1 920 and VM2 908 is attached to VNIC-VM2 922.

[0191] As ​ shown in, NIC 910 includes two logical NICs, logical NIC A 916 and logical NIC B 918. Each virtual machine is attached to its own logical NIC and is configured to work with its own logic. For example, VM1 906 is attached to logical NIC A 916, and VM2 908 is attached to logical NIC B 918. Although host machine 902 includes only one physical NIC 910 shared by multiple tenants, due to the logical NICs, each tenant's virtual machine believes they have their own host machine and NIC.

[0192] In some embodiments, each logical NIC is assigned its own VLAN ID. Thus, a specific VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC A 916 for tenant #1, and a different VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC B 918 for tenant #2. When a data packet is transmitted from VM1 906, the tag assigned to tenant #1 is attached to the data packet by the hypervisor, and then the data packet is transmitted from host machine 902 to NVD 912 via link 914. In a similar manner, when a data packet is transmitted from VM2 908, the tag assigned to tenant #2 is attached to the data packet by the hypervisor, and then the data packet is transmitted from host machine 902 to NVD 912 via link 914. Accordingly, data packet 924 transmitted from host machine 902 to NVD 912 has an associated tag 926 that identifies the specific tenant and the associated VM. At the NVD, for data packet 924 received from host machine 902, the tag 926 associated with the data packet is used to determine whether the data packet is to be processed by VNIC-VM1 920 or by VNIC-VM2 922. The data packet is then processed by the corresponding VNIC. ​ The configuration depicted in enables each tenant's computing instance to believe they have their own host machine and NIC. ​ The setup depicted in provides I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy.

[0193] ​Depicts a simplified block diagram of a physical network 1000 according to certain embodiments. ​ The embodiments depicted in ​ are structured as a Clos network. A Clos network is a particular 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. ​ The embodiments depicted in ​ are three-layer networks, including Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3. The TOR switch 1004 represents the Layer 0 switch in the Clos network. One or more NVDs are connected to the TOR switch. The Layer 0 switch is also referred to as an edge device of the physical network. The Layer 0 switch is connected to the Layer 1 switches, also known as leaf switches. In ​ the embodiments depicted in ​ , a set of "n" Layer 0 TOR switches is connected to a set of "n" Layer 1 switches and forms a pod. Each Layer 0 switch in the pod is interconnected to all the Layer 1 switches in that pod, but there is no switch connectivity between pods. In some implementations, two pods are referred to as a block. Each block is served by or connected to a set of "n" Layer 2 switches (sometimes referred to as spine 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 referred to as super spine switches). Communication of data packets on the physical network 1000 is typically performed using one or more Layer 3 communication protocols. Generally, all layers of the physical network (except the TOR layer) are n-way redundant, thus allowing for high availability. Policies can be specified for pods and blocks to control the visibility of switches to each other in the physical network, thereby enabling scaling of the physical network.

[0194] A characteristic of a Clos network is that the 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) is fixed. For example, in a three-layer Clos network, a data packet requires a maximum of seven hops to reach another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Similarly, in a four-layer Clos network, a data packet requires a maximum of nine hops to reach another NVD, where the source and destination NVDs are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Thus, the Clos network architecture maintains consistent latency throughout the network, which is important for communication 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 each layer (e.g., more leaf switches and spine switches) and by increasing the number of links between switches in adjacent layers.

[0195] 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 information for the resource and can be used to manage the resource, e.g., via the console or through an API. An example syntax for a CID is:

[0196] ocid1.<RESOURCE TYPE>. <realm>.[REGION][.FUTURE USE]. <uniqueid>

[0197] Among them,

[0198] ocid1: A text string indicating the version of the CID;

[0199] resource type: The type of the resource (e.g., instance, volume, VCN, subnet, user, group, etc.);

[0200] 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, etc. Each realm can have its own domain name;

[0201] region: The region where the resource is located. If this region is not applicable to the resource, then this part may be empty;

[0202] future use: Reserved for future use.

[0203] uniqueID: The unique part of the ID. The format can vary depending on the type of the resource or service.

[0204] ​

[0205] CSPI (e.g., regarding ​ and ​ The described CSPI 601 and 700 can be configured to provide cloud integration services. At least a portion of the cloud integration services are provided using a cloud bridge service (e.g., Oracle Cloud Bridge (OCB)) for managing and configuring remote resources that interact with other cloud services provided by CSPI. The cloud bridge addresses key aspects of this integration, including automatic discovery and identification of remote resources, representing remote resources as assets in a user's tenancy, secure network connectivity between the remote resources and CSPI, lifecycle management of the proxy technology running in the remote environment, and assisting in migrating existing user workloads from external environments to CSPI. The cloud bridge enables users to give remote resources (e.g., databases, compute nodes, etc.) a virtual presence within CSPI for seamless interaction with other cloud services provided by CSPI. To enable the virtual presence, the cloud bridge provides a unique cloud identifier (CloudID, resource policies, etc.) and remote network connectivity for service interaction. This allows the cloud bridge to be the single location for users to orchestrate and manage CSPI proxy functionality on remote resources. For users, the cloud bridge provides a unified, cloud-centric experience between cloud-native resources and remote resources, minimizing setup in the remote environment. For the CSPI service team, the cloud bridge simplifies environment integration by allowing services to interact with remote resources as if they were cloud resources and by providing a standardized framework for deploying and managing remote proxy functionality. This enables the CSPI service team to focus on the core cloud experience without having to worry about remote connectivity or software lifecycle management.

[0206] The cloud bridge is managed and configured via a console (e.g., the CSPI console described with respect to ​ and ​ ), application programming interfaces (APIs), and software development kits (SDKs). The management and configuration of the cloud bridge focuses on three basic resource types - environments, proxies, and assets. Users create environments for each location where they expect to access other cloud services provided by CSPI. Environments serve as containers for assets and define the scope for managing default policies at that location.

[0207] The agent is part of a virtual machine created by the user from an image provided by Cloud Bridge. The agent serves as an extension of the Cloud Bridge services in a remote environment and is monitored, updated, and operated by CSPI based on the configuration of the associated environment. The agent provides basic Cloud Bridge services such as remote asset discovery and inventory integration and includes a framework for executing service-specific plugins in the environment. For example, the Oracle Cloud Migration service deploys a replication plugin that creates a virtual machine snapshot and uploads it to OCI for migration to OCI compute. Cloud Bridge allows users to select from an agent-based service catalog and automatically deploys the associated functionality into the environment. Cloud Bridge will monitor the deployed agents and software versions and provide manually triggered or automated lifecycle management. For redundancy and performance reasons, multiple agents may exist in the same environment.

[0208] An asset is a CSPI resource that represents a remote resource discovered by the agent, captures its characteristics in the remote environment, and provides CSPI characteristics (e.g., CloudID, resource policies, etc.) for use in other cloud services provided by CSPI. Users can manually add assets or trigger automatic discovery in the environment based on integration with infrastructure / system management products such as Oracle Enterprise Manager and Microsoft Active Directory. CSPI applies default access policies based on the asset type. For example, database assets may default to allowing only SSL-encrypted SQLNet connections. Environments and discovered assets can be managed through an asset inventory exposed to the user via the console. Users can select to perform any action on an asset depending on the asset type and the service plugins available for the asset type. For example, the virtual machine asset type may support multiple actions: cloud migration (e.g., using Oracle Cloud Migration as described in detail herein), expose as a VNIC with virtual networking, or ship metrics to CSPI with observability. The database asset type can similarly support integration with various database services such as Data Safe and Database Migration services. Cloud Bridge can also integrate with various data management services such as the Management Agent Cloud Service (MACS) agents, which provide on-guest agent and agent plugin capabilities for collecting additional metadata about the assets. The MACS agents can use the Cloud Bridge agent framework, so the integration and capabilities are seamless for the user.

[0209] ​ is a high-level diagram of a distributed environment 1100 of a cloud bridge architecture for managing and configuring remote resources that interact with cloud services according to certain embodiments. As ​ shown in the example depicted, the distributed environment 1100 includes a cloud infrastructure 1102 (CSPI), which is physically hosted in one or more global regions 1103 (i.e., data centers managed by a cloud service provider such as Oracle), and provides high-performance computing capabilities (as physical or virtual hardware instances) and storage capacity in a flexible overlay virtual network that can be securely accessed from a user's on-premises network (e.g., on-premises network 1104 and / or on-premises network 1106). CSPI 1102 includes a console 1108 that enables users and network administrators to configure, access, and manage remote resources and resources deployed in the cloud using CSPI resources. In certain embodiments, the console 1108 provides a web-based user interface that can be used to access and manage CSPI 1102 and various service functions, including cloud bridge and migration services. In some implementations, the console 1108 is a web-based application provided by the CSP.

[0210] The CSP can use CSPI 1102 to provide various services. In some cases, users of CSPI 1102 themselves can act like service providers and use CSPI 1102 resources to provide services. Service providers can expose service endpoints characterized by identification information (e.g., IP address, DNS name, and port). A user's resources (e.g., compute instances, on-premises resources, externally deployed resources, etc.) can use a particular service by accessing the service endpoint exposed by the service for that particular service. These service endpoints are generally endpoints that can be publicly accessed by users via a public communication network such as the Internet using the public IP address associated with the endpoint. In certain embodiments, a service provider can expose services (e.g., CSA, CSB, CSC, CSD, CSE) via endpoints for the service (sometimes referred to as service endpoints) (e.g., cloud service A, cloud service B, cloud service C, cloud service D, cloud service E). Users of the service can then use this service endpoint to access the service. In certain implementations, the service endpoints provided for a service can be accessed by multiple users who intend to consume the service. In other implementations, dedicated service endpoints can be provided for a user such that only that user can use the dedicated service endpoint to access the service.

[0211] The CSPI 1102 provides services and resources that users can subscribe to and use to build their VCNs. In some embodiments, the CSPI 1102 provisions IaaS and iPaaS services for subscribed users. In this example, the user has configured the VCN 1110 for the global region 1103. The user can deploy various compute instances on the VCN 1110, where the compute instances can include virtual machines or bare metal instances. Examples of instances include applications, databases, load balancers, etc. Multiple compute instances can be deployed on each subnet. In ​ the depicted embodiment, the VCN 1110 includes a single subnet 1112; however, it should be understood that the VCN 1110 can be configured with any number of subnets. The compute instances in the subnet can be hosted by one or more host machines within the CSPI 1102. The compute instances participate in the subnet via the VNIC associated with the compute instance, as described in detail with respect to ​ the.

[0212] Compute instances deployed on a subnet (such as subnet 1112 of VCN 1110) can communicate with various different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by the CSPI 1102 and endpoints external to the CSPI 1102. Endpoints hosted by the CSPI 1102 can include: endpoints on the same subnet as a particular compute instance; endpoints on different subnets but within the same VCN; endpoints in different VCNs within the same region; or endpoints in VCNs in different regions. Compute instances in a subnet hosted by the CSPI 1102 can also communicate with endpoints not hosted by the CSPI 1102 (i.e., located external to the CSPI 1102). These external endpoints include endpoints in the user's on-premises network (e.g., on-premises network 1104 and / or on-premises network 1106), endpoints within other remote cloud-hosted networks, public endpoints accessible via a public network (such as the Internet), and other endpoints.

[0213] The user's on-premises network 1104 and / or on-premises network 1106 can be a user network or user data center built using the user's resources. Although in ​ In the user's system, external resources are all shown as on-premises, but it should be understood that these resources can also be externally deployed, such as being part of a VCN in a CSPI of a different CSP. Access to the on-premises network 1104 and / or the on-premises network 1106 is generally very restricted. For users who have both the user's on-premises network 1104 and / or the on-premises network 1106 and one or more VCNs 1110 deployed or hosted in the cloud by the CSPI 1102, the user may want to allow cloud services (e.g., cloud services A - E) to interact with the user's external resources (e.g., on-premises database 1116, on-premises virtual machine 1118, on-premises database 1120, etc.). This enables the user to build an extended hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environment that encompasses the user's VCN 104 hosted by the CSPI 101 and their external resources. The cloud bridge service enables this interaction. To enable this interaction, a communication channel 1122 is established, where one endpoint of the channel is located in the on-premises network 1104 and / or the on-premises network 1106, and the other endpoint is located in the CSPI 1102 and connected to the user VCN 1110. The communication channel 1122 can be through a public communication network (such as the Internet) or a private communication network. Various communication protocols can be used, such as IPsec VPN technology through a public communication network (such as the Internet), Oracle's FastConnect technology that uses a private network instead of a public network, etc. The software or virtual machine in the user's on-premises network 1104 and / or the on-premises network 1106 that forms one endpoint of the communication channel 1122 is called the proxy 1124. On the CSPI 1102 side, the endpoint (e.g., DB1, DB2, VM1) can be the host machine that executes a gateway (such as a DRG).

[0214] The cloud bridge service includes the following three main functions: proxy, asset discovery, and asset inventory.

[0215] The proxy function enables the cloud services provided by CSPI 1102 to interact with the user's external resources (e.g., on-premises database 1116, on-premises virtual machine 1118, and on-premises database 1120). The proxy function is implemented using proxy 1124 and its corresponding cloud bridge control plane 1125 (also referred to as the proxy control plane). Proxy 1124 is a dedicated software component that serves as a platform for deploying cloud service capabilities to interact with external resources. Each proxy 1124 has a corresponding proxy identifier (e.g., a CSPI identifier for identifying an asset as a CSPI 1102 resource), and this proxy identifier is associated with an external site identifier (e.g., externalSiteId) of the external environment (e.g., on-premises network 1104 and / or on-premises network 1106) in which the proxy 1124 is deployed. The external site identifier is used to identify the external environment in which the external resources and the proxy are deployed. The proxy control plane 1125 provides management and orchestration across the cloud bridge architecture, such as proxy registration and proxy lifecycle management.

[0216] The asset discovery function enables the understanding of the user's resources in the external environment (e.g., on-premises network 1104 and / or on-premises network 1106) and the creation / updating of assets that represent the resources in the cloud bridge inventory 1126. An asset is a CSPI 1102 resource that represents metadata of resources existing in the external environment such as vSphere VMs, EC2 instances, databases, etc. Each asset has an asset type that defines different kinds of assets, an asset identifier (e.g., a CSPI identifier for identifying an asset as a CSPI 1102 resource), an associated external site identifier, and a source identifier for the discovery plugin that identified the resource associated with the asset. The asset discovery function is implemented using discovery plugin 1127 integrated with proxy 1125 and its corresponding discovery control plane 1128. Discovery plugin 1127 is a software component deployed in the external environment and provides functions such as asset discovery, metadata and metric collection, and reporting of resources and metadata to inventory 1126. The discovery control plane 1128 includes one or more applications deployed in the overlay layer and supported by a data repository (e.g., an autonomous transaction processing (ATP) data repository), and is responsible for handling asset discovery-related requests received from the customer-facing API, as well as the communication and coordination of tasks for discovery plugin 1127.

[0217] The Asset Inventory feature enables storing metadata about assets and relationships discovered by asset discovery or imported by the user. The Asset Inventory also exposes user-facing APIs for creating, retrieving, searching, and analyzing various assets. The Asset Inventory is implemented using Inventory 1126 and its corresponding Inventory Control Plane 1130. Inventory 1126 is a region-specific CSPI 1102 resource (e.g., a data table or database) that supports standard CRUDL operations. The Inventory Control Plane 1130 is an application deployed in the overlay, supported by a data repository (e.g., an ATP data repository), and is responsible for handling asset inventory-related requests received from the user-facing APIs, as well as the communication and coordination of tasks for Inventory 1126 and assets. In some embodiments, the Asset Inventory feature is limited to a single inventory per region. Advantageously, this helps eliminate duplicate assets in a tenancy. Avoiding duplicate assets helps downstream services, such as migration services and replication services, to avoid copying the same VM data multiple times and to avoid creating multiple CSPI 1102 resources for the same asset. This also provides the user with a global view of their assets in different external environments (e.g., multi-cloud services).

[0218] As ​ and 11C shown, the Agent 1124 is deployed as part of the Virtual Appliance 1132 within the user's external environment (e.g., the on-premises network 1104 and / or the on-premises network 1106). The Virtual Appliance 1132 is a virtual machine pre-configured with agent software, plugins, and management components. The main components of the Virtual Appliance 1132 are the Agent Service Subsystem 1134, the Update Service Subsystem 1136, and the Security Service Subsystem 1138. The Agent Service Subsystem 1134 provides lifecycle management for the agent core functionality and plugins (such as the Discovery Plugin 1127 and the Replication Plugin 1140). This includes collecting plugin status and reporting back to the Agent Control Plane 112, generating and communicating agent metrics (e.g., CPU, memory, etc.) to CSPI monitoring, publishing local logs (e.g., device, agent, and its plugins) to CSPI logging, and performing local console application functions (e.g., the local console 1145 for agent registration).

[0219] The plugins are self - contained / stand - alone applications that integrate with the Agent 1124 and are part of the virtual appliances 1132 created by the user on an external environment according to an OVA template. The OVA template is a virtual appliance in the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) used by virtualization applications such as VMware Workstation and Oracle VM Virtualbox. The user can use the OVA template to create multiple virtual machines (e.g., multiple VMs for agent functionality in multiple external environments). In some embodiments, the OVA template is sealed (preventing remote user access) and does not allow the user to execute arbitrary code on the virtual appliance 1132. The user can only interact with the OVA template via the local console 1145 for registration, and all other management operations are coordinated from the CSPI 1102 using the virtual appliance 1132. The Agent 1124 provides the environment / configuration information (e.g., CSPI 1102 region, external site identifier, agent identifier, agent type, etc.) to the plugins and the information required for the plugins to obtain one or more resource principal session tokens to communicate with the CSPI 1102. The Agent 1124 also provides monitoring capabilities (metrics and logging) and reports the status of the plugins back to the Agent Control Plane 1125. The Agent 1124 itself is not publicly accessible from the Internet, and the Agent 1124 and the associated plugins initiate connections to the CSPI 1102 API endpoints (either via direct connectivity or a corporate proxy).

[0220] As described with respect to ​ the Discovery Plugin 1127 facilitates discovering the user's resources in an external environment (e.g., on - premise network 1104 and / or on - premise network 1106) and creating / updating assets that represent the resources in the Cloud Bridge Inventory 1126. The Replication Plugin 1140 is deployed to the external environment 1104 and is responsible for copying data from an on - premise VM to the user's CSPI 1102 tenancy (i.e., migrating) using an asset replication task. The asset replication task is the atomic unit of work for the Replication Plugin 1140 to import the user's assets into the CSPI 1102 object store. This approach lowers the migration barrier as it does not require the user to establish an on - premise connectivity to the CSPI 1102 or open ports for communication back to the CSPI 1102 for each asset source (e.g., vCenter). The Replication Plugin 1140 is published in binary form and then deployed by the CSPI 1102 service to the corresponding appliance. Although only the Discovery Plugin 1127 and the Replication Plugin 1140 are shown and described herein with respect to the virtual appliance 1132, it should be understood that other types of plugins can be integrated with the Agent 1124 as part of the virtual appliance 1132 to facilitate providing one or more functions (e.g., cloud services).

[0221] For some functions, the agent 1124 requires third - party libraries / packages that cannot be distributed as part of the agent package and require user consent and special actions. For example, for the cloud migration scope, the replication plug - in 1140 requires the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) to generate snapshots of the disks of VMware VMs. Agent - dependency handling initiated by the user includes: the user downloads the third - party library / package from the associated third - party site, accepts the terms of service, and uploads the library / package to a pre - configured CSPI 1102 object storage bucket. In some cases, the public documentation provided by the CSP provides the user with links and specific instructions on how to perform the download / upload operations, and this can be done once for each dependency version. The user then logs into the console 1108, navigates to the agent - dependency setup, creates a new agent - dependency for the library / package (which includes providing the object location in the object storage (namespace, bucket, object name, etc.) and selects the type of the library / package. This causes the agent control plane 1125 to initiate a dependency - signature verification workflow that downloads and calculates the signature (checksum) of the library / package and compares the library / package signature with the whitelisted signatures in the database to identify and validate the library / package. Once the library / package is identified and verified, the user goes to the console 1108, navigates to the external - site setup, and adds the agent - dependency identifier to the external - site identifier. The agent 1124 then retrieves this information from the agent control plane 1125 and installs the dependency locally and makes it available for the plug - in to consume.

[0222] The Update Service Subsystem 1136 updates the software and parameters of the Agent Service Subsystem 1134 and the Virtual Appliance 1132. The Update Service Subsystem 1136 includes an Updater 1140, which is a software component running on the Virtual Appliance 1132 and is responsible for keeping the Virtual Appliance 1132 up to date. The components of the Agent 1124 are managed by Cloud Bridge engineers. The release of new code (e.g., a new Agent security update) causes a new bundle to be created for a given component of the Agent 1124 (e.g., the Security Service Subsystem 1138). The Updater 1140 maintains a list of currently used components and the versions of the bundles used by each component. A bundle is a concrete implementation or instance of a component. The description of the bundle is stored in a database or an embeddable key / value store of the Agent Control Plane 1125, while the data part is a BLOB stored in the object store of the Agent Control Plane 1125. A BLOB is a binary file that contains an executable file, configuration, and other data required to update the component. The Updater 1140 polls the Agent Control Plane 1125 periodically. When a new bundle is available, the Agent Control Plane 1125 replies to the poll with an "update" command that contains information about the new bundle to be installed. After receiving the "update" command, the Updater 1140 downloads the BLOB, creates a rollback snapshot, prepares a new file system (e.g., a subvolume) with the update based on the BLOB, stops the Agent 1124 processing, and reboots the Agent 1124 into the new file system.

[0223] The Security Service Subsystem 1138 implements security and compliance controls for the Agent Service Subsystem 1134 and the Virtual Appliance 1132 using firewalls, antivirus scanning tools, audit tools, and system configurations.

[0224] The following use cases are provided to facilitate understanding of the Cloud Bridge architecture; however, it should be understood that these use cases are non-limiting and that other use cases are expected and may be implemented by Cloud Bridge within CSPI.

[0225] Use Case 1: Private access to a remote database for a database security cloud service.

[0226] 1. The user creates an external environment: an on-premises network 1104 using the Console 1108.

[0227] 2. The user downloads the OVA template for the Virtual Appliance 1132 and deploys the Agent 1124 in the on-premises network 1104.

[0228] 3. The user accesses the local console 1145 of the Agent 1124 to register the Agent 1124 with Cloud Bridge.

[0229] 4. The user initiates a discovery from the console 1108 to discover resources including the on-premises database 1116 in the on-premises network 1104.

[0230] 5. The proxy 1124 collects host, database, and database object metadata and creates or updates database assets in the inventory 1126 using the discovery plugin 1127, the discovery control plane 1128, and the inventory control plane 1130.

[0231] 6. The user views the discovered database assets in the inventory 1126 via the console 1108, identifies the assets associated with the on-premises database 1116, and creates a database private endpoint (DB1) in the VCN 1110 to enable private network access to the assets associated with the on-premises database 1116 that the user wishes to use with the database security cloud service (Cloud Service A) (e.g., Data Safe).

[0232] 7. The user creates a private endpoint (CSA) in the VCN 1110 for the database security cloud service (Cloud Service A) and configures it to protect the assets associated with the on-premises database 1116 based on CloudID or IP address, just as the user protects cloud-native databases in their VCN 1110.

[0233] 8. Optionally, the user configures a compute instance in the VCN 1110 to connect to the on-premises database 1116 via the private endpoint (DB1) and the communication channel 1122.

[0234] Use Case 2: Private access to a remote virtual machine for a managed data repository.

[0235] 1. The user creates an external environment using the console 1108: the on-premises network 1104.

[0236] 2. The user downloads the OVA template for the virtual appliance 1132 and deploys the proxy 1124 in the on-premises network 1104.

[0237] 3. The user accesses the local console 1145 of the proxy 1124 to register the proxy 1124 with the cloud bridge.

[0238] 4. The user initiates a discovery from the console 1108 to discover resources including the on-premises virtual machine 1118 running a self-hosted Bitbucket server in the on-premises network 1104.

[0239] 5. The proxy 1124 collects host, database, and database object metadata and creates or updates database assets in the inventory 1126 using the discovery plugin 1127, the discovery control plane 1128, and the inventory control plane 1130.

[0240] 6. The user views the discovered VM assets in the inventory 1126 via the console 1108, identifies the assets associated with the on-premises virtual machine 1118, and creates a VM private endpoint (VM1) in the VCN 1110 to enable private network access to the assets associated with the on-premises virtual machine 1118 that the user wishes to use with the VM cloud service (Cloud Service B) (e.g., CSPIDevOps service).

[0241] 7. The user creates a private endpoint (CSB) in the VCN 1110 for the CSPIDevOps service (e.g., self-hosted Bitbucket server) and selects the newly created VM private endpoint (VM1) to configure the connection URL and add authentication credentials.

[0242] 8. The user configures the CSPIDevOps "managed build stage" to use the private endpoint (CSB) and the VM private endpoint (VM1) as part of the DevOps CI / CD pipeline.

[0243] 9. The user executes the pipeline, which can access the data repository from the remote self-hosted Bitbucket server via the private endpoint (CSB), the VM private endpoint (VM1), and the communication channel 1122.

[0244] In some embodiments, the cloud integration service facilitates the migration of workloads from an external environment to CSPI (e.g., regarding ​ and ​ the CSPI 101 and 200 described). The workload migration service helps the user in all aspects of cloud migration: whether migrating multi-tier applications, specific data centers, or specific categories of infrastructure. The cloud migration service (e.g., Oracle Cloud Migration (OCB)) works with the cloud bridge service (e.g., Oracle Cloud Bridge (OCB)) to manage and configure remote resources that interact with other cloud services provided by CSPI. The cloud bridge addresses key aspects of this integration, including the automatic discovery of remote resources and cloud identities, the representation of remote resources as assets in the user's tenancy, the secure network connectivity between remote resources and CSPI, and the lifecycle management of the proxy technology running in the remote environment.

[0245] ​

[0246] The use of cloud services within the CSPI can be facilitated by making it easier to move assets into the CSPI, particularly by making it easier for users to move assets into the CSPI. This can include, for example, migrating on-premises assets such as one or more VMs, databases, etc. into the CSPI.

[0247] A successful migration can include using a framework to discover and explore existing assets such as on-premises assets, and then planning the migration, copying the data, and starting the target environment. ​ The steps of an exemplary migration are depicted. As shown, an exemplary migration can include managing the migrated assets, analyzing and migrating the assets, and verifying the success of the migration.

[0248] The management of the migrated assets can include connecting to the source environment, deploying the virtual agent 1132, and discovering assets on the source environment. The discovery of the migrated assets can include deploying virtual appliances in the on-premises environment, starting one or more plugins (including, for example, the discovery plugin and the copy plugin) in the on-premises environment, and using the copy plugin to manage the copying of source asset snapshots from the source environment.

[0249] Analyzing and migrating the assets can include creating a migration prediction, creating a migration plan, and / or copying the migrated assets. The creation of the migration plan can include the evaluation and planning of the migration. This can include ongoing inventory analysis, which includes statistics, summaries, and histograms regarding the virtual machines in your inventory. In some embodiments, for example, the virtual machines can include metadata and metrics, as well as their history and how they were discovered or imported. The metadata history can be tracked to allow monitoring of the evolution of the virtual machines during a long-running migration process. This can allow the identification and / or highlighting of any changes to the migrated assets that may result in one or more changes to the migration plan in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the evaluation and planning can include creating a migration project that includes a migration plan for copying the virtual machines. In some embodiments, the migration plan can group interrelated and / or interdependent virtual machines that can be migrated together. In some embodiments, the migration plan can be and / or include a mapping of one or more virtual machines to the target resource types in the CPSI. In some embodiments, the migration plan provides the context for starting the virtual machines, including compartments, subnets, and startup dependencies.

[0250] The copying of the assets can include creating assets in the CPSI that replicate the assets in an external customer environment such as, for example, an on-premises environment. In some embodiments, such copying can be performed in part by a copy plugin that can manage the copying of external asset snapshots. In some embodiments, this can include managing one or more full images and / or incremental virtual machine snapshots.

[0251] The migration can be a long-running process and can include one or several test start iterations with various configurations. In some embodiments, these iterations can include continuously refreshing the source data from the source environment and activating the migrated system within the CSPI before the final migration. For example, in an embodiment where a customer is migrating information from a source environment to the CSPI (and specifically to the customer's lease within the CSPI), the customer can repeatedly discover and / or capture on-premises assets and can generate a migration plan for some or all of the time when on-premises assets are discovered. For example, in an embodiment where a customer changes one or several on-premises assets, these changes can be captured and / or discovered by repeatedly iterating to discover these assets. In such an embodiment, a migration can be planned that can capture each of these versions of the customer's assets. In some embodiments, only the final version of the asset is migrated, and in some embodiments, the customer can control which version of the asset is replicated in the CSPI.

[0252] In some embodiments, the planning of the migration can include comparing with the capabilities of the on-premises environment and / or on-premises assets to evaluate the capabilities of the CSPI. In some embodiments, this evaluation can include determining whether and to what extent the on-premises capabilities are different from and / or exceed the CSPI capabilities. Based on this determination, the plan for asset migration can be modified.

[0253] Specifically, for example, during the planning step, the capabilities of the customer's on-premises VMs are identified and one or several VM configurations (recommendations) within the OCI are presented. This includes identifying the attributes of each on-premises VM, including hardware, capabilities, and metrics of actual usage. The attributes can include the number of CPUs, average CPU usage, maximum CPU usage, memory, average memory usage, maximum memory usage, the number of VNICs, the number of GPUs, and / or network bandwidth.

[0254] Based on this information, multiple recommended OCI VM configuration specifications are presented. These VM configuration specifications can be generated and presented in part based on information related to the customer (such as the customer's preference for optimal pricing or optimal performance).

[0255] The attributes of the on-premises VM are compared with the identified attributes of the OCI VM configuration specifications, and a difference score is generated, which characterizes the difference between the attributes of the OCI VM configuration specifications and the attributes of the on-premises VM. When the difference score indicates that the difference between the OCI VM configuration specifications and the attributes of the on-premises VM is too large, an incompatibility error is generated.

[0256] The VM configuration specifications selected by the user are combined to form a migration plan, which can adopt a topographical representation of the migration plan.

[0257] Once the migration plan is complete, the copy step of the migration can be executed. In some embodiments, the copy step is executed once, and in other embodiments, the copy step can be repeatedly executed as the on-premises assets change and / or are modified. In some embodiments, the copy step can include creating a snapshot of one or more assets to be copied and storing the snapshot. In some embodiments, the snapshot can be stored in a golden volume group (GVG). A copy of the snapshot stored in the GVG can be created, modified, and then used to create an executable stack, such as a landscape stack. In some embodiments, the customer can be provided with the executable stack and can modify the executable stack before executing the executable stack, thereby copying the assets in the CSPI, specifically in the customer lease in the CSPI.

[0258] ​ An exemplary embodiment of an architecture 1300 that may be involved in the migration is depicted. As can be seen, the architecture 1300 includes an external customer environment 1302 and a CPSI 1304. The external customer environment 1302 can include any environment different from the CPSI 1304 to which the assets are migrated. In some embodiments, the external customer environment 1302 can include an on-premises environment and / or a CPSI separate from the CPSI 1302.

[0259] The CPSI 1304 and the external customer environment 1302 can be communicatively coupled via a common network 1306. The common network 1306 can be a wired and / or wireless communication network and can include, for example, the public Internet.

[0260] The customer environment 1302 can include a virtual appliance 1132, which can contain a copy plug-in 1308. In some embodiments, the copy plug-in 1308 can be a plug-in that can execute asset copying.

[0261] The external customer environment 1302 can include a centralized management utility 1310 for one or more assets to be copied. The centralized management utility 1310 can be used for one or more VMs. In some embodiments, the centralized management utility 1310 can be used to manage the assets to be copied and / or some or all of the subordinate components of the assets from a single centralized location.

[0262] CPSI 1304 may include a customer lease 1312 and a service lease 1314. The customer lease 1312 may include an object store 1314, a replication server 1316, and a block store 1318. The object store 1314 may be an Internet-scale high-performance storage platform that provides reliable and cost-effective data persistence. In some embodiments, the object store 1314 may store, for example, large amounts of unstructured data. In some embodiments, such unstructured data may be of any content type, including analytics data and rich content such as images and videos.

[0263] The replication server 1316 may be a virtual machine that, in some embodiments, can read one or more asset snapshots and write the one or more snapshots to one or more volumes. In some embodiments, this can effectively save the one or more snapshots in one or more desired locations. In some embodiments, the one or more locations to which one or more assets are written may be volumes corresponding to one or more attributes or all or part of each asset. In some embodiments, and after some modifications, these volumes can then be used to start one or more assets identical to the source assets in the CPSI.

[0264] The block store 1318 may be a storage of structured storage and / or structured data. In some embodiments, the block store may store data, for example, in one or more equally sized blocks. These blocks may be stored in the underlying physical storage in a manner optimized for fast access and retrieval.

[0265] As ​ seen, the service lease may include a device control plane 1320, a migration and replication control plane 1322, a replication control plane 1324, an inventory control plane 1326, and a discovery control plane 1328. In some embodiments, the control planes 1320, 1322, 1326, and 1328 together constitute a control plane that may include the replication control plane 1324. In some embodiments, the replication control plane 1324 may manage the replication of one or more source assets. In some embodiments, the replication control plane 1324 may be and / or include a customer-facing API that can be deployed in the overlay.

[0266] ​

[0267] Cloud computing offers many advantages, but for users with assets in different secure networks, cloud computing may be disadvantageous. For example, a single user may include some assets located in one VCN, or more specifically, within a lease of one VCN, and other assets located in another VCN and / or in an on-premises network. In some embodiments, it may be extremely difficult for the user to access assets between two or more secure networks.

[0268] The present disclosure relates to enabling a user to access assets in one secure network from another secure network. This specifically includes accessing assets in an on-premises network from a VCN. In some embodiments, this may include creating a device and / or creating a user wallet in the on-premises network, which may include the assets. The asset (referred to herein as an external resource) may include, for example, a database and / or a virtual machine (VM). This user wallet, which may be a user server wallet, may include one or several credentials that may be used to authenticate the user, device, and / or session. The one or several credentials may include, for example, one or several certificates, passwords, usernames, etc. In some embodiments, the user wallet may be a user server wallet.

[0269] As used herein, a "wallet" refers to a container that stores information, such as one or several certificates that may be used to establish a secure connection. The information may include, for example, one or several certificate authority ("CA") certificates (trust store), one or several user certificates (key store), etc.

[0270] The present disclosure also includes creating an endpoint in the VCN, referred to herein as an external resource representation. Based on the information contained in the user wallet, a VCN wallet may be created. The VCN wallet may include a VCN client wallet, which may be located in the VCN and / or may be accessible by the VCN.

[0271] [[ID=I1]]The present disclosure also includes creating one or more intermediate containers. The intermediate containers may be provided with the VCN wallet and / or the user wallet and / or access to the VCN wallet and / or the user wallet. Specifically, the intermediate containers may be provided with both the VCN server wallet and / or the user client wallet and / or access to both. The intermediate containers may be configured to generate a session with the on-premises network, specifically, a session with an external resource via a device in the on-premises network. The session may be authenticated by a combination of the user server wallet on the on-premises network and the user client wallet on or accessible by the intermediate container. The session established between the intermediate containers and the on-premises network may include creating a secure tunnel across a public communication network, such as the Internet.

[0272] The intermediate containers may also establish secure communication with the VCN. The secure communication may be established by the VCN server wallet and the VCN client wallet. In some embodiments, the intermediate containers may act as a proxy server to route communication between the on-premises network and the VCN.

[0273] In some embodiments, creating one or more intermediate containers may include creating a network bridge. The network bridge may be a higher-level container resource representing the accessed environment. In some embodiments, the accessed environment may be a customer on-premises environment / network. In some embodiments, a network bridge may be created for each accessed environment. In some embodiments, each network bridge may be associated with the environment at creation, and this association cannot be modified after the network bridge is created. In some embodiments, the network bridge may obtain an IPv4 CIDR list corresponding to the on-premises environment. These CIDRs may be used by the network service to provide private connectivity from the VCN to external resources in the customer on-premises environment within the CIDR range. The point of private connectivity is referred to herein as the network bridge endpoint or private endpoint. In some embodiments, the network bridge endpoint may be attached to the associated network bridge at creation.

[0274] To establish a TLS tunnel to a remote site, the network service may deploy appropriate certificates and key material that can be used in the TLS phase of the tunnel. In some embodiments, each network bridge may be considered a security boundary. Thus, in some embodiments, a private certificate authority ("CA") may be created for each network bridge. In some embodiments, the private CA may be created within the network service lease and may be used to generate leaf certificates to sign certificates only for entities that will initiate for that remote site.

[0275] In some embodiments, to enable the network bridge to connect to the VCN, a virtual appliance with a networking plugin enabled may be configured in the on-premises environment. In some embodiments, the virtual appliance may be installed by the customer in a session of the on-premises network with Internet connectivity. After installation, the networking plugin running on the agent may register with the networking control plane, and thus a NetworkBridgeConnection may be created. The NetworkBridgeConnection may be attached to the network bridge after creation and may be a read-only resource in some embodiments.

[0276] In some embodiments, the customer may install one or more appliances in its on-premises environment, and each appliance may create a separate NetworkBridgeConnection. In some embodiments, the network control plane defaults to starting the security tunnel on only one of the appliances, in other words, only one NetworkBridgeConnection moves to the CONNECTED state. Alternatively, if high availability is enabled, then the security tunnel may be started on two or more devices. In other words, at any given point in time, two or more NetworkBridgeConnections may be in the CONNECTED state.

[0277] Now refer to ​ , which shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a system 1400 for secure network connectivity between secure networks. The system 1400 may include a virtual device 1132, also referred to herein as a virtual proxy 1132. The virtual device 1132 may be a networking plug-in, which may be a sealed VM that does not provide remote access. The virtual device 1132 may be manually created by a customer in an external environment and / or an on-premises deployment environment. In some embodiments, the creation of the virtual device may include downloading the virtual device 1132 to the external environment and / or performing a file installation of the virtual device 1132 in the external environment.

[0278] The system includes an agent 1124, which may be part of the virtual device 1132. The agent 1124 may communicate directly with an agent control plane 1125 via the public Internet (e.g., via a public Internet endpoint). The agent 1124 may manage the lifecycle of the plug-in and may grant an identifier to the plug-in. In some embodiments, the agent control plane 1125 may manage the lifecycle of one or several agents 1124.

[0279] The agent 1124 may include a discovery plug-in 1126 and a networking plug-in 1402. The discovery plug-in 1126 may be an application that is part of a software package that includes the agent. In some embodiments, the software package, and specifically the discovery plug-in 1126, may communicate directly with a discovery control plane 1128 via a public Internet endpoint to orchestrate the discovery of remote resources. In some embodiments, the discovery plug-in 1126 is also responsible for creating assets in an inventory that contains metadata information about the created assets. The discovery control plane 1128 may orchestrate discovery operations via the discovery plug-in 1126. Thus, in some embodiments, the discovery plug-in 1126 may discover resources in an environment (such as an on-premises network 1104) and create assets in an inventory that may contain metadata information related to each discovered asset.

[0280] The system may include an inventory control plane 1130. The inventory control plane 1130 may provide a common repository for assets. The inventory control plane 1130 may provide a single dashboard and / or interface for searching and / or organizing assets.

[0281] System 1400, and more particularly proxy 1124, may include a networking plug-in 1402. The networking plug-in 1402 is the application part of a software package that includes proxy 1124. The networking plug-in 1402 communicates with network service 1404, and more particularly with network service control plane 1406, to orchestrate the creation and / or establishment of a secure connectivity with a VCN via a public Internet endpoint. In some embodiments, the networking plug-in 1402 may communicate with network data plane 1410. In some embodiments, the communication with network data plane 1410 may be via one or several public Internet endpoints. In some embodiments, the communication with network data plane 1410 may be via a secure connection, and more particularly via one or several tunnels (such as one or several VPN tunnels). In some embodiments, these tunnels may be OpenVPN tunnels. In some embodiments, a single proxy may be connected to network data plane 1410 via redundant tunnels, which may be TLS secure tunnels. In some embodiments, the networking plug-in 1402 may orchestrate the creation and establishment of a secure connectivity with VCN 1110 via a public Internet endpoint.

[0282] In some embodiments, the networking plug-in 1302 may act as a bridge between the customer remote environment and data plane 1410. In some embodiments, the networking plug-in 1402 may be pre-packaged with proxy 11247. In some embodiments, the networking plug-in 1402 initiates the creation of an OpenVPN tunnel to data plane 1410 and is also responsible for forwarding data packets in the customer remote environment. The customer may choose to selectively disable plug-in 1402 on the device.

[0283] The system may include network data plane 1410. Network data plane 1410 may be a set of network service VMs that, in some embodiments, may provide a fault-tolerant and redundant data packet flow path from a customer VCN to remote resources. In some embodiments, data plane 1410 may handle data packet forwarding. In some embodiments, network data plane 1410 provides a secure connectivity with a database in a remote site by using a combination of OpenVPN containers and CMAN containers.

[0284] System 1400 may include network management plane 1408. Network management plane 1408 may manage data plane 1410, and more particularly may manage data plane infrastructure resources. In some embodiments, network management plane 1408 may manage data plane infrastructure resources for secure connectivity with networking plug-in 1402 instances. Thus, in some embodiments, network management plane 1408 may allocate data plane resources based on customer configuration. In some embodiments, network management plane 1408 may migrate data plane resources from a failed host.

[0285] The system may also include endpoints, also referred to herein as Private Endpoints (PEs) 1412. The PE 1412 may allow other services and / or assets within the VCN (and specifically within the customer tenancy) to access the assets and / or data contained within the assets.

[0286] The system may include a DBendpoint 1413, also referred to herein as a database endpoint or a remote resource representation. The Dbendpoint 1413 provides a logical representation of a single asset within the customer's VCN 1110 (and specifically within the customer tenancy 1312 within the VCN 1110).

[0287] Reference ​ , shows a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a system 1500 for secure network connectivity between secure networks. As can be seen, the customer has at least one asset 1502, such as a database 1504, in a first environment 1506, which is a separate environment and specifically an on-premises environment. The customer also has a second environment 1508 separate from the first environment 1506. In ​ a specific embodiment, the second environment 1508 is the customer VCN 1110. This may include customer tenancies and / or subnets. In some embodiments, the second environment 1508 may be an on-premises environment separate from the on-premises environment of the first environment 1506. In ​ the depicted embodiment, the first environment 1506 and the second environment 1508 are communicatively connected via a service tenancy 1510, which includes a control / management plane VCN 1512 and a data plane VCN 1410.

[0288] The control / management plane VCN 1512 may include a control plane 1406 and a management plane 1408. In some embodiments, the control plane 1406 may manage the configuration of customer-facing resources and interact with the management plane to program the required resources on the data plane. In some embodiments, the management plane 1408 may allocate data plane resources based on customer configuration and / or may migrate data plane resources from a failed host. In some embodiments, the control plane 1406 and / or the management plane 1408 may create constructs and / or features to enable the customer to access the assets in the first environment from the second environment.

[0289] The data plane VCN 1410 may include a resource subnet 1520 and a tunnel subnet 1522, and each subnet may include data plane nodes 1524. In some embodiments, the data plane may provide secure connectivity between an asset 1502 in a first environment 1506 and a second environment 1508. In some embodiments, providing secure connectivity between at least one asset 1502 in the first environment 1506 and the second environment may include forwarding data packets between these environments 1506 and 1508. In some embodiments, secure connectivity may be implemented via a combination of using OpenVPN containers and a connection manager ("CMAN") container. In some embodiments, the CMAN container may be a proxy server that forwards connection requests to a database or other proxy server.

[0290] In some embodiments, each of the second environment 1508 and the service lease 1510 may have access to a wallet. In some embodiments, the wallet may be located in and / or accessible by the data plane 1410. In some embodiments, this may include providing access to one or several containers and / or the resource subnet 1520 and / or the tunnel subnet 1522 in the data plane 1410. In some embodiments, and as discussed below, the wallet may include one or several VCN wallets, including for example a VCN server wallet accessible by the data plane 1410 and / or a VCN client wallet accessible by the second environment 1508.

[0291] As ​ seen, the data plane nodes 1524 in the resource subnet 1520 may include resource shards 1526, and the resource shards 1526 may contain CMAN containers 1528. In some embodiments, a CMAN container 1528 may be launched in the data plane for each created database asset endpoint 1413. Thus, in some embodiments, the CMAN container 1528 may have a one-to-one relationship with the asset endpoint 1413. In some embodiments, the CMAN container 1528 may be used as a proxy server to redirect data packets received by it from the first environment 1506 to the second environment 1508 and to redirect data packets received by it from the second environment 1508 to the first environment 1506. In some embodiments, the CMAN container 1528 may be configured to handle IP-based redirection in the case of a SCAN / RAC deployment. In some embodiments, the CMAN container 1528 may also be configured to allow application of database service-specific ACLs to limit connectivity to specific clients.

[0292] The tunnel subnet 1522 may include tunnel shards 1530, which may contain containers 1532, and in particular may contain OpenVPN containers, through which a secure connection to the first environment can be established. In some embodiments, the secure connection may include creating one or more tunnels that connect the tunnel shard 1530 to the first environment 1506. The one or more tunnels may be one or more secure tunnels, such as, for example, secure TLS tunnels that extend through the public Internet. In some embodiments, the container 1532 on the tunnel shard 1530 may be an OpenVPN container.

[0293] As used herein, a shard may be a single-tenant environment responsible for providing a specific function. In other words, a shard may be an application-specific single-tenant container. Each data plane node on the corresponding queue may run multiple shards belonging to different bridges. In some embodiments, there may be three types of shards in the network data plane 1410: tunnel shards, resource shards, and database shards.

[0294] In some embodiments, a tunnel shard may be configured to initiate a communication connection with another resource, container, and / or environment. In some embodiments, a tunnel shard may be a docker container that runs tunnel-specific software to provide connectivity to a remote customer site. The management plane may be responsible for determining the placement of these shards.

[0295] In some embodiments, the VPN container on the tunnel shard 1530 may be communicatively coupled to the CMAN container 1528. As ​ depicted, the connection may be a communication connection via the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

[0296] In some embodiments, for example, a customer and / or customer service may request access to an asset in the first environment 1506 from an endpoint 1413 in the second environment 1508. The data packet may be sent from the SVNIC 1534 in the second environment 1508 to the worker VNIC 1536 in the data plane node 1524 and directed to the CMAN container 1528 associated with the second environment 1506. As discussed above, in some embodiments, an SVNIC 1534 may be created for each registered external endpoint (in other words, for each external asset) and associated with the endpoint 1413 in the VCN created for that asset.

[0297] The CMAN container 1528 can forward data packets to the OpenVPN 1532 container of the tunnel shard 1530, and the OpenVPN 1532 container can direct the data packets to the asset 1502 in the first environment 1506 via the tunnel established between the tunnel shard and the virtual device (proxy) 1538 in the first environment. The response data packets can similarly traverse from the first environment 1506 to the second environment 1508.

[0298] Reference ​ , a flowchart of one embodiment of a process 1600 for connecting a first environment 1506 and a second environment 1508 is shown. The process 1600 can be performed by all or part of the above system. The process 1600 begins at block 1602, where an external resource is registered as an external endpoint. In some embodiments, the external resource can be an asset in a secure network (such as, for example, the network of the first environment). In some embodiments, the external resource can be registered as an external endpoint in the second environment (or in other words, in the customer VCN).

[0299] At block 1604, a user wallet is received in the on-premises network. In some embodiments, the user wallet can be received from the user, and the user wallet can contain security credentials. These security credentials can include, for example, one or several certificates (such as trusted certificates), one or several tokens, keys, passwords, usernames, etc. In some embodiments, the security credentials can be sufficient to authenticate the user, tunnel, session, communication, etc. In some embodiments, the user wallet can be stored in the on-premises network and provided to an asset in the on-premises environment, a VNIC of the on-premises environment, and / or another component or module of the on-premises environment.

[0300] In some embodiments, a database wallet can be created for the user. The database wallet can be created based on the security credentials and / or security information received from the user. The security information can be the information contained in the user wallet and / or can be information provided separately by the user.

[0301] At block 1606, an external resource representation 1413 is created. The external resource representation 1413 can be created to represent an external resource in the second environment 1508 (and specifically in the VCN). The external representation 1413 can be created by the control plane 1406 in the second environment 1508. In some embodiments, creating the external resource representation 1413 can include creating an associated VNIC. In some embodiments, the associated VNIC can be the SVNIC 1534. In some embodiments, and as discussed above, an SVNIC 1534 can be created for each asset, and thus, in some embodiments, each endpoint 1413 can be associated with a unique SVNIC 1534.

[0302] At block 1608, a connection is established between the logical interface for the external resource supply and the VNIC associated with the external resource representation. In some embodiments, the connection may be established via at least one intermediate container. In some embodiments, the at least one intermediate container resides on the data plane. In some embodiments, the at least one intermediate container includes a first container and a second container. The first container may be configured to communicate and couple with a first environment, for example, via a first tunnel across a first communication network. The second container may be configured to communicate and couple with a second environment and, in some embodiments, to communicate and couple with a customer VCN. Additionally, the first container and the second container may be communicatively coupled to each other.

[0303] At block 1610, additional wallets are created. In some embodiments, these additional wallets may be created at least in part based on the user wallet and / or at least in part based on the database wallet. In some embodiments, these wallets may be created in at least one intermediate container and the second environment (including within the customer VCN). These wallets may include one or several VCN wallets, including, for example, a VCN server wallet and / or a VCN client wallet. In some embodiments, the VCN server wallet may be accessible by at least one intermediate container, and the VCN client wallet may be accessible by the VNIC within the second environment.

[0304] Now referring ​ , a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a system 1700 for secure network communication between secure networks is shown. As can be seen, the system includes a first environment 1506 that includes an external resource 1502 (Sales DB) and a user wallet, and specifically a user server wallet 1702. The system also includes a second environment 1508 that includes an endpoint 1413 (Datasafe PE) and a VCN client wallet 1704. The first environment 1506 and the second environment 1508 are linked via at least one intermediate container 1706 that includes a CMAN container 1528 and a user client wallet 1708 and a VCN server wallet 1710. In some embodiments, the user server wallet 1702 and the user client wallet 1708 may be provided by the customer, and in some embodiments, the VCN client wallet 1704 and the VCN server wallet 1710 may be created by the control plane. The VCN client wallet 1704 and the VCN server wallet 1710 may be used for authenticating communication and / or creating a secure session between at least one intermediate container 1706 and the second environment 1508, and the user server wallet 1702 and the user client wallet 1708 may be used for authenticating communication and / or creating a secure session and / or a secure tunnel between at least one intermediate container 1706 and the first environment 1506.

[0305] Now refer to ​ , which shows a flowchart of one embodiment of a process 1800 for accessing assets in a first environment 1506 via a second environment 1508. The process begins at block 1802, where VCN wallets 1704, 1710 are created. In some embodiments, these VCN wallets 1704, 1710 can be wallets in the VCN, through which communication can be established with another environment. In ​ the context of, these wallets 1704, 1710 include a VCN client wallet 1704 located in the second environment 1508 and a VCN server wallet 1710 located in and / or accessible by the intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, and via these wallets 1704, 1710, communication with the first environment 1506 can be established from the second environment 1508.

[0306] In some embodiments, the VCN wallets 1704, 1710 can be created by the control plane. In some embodiments, the VCN wallets 1704, 1710 can be created by the control plane based on information received from a user. In some embodiments, this information can be received from a user in the first environment 1506 and / or the second environment 1508. The VCN wallets 1704 and 1710 can be located in the second environment 1508 and / or at least one intermediate container 1706, and / or be accessible to the second environment 1508 and / or at least one intermediate container 1706.

[0307] In some embodiments, each bridge can have a separate CA. In some embodiments, such a separate CA can allow a single network service 1404 and / or network data plane 1410 to run multiple containers, and specifically multiple CMAN containers 1528 run for different customers. Thus, in some embodiments, a private CA is established for each bridge, and a certificate is generated for the OpenVPN tunnel. In some embodiments, the same private CA can be used, and client / server certificates signed by this root CA can be generated for each bridge endpoint. In some embodiments, these can be maintained in the network service lease 1404. In some embodiments, one or several client wallets and an auto-login server wallet can be generated for the CMAN container 1528. The client wallet will be provided to the local SQL client or partner service via the API to connect to the remote database endpoint via the PE in the user VCN.

[0308] At block 1804, a session is created between the external resource 1502 and at least one intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, this may include creating a session between at least one intermediate container 1706 and an external device (such as proxy 1124) located in the first environment 1506 and associated with the external resource 1502. In some embodiments, the creation of the session may include establishing a tunnel from the first environment 1506 to at least one intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, the tunnel may be created via a user client wallet 1708 accessible by at least one intermediate container 1706 and a user server wallet 1702 accessible in the first environment 1506.

[0309] At block 1806, a second session is created between at least one intermediate container 1706 and an external resource representation that may be an endpoint 1413. In some embodiments, the external resource representation may be located in the second environment 1508. In some embodiments, the creation of the second session may include creating a communication coupling between at least one intermediate container 1706 and the second environment 1508. In some embodiments, the second session is created via the use of VCN wallets 1704, 1710, and specifically via a VCN client wallet 1704 accessible by the second environment 1508 and a VCN server wallet 1710 accessible by at least one intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, the second session is created via the authentication of the VCN client wallet 1704 and the VCN server wallet 1710.

[0310] At block 1808, a request is made to transfer from an external resource representation residing in the VCN to the external resource via a virtual network interface card (VNIC). The request may be to access data contained in the external resource and / or to access the external resource. In some embodiments, the request may include a query for data contained in the external resource 1502. The request may traverse from the second environment 1508 to the first environment 1506 via at least one intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, the request is transmitted from the external resource 1502 to the external resource representation 1413 via the intermediate container 1706, and in some embodiments, the intermediate container 1706 may include a proxy server.

[0311] At block 1810, a result is received at at least one intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, the result may correspond to the request. In some embodiments, the result may be received via the established connection.

[0312] At block 1812, the result is transmitted to the external resource representation 1413. In some embodiments, the result is transmitted via at least one intermediate container 1706. In some embodiments, the result is transmitted via the VNIC using the established connection.

[0313] ​

[0314] As noted above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a specific type of cloud computing. IaaS can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, a cloud computing provider 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, the IaaS provider can also supply various services to accompany these infrastructure components (example services include billing software, monitoring software, logging software, load balancing software, and clustering software, etc.). Thus, since these services may be policy-driven, IaaS users can be able to implement policies to drive load balancing to maintain the availability and performance of applications.

[0315] In some cases, IaaS customers can access resources and services over a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet and can use the cloud provider's services to install the remaining elements of an application stack. For example, a user can log in to an IaaS platform to create a virtual machine (VM), install an operating system (OS) on each VM, deploy middleware such as a database, create buckets for workloads and backups, and even install enterprise software into that VM. Then, the customer can use the provider's services to perform various functions, including balancing network traffic, troubleshooting applications, monitoring performance, managing disaster recovery, etc.

[0316] In most cases, the cloud computing model will require the involvement of a cloud provider. The cloud provider can be but is not necessarily a third-party service that specifically provides (e.g., supplies, rents, sells) IaaS. An entity may also choose to deploy a private cloud and thus become its own infrastructure service provider.

[0317] In some examples, IaaS deployment is the process of placing a new application or a new version of an application onto a prepared application server, etc. It can also include the process of preparing the server (e.g., installing libraries, daemons, etc.). This is typically managed by the cloud provider and is below the hypervisor layer (e.g., servers, storage devices, network hardware, and virtualization). Thus, the customer can be responsible for the processing of (OS), middleware, and / or application deployment (e.g., on self-service virtual machines, etc. that can be launched on demand).

[0318] In some examples, IaaS provisioning can refer to obtaining computers or virtual hosts for use and even installing the required libraries or services on them. In most cases, deployment does not include provisioning, and provisioning may need to be performed first.

[0319] In some cases, there are two different challenges in IaaS provisioning. First, there is an initial challenge in provisioning the initial set of infrastructure before anything is running. Second, once everything has been provisioned, there is a challenge in evolving the existing infrastructure (e.g., adding new services, changing services, removing services, etc.). In some cases, these two challenges can be addressed by enabling the configuration of the infrastructure to be defined in a declarative manner. In other words, the infrastructure (e.g., which components are needed and how they interact) can be defined by one or more configuration files. Thus, the overall topology of the infrastructure (e.g., which resources depend on which resources and how they work together) can be described in a declarative manner. In some cases, once the topology is defined, workflows for creating and / or managing the different components described in the configuration files can be generated.

[0320] In some examples, the infrastructure can have many interconnected elements. For example, there may be one or more virtual private clouds (VPCs) (e.g., a potentially on-demand pool of configurable and / or shared computing resources), also referred to as the core network. In some examples, one or more inbound / outbound traffic group rules can also be provisioned to define how the inbound / outbound traffic of the network is set up and one or more virtual machines (VMs). Other infrastructure elements, such as load balancers, databases, etc., can also be provisioned. As more and more infrastructure elements are desired and / or added, the infrastructure can evolve incrementally.

[0321] In some cases, continuous deployment techniques can be employed to enable the deployment of infrastructure code across various virtual computing environments. Additionally, the techniques described can enable infrastructure management within these environments. In some examples, a service team can write code that is desired to be deployed to one or more but typically many different production environments (e.g., across various different geographical locations, sometimes spanning the entire world). However, in some examples, the infrastructure on which the code will be deployed must first be set up. In some cases, provisioning can be done manually, resources can be provisioned using provisioning tools, and / or once the infrastructure is provisioned, the code can be deployed using deployment tools.

[0322] ​ FIG. 1900 is a block diagram illustrating an example schema of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1902 can be communicatively coupled to a secure host lease 1904 that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1906 and a secure host subnet 1908. In some examples, the service operator 1902 can use one or more client computing devices, which can be portable handheld devices (e.g., cellular phones, computing tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs)) or wearable devices (e.g., Google a head-mounted display), running software (such as Microsoft Windows ), and / or various mobile operating systems (such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 8, Palm OS, etc.), and supporting the Internet, email, short message service (SMS), or other communication protocols. Alternatively, the client computing device can be a general-purpose personal computer, including, for example, personal computers and / or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Apple and / or Linux operating systems. The client computing device can be a workstation computer running any of various commercially available or UNIX-like operating systems, including but not limited to any of various GNU / Linux operating systems (such as, for example, Google Chrome OS). Alternatively or additionally, the client computing device can be any other electronic device, such as a thin client computer, an Internet-enabled gaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xbox gaming console with or without a gesture input device), and / or a personal messaging device capable of communicating via a network that can access VCN 1906 and / or the Internet.

[0323] VCN 1906 can include a local peer gateway (LPG) 1910, which can be communicatively coupled to a Secure Shell (SSH) VCN 1912 via the LPG 1910 included in the SSH VCN 1912. The SSH VCN 1912 can include an SSH subnet 1914, and the SSH VCN 1912 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1916 via the LPG 1910 included in the control plane VCN 1916. Additionally, the SSH VCN 1912 can be communicatively coupled to a data plane VCN 1918 via the LPG 1910. The control plane VCN 1916 and the data plane VCN 1918 can be included in a service lease 1919 that can be owned and / or operated by an IaaS provider.

[0324] The control plane VCN 1916 may include a control plane demilitarized zone (DMZ) layer 1920 that serves as a perimeter network (e.g., a portion of a corporate network between an intranet and an external network). Servers based on the DMZ can assume limited liability and help control vulnerabilities. Additionally, the DMZ layer 1920 may include one or more load balancer (LB) subnets 1922, a control plane application layer 1924 that may include one or more application subnets 1926, and a control plane data layer 1928 that may include one or more database (DB) subnets 1930 (e.g., one or more front-end DB subnets and / or one or more back-end DB subnets). The one or more LB subnets 1922 included in the control plane DMZ layer 1920 may be communicatively coupled to the one or more application subnets 1926 included in the control plane application layer 1924 and to an Internet gateway 1934 that may be included in the control plane VCN 1916, and the one or more application subnets 1926 may be communicatively coupled to the one or more DB subnets 1930 included in the control plane data layer 1928, as well as to a service gateway 1936 and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1938. The control plane VCN 1916 may include a service gateway 1936 and a NAT gateway 1938.

[0325] The control plane VCN 1916 may include a data plane mirror application layer 1940, which may include one or more application subnets 1926. The one or more application subnets 1926 included in the data plane mirror application layer 1940 may include virtual network interface controllers (VNICs) 1942 that may execute compute instances 1944. The compute instances 1944 may communicatively couple the one or more application subnets 1926 of the data plane mirror application layer 1940 to the one or more application subnets 1926 that may be included in the data plane application layer 1946.

[0326] The data plane VCN 1918 may include a data plane application layer 1946, a data plane DMZ layer 1948, and a data plane data layer 1950. The data plane DMZ layer 1948 may include one or more LB subnets 1922, which may be communicatively coupled to the one or more application subnets 1926 of the data plane application layer 1946 and to an Internet gateway 1934 of the data plane VCN 1918. The one or more application subnets 1926 may be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1936 of the data plane VCN 1918 and a NAT gateway 1938 of the data plane VCN 1918. The data plane data layer 1950 may also include one or more DB subnets 1930 that may be communicatively coupled to the one or more application subnets 1926 of the data plane application layer 1946.

[0327] An Internet gateway 1934 for the control plane VCN 1916 and the data plane VCN 1918 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1952, which can be communicatively coupled to a public Internet 1954. The public Internet 1954 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 1938 for the control plane VCN 1916 and the data plane VCN 1918. A service gateway 1936 for the control plane VCN 1916 and the data plane VCN 1918 can be communicatively coupled to a cloud service 1956.

[0328] In some examples, a service gateway 1936 for the control plane VCN 1916 or the data plane VCN 1918 can make an application programming interface (API) call to a cloud service 1956 without going through the public Internet 1954. The API call from the service gateway 1936 to the cloud service 1956 can be one-way: the service gateway 1936 can make an API call to the cloud service 1956, and the cloud service 1956 can send the requested data to the service gateway 1936. However, the cloud service 1956 may not initiate an API call to the service gateway 1936.

[0329] In some examples, a secure host lease 1904 can be directly connected to a service lease 1919, which would otherwise be isolated. A secure host subnet 1908 can communicate with an SSH subnet 1914 via an LPG 1910, which can enable two-way communication on otherwise isolated systems. Connecting the secure host subnet 1908 to the SSH subnet 1914 can enable the secure host subnet 1908 to access other entities within the service lease 1919.

[0330] The control plane VCN 1916 can allow users of the service lease 1919 to set or otherwise provision desired resources. The desired resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 1916 can be deployed or otherwise used in the data plane VCN 1918. In some examples, the control plane VCN 1916 can be isolated from the data plane VCN 1918, and a data plane mirror application layer 1940 of the control plane VCN 1916 can communicate with a data plane application layer 1946 of the data plane VCN 1918 via a VNIC 1942, which can be included in both the data plane mirror application layer 1940 and the data plane application layer 1946.

[0331] In some examples, a user or customer of the system can make requests, such as create, read, update, or delete (CRUD) operations, via a public internet 1954 that can transmit the requests to a metadata management service 1952. The metadata management service 1952 can transmit the requests to a control plane VCN 1916 via an internet gateway 1934. The requests can be received by one or more LB subnets 1922 included in a control plane DMZ layer 1920. The one or more LB subnets 1922 can determine that the requests are valid, and in response to that determination, the one or more LB subnets 1922 can transmit the requests to one or more application subnets 1926 included in a control plane application layer 1924. If the requests are verified and require a call to the public internet 1954, then the call to the public internet 1954 can be transmitted to a NAT gateway 1938 that can make calls to the public internet 1954. Metadata that the requests may expect to be stored can be stored in one or more DB subnets 1930.

[0332] In some examples, a data plane mirror application layer 1940 can facilitate direct communication between a control plane VCN 1916 and a data plane VCN 1918. For example, it may be desirable to apply configuration changes, updates, or other appropriate modifications to resources included in the data plane VCN 1918. Via a VNIC 1942, the control plane VCN 1916 can communicate directly with resources included in the data plane VCN 1918 and thereby can perform configuration changes, updates, or other appropriate modifications.

[0333] In some embodiments, a control plane VCN 1916 and a data plane VCN 1918 can be included in a service tenancy 1919. In such a case, a user or customer of the system may not own or operate the control plane VCN 1916 or the data plane VCN 1918. Instead, an IaaS provider can own or operate the control plane VCN 1916 and the data plane VCN 1918, both of which can be included in the service tenancy 1919. This embodiment can enable isolation of networks that may prevent a user or customer from interacting with resources of other users or other customers. Additionally, this embodiment can allow a user or customer of the system to privately store databases without relying on a public internet 1954 that may not have a desired level of threat protection for storage.

[0334] In other embodiments, the (one or more) LB subnets 1922 included in the control plane VCN 1916 may be configured to receive signals from the service gateway 1936. In this embodiment, the control plane VCN 1916 and the data plane VCN 1918 may be configured to be invoked by the customers of the IaaS provider without invoking the public Internet 1954. The customers of the IaaS provider may desire this embodiment because the (one or more) databases used by the customers may be controlled by the IaaS provider and may be stored on the service lease 1919, which may be isolated from the public Internet 1954.

[0335] ​ is a block diagram 2000 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 2002 (e.g., ​ service operator 1902) may be communicatively coupled to a secure host lease 2004 (e.g., ​ secure host lease 1904), which may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2006 (e.g., ​ VCN 1906) and a secure host subnet 2008 (e.g., ​ secure host subnet 1908). The VCN 2006 may include a local peering gateway (LPG) 2010 (e.g., ​ LPG 1910), which may be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 2012 (e.g., ​ SSH VCN 1912) via the LPG 1910 included in the SSH VCN 2012. The SSH VCN 2012 may include an SSH subnet 2014 (e.g., ​ SSH subnet 1914), and the SSH VCN 2012 may be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 2016 (e.g., ​ control plane VCN 1916) via the LPG 2010 included in the control plane VCN 2016. The control plane VCN 2016 may be included in a service lease 2019 (e.g., ​ service lease 1919), and a data plane VCN 2018 (e.g., ​ data plane VCN 1918) may be included in a customer lease 2021 that may be owned or operated by the users or customers of the system.

[0336] The control plane VCN 2016 may include a control plane DMZ layer 2020 that may include the (one or more) LB subnets 2022 (e.g., ​ (one or more) LB subnets 1922) (e.g., ​ The control plane DMZ layer 1920) may include one or more application subnets 2026 (e.g., ​ The control plane application layer 2024 of one or more application subnets 1926) (e.g., ​ The control plane application layer 1924) may include one or more database (DB) subnets 2030 (e.g., similar to ​ One or more DB subnets 1930) of the control plane data layer 2028 (e.g., ​ The control plane data layer 1928). One or more LB subnets 2022 included in the control plane DMZ layer 2020 may be communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2026 included in the control plane application layer 2024 and an Internet gateway 2034 that may be included in the control plane VCN 2016 (e.g., ​ The Internet gateway 1934), and one or more application subnets 2026 may be communicatively coupled to one or more DB subnets 2030 included in the control plane data layer 2028, as well as a service gateway 2036 (e.g., ​ The service gateway 1936) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 2038 (e.g., ​ The NAT gateway 1938). The control plane VCN 2016 may include a service gateway 2036 and a NAT gateway 2038.

[0337] The control plane VCN 2016 may include a data plane mirror application layer 2040 that may include one or more application subnets 2026 (e.g., ​ The data plane mirror application layer 1940). One or more application subnets 2026 included in the data plane mirror application layer 2040 may include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 2042 that may execute a compute instance 2044 (e.g., similar to ​ The compute instance 1944) of 1942). The compute instance 2044 may facilitate communication between one or more application subnets 2026 of the data plane mirror application layer 2040 and one or more application subnets 2026 that may be included in the data plane application layer 2046 (e.g., ​ The data plane application layer 1946) via the VNIC 2042 included in the data plane mirror application layer 2040 and the VNIC 2042 included in the data plane application layer 2046.

[0338] The Internet gateway 2034 included in the control plane VCN 2016 may be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 2052 (e.g., ​ The metadata management service 1952), which can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 2054 (e.g., ​ the public Internet 1954). The public Internet 2054 can be communicatively coupled to the NAT gateway 2038 included in the control plane VCN 2016. The service gateway 2036 included in the control plane VCN 2016 can be communicatively coupled to the cloud service 2056 (e.g., ​ the cloud service 1956).

[0339] In some examples, the data plane VCN 2018 can be included in the customer tenancy 2021. In such a case, the IaaS provider can provide a control plane VCN 2016 for each customer, and the IaaS provider can set up a unique compute instance 2044 included in the service tenancy 2019 for each customer. Each compute instance 2044 can permit communication between the control plane VCN 2016 included in the service tenancy 2019 and the data plane VCN 2018 included in the customer tenancy 2021. The compute instance 2044 can permit resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 2016 included in the service tenancy 2019 to be deployed or otherwise used in the data plane VCN 2018 included in the customer tenancy 2021.

[0340] In other examples, a customer of the IaaS provider can have a database that exists in the customer tenancy 2021. In this example, the control plane VCN 2016 can include a data plane mirror application layer 2040, which can include one or more application subnets 2026. The data plane mirror application layer 2040 can reside in the data plane VCN 2018, but the data plane mirror application layer 2040 may not be in the data plane VCN 2018. That is, the data plane mirror application layer 2040 can access the customer tenancy 2021, but the data plane mirror application layer 2040 may not exist in the data plane VCN 2018 or be owned or operated by the customer of the IaaS provider. The data plane mirror application layer 2040 can be configured to make calls to the data plane VCN 2018, but may not be configured to make calls to any entity included in the control plane VCN 2016. The customer may desire to deploy or otherwise use resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 2016 in the data plane VCN 2018, and the data plane mirror application layer 2040 can facilitate the customer's desired deployment or other use of the resources.

[0341] In some embodiments, a customer of an IaaS provider can apply filters to a data plane VCN 2018. In this embodiment, the customer can determine what the data plane VCN 2018 can access, and the customer can restrict access from the data plane VCN 2018 to the public Internet 2054. The IaaS provider may not be able to apply filters or otherwise control the data plane VCN 2018's access to any external network or database. Applying filters and controls by the customer to the data plane VCN 2018 included in the customer lease 2021 can help isolate the data plane VCN 2018 from other customers and the public Internet 2054.

[0342] In some embodiments, a cloud service 2056 can be invoked by a service gateway 2036 to access services that may not exist on the public Internet 2054, the control plane VCN 2016, or the data plane VCN 2018. The connection between the cloud service 2056 and the control plane VCN 2016 or the data plane VCN 2018 may not be real-time or continuous. The cloud service 2056 can exist on a different network owned or operated by the IaaS provider. The cloud service 2056 can be configured to receive calls from the service gateway 2036 and can be configured not to receive calls from the public Internet 2054. Some cloud services 2056 can be isolated from other cloud services 2056, and the control plane VCN 2016 can be isolated from cloud services 2056 that may not be in the same region as the control plane VCN 2016. For example, the control plane VCN 2016 may be located in "Region 1", and the cloud service "Deployment 19" may be located in Region 1 and "Region 2". If the service gateway 2036 included in the control plane VCN 2016 located in Region 1 makes a call to Deployment 19, then the call can be transmitted to Deployment 19 in Region 1. In this example, the control plane VCN 2016 or Deployment 19 in Region 1 may not be communicatively coupled or otherwise communicate with Deployment 19 in Region 2.

[0343] ​ is a block diagram 2100 illustrating another example schema of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 2102 (e.g., ​ service operator 1902) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host lease 2104 (e.g., ​ secure host lease 1904), which can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2106 (e.g., ​ VCN 1906) and a secure host subnet 2108 (e.g., ​ secure host subnet 1908). The VCN 2106 can include an LPG 2110 (e.g., ​ The LPG 1910), which can be communicatively coupled to the SSH VCN 2112 via the LPG 2110 included in the SSH VCN 2112 (e.g., ​ the SSH VCN 1912). The SSH VCN 2112 can include an SSH subnet 2114 (e.g., ​ the SSH subnet 1914), and the SSH VCN 2112 can be communicatively coupled to the control plane VCN 2116 via the LPG 2110 included in the control plane VCN 2116 (e.g., ​ the control plane VCN 1916) and coupled to the data plane VCN 2118 via the LPG 2110 included in the data plane VCN 2118 (e.g., ​ the data plane 1918). The control plane VCN 2116 and the data plane VCN 2118 can be included in the service tenancy 2119 (e.g., ​ the service tenancy 1919).

[0344] The control plane VCN 2116 can include a control plane DMZ layer 2120 that can include one or more load balancer (LB) subnets 2122 (e.g., ​ one or more LB subnets 1922), a control plane application layer 2124 that can include one or more application subnets 2126 (e.g., similar to ​ one or more application subnets 1926), a control plane data layer 2128 that can include one or more DB subnets 2130 (e.g., ​ one or more application subnets 1926), a control plane application layer 2124 (e.g., ​ the control plane application layer 1924), a control plane data layer 2128 that can include one or more DB subnets 2130 (e.g., ​ the control plane data layer 1928). One or more LB subnets 2122 included in the control plane DMZ layer 2120 can be communicatively coupled to one or more application subnets 2126 included in the control plane application layer 2124 and an Internet gateway 2134 that can be included in the control plane VCN 2116 (e.g., ​ the Internet gateway 1934), and one or more application subnets 2126 can be communicatively coupled to one or more DB subnets 2130 included in the control plane data layer 2128, a service gateway 2136 (e.g., ​ the service gateway) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 2138 (e.g., ​ the NAT gateway 1938). The control plane VCN 2116 can include a service gateway 2136 and a NAT gateway 2138.

[0345] The data plane VCN 2118 may include a data plane application layer 2146 (e.g., ​ the data plane application layer 1946), a data plane DMZ layer 2148 (e.g., ​ the data plane DMZ layer 1948), and a data plane data layer 2150 (e.g., ​ the data plane data layer 1950). The data plane DMZ layer 2148 may include one or more trusted application subnets 2160 and one or more untrusted application subnets 2162 that may be communicatively coupled to the data plane application layer 2146 and one or more LB subnets 2122 of the Internet gateway 2134 included in the data plane VCN 2118. One or more trusted application subnets 2160 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2136 included in the data plane VCN 2118, the NAT gateway 2138 included in the data plane VCN 2118, and one or more DB subnets 2130 included in the data plane data layer 2150. One or more untrusted application subnets 2162 may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2136 included in the data plane VCN 2118 and one or more DB subnets 2130 included in the data plane data layer 2150. The data plane data layer 2150 may include one or more DB subnets 2130 that may be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2136 included in the data plane VCN 2118.

[0346] One or more untrusted application subnets 2162 may include one or more primary VNICs 2164(1)-(N) that may be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 2166(1)-(N). Each tenant VM 2166(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to a corresponding application subnet 2167(1)-(N) that may be included in a corresponding container egress VCN 2168(1)-(N), and the corresponding container egress VCNs 2168(1)-(N) may be included in corresponding customer tenancies 2170(1)-(N). Corresponding secondary VNICs 2172(1)-(N) may facilitate communication between one or more untrusted application subnets 2162 included in the data plane VCN 2118 and the application subnets included in the container egress VCNs 2168(1)-(N). Each container egress VCN 2168(1)-(N) may include a NAT gateway 2138 that may be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 2154 (e.g., ​ the public Internet 1954).

[0347] An Internet gateway 2134 that is included in the control plane VCN 2116 and that is included in the data plane VCN 2118 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 2152 (e.g., ​ the metadata management system 1952), and the metadata management service can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 2154. The public Internet 2154 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 2138 that is included in the control plane VCN 2116 and that is included in the data plane VCN 2118. A service gateway 2136 that is included in the control plane VCN 2116 and that is included in the data plane VCN 2118 can be communicatively coupled to a cloud service 2156.

[0348] In some embodiments, the data plane VCN 2118 can be integrated with a customer tenancy 2170. In some cases, such as when it may be desirable to support during code execution, this integration may be useful or desirable for customers of an IaaS provider. A customer may provide code to run that may be disruptive, may communicate with other customer resources, or may otherwise cause undesired effects. In response thereto, the IaaS provider can determine whether to run the code given to the IaaS provider by the customer.

[0349] In some examples, a customer of an IaaS provider can grant temporary network access to the IaaS provider and request functionality attached to the data plane application layer 2146. Code that runs the functionality can be executed in VMs 2166(1)-(N), and the code can be not configured to run anywhere else on the data plane VCN 2118. Each VM 2166(1)-(N) can be connected to a customer tenancy 2170. Corresponding containers 2171(1)-(N) that are included in the VMs 2166(1)-(N) can be configured to run the code. In such a case, there can be double isolation (e.g., the containers 2171(1)-(N) run the code, where the containers 2171(1)-(N) may be at least included in the VMs 2166(1)-(N) that are included in one or more untrusted application subnets 2162), which can help prevent incorrect or otherwise undesired code from corrupting the IaaS provider's network or corrupting the networks of different customers. The containers 2171(1)-(N) can be communicatively coupled to the customer tenancy 2170 and can be configured to transmit or receive data from the customer tenancy 2170. The containers 2171(1)-(N) can be not configured to transmit or receive data from any other entity in the data plane VCN 2118. After the code execution is complete, the IaaS provider can terminate or otherwise dispose of the containers 2171(1)-(N).

[0350] In some embodiments, the (one or more) trusted application subnets 2160 may run code that may be owned or operated by an IaaS provider. In this embodiment, the (one or more) trusted application subnets 2160 may be communicatively coupled to the (one or more) DB subnets 2130 and configured to perform CRUD operations in the (one or more) DB subnets 2130. The (one or more) untrusted application subnets 2162 may be communicatively coupled to the (one or more) DB subnets 2130, but in this embodiment, the (one or more) untrusted application subnets may be configured to perform read operations in the (one or more) DB subnets 2130. Containers 2171(1)-(N) that may be included in each customer's VMs 2166(1)-(N) and may run code from the customer may not be communicatively coupled to the (one or more) DB subnets 2130.

[0351] In other embodiments, the control plane VCN 2116 and the data plane VCN 2118 may not be directly communicatively coupled. In this embodiment, there may be no direct communication between the control plane VCN 2116 and the data plane VCN 2118. However, communication may occur indirectly through at least one method. The LPG 2110 may be established by the IaaS provider, which may facilitate communication between the control plane VCN 2116 and the data plane VCN 2118. In another example, the control plane VCN 2116 or the data plane VCN 2118 may invoke a cloud service 2156 via a service gateway 2136. For example, an invocation of the cloud service 2156 from the control plane VCN 2116 may include a request for a service that may communicate with the data plane VCN 2118.

[0352] ​ is a block diagram 2200 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 2202 (e.g., ​ service operator 1902) may be communicatively coupled to a secure host lease 2204 (e.g., ​ secure host lease 1904), which may include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 2206 (e.g., ​ VCN 1906) and a secure host subnet 2208 (e.g., ​ secure host subnet 1908). The VCN 2206 may include an LPG 2210 (e.g., ​ LPG 1910), which may be communicatively coupled via an SSH VCN 2212 (e.g., ​ The LPG 2210 in the SSH VCN 1912 is communicatively coupled to the SSH VCN 2212. The SSH VCN 2212 may include an SSH subnet 2214 (e.g., ​ SSH subnet 1914), and SSH VCN 2212 may be communicatively coupled to control plane VCN 2216 via LPG 2210 contained in control plane VCN 2216 (e.g., ​ 1916) and is coupled to the data plane VCN 2218 via the LPG 2210 contained in the data plane VCN 2218 (e.g., ​ The control plane VCN 2216 and the data plane VCN 2218 may be included in a service lease 2219 (e.g., ​ of the Service Lease 1919).

[0353] The control plane VCN 2216 may include a LB subnet 2222 (e.g., ​ (one or more) LB subnets 1922) of the control plane DMZ layer 2220 (e.g., ​ control plane DMZ layer 1920), may include (one or more) application subnets 2226 (e.g., ​ (one or more) application subnets 1926) of the control plane application layer 2224 (e.g., ​ control plane application layer 1924), may include (one or more) DB subnets 2230 (e.g., ​ (one or more) DB subnet 2130) of the control plane data layer 2228 (e.g., ​ 2228). The LB subnet(s) 2222 contained in the control plane DMZ layer 2220 may be communicatively coupled to the application subnet(s) 2226 contained in the control plane application layer 2224 and the internet gateway 2234 (e.g., which may be contained in the control plane VCN 2216). ​ 1934), and the application subnet(s) 2226 can be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 2230 and the service gateway 2236 (e.g., ​ ) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 2238 (e.g., ​ NAT gateway 1938). The control plane VCN 2216 may include a service gateway 2236 and a NAT gateway 2238.

[0354] The data plane VCN 2218 may include a data plane application layer 2246 (e.g., ​ 's data plane application layer 1946), a data plane DMZ layer 2248 (e.g., ​ 's data plane DMZ layer 1948)), and a data plane data layer 2250 (e.g., ​ 's data plane data layer 1950). The data plane DMZ layer 2248 may include one or more trusted application subnets 2260 (e.g., ​ 's one or more trusted application subnets 2160) and one or more untrusted application subnets 2262 (e.g., ​ 's one or more untrusted application subnets 2162) that can be communicatively coupled to the data plane application layer 2246, and one or more LB subnets 2222 of the Internet gateway 2234 included in the data plane VCN 2218. The one or more trusted application subnets 2260 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2236 included in the data plane VCN 2218, the NAT gateway 2238 included in the data plane VCN 2218, and one or more DB subnets 2230 included in the data plane data layer 2250. The one or more untrusted application subnets 2262 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2236 included in the data plane VCN 2218 and one or more DB subnets 2230 included in the data plane data layer 2250. The data plane data layer 2250 may include one or more DB subnets 2230 that can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 2236 included in the data plane VCN 2218.

[0355] The one or more untrusted application subnets 2262 may include one or more primary VNICs 2264(1)-(N) that can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 2266(1)-(N) residing within the one or more untrusted application subnets 2262. Each tenant VM 2266(1)-(N) may run code in a corresponding container 2267(1)-(N) and be communicatively coupled to an application subnet 2226 in the data plane application layer 2246 that may be included in a container egress VCN 2268. Corresponding secondary VNICs 2272(1)-(N) may facilitate communication between the one or more untrusted application subnets 2262 included in the data plane VCN 2218 and the application subnet included in the container egress VCN 2268. The container egress VCN may include a NAT gateway 2238 that can be communicatively coupled to a public Internet 2254 (e.g., ​ 's public Internet 1954).

[0356] An Internet gateway 2234 included in the control plane VCN 2216 and an Internet gateway 2234 included in the data plane VCN 2218 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 2252 (e.g., ​ the metadata management system 1952), and the metadata management service can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 2254. The public Internet 2254 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 2238 included in the control plane VCN 2216 and included in the data plane VCN 2218. A service gateway 2236 included in the control plane VCN 2216 and included in the data plane VCN 2218 can be communicatively coupled to a cloud service 2256.

[0357] In some examples, ​ the pattern shown in the architecture of block diagram 2200 of ​ can be considered an exception to the pattern shown in the architecture of block diagram 2100 of

[0358] and this pattern may be desirable for customers of an IaaS provider if the IaaS provider cannot communicate directly with the customer (e.g., a disconnected region). A customer can access in real time the respective containers 2267(1)-(N) included in each customer's VMs 2266(1)-(N). The containers 2267(1)-(N) can be configured to make calls to the respective secondary VNICs 2272(1)-(N) included in the (one or more) application subnets 2226 of the data plane application layer 2246, and the data plane application layer 2246 can be included in the container egress VCN 2268. The secondary VNICs 2272(1)-(N) can transmit the calls to the NAT gateway 2238, and the NAT gateway 2238 can transmit the calls to the public Internet 2254. In this example, the containers 2267(1)-(N) that can be accessed by the customer in real time can be isolated from the control plane VCN 2216 and can be isolated from other entities included in the data plane VCN 2218. The containers 2267(1)-(N) can also be isolated from resources of other customers.In other examples, a customer can use containers 2267(1)-(N) to invoke cloud service 2256. In this example, the customer can run code in containers 2267(1)-(N) that requests services from cloud service 2256. Containers 2267(1)-(N) can transmit the request to secondary VNICs 2272(1)-(N), which can transmit the request to a NAT gateway that can transmit the request to public Internet 2254. Public Internet 2254 can transmit the request via Internet gateway 2234 to (one or more) LB subnets 2222 included in control plane VCN 2216. In response to determining that the request is valid, (one or more) LB subnets can transmit the request to (one or more) application subnets 2226, which can transmit the request via service gateway 2236 to cloud service 2256.

[0359] It should be appreciated that the IaaS architectures 1900, 2000, 2100, 2200 depicted in the figures may have other components than those depicted. Additionally, the embodiments shown in the figures are merely some examples of cloud infrastructure systems that may incorporate embodiments of the present disclosure. In some other embodiments, the IaaS system may have more or fewer components than shown in the figures, may combine two or more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of components.

[0360] In certain embodiments, the IaaS systems described herein may include application suite, middleware, and database service offerings that are delivered to customers in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. An example of such an IaaS system is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) offered by the present assignee.

[0361] ​ An example computer system 2300 in which various embodiments may be implemented is illustrated. System 2300 may be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. As shown, computer system 2300 includes a processing unit 2304 that communicates with a plurality of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 2302. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 2306, an I / O subsystem 2308, a storage subsystem 2318, and a communication subsystem 2324. Storage subsystem 2318 includes a tangible computer-readable storage medium 2322 and system memory 2310.

[0362] The bus subsystem 2302 provides a mechanism for enabling the various components and subsystems of the computer system 2300 to communicate with each other as intended. Although the bus subsystem 2302 is schematically shown as a single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses. The bus subsystem 2302 can be any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. For example, such architectures can include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) buses, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) buses, Enhanced ISA (EISA) buses, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local buses, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) buses, which can be implemented as Mezzanine buses manufactured to the IEEE P2186.1 standard.

[0363] The processing unit 2304, which can be implemented as one or more integrated circuits (e.g., conventional microprocessors or microcontrollers), controls the operation of the computer system 2300. One or more processors can be included in the processing unit 2304. These processors can include single-core or multi-core processors. In certain embodiments, the processing unit 2304 can be implemented as one or more independent processing units 2332 and / or 2334, where each processing unit includes a single-core or multi-core processor. In other embodiments, the processing unit 2304 can also be implemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating two dual-core processors into a single chip.

[0364] In various embodiments, the processing unit 2304 can execute various programs in response to program code and can maintain multiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At any given time, some or all of the program code to be executed can reside in the (one or more) processors 2304 and / or the storage subsystem 2318. Through appropriate programming, the (one or more) processors 2304 can provide the various functions described above. The computer system 2300 can additionally include a processing acceleration unit 2306, which can include a digital signal processor (DSP), a dedicated processor, and the like.

[0365] The I / O subsystem 2308 can include user interface input devices and user interface output devices. User interface input devices can include a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad or touch screen incorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel, a dial, buttons, switches, a keyboard, an audio input device with a voice command recognition system, a microphone, and other types of input devices. User interface input devices can include, for example, motion sensing and / or gesture recognition devices, such as Microsoft's A motion sensor that enables a user to control and interact with an input device such as a Microsoft 360 game controller through a natural user interface using gestures and voice commands. The user interface input device may also include an eye gesture recognition device, such as one that detects eye activity from a user (e.g., "blinking" when taking a photo and / or making a menu selection) and converts the eye gesture into an input to the input device (e.g., a Google Blink Detector). Additionally, the user interface input device may include a voice recognition sensing device that enables the user to interact with a voice recognition system (e.g., a Navigator) through voice commands. The user interface input device may also include, but is not limited to, a three-dimensional (3D) mouse, joystick or pointing stick, game pad, and graphics tablet, as well as audio / video devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital video cameras, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode readers, 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser rangefinders, and eye tracking devices. Additionally, the user interface input device may include, for example, medical imaging input devices such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and medical ultrasound devices. The user interface input device may also include, for example, audio input devices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments, etc.

[0366]

[0367] The user interface output device may include a display subsystem, indicator lights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat panel device such as one using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a plasma display, a projection device, a touch screen, etc. Generally, the use of the term "output device" is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from the computer system 2300 to a user or other computer. For example, the user interface output device may include, but is not limited to, various display devices that visually convey text, graphics, and audio / video information, such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems, plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

[0368] The computer system 2300 may include a storage subsystem 2318 that provides a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing software and data constructs that provide the functionality of the embodiments described in this disclosure. The software may include programs, code modules, instructions, scripts, etc., which, when executed by one or more cores or processors of the processing unit 2304, provide the above functionality. The storage subsystem 2318 may also provide a repository for storing data used in accordance with this disclosure.

[0369] As ​ shown in the example of [[ ​ ]], the storage subsystem 2318 can include various components, including system memory 2310, computer-readable storage medium 2322, and computer-readable storage medium reader 2320. The system memory 2310 can store program instructions that can be loaded and executed by the processing unit 2304. The system memory 2310 can also store data used during the execution of the instructions and / or data generated during the execution of the program instructions. Various different types of programs can be loaded into the system memory 2310, including but not limited to client applications, web browsers, middle-tier applications, relational database management systems (RDBMS), virtual machines, containers, etc.

[0370] The system memory 2310 can also store an operating system 2316. Examples of the operating system 2316 can include various versions of Microsoft Apple and / or Linux operating systems, various commercially available or UNIX-like operating systems (including but not limited to various GNU / Linux operating systems, Google OS, etc.) and / or mobile operating systems, such as iOS, Phone, OS, OS, and OS operating systems. In some embodiments where the computer system 2300 executes one or more virtual machines, the virtual machines together with the guest operating system (GOS) can be loaded into the system memory 2310 and executed by one or more processors or cores of the processing unit 2304.

[0371] The system memory 2310 can be configured differently depending on the type of the computer system 2300. For example, the system memory 2310 can be volatile memory (such as random access memory (RAM)) and / or non-volatile memory (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.). Different types of RAM configurations can be provided, including static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), etc. In some embodiments, the system memory 2310 can include a basic input / output system (BIOS) that contains basic routines such as those that facilitate the transfer of information between elements within the computer system 2300 during startup.

[0372] The computer-readable storage medium 2322 can represent remote, local, fixed, and / or removable storage devices and storage media for temporarily and / or more permanently containing and storing computer-readable information for use by the computer system 2300, including instructions executable by the processing unit 2304 of the computer system 2300.

[0373] The computer-readable storage medium 2322 can include any suitable medium known or used in the art, including storage media and communication media, such as, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented with any method or technology for the storage and / or transmission of information. This can include tangible computer-readable storage media such as RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technologies, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic tape cartridges, magnetic tape, disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible computer-readable media.

[0374] As an example, the computer-readable storage medium 2322 can include a hard disk drive that reads from or writes to a non-removable non-volatile magnetic medium, a disk drive that reads from or writes to a removable non-volatile disk, and an optical disk drive that reads from or writes to a removable non-volatile optical disk (such as a CD ROM, DVD, and disk or other optical medium). The computer-readable storage medium 2322 can include, but is not limited to, drives, flash cards, universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital audio tapes, and so on. The computer-readable storage medium 2322 can also include solid-state drives (SSDs) based on non-volatile memory (such as flash memory-based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid-state ROMs, etc.), SSDs based on volatile memory (such as solid-state RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM), DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, and hybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory-based SSDs. Disk drives and their associated computer-readable media can provide non-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for the computer system 2300.

[0375] Machine-readable instructions executable by one or more processors or cores of processing unit 2304 may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may include physically tangible memory or storage devices, which include volatile memory storage devices and / or non-volatile storage devices. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage media include magnetic storage media (e.g., disks or tapes), optical storage media (e.g., DVDs, CDs), various types of RAM, ROM, or flash memory, hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, removable memory drives (e.g., USB drives), or other types of storage devices.

[0376] Communication subsystem 2324 provides an interface to other computer systems and networks. Communication subsystem 2324 serves as an interface for receiving data from other systems and sending data from computer system 2300 to other systems. For example, communication subsystem 2324 may enable computer system 2300 to connect to one or more devices via the Internet. In some embodiments, communication subsystem 2324 may include radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and / or data networks (e.g., using cellular phone technologies such as 3G, 4G, or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) advanced data network technologies, WiFi (IEEE 802.11 series standards), or other mobile communication technologies, or any combination thereof), global positioning system (GPS) receiver components, and / or other components. In some embodiments, as an addition or alternative to the wireless interface, communication subsystem 2324 may provide a wired network connection (e.g., Ethernet).

[0377] In some embodiments, communication subsystem 2324 may also receive input communications in the form of structured and / or unstructured data feeds 2326, event streams 2328, event updates 2330, etc., on behalf of one or more users who may use computer system 2300.

[0378] As an example, communication subsystem 2324 may be configured to receive data feeds 2326 from users of social networks and / or other communication services in real time, such as feeds, updates, web feeds such as rich site summary (RSS) feeds, and / or real-time updates from one or more third-party information sources.

[0379] In addition, the communication subsystem 2324 can also be configured to receive data in the form of a continuous data stream, which can include an event stream 2328 and / or event updates 2330 of real-time events that can be essentially continuous or unbounded without a clear termination. Examples of applications that generate continuous data can include, for example, sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performance measurement tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, automotive traffic monitoring, and so on.

[0380] The communication subsystem 2324 can also be configured to output structured and / or unstructured data feeds 2326, event streams 2328, event updates 2330, etc. to one or more databases, which can communicate with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to the computer system 2300.

[0381] The computer system 2300 can be one of various types, including handheld portable devices (e.g., cellular phones, computing tablets, PDAs), wearable devices (e.g., Glass head-mounted displays), PCs, workstations, mainframes, kiosks, server racks, or any other data processing system.

[0382] Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, the description of the computer system 2300 depicted in the figure is only to serve as a specific example. Many other configurations with more or fewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible. For example, custom hardware can also be used and / or specific elements can be implemented in hardware, firmware, software (including applets), or a combination thereof. Additionally, connections to other computing devices such as network input / output devices can also be employed. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize other ways and / or methods of implementing various embodiments.

[0383] Although specific embodiments have been described, various modifications, changes, alternative constructs, and equivalent forms are also included within the scope of the present disclosure. The embodiments are not limited to operating within certain specific data processing environments, but can operate freely within multiple data processing environments. Moreover, although the embodiments have been described using a specific series of transactions and steps, those skilled in the art should be clear that the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the described series of transactions and steps. The various features and aspects of the above embodiments can be used alone or in combination.

[0384] In addition, while embodiments have been described using a specific combination of hardware and software, it should be recognized that other combinations of hardware and software are also within the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments can be implemented using only hardware, or only software, or using a combination thereof. The various processes described herein can be implemented in any combination on the same processor or on different processors. Accordingly, where a component or service is described as being configured to perform certain operations, such configuration can be accomplished by, for example, designing electronic circuitry to perform the operations, programming a programmable electronic circuit such as a microprocessor to perform the operations, or any combination thereof. Processes can communicate using a variety of techniques, including but not limited to conventional techniques for inter-process communication, and different pairs of processes can use different techniques, or the same pair of processes can use different techniques at different times.

[0385] Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. However, it is obvious that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modifications and changes can be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope set forth in the claims. Thus, while specific disclosed embodiments have been described, these are not intended to be limiting. Various modifications and equivalent forms are within the scope of the following claims.

[0386] In the context of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in the context of the following claims), the terms "a", "an", "the", and similar references are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by the context. Unless otherwise stated, the terms "comprising", "having", "including", and "containing" are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including but not limited to"). The term "connected" shall be construed as being at least partially incorporated in, attached to, or joined together, even if there is something in between. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the recitation of a range of values herein is merely intended to be a shorthand method of individually referring to each separate value falling within the range, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. Unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by the context, all methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order. The use of any and all examples or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein is merely intended to better illustrate the embodiments and does not pose a limitation to the scope of the present disclosure unless otherwise stated. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the present disclosure.

[0387] Disjunctive language, such as the phrase "at least one of X, Y, or Z", unless otherwise expressly specified, is intended to be understood in the context of generally representing items, terms, etc., and can be X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and / or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language generally is not intended to and should not imply that certain embodiments require the presence of at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z, respectively.

[0388] This disclosure describes preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, including the best mode known for practicing the present disclosure. Variations of those preferred embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Those of ordinary skill should be able to appropriately adopt such variations and practice the present disclosure in a manner different from that specifically described herein. Accordingly, the present disclosure includes all modifications and equivalent forms of the subject matter recited in the appended claims as permitted by applicable law. In addition, unless otherwise indicated herein, the present disclosure includes any combination of the above elements in all possible variations thereof.

[0389] All references cited herein, including publications, patent applications, and patents, are incorporated herein by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and set forth in its entirety herein.

[0390] In the foregoing specification, aspects of the present disclosure have been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The various features and aspects disclosed above can be used singly or in combination. Additionally, embodiments can be used in any number of environments and applications other than those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of this specification. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.< / uniqueid> < / realm>

Claims

1. A method, comprising: registering, by a computing system, an external resource residing in an on-premises network as an external endpoint in a virtual cloud network (VCN); receiving, in the on-premises network, a user wallet that includes at least one trusted certificate; creating, in the VCN, an external resource representation for the external endpoint, the creating of the external resource representation including creating a virtual network interface card (VNIC); establishing a connection between a logical interface provisioned for the external resource and the VNIC via at least one intermediate container; and creating, at least in part based on the user wallet, a VCN wallet in each intermediate container and in the VCN, wherein access to the external resource via the external resource representation is enabled by information included in each of the user wallet and the VCN wallet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the VCN wallet includes at least a VCN server wallet and a VCN client wallet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the VCN server wallet is accessible by the at least one intermediate container, and wherein the VCN client wallet is accessible by the VNIC.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one intermediate container resides on a data plane VCN.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one intermediate container includes a first container configured to communicate-couple with the on-premises network via a first tunnel shard.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first container is configured to communicate-couple with the on-premises network via the first tunnel shard and a public communication network.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one intermediate container includes a second container configured to communicate-couple with the VCN.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second container includes a connection manager ("CMAN") container configured to act as a proxy server to redirect packets received by the CMAN container from the VCN to the on-premises network.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first container is communicatively coupled with the second container.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating a private endpoint in the VCN.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the private endpoint is communicatively coupled with the external resource via the external resource representation.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the wallet in the on-premises network.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising discovering the external resource via an agent operating on the external resource.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, via an intermediate container, a request from the external resource representation to the external resource.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving, at the at least one intermediate container, a result corresponding to the request; and transmitting, by the at least one intermediate container, the result to the external resource representation.

16. A system, comprising: a memory including processor-executable storage instructions; and a processor configured to execute the storage instructions to: register an external resource residing in an on-premises network as an external endpoint in a virtual cloud network (VCN); Receive a user wallet in an on-premises network, the user wallet including at least one trusted certificate; Create an external resource representation for an external endpoint in a VCN, the creation of the external resource representation including creating a virtual network interface card (VNIC); Establish a connection between a logical interface provisioned for the external resource and the VNIC via at least one intermediate container; and Create a VCN wallet in each intermediate container and in the VCN at least partially based on the user wallet, wherein access to the external resource via the external resource representation is enabled via information included in each of the user wallet and the VCN wallet.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the VCN wallet includes at least a VCN server wallet and a VCN client wallet, wherein the VCN server wallet is accessible by the at least one intermediate container, and wherein the VCN client wallet is accessible by the VNIC.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one intermediate container resides on a data plane VCN, and wherein the at least one intermediate container includes a first container configured to communicate and couple with the on-premises network via a first tunnel shard.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first container is configured to communicate and couple with the on-premises network via the first tunnel shard and a public communication network.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors, the plurality of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: Register an external resource residing in an on-premises network as an external endpoint in a virtual cloud network (VCN); Receive a user wallet in an on-premises network, the user wallet including at least one trusted certificate; Create an external resource representation for an external endpoint in a VCN, the creation of the external resource representation including creating a virtual network interface card (VNIC); Establish a connection between a logical interface provisioned for the external resource and the VNIC via at least one intermediate container; Create a VCN wallet in each intermediate container and in the VCN at least partially based on the user wallet, wherein access to the external resource via the external resource representation is enabled via information included in each of the user wallet and the VCN wallet.

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