Graphics Processing Unit Routing Policy

Abstract

Described herein is a routing mechanism for graphical processing units (GPUs) hosted on multiple host machines in a cloud environment. For a packet sent by a GPU of a host machine and received by a network device, the network device determines an inbound port link of the network device on which the packet was received. The network device obtains flow information associated with the packet, and calculates an outbound port link of the network device based on the flow information according to a hashing algorithm. The hashing algorithm is configured to hash the packet received on a particular inbound port link of the network device and transmit it on the same outbound port link of the network device. The network device forwards the packet on the outbound port link of the network device.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of and priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 215,264, filed June 25, 2021, and U.S. Nonprovisional Application No. 17 / 734,865, filed May 2, 2022. The entire contents of the foregoing applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

[0002] Field The present disclosure relates to a framework and routing mechanism for graphical processing units (GPUs) hosted on multiple host machines in a cloud environment. [Background technology]

[0003] background Organizations continue to migrate their business applications and databases to the cloud to reduce the costs of purchasing, updating, and maintaining on-premise hardware and software. High performance computing (HPC) applications consistently consume 100% of available computing power to achieve a specific outcome or result. HPC applications require dedicated network performance, high speed storage, advanced computing power, and large amounts of memory – resources that are in short supply in the virtualized infrastructure that makes up today's commodity clouds.

[0004] Cloud infrastructure service providers offer newer and faster CPUs and graphical processing units (GPUs) to address the requirements of HPC applications. Typically, a virtual topology is built to provision various GPUs hosted on multiple host machines to communicate with each other. In practice, a ring topology is utilized to connect various GPUs. However, ring networks inherently always experience blocking, which reduces the overall system performance. The embodiments described herein address these and other issues associated with connecting GPUs across multiple host machines. Summary of the Invention

[0005] overview The present disclosure generally relates to a routing mechanism for graphical processing units (GPUs) hosted on multiple host machines in a cloud environment. Various embodiments are described herein, including methods, systems, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing programs, codes, or instructions executable by one or more processors, and the like. These exemplary embodiments are mentioned not to limit or define the present disclosure, but to provide examples to aid in understanding the present disclosure. Additional embodiments are described in the detailed description section, and further detailed descriptions are provided therein.

[0006] One embodiment of the present disclosure is directed to a method that includes, for a packet transmitted by a graphical processing unit (GPU) of a host machine and received by a network device, determining, by the network device, a receive port link of the network device on which the packet was received; identifying, by the network device, an outgoing port link that corresponds to the receive port link based on a GPU routing policy, where the GPU routing policy is pre-configured prior to receiving the packet, establishing a mapping between each receive port link of the network device and a unique outgoing port link of the network device; and forwarding, by the network device, the packet on the outgoing port link of the network device.

[0007] One aspect of the present disclosure provides a system comprising one or more data processors and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed on the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform some or all of one or more methods disclosed herein.

[0008] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that includes instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform some or all of one or more of the methods disclosed herein.

[0009] The foregoing, together with other features and embodiments, will become more apparent with reference to the following specification, claims, and accompanying drawings.

[0010] The features, embodiments, and advantages of the present disclosure will be better understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1]FIG. 1 illustrates a high-level diagram of a delivery environment illustrating a virtual or overlay cloud network hosted by a cloud service provider infrastructure, according to certain embodiments. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified architectural diagram of physical components in a physical network within a CSPI, according to certain embodiments. [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 illustrates an example deployment in CSPI where a host machine is connected to multiple network virtualization devices (NVDs), according to certain embodiments. [Figure 4] A diagram illustrating connections between host machines and NVDs to provide I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy, according to certain embodiments. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a physical network provided by CSPI in accordance with certain embodiments. [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a cloud infrastructure incorporating a CLOS network configuration, according to certain embodiments. [Figure 7] 7 illustrates an example scenario illustrating a flow collision in the cloud infrastructure of FIG. 6, in accordance with certain embodiments. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates a policy-based routing mechanism implemented in a cloud infrastructure according to certain embodiments. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a cloud infrastructure illustrating different types of connections within the cloud infrastructure, according to certain embodiments. [Figure 10] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary configuration of racks included in a cloud infrastructure, according to certain embodiments. [Figure 11A] FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart illustrating steps performed by a network device in routing a packet, according to certain embodiments. [Figure 11B]FIG. 4 illustrates another flowchart illustrating steps performed by a network device in routing a packet, in accordance with certain embodiments. [Figure 12] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least one embodiment. [Figure 13] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system in accordance with at least one embodiment. [Figure 14] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system in accordance with at least one embodiment. [Figure 15] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementing a cloud infrastructure as a service system in accordance with at least one embodiment. [Figure 16] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system in accordance with at least one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] Detailed Description In the following description, for purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of particular embodiments. However, it will be apparent that various embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The figures and descriptions are not intended to be limiting. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" should not necessarily be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs.

[0013] Cloud Infrastructure Architecture Examples The term cloud services is generally used to refer to services made available by a cloud service provider (CSP) to a user or customer on-demand (e.g., via a subscription model) using systems and infrastructure (cloud infrastructure) provided by the CSP. Typically, the servers and systems that make up the CSP's infrastructure are separate from the customer's own on-premise servers and systems. Thus, customers can utilize cloud services provided by the CSP without separately purchasing hardware and software resources for the services. Cloud services are designed to give subscribing customers easy and scalable access to applications and computing resources without the customer investing in procuring the infrastructure used to deliver the services.

[0014] There are several cloud service providers offering different types of cloud services. Cloud services come in a variety of different types or models, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

[0015] A customer can subscribe to one or more cloud services offered by a CSP. A customer can be any entity such as an individual, an organization, or a business. When a customer subscribes or registers for a service offered by a CSP, a tenant or account is created for the customer. The customer can then access one or more subscribed cloud resources associated with the account through this account.

[0016] As mentioned above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one specific type of cloud computing service. In the IaaS model, the CSP provides an infrastructure (called Cloud Service Provider Infrastructure or CSPI) that customers can use to build their own customizable network and deploy customer resources. Thus, the customer's resources and network are hosted in the delivery environment by the CSP-provided infrastructure. This differs from traditional computing, where the customer's resources and network are hosted by the customer-provided infrastructure.

[0017] CSPI may comprise interconnected high performance computing resources including various host machines, memory resources, and network resources that form a physical network, also referred to as a substrate network or underlying network. CSPI resources may be distributed across one or more data centers that may be geographically distributed across one or more geographic regions. Virtualization software may run on these physical resources to provide a virtualized delivery environment. Virtualization creates an overlay network (also referred to as a software-based network, software-defined network, or virtual network) on the physical network. The CSPI physical network provides the basis for creating one or more overlay or virtual networks on the physical network. The virtual or overlay network may include one or more virtual cloud networks (VCNs). The virtual network is implemented using software virtualization technologies (e.g., hypervisors, functions performed by network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., smart NICs), top-of-rack (TOR) switches, smart TORs that implement one or more functions performed by the NVD, and other mechanisms) to create a network abstraction layer that can run on the physical network. The virtual network may take various forms, such as peer-to-peer networks, IP networks, etc. Virtual networks are typically either layer 3 IP networks or layer 2 VLANs. This method of virtual or overlay networking is often referred to as virtual or overlay layer 3 networking. Examples of protocols developed for virtual networks include IP-in-IP (or Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)), Virtual Extensible LANs (VXLAN-IETF RFC7348), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) (e.g. MPLS Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (RFC4364)), VMware's NSX, Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE), etc.

[0018] In the case of IaaS, the infrastructure (CSPI) provided by the CSP can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, the cloud computing service provider can host the 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 provide various services (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.) that accompany these infrastructure components. Thus, these services can be policy-driven, so that IaaS users may implement policies that drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance. CSPI provides infrastructure and set of complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available hosted delivery 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 network locations, such as the customer's on-premise network. When a customer subscribes or signs up for an IaaS service offered by a CSP, the tenant created for that customer is a secure, isolated division within the CSP where the customer can create, organize and manage their cloud resources.

[0019] Customers can build their own virtual networks using the compute, memory, and networking resources provided by CSPI. They can deploy one or more customer resources or workloads, such as compute instances, into these virtual networks. For example, customers can build one or more customizable private virtual networks, called Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs), using resources provided by CSPI. Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as compute instances, into the Customer VCN. Computing instances can take the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. Thus, CSPI provides a set of complementary cloud services with infrastructure that enables 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 they do have control over the operating systems, storage devices, and deployed applications. They may also have limited control over selected network components (e.g., firewalls).

[0020] The CSP may provide a console that allows 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 the CSPI. In some implementations, the console is a web-based application provided by the CSP.

[0021] 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 and 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 situation, precautions are taken and safeguards are put in place within the CSPI to ensure that each tenant's data is isolated and not visible to other tenants.

[0022] In a physical network, a network endpoint ("endpoint") refers to a computing device or system that is connected to the physical network and communicates to and from the connected network. 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), and the like. Each physical device in a physical network has a fixed network address that can be used to communicate with the device. This fixed network address can be a layer 2 address (e.g., a MAC address), a fixed layer 3 address (e.g., an IP address), and the like. In a virtualized environment or virtual network, the 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 the virtual network are addressed by overlay addresses, such as overlay layer 2 addresses (e.g., an overlay MAC address) and overlay layer 3 addresses (e.g., an overlay IP address). Network overlays achieve flexibility by allowing network administrators to move overlay addresses associated with network endpoints using software management (e.g., via software implementing the virtual network's control plane). Thus, unlike physical networks, in a virtual network, overlay addresses (e.g., overlay IP addresses) can be moved from one endpoint to another using network management software. Because virtual networks are built on top of physical networks, communication between components in a virtual network involves both the virtual network and the underlying physical network.To facilitate such communications, CSPI components are configured to learn and store mappings of overlay addresses in the virtual network to actual physical addresses in the substrate network, and vice versa. These mappings are then used to facilitate communications. Customer traffic is encapsulated to facilitate routing within the virtual network.

[0023] Thus, a physical address (e.g., a physical IP address) is associated with an entity in a physical network, and an overlay address (e.g., an overlay IP address) is associated with an entity in a virtual network. Both physical and overlay IP addresses are types of real IP addresses. They are distinct from virtual IP addresses, which are mapped to multiple real IP addresses. A virtual IP address provides a one-to-many mapping between a virtual IP address and multiple real IP addresses.

[0024] The cloud infrastructure or CSPI is physically hosted in one or more data centers in one or more regions around the world. The CSPI may include components in a physical or substrate network and virtualized components (e.g., virtual networks, computing instances, virtual machines, etc.) in a virtual network built on the physical network components. In certain embodiments, the CSPI is organized and hosted in regions, regions, and availability regions. A region is typically a localized geographic area that includes one or more data centers. Regions are typically independent of each other and may be in very distant locations, e.g., across countries or continents. For example, a first region may be Australia, another region may be Japan, and yet another region may be India, etc. CSPI resources are divided between regions such that each region has its own independent subset of CSPI resources. Each region may provide a set of core infrastructure services and resources, such as computing resources (e.g., bare metal servers, virtual machines, containers and related infrastructure), storage resources (e.g., block volume storage, file storage, object storage, archive storage), networking resources (e.g., virtual cloud networks (VCNs), load balancing resources, connections to on-premise networks), database resources, edge networking resources (e.g., DNS), and access management and monitoring resources. Typically, each region has multiple paths that connect it to other regions within the region.

[0025] Typically, applications are deployed (i.e., deployed to the infrastructure associated with that region) in the region where they are used most heavily, because using nearby resources is faster than using resources that are farther away. Applications may also be deployed in different regions for a variety of reasons, such as redundancy to reduce the risk of region-wide events such as large weather systems or earthquakes, or to meet different requirements such as legal jurisdictions, tax areas, and other business or social standards.

[0026] Data centers within a region can be further organized and subdivided into Availability Areas (ADs). An Availability Area may correspond to one or more data centers within a region. A region can consist of one or more Availability Areas. In such a delivery environment, CSPI resources are either region-specific, such as a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN), or availability area-specific, such as a compute instance.

[0027] ADs within a region are isolated from each other, fault-tolerant, and configured to be highly unlikely to fail simultaneously. This is achieved by ADs not sharing critical infrastructure resources such as networks, physical cables, cable paths, and cable entry points, so that failure of one AD in a region is unlikely to affect the availability of other ADs in the same region. ADs within the same region can be connected to each other by low-latency, high-bandwidth networks, which provides highly available connections to other networks (e.g., the Internet, customer on-premise networks) and allows for replica systems to be built in multiple ADs for both high availability and disaster recovery. Cloud services use multiple ADs to ensure high availability and to protect against resource failures. As the infrastructure offered by an IaaS provider grows, additional capacity can be added to additional regions and ADs. Traffic between availability regions is typically encrypted.

[0028] In certain embodiments, regions are grouped into regions. A region is a logical collection of regions. Regions are isolated from each other and do not share data. Regions within the same region can communicate with each other, but regions in different regions cannot communicate with each other. A customer's tenant or account with a CSP exists in a single region and can be distributed across one or more regions that belong to that region. Typically, when a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, a tenant or account for that customer is created in a customer-specified region (called a "home" region) within the region. The customer can extend the customer's tenant across one or more other regions within the region. The customer cannot access regions that are not within the region in which the customer's tenant resides.

[0029] An IaaS provider may offer multiple regions, each serving the needs of a particular set of customers or users. For example, a commercial region may be offered to commercial customers. As another example, a region may be offered in a particular country for customers in that country. As yet another example, a government region may be offered to the government, and so on. For example, the government region may serve the needs of a particular government and may have a higher level of security than the commercial region. For example, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) currently offers two regions: one for a commercial region and one for a government cloud region (e.g., FedRAMP certified and IL5 certified).

[0030] In certain embodiments, an AD can be subdivided into one or more failure domains. A failure domain is a group of infrastructure resources within an AD to provide anti-affinity. A failure domain can be used to distribute computing instances such that the instances are not on the same physical hardware within a single AD. This is known as anti-affinity. A failure domain refers to a set of hardware components (computers, switches, etc.) that share a single point of failure. A computing pool is logically divided into failure domains. Thus, a hardware failure or computing hardware maintenance event that affects one failure domain does not affect instances in other failure domains. Depending on the embodiment, the number of failure domains in each AD can vary. For example, in certain embodiments, each AD includes three failure domains. The failure domains act as logical data centers within an AD.

[0031] When a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, resources from CSPI are provisioned to the customer and associated with the customer's tenant. Customers can use these provisioned resources to build private networks and deploy resources on these networks. A customer network hosted in the cloud by CSPI is called a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). Customers can set up one or more Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs) using CSPI resources allocated to the customer. A VCN is a virtual network or software-defined private network. Customer resources deployed in a customer's VCN can include compute instances (e.g., virtual machines, bare metal instances) and other resources. These compute instances may represent various customer workloads such as applications, load balancers, databases, etc. Compute instances deployed in a VCN can communicate over a public network such as the Internet with publicly accessible endpoints ("public endpoints"), other instances in the same VCN or other VCNs (e.g., other VCNs of the customer or VCNs not belonging to the customer), customer's on-premises data center or network, service endpoints, and other types of endpoints.

[0032] CSPs can use CSPI to provide a variety of services. In some cases, customers of CSPI themselves may act as service providers and provide services using CSPI resources. Service providers may expose service endpoints characterized by identifying information (e.g., IP addresses, DNS names, and ports). Customer resources (e.g., computing instances) can utilize a particular service by accessing the service endpoints exposed by that particular service's service. These service endpoints are typically endpoints that are publicly accessible to users over a public communications network, such as the Internet, using a public IP address associated with the endpoint. Publicly accessible network endpoints are sometimes referred to as public endpoints.

[0033] In certain embodiments, a service provider may expose a service through a service endpoint (sometimes referred to as a service endpoint). A customer of the service may then access the service using this service endpoint. In certain implementations, a service endpoint provided for a service may be accessible by multiple customers who intend to use the service. In other implementations, a dedicated service endpoint may be provided for a customer such that only that customer may access the service using the dedicated service endpoint.

[0034] In certain embodiments, when a VCN is created, it is associated with a private overlay classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) address space, which is a range of private overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0 / 16) that are assigned to the VCN. A VCN includes associated subnets, route tables, and gateways. A VCN exists within a single region, but can span one or more or all availability regions of the region. A gateway is a virtual interface configured for a VCN that enables traffic to communicate between the VCN and one or more endpoints outside the VCN. One or more different types of gateways can be configured for a VCN to enable communication between the different types of endpoints.

[0035] A VCN can be subdivided into one or more subnetworks, such as one or more subnets. A subnet is thus a unit of configuration or subdivision that can be created within a VCN. A VCN can contain one or more subnets. Each subnet in a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses that do not overlap with other subnets in that VCN (for example, 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24), which represent a subset of address space within the VCN's address space.

[0036] Each compute instance is associated with a virtual network interface card (VNIC) that allows the compute instance to participate in a subnet in the VCN. A VNIC is a logical representation of a physical network interface card (NIC). In general, a VNIC is an interface between an entity (e.g., compute instance, service) and a virtual network. A VNIC exists within a subnet and 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 connects a compute instance to a subnet in the VCN. A VNIC associated with a compute instance allows the compute instance to be part of a subnet in the VCN, allowing the compute instance to communicate (e.g., send and receive packets) with endpoints on the same subnet as the compute instance, endpoints on a different subnet in the VCN, or endpoints outside the VCN. Thus, a VNIC associated with a compute instance determines how the compute instance connects to endpoints in and outside the VCN. A VNIC for a compute instance is created and associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created and added to a subnet in the VCN. For a subnet that contains a set of computing instances, the subnet contains VNICs that correspond to the set of computing instances, and each VNIC is connected to a computing instance in the set of computing instances.

[0037] Each compute instance is assigned a private overlay IP address through the VNIC associated with the compute instance. This private overlay 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 particular subnet use the same route table, security lists, and DHCP options. As previously mentioned, each subnet in a VCN is associated with a contiguous range of overlay IP addresses that do not overlap with other subnets in that VCN (e.g., 10.0.0.0 / 24 and 10.0.1.0 / 24) and represents a subset of 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 the VNIC is an address from the contiguous range of overlay IP addresses assigned to the subnet.

[0038] In certain embodiments, a compute instance may be optionally assigned additional overlay IP addresses, such as one or more public IP addresses if in a public subnet, in addition to the private overlay IP address. These multiple addresses are assigned on the same VNIC or on multiple VNICs associated with the compute instance. However, each instance has a primary VNIC, which is created when the instance is launched and is associated with an overlay 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 Area as the primary VNIC. All VNICs are in the same Availability Area as the instance. Secondary VNICs can be in a subnet in the same VCN as the primary VNIC, or in a different subnet in the same VCN or in a different VCN.

[0039] If a compute instance is in a public subnet, it can optionally be assigned a public IP address. A subnet can be designated as a public or private subnet when the subnet is created. A private subnet means that resources in the subnet (e.g., compute instances) and associated VNICs cannot have public overlay IP addresses. A public subnet means that resources in the subnet and associated VNICs can have public IP addresses. Customers can specify that a subnet resides in a single Availability Area or across multiple Availability Areas within a Region or Region.

[0040] As explained above, a VCN can be subdivided into one or more subnets. In certain embodiments, a virtual router (VR) configured for a VCN (referred to as a VCN VR or simply VR) enables communication between subnets of the VCN. For a subnet in a VCN, the VR represents a logical gateway for that subnet that enables that subnet (i.e., the compute instances on that subnet) to communicate with endpoints on other subnets in the VCN and with other endpoints outside the VCN. A VCN VR is a logical entity configured to route traffic between VNICs in a VCN and a virtual gateway ("gateway") associated with the VCN. Gateways are further described below with reference to FIG. 1. A VCN VR is a layer 3 / IP layer concept. In one embodiment, there is one VCN VR for a VCN, with one port for each subnet of the VCN and a potentially unlimited number of ports addressed by IP addresses. Thus, a VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN to which the VCN VR is connected. The VRs are also connected to the various gateways configured for the VCN. In certain embodiments, a particular overlay IP address from a subnet's overlay IP address range is reserved for ports in the VCN VR of that subnet. For example, consider a VCN with two subnets with associated address ranges of 10.0 / 16 and 10.1 / 16, respectively. For a first subnet in the VCN with address range 10.0 / 16, an address in this range is reserved for ports in the VCN VR of that subnet. In some cases, the first IP address in the range may be reserved for a VCN VR. For example, for a subnet with overlay IP address range 10.0 / 16, IP address 10.0.0.1 may be reserved for ports in the VCN VR of that subnet. For a second subnet with address range 10.1 / 16 in the same VCN, the VCN VR may have a port for the second subnet with IP address 10.1.0.1. The VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet in the VCN.

[0041] In some other embodiments, each subnet in a VCN may have its own associated VR that is addressable by the subnet using a reserved or default IP address associated with the VR. The reserved or default IP address may be, for example, the first IP address from a range of IP addresses associated with the subnet. VNICs in the subnet can communicate (e.g., send and receive packets) with the VR associated with the subnet using this default or reserved IP address. In such embodiments, the VR is the ingress / egress point for that subnet. VRs associated with a subnet in a VCN can communicate with other VRs associated with other subnets in the VCN. VRs can also communicate with gateways associated with the VCN. The VR functions of a subnet are running on or are performed by one or more NVDs that perform the VNIC functions of the VNICs in the subnet.

[0042] You can configure route tables, security rules, and DHCP options for a VCN. A route table is a virtual route table for a VCN that contains rules that route traffic from subnets in the VCN to destinations outside the VCN through gateways or specially configured instances. You can customize a VCN's route table to control how packets are forwarded and routed to and from the VCN. DHCP options refer to configuration information that is automatically provided when an instance is launched.

[0043] Security rules configured for a VCN represent the overlay firewall rules for the VCN. Security rules can include ingress and egress rules and specify the type of traffic (e.g., based on protocol and port) that is allowed in and out of instances in the VCN. Customers can choose whether a particular rule is stateful or stateless. For example, a customer can allow inbound SSH traffic from anywhere to a set of instances by configuring a stateful ingress rule with source CIDR 0.0.0.0 / 0, destination TCP port 22. Security rules can be implemented using network security groups or security lists. A network security group consists of a set of security rules that apply only to resources in that group. A security list, on the other hand, contains rules that apply to all resources in any subnet that uses the security list. A VCN can be provided with a default security list that contains default security rules. DHCP options configured for a VCN provide configuration information that is automatically provided to instances in the VCN when the instances are launched.

[0044] In certain embodiments, configuration information of a VCN is determined and stored by a VCN control plane. The configuration information of a VCN may include, for example, information about address ranges associated with the VCN, subnets and related information in the VCN, one or more VRs associated with the VCN, computing instances and associated VNICs in the VCN, NVDs performing various virtualized network functions associated with the VCN (e.g., VNICs, VRs, gateways), state information of the VCN, and other VCN-related information. In certain embodiments, a VCN distribution service publishes the configuration information stored by the VCN control plane, or a portion thereof, to the NVD. The distribution information may be used to update information (e.g., forwarding tables, routing tables, etc.) stored and used by the NVD to forward packets to and from computing instances in the VCN.

[0045] In a particular embodiment, the creation of VCNs and subnets is handled by a VCN control plane (CP), and the launch of compute instances is handled by a compute control plane. The compute control plane is responsible for allocating physical resources to compute instances, which then calls the VCN control plane to create and attach VNICs to compute instances. The VCN CP also sends VCN data mappings to a VCN data plane that is configured to perform packet forwarding and routing functions. In a particular embodiment, 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 shown in Figures 12, 13, 14, and 15 (see references 1216, 1316, 1416, and 1516) and described below.

[0046] A customer can create one or more VCNs using resources hosted by CSPI. Computing instances deployed in a customer's VCN can communicate with different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI and endpoints external to CSPI.

[0047] A variety of different architectures for implementing cloud-based services using CSPI are shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, and 15 and described below. Figure 1 is a high-level diagram of a delivery environment 100 showing an overlay or customer VCN hosted by CSPI, according to certain embodiments. The delivery environment shown in Figure 1 includes multiple components in an overlay network. The delivery environment 100 shown 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, the delivery environment shown in Figure 1 may have more or fewer systems or components than those shown in Figure 1, two or more systems may be combined, or the systems may be configured or arranged differently.

[0048] As shown in the example depicted in FIG. 1, delivery environment 100 comprises CSPI 101 that provides services and resources that customers can subscribe to and use to build a virtual cloud network (VCN). In a particular embodiment, CSPI 101 provides IaaS services to subscribing customers. Data centers in CSPI 101 may be organized into one or more regions. An example of a region "Region US" 102 is shown in FIG. 1. A customer has configured a customer VCN 104 for region 102. The customer may deploy various computing instances on VCN 104, which may include virtual machines or bare metal instances. Example instances include applications, databases, load balancers, etc.

[0049] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, customer VCN 104 comprises two subnets, namely "Subnet-1" and "Subnet-2", each with its own CIDR IP address range. In FIG. 1, the overlay IP address range of Subnet-1 is 10.0 / 16, and the address range of Subnet-2 is 10.1 / 16. VCN virtual router 105 represents a logical gateway of the VCN that enables communication between subnets of VCN 104 and with other endpoints outside the VCN. VCN VR 105 is configured to route traffic between VNICs in VCN 104 and gateways associated with VCN 104. VCN VR 105 provides ports to each subnet of VCN 104. For example, VR 105 may provide a port with IP address 10.0.0.1 to Subnet-1 and a port with IP address 10.1.0.1 to Subnet-2.

[0050] Multiple computing instances can be deployed on each subnet, where the computing instances can be virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. The computing instances in a subnet can be hosted by one or more host machines in CSPI101. The computing instances join the subnet through a VNIC associated with the computing instance. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, computing instance C1 is part of Subnet-1 through a VNIC associated with the computing instance. Similarly, computing instance C2 is part of Subnet-1 through a VNIC associated with C2. Similarly, multiple computing instances (which can be virtual machine instances or bare metal instances) can be part of Subnet-1. Each computing instance is assigned a private overlay IP address and a MAC address through the associated VNIC. For example, in FIG. 1, computing instance C1 has an overlay IP address of 10.0.0.2, a MAC address of M1, while computing instance C2 has a private overlay IP address of 10.0.0.3 and a MAC address of M2. Each compute instance in Subnet-1 (including compute instances C1 and C2) has a default route to VCN VR105 using IP address 10.0.0.1, which is the IP address of a port in VCN VR105 in Subnet-1.

[0051] Subnet-2 may have multiple computing instances deployed thereon, including virtual machine instances and / or bare metal instances. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, computing instances D1 and D2 are part of Subnet-2 via VNICs associated with the respective computing instances. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, computing instance D1 has an overlay IP address 10.1.0.2 and a MAC address MM1, while computing instance D2 has a private overlay IP address 10.1.0.3 and a MAC address MM2. Each computing instance in Subnet-2, including computing instances D1 and D2, has a default route to VCN VR105 using IP address 10.1.0.1, which is the IP address of a port in VCN VR105 in Subnet-2.

[0052] The VCNA 104 may also include one or more load balancers. For example, a load balancer may be provided for a subnet and configured to load balance traffic across multiple computing instances on the subnet. A load balancer may also be provided to load balance traffic between subnets within a VCN.

[0053] A particular computing instance deployed on VCN 104 can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints external to CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI 101 can include endpoints on the same subnet as the particular computing instance (e.g., communication between two computing instances in Subnet-1), endpoints on different subnets in the same VCN (e.g., communication between a computing instance in Subnet-1 and a computing instance in Subnet-2), endpoints in different VCNs in the same region (e.g., communication between a computing instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in the same region 106 or 110, communication between a computing instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a service network 110 in the same region), or endpoints in a VCN in a different region (e.g., communication between a computing instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in a different region 108). Computing instances in a subnet hosted by CSPI 101 can also communicate with endpoints not hosted by CSPI 101 (i.e., external to CSPI 101). These external endpoints include endpoints within the customer's on-premise network 116, endpoints within other remote cloud host networks 118, public endpoints 114 accessible via a public network such as the Internet, and other endpoints.

[0054] Communication between compute instances on the same subnet is facilitated using VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances. For example, compute instance C1 in Subnet-1 may want to send a packet to compute instance C2 in Subnet-1. For a packet originating from a source compute instance and destined for another compute instance in the same subnet, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. The processing performed by the VNIC associated with the source compute instance may include determining destination information for the packet from the packet header, identifying policies (e.g., security lists) configured on the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, determining the next hop for the packet, performing encapsulation / decapsulation functions on the packet as necessary, and then forwarding / routing the packet to the next hop with the goal of facilitating communication of the packet to the intended destination. If the destination compute instance is in the same subnet as the source compute instance, the VNIC associated with the source compute instance is configured to identify the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance and forward the packet to that VNIC for processing. The VNIC associated with the destination computing instance is then executed and the packet is forwarded to the destination computing instance.

[0055] When a packet is communicated from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, the communication is facilitated by the VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances and VCN VRs. For example, if compute instance C1 in Subnet-1 in Figure 1 wants to send a packet to compute instance D1 in Subnet-2, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated with compute instance C1. The VNIC associated with compute instance C1 is configured to route the packet to VCN VR105 using the VCN VR's default route or port 10.0.0.1. VCN VR105 is configured to route the packet to Subnet-2 using port 10.1.0.1. The packet is then received and processed by the VNIC associated with D1, which forwards the packet to compute instance D1.

[0056] When a packet is communicated from a computing instance in VCN 104 to an endpoint outside VCN 104, the communication is facilitated by a VNIC associated with the source computing instance, VCN VR 105, and a gateway associated with VCN 104. One or more types of gateways may be associated with VCN 104. A gateway is an interface between a VCN and another endpoint, where the other endpoint is outside the VCN. A gateway is a layer 3 / IP layer concept that allows a VCN to communicate with endpoints outside the VCN. Thus, a gateway facilitates traffic flow between a VCN and other VCNs or networks. Various different types of gateways may be configured for a VCN to facilitate different types of communication with different types of endpoints. Depending on the gateway, the communication may occur over a public network (e.g., the Internet) or over a private network. Various communication protocols may be used for these communications.

[0057] For example, compute instance C1 may want to communicate with an endpoint outside of VCN 104. The packet may first be processed by a VNIC associated with source compute instance C1. The VNIC processing determines that the destination of the packet is outside of Subnet-1 of C1. The VNIC associated with C1 may forward the packet to VCN VR105 of VCN 104. VCN VR105 then processes the packet and, as part of the processing, determines a particular gateway associated with VCN 104 as the next hop for the packet based on the destination of the packet. VCN VR105 may then forward the packet to the particular identified gateway. For example, if the destination is an endpoint within a customer's on-premise network, the packet may be forwarded by VCN VR105 to a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) gateway 122 configured for VCN 104. The packet may then be forwarded from the gateway to the next hop to facilitate communication of the packet to its ultimate intended destination.

[0058] A variety of different types of gateways can be configured for a VCN. Examples of gateways that can be configured for a VCN are shown in FIG. 1 and described below. Examples of gateways associated with a VCN are also shown in FIGS. 12, 13, 14, and 15 (e.g., gateways referenced with reference numbers 1234, 1236, 1238, 1334, 1336, 1338, 1434, 1436, 1438, 1534, 1536, and 1538) and described below. As shown in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a dynamic routing gateway (DRG) 122 can be added to or associated with a customer VCN 104 to provide a path for private network traffic communication between the customer VCN 104 and another endpoint, which may be a customer's on-premise network 116, a VCN 108 in a different region of the CSPI 101, or other remote cloud networks 118 not hosted by the CSPI 101. The customer on-premise network 116 may be a customer network or customer data center built using the customer's resources. Access to the customer on-premise network 116 is generally very restricted. For a customer that has both the customer on-premise network 116 and one or more VCNs 104 deployed or hosted in the cloud by CSPI 101, the customer may want to enable the on-premise network 116 and the cloud-based VCNs 104 to communicate with each other. This allows the customer to build an extended hybrid environment that includes the customer's VCNs 104 and the on-premise network 116 hosted by CSPI 101. The DRG 122 enables this communication. To enable such communication, a communication channel 124 is set up where one endpoint of the channel is in the customer on-premise network 116 and the other endpoint is in CSPI 101 and connected to the customer VCN 104. The communication channel 124 may be over a public or private communication network, such as the Internet.A variety of different communication protocols may be used, such as IPsec VPN technology over a public communication network such as the Internet, Oracle's FastConnect technology using a private network instead of a public network, etc. A device or equipment in the customer on-premise network 116 that forms one endpoint of the communication channel 124 is called customer premises equipment (CPE), such as CPE 126 shown in Figure 1. On the CSPI 101 side, the endpoint may be a host machine running DRG 122.

[0059] In certain embodiments, remote peering connections (RPCs) can be added to a DRG, allowing a customer to peer one VCN with another VCN in a different region. Using such RPCs, a customer VCN 104 can connect to a VCN 108 in another region using the DRG 122. The DRG 122 may also be used to communicate with other remote cloud networks 118 not hosted by CSPI 101, such as Microsoft Adre cloud, Amazon AWS cloud, etc.

[0060] As shown in Figure 1, an Internet Gateway (IGW) 120 can be configured for a customer VCN 104 to enable computing instances on VCN 104 to communicate with public endpoints 114 accessible over a public network, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 is a gateway that connects a VCN to a public network, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 allows public subnets in a VCN, such as VCN 104 (where resources in the public subnet have public overlay IP addresses) to directly access public endpoints 112 on the public network 114, such as the Internet. The IGW 120 allows connections to be initiated from subnets in VCN 104 or from the Internet.

[0061] A Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway 128 can be configured for a customer VCN 104 to allow cloud resources in the customer VCN that do not have dedicated public overlay IP addresses to access the Internet, without exposing those resources, and to direct inbound Internet connections (e.g., L4-L7 connections). This allows private subnets in the VCN, such as Private Subnet-1 in VCN 104, to privately access public endpoints on the Internet. A NAT Gateway can only initiate connections from the private subnet to the public Internet, not from the Internet to the private subnet.

[0062] In certain embodiments, a service gateway (SGW) 126 can be configured for a customer VCN 104 and provides a path for private network traffic between the VCN 104 and supported service endpoints in the service network 110. In certain embodiments, the service network 110 can be provided by a CSP and provide a variety of services. An example of such a service network is Oracle's Services Network, which provides a variety of services that customers can use. For example, a computing instance (e.g., a database system) in a private subnet of the customer VCN 104 can back up data to a service endpoint (e.g., an object store) without requiring a public IP address or access to the Internet. In certain embodiments, a VCN can have only one SGW, and connections can only be initiated from a subnet in the VCN, not from the service network 110. When a VCN is peered with another VCN, resources in the other VCN typically do not have access to the SGW. Resources in an on-premises network connected to a VCN using FastConnect or VPN Connect can also use a service gateway configured for that VCN.

[0063] In certain implementations, the SGW 126 uses the concept of a service classless inter-region routing (CIDR) label, which is a string that represents all the regional public IP address ranges for a service or group of services of interest. A customer uses the service CIDR label when configuring the SGW and associated route rules to control traffic to the service. A customer can optionally leverage this when configuring security rules without having to adjust the security rules if the service's public IP address changes in the future.

[0064] A local peering gateway (LPG) 132 is a gateway that can be added to a customer VCN 104 to allow the VCN 104 to peer with another VCN in the same region. Peering means that the VCNs communicate using private IP addresses without the traffic traversing a public network such as the Internet or the traffic being routed through the customer's on-premises network 116. In a preferred embodiment, a VCN has a separate LPG for each peering it establishes. Local peering or VCN peering is a common method used to establish network connections between different applications or infrastructure management functions.

[0065] A service provider, such as a provider of services in the service network 110, can provide access to the service using different access models. According to a public access model, the service may be exposed as a public endpoint publicly accessible by computing instances in the customer VCN over a public network such as the Internet, or it may be privately accessible through the SGW 126. According to a particular private access model, the service is made accessible as a private IP endpoint in a private subnet of the customer's VCN. This is called private endpoint (PE) access and allows the service provider to expose the service as an instance in the customer's private network. A private endpoint resource represents a service in the customer's VCN. Each PE appears as a VNIC (called a PE-VNIC with one or more private IPs) in a customer-selected subnet in the customer's VCN. Thus, the PE provides a way to present the service in the private customer VCN subnet using a VNIC. Because the endpoint is exposed as a VNIC, all the features associated with the VNIC, such as routing rules, security lists, etc., are now available on the PE VNIC.

[0066] A service provider can register a service to enable access through the PE. The provider can associate policies with the service that limit the visibility of the service to customer tenants. 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) that represent the same service.

[0067] 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. A private access gateway (PAGW) 130 is a gateway resource that can be connected to a service provider VCN (e.g., a VCN in the service network 110) that serves as the ingress / egress point for all traffic to and from the customer subnet private endpoints. The PAGW 130 allows the provider to scale the number of PE connections without utilizing 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 the services as private endpoints in multiple VCNs for one or multiple customers. From the customer's perspective, the PE VNIC appears not to be connected to the customer's instances but to the services the customer wants to interact with. Traffic destined for the private endpoints is routed to the service through the PAGW 130. These are called customer-to-service private connections (C2S connections).

[0068] The PE concept can also be used to extend the private access of a service to a customer's on-premises network and data center by allowing traffic to flow through FastConnect / IPsec links and private endpoints in the customer's VCN. The private access of a service can also be extended to a customer's peered VCN by allowing traffic to flow between LPG132 and a PE in the customer's VCN.

[0069] Customers have subnet-level control over routing within a VCN, allowing the customer to specify which subnets within a customer's VCN, such as VCN 104, use each gateway. A VCN's route table is used to determine whether to allow traffic from a VCN through a particular gateway. For example, in a particular example, a route table for a public subnet in customer VCN 104 may send non-local traffic through IGW 120. A route table for a private subnet in the same customer VCN 104 may send traffic destined for CSP services through SGW 126. All remaining traffic may be sent through NAT gateway 128. Route tables only control traffic leaving a VCN.

[0070] Security lists associated with a VCN are used to control traffic that enters the VCN through a gateway via inbound connections. All resources within a subnet use the same route table and security lists. Security lists can be used to control specific types of traffic that can enter or leave instances within a subnet of a VCN. Security list rules may include ingress (inbound) rules and egress (outbound) rules. For example, ingress rules may specify allowed source address ranges, while egress rules may specify allowed destination address ranges. Security rules can specify a specific protocol (e.g., TCP, ICMP), a specific port (e.g., 22 for SSH, 3389 for Windows RDP), and so on. In certain implementations, the instance's operating system may enforce its own firewall rules aligned with the security list rules. Rules may be stateful (e.g., connections are tracked and responses are automatically allowed without explicit security list rules for the response traffic) or stateless.

[0071] Access from a customer VCN (i.e., by resources or computing instances deployed on VCN 104) can be categorized as public access, private access, or dedicated access. Public access refers to an access model that uses a public IP address or NAT to access a public endpoint. Private access enables customer workloads (e.g., resources in a private subnet) in VCN 104 with private IP addresses to access a service without going through a public network such as the Internet. In a particular embodiment, CSPI 101 enables customer VCN workloads with private IP addresses to access (public service endpoints of) a service using a service gateway. Thus, the service gateway provides a private access model by establishing a virtual link between the customer's VCN and the public endpoint of the service that is outside the customer's private network.

[0072] Additionally, CSPI can provide dedicated public access using technologies such as FastConnect public peering, where a customer's on-premises instances can use a FastConnect connection to access one or more services in the customer's VCN without traversing a public network such as the Internet. CSPI can also provide dedicated private access using FastConnect private peering, where a customer's on-premises instances with private IP addresses can use a FastConnect connection to access the customer's VCN workloads. FastConnect is an alternative network connection to using the public Internet to connect a customer's on-premises network to CSPI and its services. FastConnect provides an easy, elastic, and economical way to create dedicated private connections with higher bandwidth options and a more reliable and consistent network experience compared to Internet-based connections.

[0073] FIG. 1 and the accompanying description above describe various virtualization components in an example virtual network. As described above, a virtual network is built on an underlying physical or substrate network. FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified architecture diagram of physical components in a physical network in CSPI 200 that provides the basis for a virtual network, according to a particular embodiment. As illustrated, CSPI 200 provides a delivery environment that includes components and resources (e.g., computing, memory, and networking resources) provided by a cloud service provider (CSP). These components and resources are used to provide cloud services (e.g., IaaS services) to subscribing customers, i.e., customers who subscribe to one or more services provided by the CSP. Based on the services to which the customer subscribes, a subset of the resources (e.g., computing, memory, and networking resources) of CSPI 200 is provisioned to the customer. The customer can then build their own cloud-based (i.e., CSPI-hosted), customizable, private virtual network using the physical computing, memory, and networking resources provided by CSPI 200. As previously described, these customer networks are referred to as virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Customers can deploy one or more customer resources, such as computing instances, into these Customer VCNs. The computing instances can be in the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances, etc. CSPI200 offers infrastructure and a set of complementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range of applications and services in a highly available hosted environment.

[0074] In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the physical components of CSPI 200 include one or more physical host machines or servers (e.g., 202, 206, 208), network virtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., 210, 212), top-of-rack (TOR) switches (e.g., 214, 216), and physical networks (e.g., 218), and switches within physical network 218. The physical host machines or servers can host and run various computing instances that participate in one or more subnets of the VCN. The computing instances can include virtual machine instances and bare metal instances. For example, the various computing instances shown in FIG. 1 can be hosted by the physical host machines shown in FIG. 2. The virtual machine computing instances in the VCN can be run by one host machine or multiple different host machines. The physical host machines can also host virtual host machines, container-based hosts or functions, and the like. The VNICs and VCN VRs shown in FIG. 1 can be run by the NVDs shown in FIG. 2. The gateways shown in FIG. 1 can be run by the host machines and / or NVDs shown in FIG. 2.

[0075] A host machine or server may run a hypervisor (also called 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. A hypervisor on a host machine enables one or more computing instances to be created, run, and managed on the host machine. A hypervisor on a host machine enables the physical computing resources of the host machine (e.g., computing, memory, and networking resources) to be shared among the various computing instances executed by the host machine.

[0076] For example, as shown in FIG. 2, host machines 202 and 208 run hypervisors 260 and 266, respectively. These hypervisors can be implemented using software, firmware, or hardware, or a combination thereof. Typically, a hypervisor is a process or software layer that sits on top of a host machine's operating system (OS), which in turn runs on the host machine's hardware processors. A hypervisor provides a virtualized environment by allowing the host machine's physical computing resources (e.g., processing resources such as processors / cores, memory resources, networking resources) to be shared among various virtual machine computing instances executed by the host machine. For example, in FIG. 2, hypervisor 260 can sit on top of the OS of host machine 202, allowing the host machine's 202 computing resources (e.g., processing, memory, and networking resources) to be shared among computing instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed by host machine 202. A virtual machine can have its own operating system (called a guest operating system), which may be the same as or different from the host machine's OS. The operating system of a virtual machine executed by a host machine may be the same or different from the operating system of another virtual machine executed by the same host machine. Thus, a hypervisor allows multiple operating systems to run alongside each other while sharing the same computing resources of the host machine. The host machines shown in FIG. 2 may be equipped with the same or different types of hypervisors.

[0077] A computing instance can be a virtual machine instance or a bare metal instance. In Figure 2, computing instance 268 on host machine 202 and computing instance 274 on host machine 208 are examples of virtual machine instances. Host machine 206 is an example of a bare metal instance provided to a customer.

[0078] In certain examples, an entire host machine may be provisioned to a single customer, and all of the one or more computing instances (virtual machine or bare metal instances) hosted by that host machine belong to that same customer. In other examples, a host machine may be shared among multiple customers (i.e., multiple tenants). In such a multi-tenant scenario, a host machine may host virtual machine computing instances that belong to different customers. These computing instances may be members of different VCNs for different customers. In certain embodiments, bare metal computing instances are hosted by bare metal servers without a hypervisor. When a bare metal computing instance is provisioned, a single customer or tenant maintains control of the physical CPU, memory, and network interfaces of the host machine that hosts the bare metal instance, and the host machine is not shared with other customers or tenants.

[0079] As previously mentioned, each computing instance that is part of a VCN is associated with a VNIC that enables the computing instance to be a member of a subnet of the VCN. The VNIC associated with a computing instance facilitates communication of packets or frames to and from the computing instance. The VNIC is associated with the computing instance upon creation of the computing instance. In a particular embodiment, for a computing instance executed by a host machine, the VNIC associated with the computing instance is executed by an NVD connected to the host machine. For example, in FIG. 2, host machine 202 executes virtual machine computing instance 268 associated with VNIC 276, which is executed by NVD 210 connected to host machine 202. As another example, bare metal instance 272 hosted by host machine 206 is associated with VNIC 280, which is executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 206. As yet another example, VNIC 284 is associated with computing instance 274 executed by host machine 208, which is executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 208.

[0080] For a computing instance hosted by a host machine, the NVD connected to that host machine also runs a VCN VR corresponding to the VCN of which the computing instance is a member. For example, in the embodiment shown in Figure 2, NVD 210 runs VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN of which computing instance 268 is a member. NVD 212 may also run one or more VCN VRs 283 corresponding to the VCNs corresponding to the computing instances hosted by host machines 206 and 208.

[0081] A host machine may include one or more network interface cards (NICs) that allow the host machine to be connected to other devices. The NICs on a host machine may provide one or more ports (or interfaces) that allow the host machine to be communicatively connected to another device. For example, the host machine may be connected to an NVD using one or more ports (or interfaces) provided on the host machine and the NVD. A host machine may also be connected to other devices, such as another host machine.

[0082] 2, host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 using link 220 extending between port 234 provided by NIC 232 of host machine 202 and port 236 of NVD 210. Host machine 206 is connected to NVD 212 using link 224 extending between port 246 provided by NIC 244 of host machine 206 and port 248 of NVD 212. Host machine 208 is connected to NVD 212 using link 226 extending between port 252 provided by NIC 250 of host machine 208 and port 254 of NVD 212.

[0083] The NVDs are connected to top-of-the-rack (TOR) switches via communication links, which are connected to a physical network 218 (also referred to as a switch fabric). In a particular embodiment, the links between the host machines and the NVDs and between the NVDs and the TOR switches are Ethernet links. For example, in FIG. 2, NVDs 210 and 212 are connected to TOR switches 214 and 216, respectively, using links 228 and 230. In a particular embodiment, links 220, 224, 226, 228, and 230 are Ethernet links. The collection of host machines and NVDs connected to a TOR may be referred to as a rack.

[0084] The physical network 218 provides a communications fabric that allows the TOR switches to communicate with each other. The physical network 218 can be a multi-tier network. In a particular implementation, the physical network 218 is a multi-tier Clos network of switches, with the TOR switches 214 and 216 representing leaf-level nodes of the multi-tier and multi-node physical switching network 218. Different Clos network configurations are possible, including, but not limited to, two-tier networks, three-tier networks, four-tier networks, five-tier networks, and generally "n"-tier networks. An example Clos network is shown in FIG. 5 and described below.

[0085] A variety of different connection configurations are possible between host machines and NVDs, including one-to-one, many-to-one, and one-to-many configurations. In a one-to-one implementation, each host machine is connected to its own individual NVD. For example, in FIG. 2, host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 via NIC 232 of host machine 202. In a many-to-one configuration, multiple host machines are connected to one NVD. For example, in FIG. 2, host machines 206 and 208 are connected to the same NVD 212 via NICs 244 and 250, respectively.

[0086] In a one-to-many configuration, one host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. Figure 3 shows an example in CSPI 300 where a host machine is connected to multiple NVDs. As shown in Figure 3, a host machine 302 includes a network interface card (NIC) 304 that includes multiple ports 306 and 308. The host machine 300 is connected to a first NVD 310 via port 306 and link 320, and to a second NVD 312 via port 308 and link 322. The ports 306 and 308 may be Ethernet ports, and the links 320 and 322 between the host machine 302 and the NVDs 310 and 312 may be Ethernet links. The NVD 310 is connected to a first TOR switch 314, while the NVD 312 is connected to a second TOR switch 316. The links between the NVDs 310 and 312 and the TOR switches 314 and 316 may be Ethernet links. TOR switches 314 and 316 represent Tier-0 switching devices in a multi-tier physical network 318 .

[0087] 3 provides two separate physical network paths between the physical switch network 318 and the host machine 302: a first path through the TOR switch 314, through the NVD 310, to the host machine 302, and a second path through the TOR switch 316, through the NVD 312, to the host machine 302. The separate paths increase the availability of the host machine 302 (referred to as high availability). If there is a problem with one of the paths (e.g., a link in one of the paths goes down) or with a device (e.g., a particular NVD does not function), the other path can be used to communicate with the host machine 302.

[0088] In the configuration shown in Figure 3, the host machine is connected to two different NVDs using two different ports provided by the host machine's NIC. In other embodiments, the host machine may include multiple NICs that allow the host machine to connect to multiple NVDs.

[0089] Referring back to Figure 2, an NVD is a physical device or component that performs one or more network and / or storage virtualization functions. An NVD can be any device with one or more processing units (e.g., a CPU, a network processing unit (NPU), an FPGA, a packet processing pipeline, etc.), memory including cache, and ports. Various virtualization functions may be performed by software / firmware executed by one or more processing units of the NVD.

[0090] The NVD can be implemented in a variety of different forms. For example, in a particular embodiment, the NVD is implemented as an interface card, called a smart NIC or an intelligent NIC with an embedded processor. A smart NIC is a separate device from the NIC on the host machine. In FIG. 2, the NVDs 210 and 212 can be implemented as smart NICs connected to the host machine 202, the host machines 206 and 208, respectively.

[0091] However, smart NICs are only one example of an NVD implementation. Various other implementations are possible. For example, in some other implementations, the NVD, or one or more functions performed by the NVD, may be incorporated into or performed by one or more host machines, one or more TOR switches, and other components of CSPI200. For example, the NVD may be realized within a host machine where the functions performed by the NVD are performed by the host machine. As another example, the NVD may be part of a TOR switch, or may be configured to perform the functions performed by the NVD that enable the TOR switch to perform various complex packet transformations used for public clouds. A TOR that performs the functions of the NVD may be referred to as a smart TOR. In still other implementations, virtual machine (VM) instances rather than bare metal (BM) instances are provided to customers, and the functions performed by the NVD may be implemented within the hypervisor of the host machine. In some other implementations, some of the functions of the NVD may be offloaded to a centralized service running on a set of host machines.

[0092] In certain embodiments, for example when implemented as a smart NIC as shown in FIG. 2, the NVD may comprise multiple physical ports that allow connection to one or more host machines and one or more TOR switches. Ports on the NVD may be classified as host-side ports (also called "south ports") or network-side or TOR-side ports (also called "north ports"). A host-side port of an NVD is a port used to connect the NVD to a host machine. Examples of host-side ports in FIG. 2 include port 236 of NVD 210 and ports 248 and 254 of NVD 212. A network-side port of an NVD is a port used to connect the NVD to a TOR switch. Examples of network-side ports in FIG. 2 include port 256 of NVD 210 and port 258 of NVD 212. As shown in FIG. 2, the NVD 210 is connected to the TOR switch 214 using a link 228 that extends from port 256 of NVD 210 to the TOR switch 214. Similarly, the NVD 212 is connected to the TOR switch 216 using a link 230 that extends from a port 258 of the NVD 212 to the TOR switch 216 .

[0093] The NVD can receive packets and frames (e.g., packets and frames generated by computing instances hosted by the host machine) from a host machine via a host-side port, perform necessary packet processing, and then forward the packets and frames to a TOR switch via the NVD's network-side port. The NVD can receive packets and frames from a TOR switch via the NVD's network-side port, perform necessary packet processing, and then forward the packets and frames to a host machine via the NVD's host-side port.

[0094] In certain embodiments, there may be multiple ports and associated links between the NVD and the TOR switch. These ports and links may be aggregated to form a link aggregator group (called a LAG) of multiple ports or links. Link aggregation allows multiple physical links between two endpoints (e.g., between the NVD and the TOR switch) to be treated as one logical link. All physical links within a particular LAG can operate at the same speed in full-duplex mode. LAGs help to increase the bandwidth and reliability of the connection between the two endpoints. If one of the physical links in the LAG goes down, the traffic is dynamically and transparently reassigned to one of the other physical links in the LAG. The aggregated physical links provide higher bandwidth than individual links. Multiple ports associated with a LAG are treated as a single logical port. Traffic can be load balanced among the multiple physical links of the LAG. One or more LAGs can be configured between two endpoints. The two endpoints may be between the NVD and the TOR switch, between a host machine and the NVD, etc.

[0095] The NVD implements or performs network virtualization functions. These functions are performed by software / firmware executed by the NVD. Examples of network virtualization functions include, but are not limited to, packet encapsulation and decapsulation functions, functions for creating VCN networks, functions for implementing network policies such as VCN security list (firewall) functions, functions for facilitating routing and forwarding of packets to and from compute instances in the VCN, etc. In certain embodiments, upon receiving a packet, the NVD is configured to execute a packet processing pipeline to process the packet and determine how the packet is forwarded or routed. As part of this packet processing pipeline, the NVD can perform one or more virtual functions associated with the overlay network, such as running VNICs associated with cis in the VCN, running virtual routers (VRs) associated with the VCN, encapsulating and decapsulating packets to facilitate forwarding or routing within the virtual network, running specific gateways (e.g., local peering gateways), implementing security lists, network security groups, network address translation (NAT) functions (e.g., public IP to private IP translation per host), throttling functions, and other functions.

[0096] In certain embodiments, the packet processing data path in the NVD can comprise multiple packet pipelines, each consisting of a series of packet transformation stages. In a particular implementation, upon receiving a packet, the packet is parsed and classified into a single pipeline. The packet is then processed linearly, one stage at a time, until the packet is either dropped or sent out via an interface of the NVD. These stages provide the building blocks of basic functional packet processing (e.g., checking headers, enforcing throttling, inserting new layer 2 headers, enforcing L4 firewall, VCN encapsulation / decapsulation, etc.), such that new pipelines can be constructed by composing existing stages, and new functionality can be added by creating and inserting new stages into existing pipelines.

[0097] The NVD can perform both control plane and data plane functions corresponding to the control and data planes of the VCN. Examples of the VCN control plane are also shown in Figures 12, 13, 14, and 15 (see References 1216, 1316, 1416, and 1516) and described below. Examples of the VCN data plane are shown in Figures 12, 13, 14, and 15 (see References 1218, 1318, 1418, and 1518) and described below. The control plane functions include functions used to configure the network (e.g., setting routes and route tables, configuring VNICs, etc.) that control how data is forwarded. In certain embodiments, a VCN control plane is provided that centrally computes all overlay-to-substrate mappings and exposes them to virtual network edge devices such as the NVD and various gateways such as DRGs, SGWs, IGWs, etc. Firewall rules can also be exposed using the same mechanism. In certain embodiments, the NVD retrieves only mappings that are relevant to the NVD. The data plane functions include the actual routing / forwarding of packets based on the configuration set using the control plane. The VCN data plane is implemented by encapsulating customer network packets before they traverse the substrate network. The encapsulation / decapsulation functions are implemented in the NVD. In a particular embodiment, the NVD is configured to intercept all network packets in and out of the host machine and perform network virtualization functions.

[0098] As indicated above, the NVD performs various virtualization functions including VNICs and VCN VRs. The NVD can perform VNICs associated with computing instances hosted by one or more host machines connected to the VNICs. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the NVD 210 performs the functions of VNIC 276 associated with computing instance 268 hosted by host machine 202 connected to the NVD 210. As another example, the NVD 212 performs VNIC 280 associated with bare metal computing instance 272 hosted by host machine 206 and VNIC 284 associated with computing instance 274 hosted by host machine 208. The host machines can host computing instances belonging to different VCNs belonging to different customers, and the NVDs connected to the host machines can perform VNICs (i.e., perform VNIC-related functions) corresponding to the computing instances.

[0099] The NVDs also run VCN virtual routers corresponding to the VCNs of the computing instances. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, NVD 210 runs VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN to which computing instance 268 belongs. NVD 212 runs one or more VCN VRs 283 corresponding to one or more VCNs to which computing instances hosted by host machines 206 and 208 belong. In a particular embodiment, a VCN VR corresponding to that VCN is run by all NVDs connected to a host machine that hosts at least one computing instance that belongs to that VCN. If a host machine hosts computing instances that belong to different VCNs, the NVDs connected to that host machine may run VCN VRs corresponding to those different VCNs.

[0100] In addition to the VNICs and VCN VRs, the NVD may include one or more hardware components that run various software (e.g., daemons) and facilitate various network virtualization functions performed by the NVD. For simplicity, these various components are grouped as "packet processing components" shown in FIG. 2. For example, NVD 210 includes packet processing component 286, and NVD 212 includes packet processing component 288. For example, the packet processing components of the NVD may include a packet processor configured to interact with the ports and hardware interfaces of the NVD to monitor all packets received and communicated using the NVD and store network information. The network information may include, for example, network flow information that identifies different network flows handled by the NVD, and per-flow information (e.g., per-flow statistics). In certain embodiments, the network flow information may be stored per VNIC. The packet processor may implement stateful NAT and L4 firewall (FW) as well as perform per-packet operations. As another example, the packet processing components may include a replication agent configured to replicate information stored by the NVD to one or more different replication target stores. As yet another example, the packet processing component may include a logging agent configured to perform logging functions for the NVD. The packet processing component may include software for monitoring the performance and health of the NVD, and possibly also the status and health of other components connected to the NVD.

[0101] FIG. 1 illustrates components of an exemplary virtual or overlay network, including a VCN, a subnet in the VCN, compute instances deployed on the subnet, VNICs associated with the compute instances, VRs for the VCN, and a set of gateways configured for the VCN. The overlay components illustrated in FIG. 1 may be executed or hosted by one or more physical components illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, compute instances in a VCN may be executed or hosted by one or more host machines illustrated in FIG. 2. For a compute instance hosted by a host machine, the VNICs associated with that compute instance are typically executed by an NVD connected to that host machine (i.e., the VNIC functionality is provided by an NVD connected to that host machine). The VCN VR functionality of a VCN is executed by all NVDs connected to host machines that host or are running compute instances that are part of that VCN. The gateways associated with a VCN may be executed by one or more different types of NVDs. For example, certain gateways may be executed by smart NICs, while other gateways may be executed by one or more host machines or other implementations of NVDs.

[0102] As previously mentioned, the compute instances in a customer VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints, which may be in the same subnet as the source compute instance, in another subnet in the same VCN as the source compute instance, or may have endpoints outside the VCN of the source compute instance. These communications are facilitated using VNICs associated with the compute instances, VCN VRs, and gateways associated with the VCN.

[0103] For communication between two compute instances on the same subnet within a VCN, the communication is facilitated using VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances. The source and destination compute instances may be hosted on the same host machine or on different host machines. A packet originating from a source compute instance may be forwarded from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to an NVD connected to that host machine. The NVD processes the packet using a packet processing pipeline. This may include running the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Because the destination endpoint of the packet is in the same subnet, running the VNIC associated with the source compute instance forwards the packet to an NVD running the VNIC associated with the destination compute instance, which then processes and forwards the packet to the destination compute instance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination compute instances may run on the same NVD (e.g., when both the source and destination compute instances are hosted on 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 may use the routing / forwarding table stored by the NVD to determine the next hop for the packet.

[0104] When a packet is communicated from a compute instance in a subnet to an endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, the packet originating from the source compute instance is communicated from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. In the NVD, the packet is processed using a packet processing pipeline. This may include the execution of one or more VNICs and VRs associated with the VCN. For example, as part of the packet processing pipeline, the NVD executes or invokes a function (also called an execution of the VNIC) that corresponds to the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. The function executed by the VNIC may include checking the VLAN tag on the packet. Because the destination of the packet is outside the subnet, a VCN VR function is then invoked and executed by the NVD. 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 run on the same NVD (e.g., if both the source and destination compute instances are hosted on the same host machine) or on different NVDs (e.g., if the source and destination compute instances are hosted by different host machines connected to different NVDs).

[0105] If the destination of the packet is outside the VCN of the source compute instance, the packet originating from the source compute instance is communicated from the host machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. The NVD runs the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Because the destination endpoint of the packet is outside the VCN, the packet is processed by the VCN VR for that VCN. The NVD invokes the VCN VR function, which can forward the packet to an NVD running the appropriate gateway associated with the VCN. For example, if the destination is an endpoint in a customer's on-premises network, the packet can be forwarded by the VCN VR to an NVD running a DRG gateway configured for the VCN. The VCN VR can be run on the same NVD as the NVD running the VNIC associated with the source compute instance, or by a separate NVD. The gateway can be run by the NVD, which can be a smart NIC, a host machine, or any other NVD implementation. The packet is then processed by the gateway and forwarded to the next hop that facilitates communication of the packet to the intended destination endpoint. 2, a packet originating from computing instance 268 may be communicated from host machine 202 over link 220 (using NIC 232) to NVD 210. In NVD 210, VNIC 276 is invoked because it is the VNIC associated with source computing instance 268. VNIC 276 is configured to inspect encapsulated information within the packet, determine a next hop to forward the packet to in order to facilitate communication of the packet to its intended destination endpoint, and then forward the packet to the determined next hop.

[0106] Computing instances deployed on a VCN can communicate with a variety of different endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints hosted by CSPI200 and endpoints external to CSPI200. Endpoints hosted by CSPI200 can include instances in the same VCN or other VCNs, which may be the customer's VCN or VCNs not belonging to the customer. Communications between endpoints hosted by CSPI200 can be performed over physical network 218. Computing instances can also communicate with endpoints not hosted by CSPI200 or external to CSPI200. Examples of these endpoints include endpoints in a customer's on-premise network or datacenter, or public endpoints accessible over a public network such as the Internet. Communications with endpoints external to CSPI200 can be performed over a public network (e.g., the Internet) (not shown in FIG. 2) or a private network (not shown in FIG. 2) using a variety of communication protocols.

[0107] The architecture of CSPI 200 shown in FIG. 2 is merely an example and is not intended to be limiting. Variations, substitutions, and modifications are possible in alternative embodiments. For example, in some implementations, CSPI 200 may have more or fewer systems or components than those shown in FIG. 2, may combine two or more systems, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of systems. The systems, subsystems, and other components shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented using hardware or a combination thereof, with software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the respective systems. The software may be stored in a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., a memory device).

[0108] FIG. 4 illustrates a connection between a host machine and an NVD to provide I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy, according to a particular embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, a host machine 402 runs a hypervisor 404 that provides a virtualization environment. The host machine 402 runs two virtual machine instances: VM1 406 belonging to customer / tenant #1 and VM2 408 belonging to customer / tenant #2. The host machine 402 includes a physical NIC 410 that is connected to an NVD 412 via link 414. Each computing instance is connected to a VNIC that is executed by the NVD 412. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, VM1 406 is connected to VNIC-VM1 420, and VM2 408 is connected to VNIC-VM2 422.

[0109] 4, NIC 410 comprises two logical NICs, logical NIC A 416 and logical NIC B 418. Each virtual machine is configured to run connected to its own logical NIC. For example, VM1 406 is connected to logical NIC A 416, and VM2 408 is connected to logical NIC B 418. Although host machine 402 comprises only one physical NIC 410 that is shared by multiple tenants, the logical NICs allow each tenant's virtual machine to perceive it as having its own host machine and NIC.

[0110] In a particular embodiment, each logical NIC is assigned its own VLAN ID. Thus, a particular VLAN ID is assigned to logical NICA 416 for tenant #1, and another VLAN ID is assigned to logical NICB 418 for tenant #2. When a packet is communicated from VM1 406, a tag assigned to tenant #1 is attached to the packet by the hypervisor, and the packet is communicated from host machine 402 to NVD 412 over link 414. Similarly, when a packet is communicated from VM2 408, a tag assigned to tenant #2 is attached to the packet by the hypervisor, and the packet is then communicated from host machine 402 to NVD 412 over link 414. Thus, a packet 424 communicated from host machine 402 to NVD 412 has an associated tag 426 that identifies the particular tenant and associated VM. On the NVD, for a packet 424 received from a host machine 402, a tag 426 associated with the packet is used to determine whether the packet should be processed by VNIC-VM1 420 or VNIC-VM2 422. The packet is then processed by the corresponding VNIC. The configuration shown in Figure 4 allows each tenant's computing instance to recognize that it owns its own host machine and NIC. The setup shown in Figure 4 provides I / O virtualization to support multi-tenancy.

[0111] FIG. 5 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a physical network 500 according to a particular embodiment. The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5 is structured as a Clos network. A Clos network is a particular type of network topology designed to provide connection redundancy while maintaining high bisection bandwidth and maximum resource utilization. A Clos network is a type of non-blocking multi-stage or multi-layer switching network, where the number of stages or layers can be 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5 is a three-layer network consisting of layers 1, 2, and 3. A TOR switch 504 represents a Tier-0 switch in a Clos network. One or more NVDs are connected to a TOR switch. A Tier-0 switch is also referred to as an edge device of a physical network. A Tier-0 switch is connected to a Tier-1 switch (also referred to as a leaf switch). In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, a set of "n" Tier-0 TOR switches are connected to a set of "n" Tier-1 switches, together forming a pod. Each Tier-0 switch in a pod is interconnected to all Tier-1 switches in the pod, but there is no switch connectivity between pods. In a particular implementation, two pods are referred to as a block. Each block is served by or connected to a set of "n" Tier-2 switches (sometimes called spine switches). There can be multiple blocks in a physical network topology. The Tier-2 switches are in turn connected to "n" Tier-3 switches (sometimes called super-spine switches). Communication of packets through the physical network 500 is typically performed using one or more layer 3 communication protocols. Typically, all layers of the physical network, except the TOR layer, are n-way redundant, thus enabling high availability. To enable the expansion of the physical network, policies can be specified for pods and blocks that control the visibility of switches in the physical network to each other.

[0112] A feature of Clos networks is that the maximum number of hops to reach from one Tier-0 switch to another Tier-0 switch (or from an NVD connected to a Tier-0 switch to another NVD connected to a Tier-0 switch) is fixed. For example, in a three-tier Clos network, a maximum of seven hops are required for a packet to reach from one NVD to another NVD. In this case, the source NVD and the target NVD are connected to the leaf layer of the Clos network. Similarly, in a four-tier Clos network, a maximum of nine hops are required for a packet to reach from one NVD to another NVD if the source NVD and the target NVD 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 intra-datacenter and inter-datacenter communications. Clos topologies scale horizontally and are cost-effective. The bandwidth / throughput capacity of the network can be easily increased by adding more switches to the various layers (e.g., more leaf and spine switches) and by increasing the number of links between switches in adjacent layers.

[0113] In a particular embodiment, each resource in the CSPI is assigned a unique identifier called a Cloud Identifier (CID). This identifier is included as part of the resource's information and can be used to manage the resource, for example, through a console or API. An example syntax for a CID is: ocid1.<resource type>.<area>.[Region][.future use].<unique ID> Where: ocid1: A literal string indicating the version of the CID, Resource Type: The type of resource (e.g., instance, volume, VCN, subnet, user, group, etc.), Region: The region the resource resides in. Example values ​​are "c1" for a commercial region, "c2" for a government cloud region, "c3" for a federal cloud region, etc. Each region may have its own region name. Region: The region in which the resource resides. This may be blank if the region is not applicable to the resource. Future Use: Reserved for future use. Unique ID: The unique part of the ID, the format may vary depending on the type of resource or service.

[0114] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a cloud infrastructure 600 incorporating a CLOS network configuration, according to certain embodiments. The cloud infrastructure 600 includes multiple racks (e.g., Rack 1 610...Rack M, 620). Each rack includes multiple host machines (also referred to herein as hosts). For example, Rack 1 610 includes multiple hosts (e.g., K host machines), Host 1-A, 612 through Host 1-K, 614, and Rack M includes K host machines, namely, Host MA, 622 through Host MK, 624. It is understood that the illustration of FIG. 6 (i.e., each rack including the same number of host machines, e.g., K host machines) is intended to be illustrative and not limiting. For example, Rack M, 620 may include a greater or lesser number of host machines compared to the number of host machines included in Rack 1 610.

[0115] Each host machine includes multiple graphical processing units (GPUs). For example, as shown in FIG. 6, host machine 1-A 612 includes N GPUs, e.g., GPU1, 613. It is further understood that the illustration of FIG. 6 (each host machine includes the same number of GPUs, i.e., N GPUs) is for illustrative purposes only and not limiting, i.e., each host machine can include a different number of GPUs. Each rack includes a top-of-rack (TOR) switch communicatively coupled to the GPUs hosted on the host machines. For example, rack 1 610 includes a TOR switch (i.e., TOR1) 616 communicatively coupled to host 1-A, 612 and host 1-K, 614, and rack M 620 includes a TOR switch (i.e., TOR M) 626 communicatively coupled to host MA, 622 and host MK, 624. It is understood that the TOR switches (i.e., TOR1 616 and TOR M626) shown in FIG. 6 each include N ports that are used to communicatively connect the TOR switch to the N GPUs hosted on each host machine included in the rack. The coupling of the TOR switch to the GPUs as shown in FIG. 6 is exemplary and not limiting. For example, in some embodiments, the TOR switch may have multiple ports, each corresponding to a GPU on each host machine. That is, a GPU on a host machine may be connected to a unique port of the TOR via a communication link. Additionally, traffic received by a network device (e.g., TOR1 616) is characterized herein as traffic received on a particular receive port link of the network device. For example, when GPU1 613 of Host1-A 612 sends a data packet to TOR1 616 (using link 617), the data packet is received at port 619 of the TOR1 switch. TOR1 616 characterizes the data packet as information received on the first receive port link of the TOR. It will be appreciated that a similar concept can be applied to all outgoing port links of a TOR.

[0116] The TOR switches from each rack are communicatively connected to multiple spine switches, e.g., spine switch 1 630 and spine switch P 640. As shown in FIG. 6, TOR1, 616, is connected to spine switch 1 630 via two links and to spine switch P 640 via another two links, respectively. Information sent from a particular TOR switch to a spine switch is referred to herein as communication occurring over an uplink, while information sent from a spine switch to a TOR switch is referred to herein as communication occurring over a downlink. According to some embodiments, the TOR switches and spine switches are connected in a CLOS network configuration (e.g., a multi-stage switching network), with each TOR switch forming a "leaf" node in the CLOS network.

[0117] According to some embodiments, GPUs included in a host machine execute tasks related to machine learning. In such a setup, a single task may be executed / distributed across a large number of GPUs (e.g., 64), and may even be distributed across multiple host machines and multiple racks. Since all these GPUs are working on the same task (i.e., workload), they all need to communicate with each other in a time-synchronized manner. Furthermore, at any given time, the GPUs are either in computing mode or communication mode, i.e., they communicate with each other at approximately the same time. The speed of the workload is determined by the speed of the slowest GPU.

[0118] Typically, equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing is utilized to route packets from a source GPU (e.g., GPU1, 613 of host1-A 612) to a destination GPU (e.g., GPU1, 623 of hostM-A 622). In ECMP routing, a selection technique is used to select a particular path when there are multiple equal-cost paths available for routing traffic from a sender to a receiver. Thus, at a network device receiving the traffic (e.g., a TOR switch or a spine switch), a selection algorithm is used to select an outgoing link that will be used to forward traffic from the network device on the next hop to another network device. Such outgoing link selection is done at each network device in the path from the sender to the receiver. A hash-based selection algorithm is a widely used ECMP selection technique, where the hash may be based on the packet's 4-tuple (e.g., source port, destination port, source IP, destination IP).

[0119] ECMP routing is a flow-aware routing technique, where each flow (i.e., a stream of data packets) is hashed to a specific path during the flow's lifetime. Thus, packets in a flow are forwarded out of a network device using a specific outgoing port / link. This is typically done to ensure that packets in a flow arrive in order; that is, no reordering of packets is required. However, ECMP routing is not bandwidth (or throughput) aware; that is, TOR and spine switches perform statistical flow-aware (non-throughput-aware) ECMP load balancing of flows over parallel links.

[0120] In standard ECMP routing (i.e., flow-aware routing only), there is a problem that flows received by a network device over two separate inbound links may be hashed to the same outbound link, which may result in flow collisions. For example, consider a situation where two flows are received over two separate inbound 100G links, and each flow is hashed to the same 100G outbound link. In such a situation, congestion (i.e., flow collisions) occur and packets are dropped because the inbound bandwidth is 200G while the outbound bandwidth is 100G. For example, FIG. 7, described below, illustrates an example scenario of flow collisions 700.

[0121] As shown in FIG. 7, there are two flows: flow 1 710, which is directed from a first GPU of host machine Host1-A, 612 to the TOR switch 616 (shown as a solid line), and flow 2 720, which is directed from another GPU on the same host machine 612 to the TOR switch 616 (shown as a dashed line). Note that the two flows are directed to the TOR switch 616 on separate links, i.e., separate input port links of the TOR. Assume that all links shown in FIG. 7 have a capacity (i.e., bandwidth) of 100G. When the TOR switch 616 runs an ECMP routing algorithm, it is possible that the two flows are hashed to use the same outgoing port link of the TOR, e.g., the port of the TOR connected to the link 730 that connects the TOR switch 616 to the spine switch 630. In this case, a collision occurs between the two flows (represented by an "X" mark), and the packet is dropped.

[0122] Such collision scenarios are generally problematic for any type of traffic, regardless of protocol. For example, TCP is intelligent in that if a packet is dropped and the sender does not get an acknowledgment for that dropped packet, the packet will be retransmitted. But the situation is worse with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) type traffic. RDMA networks do not use TCP for various reasons (for example, TCP has complex logic that is not suitable for low latency and high performance). RDMA networks use protocols such as RDMA over Infiniband or RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE). RoCE has congestion control algorithms, and when the sender identifies the occurrence of congestion or a dropped packet, the sender slows down the rate at which packets are sent. In the case of a dropped packet, not only the dropped packet but also several packets around the dropped packet are retransmitted, further consuming available bandwidth and degrading performance.

[0123] In the following, techniques are described to overcome the flow collision problem mentioned above. It is understood that the flow collision problem affects traffic from the CPU and the GPU. However, the flow collision problem is a much bigger problem for the GPU due to the strict time synchronization requirements. Furthermore, it should be understood that in the standard ECMP routing mechanism, flow collision scenarios occur regardless of whether the network is over- or under-subscribed due to the inherent characteristics of the statistical bandwidth-unaware routing information. A network without oversubscription is one in which the bandwidth of the incoming links to the devices (e.g., TOR, spine switches) is the same as the bandwidth of the outgoing links. Note that if all links have the same bandwidth capacity, the number of incoming links will be the same as the number of outgoing links.

[0124] According to some embodiments, techniques for overcoming the flow collision problem described above include a GPU-based policy routing mechanism (also referred to herein as a GPU-based traffic engineering mechanism) and a modified ECMP routing mechanism, each of which is described in further detail below.

[0125] FIG. 8 illustrates a policy-based routing mechanism implemented in the network devices of the cloud infrastructure of FIG. 6 according to certain embodiments. Specifically, the cloud infrastructure 800 includes multiple racks, e.g., rack 1 810 through rack M 820. Each rack includes a host machine including multiple GPUs. For example, rack 1 810 includes a host machine, i.e., host 1-A 812, and rack M 820 includes a host machine, i.e., host M-A 822. Each rack includes a TOR switch. For example, rack 1 810 includes a TOR 1 switch 814, and rack M 820 includes a TOR M switch 824. The host machines in each rack are communicatively connected to the respective TOR switches in the rack. The TOR switches, i.e., TOR switch 1 814 and TOR switch M 824, are in turn communicatively connected to spine switches, i.e., spine switch 830 and spine switch 840. To explain policy-based routing and for purposes of illustration, the cloud infrastructure 800 is shown as including a single host machine per rack. However, it is understood that there may be multiple host machines in each rack in the infrastructure.

[0126] According to some embodiments, data packets from senders to receivers are routed on a hop-by-hop basis in the network. A routing policy is configured for each network device that binds a receiving port link to an outgoing port link. The network device may be a TOR switch or a spine switch. With reference to FIG. 8, two flows are shown: flow 1 from GPU1 on host machine 812 whose intended destination is GPU1 on host machine 822, and flow 2 from GPUN on host machine 812 whose intended destination is GPUN on host machine 822. The network devices, namely TOR1 814, spine1 830, TOR M 824, and spine P 840, are configured to bind (or match) receiving port links to outgoing port links. The matching of receiving port links to outgoing port links is maintained (e.g., in a policy table) in each network device.

[0127] 8, it can be observed that for flow 1 (i.e., the flow shown by the solid line), when TOR1 814 receives a packet on link 850, the TOR is configured to forward the received packet on outgoing link 855. Similarly, when spine switch 830 receives a packet via link 855, it is configured to forward the packet on outgoing link 860. Finally, when TOR M 824 receives a packet on link 860, it is configured to forward the packet on outgoing link 865 for sending the packet to its intended destination, i.e., GPU1 on host machine 822. Similarly, for flow 2 (i.e., the flow shown by the dashed line), when TOR1 814 receives a packet on link 870, TOR1 is configured to forward the received packet on outgoing link 875 to spine P 840. When spine switch 840 receives a packet via link 875, it is configured to forward the packet on outgoing link 880. Finally, upon receiving a packet on link 880, TOR M824 is configured to forward the packet on outgoing link 885 for transmission to its intended destination, i.e., the GPUN on the host machine 822.

[0128] In this way, according to the GPU policy-based routing mechanism, each network device is configured to bind a receiving port / link to an outgoing port / link to avoid collisions. For example, considering the first hop flows of flow 1 and flow 2, TOR1 814 receives a first data packet (corresponding to flow 1) on link 850 and receives a second data packet (corresponding to flow 2) on link 870. TOR1 814 is configured to forward the data packet received on receiving link / port 850 to outgoing link / port 855 and forward the data packet received on receiving link / port 870 to outgoing link / port 875, so that it is guaranteed that the first data packet and the second data packet do not collide. It is understood that in each network device in the cloud infrastructure, there is a one-to-one correspondence between receiving port links and outgoing port links, i.e., the mapping between receiving port links and outgoing port links is performed independently of the flow and / or the protocol executed by the flow. Furthermore, if an outgoing link of a particular network device fails, according to some embodiments, the network device is configured to switch the routing policy from GPU policy-based routing to standard ECMP routing to obtain a new available output link (from the various available output links) and transmit the flow to the new output link. Note that in this case, flow collisions may occur, resulting in congestion.

[0129] Referring now to FIG. 9, a block diagram of a cloud infrastructure 900 illustrating different types of connections is shown, according to certain embodiments. The infrastructure 900 includes multiple racks, e.g., rack 1 910, rack D 920, and rack M 930. The racks 910 and 930 include multiple host machines. For example, rack 1 910 includes multiple hosts (e.g., K host machines), host 1-A, 912 through host 1-K, 914, and rack M includes K host machines, namely, host MA, 932 through host MK, 934. Rack D 920 includes one or more host machines 922, each host machine 922 including multiple CPUs. That is, the host machines 922 are non-GPU host machines. Each of the racks 910, 920, and 930 includes a TOR switch, namely, TOR 1, 916, TOR D 926, and TOR M 936, respectively, communicatively connected to the host machines in the respective rack. Additionally, the TOR switches 916 , 926 , and 936 are communicatively coupled to a number of spine switches, namely, spine switches 940 and 950 .

[0130] As shown in FIG. 9, a first connection (i.e., connection 1 shown by dashed line) exists from a GPU host (i.e., host 1-A 912) to another GPU host (i.e., host M-A 932), and a second connection (i.e., connection 2 shown by dotted line) exists from a GPU host (i.e., host 1-K 914) to a non-GPU host (i.e., host D 922). For connection 1, data packets associated with the flow are routed on a hop-by-hop basis by configuring each intermediate network device based on the GPU-based policy routing mechanism described above in FIG. 8. Specifically, data packets of connection 1 are routed along the dashed links shown in FIG. 9, i.e., from host 1-A to TOR 1, from TOR 1 to spine switch 1, from spine switch 1 to TOR M, and finally from TOR M to host MA. Each network device is configured to couple an inbound link port of the network device to an outbound link port.

[0131] In contrast, connection 2 is from a GPU-based host (i.e., host 1-K 914) to a non-GPU-based host (i.e., host D 922). In this case, TOR1 916 is configured to bind an incoming link port, i.e., a port and link (971) that receives a data packet from a GPU-based host, to an outgoing link port, i.e., an output port and a link connected to that output port 972. Thus, TOR1 forwards the data packet to spine switch 1 940 using the outgoing link 972. Because the data packet is destined for a non-GPU-based host, spine switch 1 940 does not utilize a policy-based routing mechanism to forward the packet to TOR D. Rather, spine switch 1 940 utilizes an ECMP routing mechanism to select one of the available links 980 to forward the packet to TOR D, which then forwards the data packet to host D 922.

[0132] In some embodiments, the flow collisions described above with reference to FIG. 7 are avoided by the network devices of the cloud infrastructure described herein by implementing a modified version of ECMP routing. In this case, the ECMP hashing algorithm is modified such that traffic via a particular receive port link of the network device is hashed (and directed) to the same outgoing port link of the network device. Specifically, each network device implements a modified ECMP algorithm to determine the outgoing port link to be used for forwarding packets, and the modified ECMP algorithm ensures that packets received via a particular receive port link are always hashed to the same outgoing port link. For example, consider the case where a first packet and a second packet are received on a first receive port link of the network device, while a third packet and a fourth packet are received on a second receive port link of the network device. In such a situation, the network device is configured to implement a modified ECMP algorithm, where the network device transmits the first packet and the second packet on a first outgoing port link of the network device, and transmits the third packet and the fourth packet on a second outgoing port link of the network device, where the first receiving port link of the network device is different from the second receiving port link of the network device, and where the first outgoing port link of the network device is different from the second outgoing port link of the network device. In certain implementations, information stored in a forwarding information database (e.g., a forwarding table, an ECMP table, etc.) may be modified to enable the above functionality.

[0133] Referring now to Figure 10, an exemplary configuration of a rack 1000 is shown in accordance with certain embodiments. As shown in Figure 10, the rack 1000 includes two host machines, namely, host machine 1010 and host machine 1020. Although the rack 1000 is shown to include two host machines, it is understood that the rack 1000 may include more host machines. Each host machine includes multiple GPUs and multiple CPUs. For example, the host machine 1010 includes multiple CPUs 1012 and multiple GPUs 1014, while the host machine 1020 includes multiple CPUs 1022 and multiple GPUs 1024.

[0134] The host machines are communicatively connected to different network fabrics via different TOR switches. For example, the host machines 1010 and 1020 are communicatively coupled to a network fabric (referred to herein as a front-end network of the rack 1000) via a TOR switch, i.e., the TOR1 switch 1050. The front-end network may correspond to an external network. More specifically, the host machine 1010 is connected to the front-end network via a network interface card (NIC) 1030 and a network virtualization device (NVD) 1035 coupled to the TOR1 switch 1050. The host machine 1020 is connected to the front-end network via a NIC 1040 and an NVD 1045 coupled to the TOR1 switch 1050. Thus, according to some embodiments, the CPU of each host machine can communicate with the front-end network via the NIC, the NVD, and the TOR switch. For example, the CPU 1012 of the host machine 1010 can communicate with the front-end network via the NIC 1030, the NVD 1035, and the TOR1 switch 1050.

[0135] The host machines 1010 and 1020 are connected to a Quality of Service (QoS)-enabled back-end network of the other. The QoS-enabled back-end network is referred to herein as the back-end network corresponding to the GPU cluster network shown in FIG. 6. The host machine 1010 is connected to a TOR2 switch 1060 that communicatively couples the host machine 1010 to the back-end network via another NIC 1065. Similarly, the host machine 1020 is connected to a TOR2 switch 1060 via a NIC 1080, which communicatively couples the host machine 1020 to the back-end network. Thus, the multiple GPUs of each host machine can communicate with the back-end network via the NIC and the TOR switch. In this way, the multiple CPUs utilize a separate set of NICs (compared to the set of NICs utilized by the GPUs) to communicate with the front-end network and the back-end network, respectively.

[0136] FIG. 11A illustrates an exemplary flowchart 1100 illustrating steps performed by a network device in routing a packet, according to certain embodiments. The process illustrated in FIG. 11A may be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the respective systems, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., memory device). The method illustrated in FIG. 11A and described below is exemplary and not limiting. FIG. 11A illustrates various processing steps occurring in a particular flow or order, but is not limited thereto. In certain alternative embodiments, the steps may be performed in some different order, and some steps may be performed in parallel.

[0137] The process begins at step 1105, where the network device receives a data packet transmitted by a graphical processing unit (GPU) of a host machine. At step 1110, the network device determines the receive port / link on which the packet was received. At step 1115, the network device identifies an outgoing port / link that corresponds to the receive port / link (on which the packet was received) based on the policy routing information. According to some embodiments, the policy routing information corresponds to a pre-configured GPU routing table for the network device that links each input port link of the network device to a unique outgoing link port of the network device.

[0138] The process then proceeds to step 1120, where a query is performed to determine whether the outgoing port link is functional, e.g., whether the outgoing link is active. If the response to the query is positive (i.e., the link is active), the process proceeds to step 1125, whereas if the response to the query is negative (i.e., the link is in a failed / inactive state), the process proceeds to step 1130. In step 1125, the network device forwards the received data packet to another network device using the outgoing port link (identified in step 1115). In step 1130, the network device obtains flow information of the data packet. For example, the flow information may correspond to a 4-tuple (i.e., source port, destination port, source IP address, destination IP address) associated with the packet. Based on the obtained flow information, the network device utilizes ECMP routing to identify a new outgoing port link, i.e., an available outgoing port link. The process then proceeds to step 1135, where the network device forwards the data packet received in step 1105 using the newly obtained outgoing port link.

[0139] FIG. 11B illustrates another exemplary flowchart 1150 illustrating steps performed by a network device in routing a packet, according to certain embodiments. The process illustrated in FIG. 11B may be implemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, programs) executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the respective systems, hardware, or a combination thereof. The software may be stored in a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., memory device). The method illustrated in FIG. 11B and described below is exemplary and not limiting. FIG. 11B illustrates various processing steps occurring in a particular flow or order, but is not limited thereto. In certain alternative embodiments, the steps may be performed in some different order, and some steps may be performed in parallel.

[0140] The process begins at step 1155, where the network device receives a data packet transmitted by a graphical processing unit (GPU) of a host machine. At step 1160, the network device determines flow information for the received packet. In some implementations, the flow information may correspond to a four-tuple (i.e., source port, destination port, source IP address, destination IP address) associated with the packet. At step 1165, the network device calculates an outgoing port link by implementing a modified version of ECMP routing. With the modified ECMP algorithm, a packet received on a particular incoming port link is always hashed and transmitted on the same outgoing port link.

[0141] The process then proceeds to step 1170, where a query is performed to determine whether the outgoing port link (determined in step 1165) is in a functional state, e.g., the outgoing link is active. If the response to the query is affirmative (i.e., the link is active), the process proceeds to step 1175, whereas if the response to the query is negative (i.e., the link is in a failed / inactive state), the process proceeds to step 1180. In step 1175, the network device utilizes the outgoing port link (identified in step 1165) to forward the received data packet to another network device. If it is determined that the identified outgoing port link (of step 1165) is in an inactive state, the process proceeds to step 1180. In step 1180, the network device implements ECMP routing (i.e., standard ECMP routing) to identify a new outgoing port link. The process then proceeds to step 1185, where the network device utilizes the newly calculated outgoing port link to forward the data packet received in step 1155.

[0142] It should be noted that the above technique for routing data packets originating from the host machine's GPU increases throughput by 20% for small clusters and 70% for larger clusters (i.e., a 3x improvement compared to the standard ECMP routing algorithm).

[0143] Cloud infrastructure examples As mentioned above, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one particular type of cloud computing. IaaS can be configured to provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g., the Internet). In the IaaS model, cloud computing providers can host infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices, network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platform virtualization (e.g., hypervisor layer), etc.). In some cases, IaaS providers can also provide various services (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging, security, load balancing, and clustering, etc.) that accompany these infrastructure components. Thus, these services can be policy-driven, so that IaaS users can potentially implement policies that drive load balancing to maintain application availability and performance.

[0144] 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 their application stack. For example, a user can log into an IaaS platform and create virtual machines (VMs), install an operating system (OS) on each VM, deploy middleware such as databases, create storage buckets for workloads and backups, and even install enterprise software on the VMs. The customer can then use the provider's services to perform a variety of functions such as balancing network traffic, troubleshooting application issues, monitoring performance, and managing disaster recovery.

[0145] In most cases, the cloud computing model requires the participation of a cloud provider, which may be, but does not have to be, a third-party service that specializes in providing (e.g., providing, renting, selling) IaaS. An entity may also choose to deploy a private cloud and become its own infrastructure service provider.

[0146] 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. This may also include the process of preparing the server (e.g., installing libraries, daemons, etc.). This is often managed by the cloud provider below the hypervisor layer (e.g., servers, storage, network hardware, and virtualization). Thus, the customer may be responsible for handling things like (OS), middleware, and / or application deployment (e.g., self-service virtual machines (e.g., that can be spun up on demand)).

[0147] In some instances, IaaS provisioning may even refer to obtaining computers or virtual hosts for use and installing the necessary libraries or services on them. In most cases, deployment does not include provisioning, so you may need to perform provisioning first.

[0148] In some cases, there are two distinct challenges with IaaS provisioning. First, there is the initial challenge of provisioning an initial set of infrastructure before anything can run. Second, there is the challenge of evolving the existing infrastructure after everything has been provisioned (e.g., adding new services, modifying services, removing services, etc.). In some cases, these two challenges can be addressed by allowing the configuration of the infrastructure to be defined declaratively. In other words, the infrastructure (e.g., which components are required 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 each works together, etc.) can be described declaratively. In some cases, once the topology is defined, workflows can be generated to create and / or manage the various components described in the configuration files.

[0149] In some examples, the infrastructure may 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 known as a core network. In some examples, there may also be one or more security group rules and one or more virtual machines (VMs) that are provisioned to define how the security of the network is configured. Other infrastructure elements such as load balancers, databases, etc. may also be provisioned. The infrastructure may evolve in stages as more infrastructure elements are desired or added.

[0150] In some cases, continuous deployment techniques may be used to enable deployment of infrastructure code across various virtual computing environments. Additionally, the described techniques enable infrastructure management within these environments. In some examples, a service team may write code that is desirable to deploy to one or more, but often many, different production environments (e.g., across various different geographic locations, possibly even across the globe). However, in some examples, the infrastructure to which the code will be deployed must first be set up. In some cases, provisioning may be done manually, and a provisioning tool may be utilized to provision resources and / or a deployment tool may be utilized to deploy the code after the infrastructure has been provisioned.

[0151] FIG. 12 is a block diagram 1200 illustrating an example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1202 can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenant 1204, which can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1206 and a secure host subnet 1208. In some examples, the service operator 1202 can use one or more client computing devices, which can be portable handheld devices (e.g., iPhone, mobile phone, iPad, computing tablet, personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearable devices (e.g., Google Glass head mounted display), running software such as Microsoft Windows Mobile, and / or various mobile operating systems such as iOS, WindowsPhone, Android, BlackBerry8, PalmOS, and Internet, email, short message service (SMS), Blackberry, or other communication protocols in effect. Alternatively, the client computing devices can be general purpose personal computers, including, for example, personal computers and / or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and / or Linux operating systems. The client computing device may be a workstation computer running any of a variety of commercially available UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems, including, but not limited to, various GNU / Linux operating systems such as Google Chrome OS.Alternatively, or in addition, the client computing devices may be any other electronic devices, such as thin-client computers, Internet-enabled gaming systems (e.g., Microsoft Xbox game consoles with or without Kinect® gesture input devices), and / or personal messaging devices capable of communicating over a network with access to VCN 1206 and / or the Internet.

[0152] The VCN 1206 may include a local peering gateway (LPG) 1210 that may be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1212 via an LPG 1210 that is included in the SSH VCN 1212. The SSH VCN 1212 may include an SSH subnet 1214, which may be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1216 via an LPG 1210 that is included in the control plane VCN 1216. The SSH VCN 1212 may also be communicatively coupled to a data plane VCN 1218 via the LPG 1210. The control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 may be included in a service tenant 1219, which may be owned and / or operated by the IaaS provider.

[0153] The control plane VCN 1216 may include a control plane demilitarized zone (DMZ) tier 1220 that serves as a perimeter network (e.g., a portion of an enterprise network between the enterprise intranet and an external network). DMZ-based servers have limited responsibility and may help prevent breaches. Additionally, the DMZ tier 1220 may include one or more load balancer (LB) subnets 1222, a control plane app tier 1224 that may include app subnets 1226, a control plane data tier 1228, which may include a database (DB) subnet 1230 (e.g., a front-end DB subnet and / or a back-end DB subnet). The LB subnet 1222 included in the control plane DMZ tier 1220 can be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1226 included in the control plane app tier 1224 and an Internet gateway 1234 that may be included in the control plane VCN 1216, which can be communicatively coupled to a DB subnet 1230 included in the control plane data tier 1228, as well as a service gateway 1236 and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1238. The control plane VCN 1216 can include the service gateway 1236 and the NAT gateway 1238.

[0154] The control plane VCN 1216 can include a data plane mirrored app layer 1240, which can include an app subnet 1226. The app subnet 1226 included in the data plane mirrored app layer 1240 can include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 1242 on which a compute instance 1244 can run. The compute instance 1244 can communicatively couple the app subnet 1226 of the data plane mirrored app layer 1240 to the app subnet 1226, which can be included in the data plane app layer 1246.

[0155] The data plane VCN 1218 can include a data plane app layer 1246, a data plane DMZ layer 1248, and a data plane data layer 1250. The data plane DMZ layer 1248 can include a LB subnet 1222, which can be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1226 of the data plane app layer 1246 and an Internet gateway 1234 of the data plane VCN 1218. The app subnet 1226 can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1236 of the data plane VCN 1218 and a NAT gateway 1238 of the data plane VCN 1218. The data plane data layer 1250 can also include a DB subnet 1230, which can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet 1226 of the data plane app layer 1246.

[0156] The Internet gateways 1234 of the control plane VCNs 1216 and the data plane VCNs 1218 may be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1252, which may be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1254. The public Internet 1254 may be communicatively connected to the NAT gateways 1238 of the control plane VCNs 1216 and the data plane VCNs 1218. The service gateways 1236 of the control plane VCNs 1216 and the data plane VCNs 1218 may be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1256.

[0157] In some examples, a service gateway 1236 in the control plane VCN 1216 or the data plane VCN 1218 can make application programming interface (API) calls to cloud services 1256 without traversing the public Internet 1254. API calls from the service gateway 1236 to the cloud services 1256 can be one-way: the service gateway 1236 can make an API call to the cloud services 1256, and the cloud services 1256 can send the requested data to the service gateway 1236. However, the cloud services 1256 may not be able to initiate the API call to the service gateway 1236.

[0158] In some examples, the secure host tenant 1204 can be directly connected to the service tenant 1219 or can be otherwise separate. The secure host subnet 1208 can communicate with the SSH subnet 1214 through the LPG 1210, which can enable bidirectional communication through otherwise separate systems. Connecting the secure host subnet 1208 to the SSH subnet 1214 can give the secure host subnet 1208 access to other entities in the service tenant 1219.

[0159] The control plane VCN 1216 can enable users of the service tenant 1219 to set up or provision desired resources. The desired resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 1216 can be deployed or used in the data plane VCN 1218. In some examples, the control plane VCN 1216 can be separate from the data plane VCN 1218, and the data plane mirror app layer 1240 of the control plane VCN 1216 can communicate with the data plane app layer 1246 of the data plane VCN 1218 via a VNIC 1242, which can be included in the data plane mirror app layer 1240 and the data plane app layer 1246.

[0160] In some examples, a user or customer of the system may make a request, such as, for example, a create, read, update, or delete (CRUD) operation, via the public internet 1254, which may communicate the request to the metadata management service 1252. The metadata management service 1252 may communicate the request to the control plane VCN 1216 via the internet gateway 1234. The request may be received by the LB subnet 1222 included in the control plane DMZ layer 1220. The LB subnet 1222 may determine that the request is valid, and in response to this determination, the LB subnet 1222 may send the request to the app subnet 1226 included in the control plane app layer 1224. If the request is validated and a call to the public internet 1254 is required, the call to the public internet 1254 may be sent to the NAT gateway 1238, which may make the call to the public internet 1254. Memory that may be desirable to be stored with the request may be stored in the DB subnet 1230.

[0161] In some examples, the data plane mirror app layer 1240 can facilitate direct communication between the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218. For example, it may be desirable to apply configuration changes, updates, or other suitable modifications to resources included in the data plane VCN 1218. Through the VNIC 1242, the control plane VCN 1216 can communicate directly with the resources included in the data plane VCN 1218, thereby enabling it to perform configuration changes, updates, or other suitable modifications to the resources included in the data plane VCN 1218.

[0162] In some embodiments, the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 can be included in the service tenant 1219. In this case, a user or customer of the system may not own or operate either the control plane VCN 1216 or the data plane VCN 1218. Instead, an IaaS provider may own or operate the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218, both of which may be included in the service tenant 1219. This embodiment may allow for network isolation that may prevent a user or customer from interacting with resources of other users or other customers. This embodiment also allows a user or customer of the system to store databases privately without having to rely on the public Internet 1254, which may not have the desired level of security for storage.

[0163] In another embodiment, the LB subnet 1222 included in the control plane VCN 1216 may be configured to receive signals from the service gateway 1236. In this embodiment, the control plane VCN 1216 and the data plane VCN 1218 may be configured to be called by the IaaS provider's customers without calling the public Internet 1254. The IaaS provider's customers may desire this embodiment because databases used by the customers may be stored in the service tenant 1219, which may be controlled by the IaaS provider and isolated from the public Internet 1254.

[0164] 13 is a block diagram 1300 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1302 (e.g., service operator 1202 of FIG. 12) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenant 1304 (e.g., secure host tenant 1204 of FIG. 12), which can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1306 (e.g., VCN 1206 of FIG. 12) and a secure host subnet 1308 (e.g., secure host subnet 1208 of FIG. 12). The VCN 1306 can include a local peering gateway (LPG) 1310 (e.g., LPG 1210 of FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1312 (e.g., SSH VCN 1212 of FIG. 12) via the LPG 1210 included in the SSH VCN 1312. SSH VCN 1312 can include an SSH subnet 1314 (e.g., SSH subnet 1214 in FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1316 (e.g., control plane VCN 1216 in FIG. 12) via an LPG 1310 included in the control plane VCN 1316. The control plane VCN 1316 can be included in a service tenant 1319 (e.g., service tenant 1219 in FIG. 12), and the data plane VCN 1318 (e.g., data plane VCN 1218 in FIG. 12) can be included in a customer tenant 1321, which can be owned or operated by a user or customer of the system.

[0165] The control plane VCN 1316 may include a control plane DMZ tier 1320 (e.g., control plane DMZ tier 1220 of FIG. 12 ) that may include a LB subnet 1322 (e.g., LB subnet 1222 of FIG. 12 ), a control plane app tier 1324 (e.g., control plane app tier 1224 of FIG. 12 ) that may include an app subnet 1326 (e.g., app subnet 1226 of FIG. 12 ), and a control plane data tier 1328 (e.g., control plane data tier 1228 of FIG. 12 ) that may include a database (DB) subnet 1330 (e.g., similar to DB subnet 1230 of FIG. 12 ). The LB subnet 1322 included in the control plane DMZ tier 1320 can be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1326 included in the control plane app tier 1324 and to an Internet gateway 1334 (e.g., Internet gateway 1234 of FIG. 12) that may be included in the control plane VCN 1316, and the app subnet 1326 can be communicatively coupled to a DB subnet 1330 included in the control plane data tier 1328, as well as a service gateway 1336 (e.g., service gateway of FIG. 12) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1338 (e.g., NAT gateway 1238 of FIG. 12). The control plane VCN 1316 can include the service gateway 1336 and the NAT gateway 1338.

[0166] The control plane VCN 1316 can include a data plane mirror app layer 1340 (e.g., data plane mirror app layer 1240 of FIG. 12 ), which can include an app subnet 1326. The app subnet 1326 included in the data plane mirror app layer 1340 can include a virtual network interface controller (VNIC) 1342 (e.g., VNIC 1242 ) on which a compute instance 1344 (e.g., similar to compute instance 1244 of FIG. 12 ) can run. The compute instance 1344 can facilitate communication between the app subnet 1326 and the app subnet 1326 of the data plane mirror app layer 1340, which can be included in the data plane app layer 1346 (e.g., data plane app layer 1246 of FIG. 12 ), via the VNIC 1342 included in the data plane mirror app layer 1340 and the VNIC 1342 included in the data plane app layer 1346.

[0167] An Internet gateway 1334 included in the control plane VCN 1316 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1352 (e.g., metadata management service 1252 in FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to a public Internet 1354 (e.g., public Internet 1254 in FIG. 12). The public Internet 1354 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 1338 included in the control plane VCN 1316. A service gateway 1336 included in the control plane VCN 1316 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1356 (e.g., cloud services 1256 in FIG. 12).

[0168] In some examples, the data plane VCN 1318 can be included in the customer tenant 1321. In this case, the IaaS provider can provide a control plane VCN 1316 for each customer, and the IaaS provider can set up a unique compute instance 1344 included in the service tenant 1319 for each customer. Each compute instance 1344 may enable communication between the control plane VCN 1316 included in the service tenant 1319 and the data plane VCN 1318 included in the customer tenant 1321. The compute instance 1344 may enable resources provisioned in the control plane VCN 1316 included in the service tenant 1319 to be deployed or otherwise used in the data plane VCN 1318 included in the customer tenant 1321.

[0169] In another example, a customer of the IaaS provider may have a database that resides in customer tenant 1321. In this example, control plane VCN 1316 may include data plane mirror app layer 1340, which may include app subnet 1326. Data plane mirror app layer 1340 may reside in data plane VCN 1318, but data plane mirror app layer 1340 may not reside in data plane VCN 1318. That is, data plane mirror app layer 1340 may have access to customer tenant 1321, but data plane mirror app layer 1340 may not reside in data plane VCN 1318 or may be owned or operated by the customer of the IaaS provider. Data plane mirror app layer 1340 may be configured to make calls to data plane VCN 1318, but may not be configured to make calls to any entities included in control plane VCN 1316. A customer may desire to deploy or otherwise use resources in the data plane VCN 1318 that are provisioned in the control plane VCN 1316, and the data plane mirror app layer 1340 can facilitate the customer's desired deployment or other use of the resources.

[0170] In some embodiments, the IaaS provider's customer can apply filters to the data plane VCN 1318. In this embodiment, the customer can determine what the data plane VCN 1318 can access, and the customer can limit access from the data plane VCN 1318 to the public Internet 1354. The IaaS provider may not be able to apply filters or control the data plane VCN 1318's access to external networks or databases. Applying customer filters and controls to the data plane VCN 1318 contained in the customer tenant 1321 can help isolate the data plane VCN 1318 from other customers and the public Internet 1354.

[0171] In some embodiments, cloud services 1356 may be called by service gateway 1336 to access services that may not be on the public internet 1354, on the control plane VCN 1316, or on the data plane VCN 1318. The connection between cloud services 1356 and the control plane VCN 1316 or the data plane VCN 1318 may not be live or continuous. Cloud services 1356 may be on another network owned or operated by the IaaS provider. Cloud services 1356 may be configured to receive calls from service gateway 1336 or may be configured not to receive calls from the public internet 1354. Some cloud services 1356 may be isolated from other cloud services 1356, and control plane VCN 1316 may be isolated from cloud services 1356 that may not be in the same region as control plane VCN 1316. For example, control plane VCN 1316 may be located in “Region 1” and cloud service “Deployment 7” may be located in Region 1 and Region 2. If a call to deployment 7 is made by a service gateway 1336 included in control plane VCN 1316 in region 1, the call may be sent to deployment 7 in region 1. In this example, control plane VCN 1316, or deployment 7 in region 1, may not be communicatively coupled to or in communication with deployment 7 in region 2.

[0172] 14 is a block diagram 1400 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1402 (e.g., service operator 1202 of FIG. 12) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenant 1404 (e.g., secure host tenant 1204 of FIG. 12), which can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1406 (e.g., VCN 1206 of FIG. 12) and a secure host subnet 1408 (e.g., secure host subnet 1208 of FIG. 12). The VCN 1406 can include an LPG 1410 (e.g., LPG 1210 of FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to the SSH VCN 1412 via an LPG 1410 included in the SSH VCN 1412 (e.g., SSH VCN 1212 of FIG. 12). SSH VCN 1412 can include an SSH subnet 1414 (e.g., SSH subnet 1214 in FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1416 via an LPG 1410 included in the control plane VCN 1416 (e.g., control plane VCN 1216 in FIG. 12) and to a data plane VCN 1418 via an LPG 1410 included in the data plane VCN 1418 (e.g., data plane 1218 in FIG. 12). The control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418 can be included in a service tenant 1419 (e.g., service tenant 1219 in FIG. 12).

[0173] The control plane VCN 1416 may include a control plane DMZ tier 1420 (e.g., control plane DMZ tier 1220 of FIG. 12 ) that may include a load balancer (LB) subnet 1422 (e.g., LB subnet 1222 of FIG. 12 ), a control plane app tier 1424 (e.g., control plane app tier 1224 of FIG. 12 ) that may include an app subnet 1426 (e.g., similar to app subnet 1226 of FIG. 12 ), and a control plane data tier 1428 (e.g., control plane data tier 1228 of FIG. 12 ) that may include a DB subnet 1430. The LB subnet 1422 included in the control plane DMZ layer 1420 may be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1426 included in the control plane app layer 1424 and an Internet gateway 1434 (e.g., Internet gateway 1234 of FIG. 12) that may be included in the control plane VCN 1416, and the app subnet 1426 can be communicatively coupled to a DB subnet 1430, a service gateway 1436 (e.g., service gateway of FIG. 12), and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1438 (e.g., NAT gateway 1238 of FIG. 12) included in the control plane data layer 1428. The control plane VCN 1416 may include the service gateway 1436 and the NAT gateway 1438.

[0174] The data plane VCN 1418 can include a data plane app layer 1446 (e.g., data plane app layer 1246 of FIG. 12), a data plane DMZ layer 1448 (e.g., data plane DMZ layer 1248 of FIG. 12), and a data plane data layer 1450 (e.g., data plane data layer 1250 of FIG. 12). The data plane DMZ layer 1448 can include a LB subnet 1422, which can be communicatively coupled to a trusted app subnet 1460 and an untrusted app subnet 1462 of the data plane app layer 1446, and an Internet gateway 1434 included in the data plane VCN 1418. The trusted app subnet 1460 can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1436 included in the data plane VCN 1418, a NAT gateway 1438 included in the data plane VCN 1418, and a DB subnet 1430 included in the data plane data layer 1450. The untrusted app subnet 1462 can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1436 included in the data plane VCN 1418 and a DB subnet 1430 included in the data plane data layer 1450. The data plane data layer 1450 can include a DB subnet 1430 that can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1436 included in the data plane VCN 1418.

[0175] The untrusted app subnet 1462 may include one or more primary VNICs 1464(1)-(N) that may be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 1466(1)-(N). Each tenant VM 1466(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to a respective app subnet 1467(1)-(N), which may be included in a respective container egress VCN 1468(1)-(N), which may be included in a respective customer tenant 1470(1)-(N). Each secondary VNIC 1472(1)-(N) may facilitate communication between the untrusted app subnet 1462 included in the data plane VCN 1418 and the app subnet included in the container egress VCN 1468(1)-(N). Each container egress VCN 1468(1)-(N) may include a NAT gateway 1438 that may be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1454 (e.g., public Internet 1254 of FIG. 12).

[0176] An Internet gateway 1434 included in the control plane VCN 1416 and included in the data plane VCN 1418 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1452 (e.g., metadata management system 1252 of FIG. 12 ), which can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1454. The public Internet 1454 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 1438 included in the control plane VCN 1416 and included in the data plane VCN 1418. A service gateway 1436 included in the control plane VCN 1416 and included in the data plane VCN 1418 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1456.

[0177] In some embodiments, the data plane VCN 1418 can be integrated with customer tenants 1470. This integration can be beneficial or desirable for the IaaS provider's customers, such as when support is needed when running code. The customer may provide code for execution that may be disruptive, communicate with other customer resources, or cause other undesirable effects. In response, the IaaS provider can decide whether to run code provided to the IaaS provider by the customer.

[0178] In some examples, an IaaS provider's customer may grant the IaaS provider temporary network access and request functionality to be added to the data plane layer app 1446. The code that executes the functionality may be executed in the VMs 1466(1)-(N), and the code may not be configured to run elsewhere on the data plane VCN 1418. Each VM 1466(1)-(N) may be connected to one customer tenant 1470. Each container 1471(1)-(N) contained in the VMs 1466(1)-(N) may be configured to execute code. In this case, double isolation may exist (e.g., code execution in container 1471(1)-(N), container 1471(1)-(N) may be contained in at least VMs 1466(1)-(N) contained in the untrusted app subnet 1462), which may help prevent errant or unwanted code from damaging the IaaS provider's network or damaging another customer's network. Containers 1471(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to customer tenants 1470 and may be configured to send or receive data from customer tenants 1470. Containers 1471(1)-(N) may not be configured to send or receive data from any other entities in data plane VCN 1418. Once code execution is complete, the IaaS provider may kill or otherwise destroy containers 1471(1)-(N).

[0179] In some embodiments, trusted app subnet 1460 may execute code that may be owned or operated by the IaaS provider. In this embodiment, trusted app subnet 1460 may be communicatively coupled to DB subnet 1430 and configured to perform CRUD operations within DB subnet 1430. Untrusted app subnet 1462 may be communicatively coupled to DB subnet 1430, but in this embodiment, untrusted app subnet 1462 may be configured to perform read operations in DB subnet 1430. Containers 1471(1)-(N) that may be included in each customer's VMs 1466(1)-(N) and that may execute code from the customer may not be communicatively coupled to DB subnet 1430.

[0180] In other embodiments, the control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418 may not be directly communicatively coupled. In this embodiment, there may not be direct communication between the control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418. However, communication may occur indirectly through at least one method. The LPG 1410 may be established by an IaaS provider that may facilitate communication between the control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418. In another example, the control plane VCN 1416 or the data plane VCN 1418 may make a call to a cloud service 1456 through the service gateway 1436. For example, a call from the control plane VCN 1416 to the cloud service 1456 may include a request for a service that may communicate with the data plane VCN 1418.

[0181] FIG. 15 is a block diagram 1500 illustrating another example pattern of an IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. A service operator 1502 (e.g., service operator 1202 of FIG. 12) can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenant 1504 (e.g., secure host tenant 1204 of FIG. 12), which can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1506 (e.g., VCN 1206 of FIG. 12) and a secure host subnet 1508 (e.g., secure host subnet 1208 of FIG. 12). The VCN 1506 can include an LPG 1510 (e.g., LPG 1210 of FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to an SSH VCN 1512 (e.g., SSH VCN 1212 of FIG. 12) via an LPG 1510 included in the SSH VCN 1512. SSH VCN 1512 can include an SSH subnet 1514 (e.g., SSH subnet 1214 in FIG. 12), which can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1516 via an LPG 1510 included in the control plane VCN 1516 (e.g., control plane VCN 1216 in FIG. 12) and to a data plane VCN 1518 via an LPG 1510 included in the data plane VCN 1518 (e.g., data plane 1218 in FIG. 12). The control plane VCN 1516 and the data plane VCN 1518 can be included in a service tenant 1519 (e.g., service tenant 1219 in FIG. 12).

[0182] The control plane VCN 1516 may include a control plane DMZ layer 1520 (e.g., control plane DMZ layer 1220 of FIG. 12) that may include a LB subnet 1522 (e.g., LB subnet 1222 of FIG. 12), a control plane app layer 1524 (e.g., control plane app layer 1224 of FIG. 12) that may include an app subnet 1526 (e.g., app subnet 1226 of FIG. 12), and a control plane data layer 1528 (e.g., control plane data layer 1228 of FIG. 12) that may include a DB subnet 1530 (e.g., DB subnet 930 of FIG. 9). The LB subnet 1522 included in the control plane DMZ layer 1520 can be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1526 included in the control plane app layer 1524 and can be communicatively coupled to an Internet gateway 1534 (e.g., Internet gateway 1234 of FIG. 12) that can be included in the control plane VCN 1516, which can be communicatively coupled to a DB subnet 1530 included in the control plane data layer 1528 and can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1536 (e.g., service gateway of FIG. 12) and a network address translation (NAT) gateway 1538 (e.g., NAT gateway 1238 of FIG. 12). The control plane VCN 1516 can include the service gateway 1536 and the NAT gateway 1538.

[0183] The data plane VCN 1518 can include a data plane app layer 1546 (e.g., data plane app layer 1246 of FIG. 12), a data plane DMZ layer 1548 (e.g., data plane DMZ layer 1248 of FIG. 12), and a data plane data layer 1550 (e.g., data plane data layer 1250 of FIG. 12). The data plane DMZ layer 1548 can include a LB subnetwork 1522, which can be communicatively coupled to a trusted app subnetwork 1560 (e.g., trusted app subnetwork 960 of FIG. 9) and to an untrusted app subnetwork 1562 (e.g., untrusted app subnetwork 962 of FIG. 9) of the data plane app layer 1546 and an Internet gateway 1534 included in the data plane VCN 1518. The trusted app subnet 1560 can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1536 included in the data plane VCN 1518, and can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 1538 included in the data plane VCN 1518, and to a DB subnet 1530 included in the data plane data layer 1550. The untrusted app subnet 1562 can be communicatively connected to the service gateway 1536 included in the data plane VCN 1518 and the DB subnet 1530 included in the data plane data layer 1550. The data plane data layer 1550 can include a DB subnet 1530 that can be communicatively coupled to a service gateway 1536 included in the data plane VCN 1518.

[0184] The untrusted app subnet 1562 can include primary VNICs 1564(1)-(N), which can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs) 1566(1)-(N) that reside in the untrusted app subnet 1562. Each tenant VM 1566(1)-(N) can execute code within a respective container 1567(1)-(N), which can be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1526 that can be included in a data plane app tier 1546 that can be included in a container egress VCN 1568. Each secondary VNIC 1572(1)-(N) can facilitate communication between the untrusted app subnet 1562 included in the data plane VCN 1518 and the app subnet included in the container egress VCN 1568. The container egress VCN can include a NAT gateway 1538 that can be communicatively coupled to the public internet 1554 (e.g., public internet 1254 in FIG. 12 ).

[0185] An Internet gateway 1534 included in the control plane VCN 1516 and in the data plane VCN 1518 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1552 (e.g., metadata management system 1252 of FIG. 12 ), which can be communicatively coupled to the public Internet 1554. The public Internet 1554 can be communicatively coupled to a NAT gateway 1538 included in the control plane VCN 1516 and in the data plane VCN 1518. A service gateway 1536 included in the control plane VCN 1516 and in the data plane VCN 1518 can be communicatively coupled to cloud services 1556.

[0186] In some examples, the pattern illustrated by the architecture of block diagram 1500 of FIG. 15 may be an exception to the pattern illustrated by the architecture of block diagram 1400 of FIG. 14 and may be desirable for an IaaS provider's customer when the IaaS provider cannot communicate directly with the customer (e.g., in a disconnected area). Each container 1567(1)-(N) contained in each customer's VM 1566(1)-(N) is accessible in real time by the customer. The containers 1567(1)-(N) may be configured to make calls to a respective secondary VNIC 1572(1)-(N) contained in the app subnet 1526 of the data plane app layer 1546 that may be contained in a container egress VCN 1568. The secondary VNIC 1572(1)-(N) may send the call to a NAT gateway 1538 that may send the call to the public Internet 1554. In this example, containers 1567(1)-(N) that a customer can access in real time can be isolated from control plane VCN 1516 and can be isolated from other entities included in data plane VCN 1518. Containers 1567(1)-(N) may be isolated from resources from other customers.

[0187] In another example, a customer can use container 1567(1)-(N) to invoke cloud service 1556. In this example, the customer can execute code within container 1567(1)-(N) that requests a service from cloud service 1556. Container 1567(1)-(N) can send the request to secondary VNIC 1572(1)-(N), which can send the request to a NAT gateway that can send the request to public internet 1554. Public internet 1554 can send the request via internet gateway 1534 to LB subnet 1522 included in control plane VCN 1516. In response to determining that the request is valid, the LB subnet can send the request to app subnet 1526, which can send the request to cloud service 1556 via service gateway 1536.

[0188] It should be understood that the IaaS architectures 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 depicted in the figures may have components other than those depicted. Additionally, the embodiments depicted in the figures are only some examples of cloud infrastructure systems that may incorporate embodiments of the present disclosure. In some other embodiments, the IaaS systems may have more or fewer components than depicted, may combine two or more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangement of components.

[0189] In certain embodiments, the IaaS system described herein may include a suite of application, middleware, and database services products that are delivered to customers in a self-service, subscription-based, elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. One example of such an IaaS system is Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), offered by the present assignee.

[0190] 16 illustrates an exemplary computer system 1600 in which various embodiments may be implemented. The system 1600 may be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. As shown, the computer system 1600 includes a processing unit 1604 that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 1602. These peripheral subsystems may include a processing accelerator 1606, an I / O subsystem 1608, a storage subsystem 1618, and a communication subsystem 1624. The storage subsystem 1618 includes a tangible computer-readable storage medium 1622 and a system memory 1610.

[0191] Bus subsystem 1602 provides a mechanism that allows the various components and subsystems of computer system 1600 to communicate with each other as intended. Although bus subsystem 1602 is shown diagrammatically as a single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses. Bus subsystem 1602 may 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 may include an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, an Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. It may be implemented as a mezzanine bus manufactured in accordance with the IEEE P1386.1 standard.

[0192] The processing unit 1604 may be implemented as one or more integrated circuits (e.g., conventional microprocessors or microcontrollers) and controls the operation of the computer system 1600. One or more processors may be included in the processing unit 1604. These processors may include single-core processors or multi-core processors. In particular embodiments, the processing unit 1604 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units 1632 and / or 1634 with single-core processors or multi-core processors included in each processing unit. In other embodiments, the processing unit 1604 may be implemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating two dual-core processors into a single chip.

[0193] In various embodiments, the processing unit 1604 may execute various programs in response to program code and may maintain multiple simultaneously executing programs or processes. At any time, some or all of the program code being executed may reside in the processor 1604 and / or in the memory subsystem 1618. Through appropriate programming, the processor 1604 may provide the various functions discussed above. The computer system 1600 may further include a processing accelerator 1606, which may include a digital signal processor (DSP), special purpose processor, or the like.

[0194] The I / O subsystem 1608 can include user interface input devices and user interface output devices. User interface input devices can include keyboards, pointing devices such as mice or trackballs, touch pads or touch screens integrated into displays, scroll wheels, click wheels, dials, buttons, switches, keypads, audio input devices with voice command recognition systems, microphones, and other types of input devices. User interface input devices can include, for example, motion sensing and / or gesture recognizers such as a Microsoft Kinect® motion sensor, allowing a user to control and interact with input devices such as a Microsoft Xbox® 360 game controller through a natural user interface using gestures and voice commands. User interface input devices can also include eye gesture recognizers such as a Google Glass® blink detector that detects eye activity from a user (e.g., "blinking" while taking a picture and / or selecting a menu) and translates eye gestures as input to an input device (e.g., Google Glass®). Additionally, the user interface input devices may include voice recognition sensing devices that allow a user to interact with a voice recognition system (e.g., the Siri® navigator) through voice commands.

[0195] User interface input devices may include, but are not limited to, three-dimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, game pads and graphic tablets, as well as audio / visual devices such as speakers, digital cameras, digital video cameras, portable media players, webcams, image scanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode readers 3D scanners, 3D printers, laser range finders, and eye-tracking devices. Additionally, user interface input devices may include medical imaging input devices such as, for example, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, position emission tomography, and medical ultrasound machines. User interface input devices may also include audio input devices such as, for example, MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments, and the like.

[0196] User interface output devices may include non-visual displays such as a display subsystem, indicator lights, or audio output devices. The display subsystem may be a flat panel device such as one using a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, a projection device, a touch screen, etc. In general, use of the term "output device" is intended to include all possible types of devices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system 1600 to a user or to another computer. For example, user interface output devices include, but are not limited to, various display devices that visually convey text, graphics, and audio / video information, such as monitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automobile navigation systems, plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

[0197] Computer system 1600 may include a storage subsystem 1618 that comprises software elements shown as currently located in system memory 1610. System memory 1610 may store program instructions that are loadable and executable on processing unit 1604, as well as data generated during the execution of these programs.

[0198] Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 1600, the system memory 1610 may be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and / or non-volatile (such as read only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.). RAM typically contains data and / or program modules that are immediately accessible to and / or currently being operated on and executed by the processing unit 1604. In some implementations, the system memory 1610 may include a number of different types of memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In some implementations, a basic input / output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer system 1600, such as during start-up, may typically be stored in ROM. By way of example and not limitation, the system memory 1610 also illustrates application programs 1612, program data 1614, and an operating system 1616, which may include client applications, a web browser, a mid-tier application, a relational database management system (RDBMS), and the like. By way of example, operating system 1616 may include various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and / or Linux operating systems, various commercially available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems (including, but not limited to, various GNU / Linux operating systems, Google Chrome® OS, etc.), and / or mobile operating systems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS, BlackBerry® 16 OS, and Palm® OS operating systems.

[0199] The storage subsystem 1618 may also provide a tangible computer-readable storage medium for storing the basic programming and data constructs that provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs, code modules, instructions) that, when executed by the processor, provide the functionality described above may be stored in the storage subsystem 1618. These software modules or instructions may be executed by the processing unit 1604. The storage subsystem 1618 may also provide a repository for storing data used in accordance with the present disclosure.

[0200] Storage subsystem 1600 may also include a computer readable storage medium reader 1620 that can be further connected to a computer readable storage medium 1622. Together, and optionally in combination with system memory 1610, computer readable storage medium 1622 can comprehensively represent remote, local, fixed, and / or removable storage devices, as well as storage media for containing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer readable information on a temporary and / or more permanent basis.

[0201] The computer readable storage medium 1622 containing the code or portions of code may include any suitable medium known or used in the art, including, but not limited to, storage media and communication media, such as volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any manner or technology for storing and / or transmitting information. This may include tangible computer readable storage media, such as RAM, ROM, Electronically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other optical storage, magnetic cassette, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage, or other tangible computer readable medium. This may also include intangible computer readable media, such as a data signal, data transmission, or any other medium that can be used to transmit the desired information and that can be accessed by the computing system 1600.

[0202] As an example, the computer readable storage medium 1622 may include a hard disk drive that reads or writes to a non-removable non-volatile magnetic medium, a magnetic disk drive that reads or writes to a removable non-volatile magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive that reads or writes to a removable non-volatile optical disk, such as a CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical medium. The computer readable storage medium 1622 may include, but is not limited to, a Zip® drive, a flash memory card, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive, a Secure Digital (SD) card, a DVD disk, a digital video tape, and the like. The computer readable storage medium 1622 may also include a solid state drive (SSD) based on non-volatile memory, such as a flash memory-based SSD, an enterprise flash drive, an SSD based on volatile memory, such as solid state RAM, dynamic RAM, static RAM, such as solid state ROM, a DRAM-based SSD, a magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSD, and a hybrid SSD that uses a combination of DRAM and a flash memory-based SSD. The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media may provide non-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for computer system 1600.

[0203] The communication subsystem 1624 provides an interface to other computer systems and networks. The communication subsystem 1624 serves as an interface for transmitting and receiving data from the computer system 1600 to and from other systems. For example, the communication subsystem 1624 may enable the computer system 1600 to connect to one or more devices via the Internet. In some embodiments, the communication subsystem 1624 may include radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and / or data networks (e.g., using cellular technology, advanced data network technologies such as 3G, 4G, or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution)), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family standard, or other mobile communication technologies, or any combination thereof), global positioning system (GPS) receiver components, and / or other components. In some embodiments, the communication subsystem 1624 may provide a wired network connection (e.g., Ethernet) in addition to or instead of a wireless interface.

[0204] In some embodiments, the communications subsystem 1624 may also receive incoming communications in the form of structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1626, event streams 1628, event updates 1630, etc., on behalf of one or more users who may use the computer system 1600.

[0205] As an example, the communications subsystem 1624 may be configured to receive data feeds 1626 in real time from users of social networks and / or other communications services, such as web feeds, such as Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates, Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and / or real-time updates from one or more third party information sources.

[0206] Additionally, the communications subsystem 1624 may be configured to receive data in the form of a continuous data stream, which may include an event stream 1628 of real-time events and / or event updates 1630, which may be continuous or essentially unlimited with no apparent end. Examples of applications that generate continuous data may include, for example, sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performance measurement tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic management applications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile traffic monitoring, and the like.

[0207] The communications subsystem 1624 may also be configured to output structured and / or unstructured data feeds 1626, event streams 1628, event updates 1630, etc. to one or more databases that may be in communication with one or more streaming data source computers coupled to the computer system 1600.

[0208] The computer system 1600 may be one of a variety of types, including a handheld portable device (e.g., an iPhone® mobile phone, an iPad® computing tablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), a PC, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, a server rack, or other data processing system.

[0209] Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, the description of the computer system 1600 shown in the figure is intended as a specific example only. Many other configurations are possible, with more or fewer components than the system shown in the figure. For example, customized hardware may also be used, or particular elements may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software (including applets), or a combination thereof. Additionally, connections to other computing devices, such as network input / output devices, may be used. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other approaches and / or methods for implementing various embodiments.

[0210] Although specific embodiments have been described, various modifications, variations, alternative constructions, and equivalents are within the scope of the disclosure. The embodiments are not limited to operating in any particular data processing environment, but may freely operate in multiple data processing environments. Furthermore, while the embodiments have been described using a particular sequence of transactions and steps, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the disclosure is not limited to the sequence of transactions and steps described. Various features and aspects of the above-described embodiments may be used individually or in combination.

[0211] Furthermore, while embodiments have been described using a particular combination of hardware and software, it should be appreciated that other combinations of hardware and software are within the scope of the present disclosure. The embodiments may be implemented using only hardware, only software, or a combination thereof. The various processes described herein may be implemented on the same processor or any combination of different processors. Thus, where a component or module is described as being configured to perform a particular operation, such configuration may be achieved, for example, by designing electronic circuitry to perform the operation, by programming a programmable electronic circuit (such as a microprocessor) to perform the operation, or any combination thereof. Processes may communicate using a variety of techniques, including, but not limited to, conventional techniques for inter-process communication, with different pairs of processes using different techniques and the same pair of processes using different techniques at different times.

[0212] Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will be apparent, however, that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modifications and alterations may be made without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, although certain disclosed embodiments have been described, they are not intended to be limiting. Various modifications and equivalents are intended to be within the scope of the following claims.

[0213] Use of the terms "a," "an," "the," and similar referents in the context of describing the disclosed embodiments (particularly in the context of the claims that follow) should be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms "comprise," "have," "include," and "contain" should be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including but not limited to"), unless otherwise noted. The term "connected" should be construed as being partially or wholly contained within, attached to, or connected to, even if there is something intervening. The recitation of ranges of values ​​herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of individually referring to each individual value falling within the range, unless otherwise stated herein, and each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually set forth herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. Any examples provided herein, or the use of exemplary language (e.g., "such as"), are intended merely to better illustrate the embodiments and do not impose limitations on the scope of the disclosure unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the disclosure.

[0214] Disjunctive language, such as the phrase "at least one of X, Y, or Z," is intended to be understood in context as generally used to indicate that an item, term, etc. can be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and / or Z), unless specifically stated otherwise. Thus, such disjunctive language is generally not intended to, and should not, imply that a particular embodiment requires that at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z, respectively, be present.

[0215] Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein, including the best mode known for carrying out the present disclosure. Variations of these preferred embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Those skilled in the art should be able to adopt such variations as necessary, and the present disclosure may be carried out in ways other than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, this disclosure includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, unless otherwise indicated herein, this disclosure encompasses any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof.

[0216] All references cited herein, including publications, patent applications, and patents, are incorporated herein by reference to the same extent as if each reference was individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and set forth in its entirety herein. In the foregoing specification, aspects of the disclosure have been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is not limited thereto. Various features and aspects of the above-described disclosure can be used individually or in combination. Moreover, the embodiments can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the specification. Thus, the specification and drawings should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Claims

1. 1. A method comprising: For packets sent by a host machine's graphical processing unit (GPU) and received by the network device, The network device obtaining flow information associated with the packet; and the network device calculating an outgoing port link of the network device according to a hashing algorithm based on the flow information, the hashing algorithm being configured to hash packets received on a particular incoming port link of the network device and transmitted on the same outgoing port link of the network device; The method comprises: The method further comprising the network device forwarding the packet on the outgoing port link of the network device.

2. The transferring step comprises: the network device ascertaining a condition associated with the outgoing port link of the network device; 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: in response to the condition being satisfied, forwarding the packet on the outgoing port link of the network device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the condition corresponds to determining whether the outgoing port link of the network device is active.

4. In response to said condition not being met, The network device executes an equal-cost multipath algorithm to obtain a new outgoing port link of the network device based on the flow information; The method of claim 2 , further comprising: the network device forwarding the packet on the new outgoing port link of the network device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network device is a top-of-rack (TOR) switch.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein information relating to a hash operation performed on a packet received by the network device is stored in a forwarding table database.

7. For a first packet and a second packet received on a first receive port link of the network device, and a third packet and a fourth packet received on a second receive port link of the network device, the network device: the network device transmitting the first packet and the second packet on a first outgoing port link of the network device; the network device transmitting the third packet and the fourth packet on a second outgoing port link of the network device; 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first receiving port link of the network device is different from the second receiving port link of the network device, and the first outgoing port link of the network device is different from the second outgoing port link of the network device.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first packet, the second packet, the third packet, and the fourth packet belong to a GPU workload.

9. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first inbound port link and the second inbound port link of the network device are a first set of links connecting the host machine to a top-of-rack (TOR) switch, and the first outbound port link and the second outbound port link of the network device are a second set of links connecting the TOR to a spine switch.

10. A network device, A processor; A network device which, when executed on said processor, causes said network device to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

11. A program that causes a computer system to execute a method described in any one of claims 1 to 9.

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