Patent ID: 9697030
Date: 2017-07-04
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A non-transitory machine readable medium of a controller of a network control system for configuring a logical middlebox in a plurality of hosts, wherein the controller comprises sets of instructions for: maintaining a set of connection identifiers to be assigned to a plurality of middlebox instances that implement the logical middlebox in the plurality of hosts; receiving a request for a plurality of connection identifiers from a first middlebox instance of the plurality of middlebox instances, the first middlebox instance operating in a first host of the plurality of hosts; based on the request, identifying a plurality of connection identifiers from the set of connection identifiers that are available to be assigned to the middlebox instances; and assigning the identified connection identifiers to the first middlebox instance, wherein the first middlebox instance is configured to associate one of the connection identifiers assigned to the first middlebox instance with a first packet originating from a virtual machine (VM) operating in the first host in order for a second host that receives the first packet to distinguish the VM operating in the first host from other VMs operating in other hosts of the plurality of hosts from which the second host also receives packets.