Abstract:
A virtual network environment to be used by a set of applications for the express purpose of isolating the applications from other applications on the same node or network is disclosed. The virtual network environment encapsulates a set of applications within a virtual network and prevents applications from interfering, either maliciously or unintentionally, with other applications outside of its virtual network environment. This virtual network environment provides security and network isolation between applications, as is required in a hosted application environment.

Description:
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/680,567, entitled “VIRTUAL NETWORK ENVIRONMENT”, filed Oct. 5, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,371, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/157,727 filed Oct. 5, 1999, the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/157,728 filed Oct. 5, 1999,the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/157,729 filed Oct. 5, 1999, the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/157,833 filed Oct. 5, 1999, and the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/157,834 filed Oct. 5, 1999. These applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     The present invention relates broadly to computer networks. Specifically, the present invention relates to a virtual network environment to be used by a set of applications for the express purpose of isolating the applications from other applications on the same node or network. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Global computer networks such as the Internet have allowed electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) to flourish to a point where a large number of customers purchase goods and services over websites operated by online merchants. Because the Internet provides an effective medium to reach this large customer base, online merchants who are new to the e-commerce marketplace are often flooded with high customer traffic from the moment their websites are rolled out. In order to effectively serve customers, online merchants are charged with the same responsibility as conventional merchants: they must provide quality service to customers in a timely manner. Often, insufficient computing resources are the cause of a processing bottleneck that results in customer frustration and loss of sales. This phenomena has resulted in the need for a new utility: leasable online computing infrastructure. Previous attempts at providing computing resources have entailed leasing large blocks of storage and processing power. However, for a new online merchant having no baseline from which to judge customer traffic upon rollout, this approach is inefficient. Either too much computing resources are leased, depriving a start up merchant of financial resources that are needed elsewhere in the operation, or not enough resources are leased, and a bottleneck occurs. 
     Security is one of the major impediments to an on-demand leasable computer infrastructure. In a hosted environment, one or more applications may be running on a shared computer or network at any given time. These applications may belong to the same customer/user or they may belong to different (even competing) customers/users. If on-demand leasable computer infrastructure is to be made possible, security measures are necessary to ensure that applications do not interfere with each other, either intentionally or unintentionally. Previous approaches have focused on physical isolation using a firewall. A firewall is useful in separating a computer or group of computers in a network setting from computers beyond the firewall, but cannot separate or insulate computers behind the firewall from each other. Thus, there remains a heartfelt need to isolate groups of application such that they may be located as needed on a computer network without risk of interference with other applications. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a system, method, and computer program product for grouping a set of applications into a virtual network environment and isolating the application from other applications in other virtual network environments. The present invention provides isolation at the application level, rather than at the host level. As a result, applications residing on the same computer or network can be kept isolated from one another, allowing for secure shared resources. 
     The Virtual Network Environment (VNE) of the present invention is defined by a collection of IP addresses. An application running within one VNE can communicate with another application in the same VNE. However, an application in one VNE cannot communicate with an application in another VNE (unless expressly permitted). These and many other attendant advantages of the present invention will be understood upon reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a high level block diagram illustrating the various components of a computer network typically utilized by the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a high level block diagram illustrating the various components of a computer as used in connection with the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a data flow diagram illustrating the registration of a virtual network environment parameters as used in connection with the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a data flow diagram illustrating the steps executed to connect a client application with a server application, both having a virtual network identity, from the perspective of the client application; 
         FIG. 5  is a data flow diagram illustrating the steps executed to connect a client application with a server application, both having a virtual network identity, from the perspective of the server application; 
         FIG. 6  is a flow chart illustrating the logical sequence of steps to control outgoing packets; and 
         FIG. 7  is a flow chart illustrating the logical sequence of steps to control incoming packets. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  illustrates in high level block diagram form the overall structure of the present invention as used in connection with a global computer network  100  such as the Internet. Remote users  102 - 1  and  102 - 2  can connect through the computer network  100  to a private network of computers  106  protected by firewall  104 . Computer network  106  is a network comprising computers  150 - 1 ,  150 - 2 , through  150 -n, where n is the total number of computers in network  106 . Computers  150  are used to run various applications, as well as host web sites for access by remote users  102 . The present invention is implemented on computer network  106  in the form of virtual network environment (VNE)  110  and VNE  112 . 
     An application IP address is an IP address associated with an application. It can be a virtual IP address, associated solely with an application, or it can be a real IP address, associated with an interface on the host where the application resides. The application IP address is the IP address the application uses as the local address for all communications. The present invention may be utilized in both virtual and interface IP addresses. 
     The Virtual Network Environment (VNE) is defined by a collection of IP addresses related to applications that are contained within the VNE or have the potential of being placed in the VNE. An application as used herein refers to one or more executable programs working together to perform one or more functions. One or more applications can be grouped into a VNE. An application running within one VNE can communicate with another application in the same VNE. However, an application in one VNE can not communicate with an application in another VNE unless expressly permitted. The IP address used by the application is contained within the application&#39;s VNE. An IP address can only exist in one VNE at a time. Assigned IP addresses within a VNE are invariant for the life of the application or the life of a VNE. If the application IP address corresponds to an interface on the host, then all applications running on the host using the interface address must be included (running within the VNE framework  200 ) in the VNE. 
     The VNE is specified at application run time. The VNE is transparent to the application and does not require any modifications to the application. The VNE is defined by subnet of addresses contained within the VNE. For example, all applications within the subnet 10.10.2.0 comprise a VNE. The subnet/netmask specifying such a VNE would be 10.10.2.0/255.255.255.0 and would include the addresses 10.10.2.0 through 10.10.2.255. In this example, an application with IP address 10.10.2.2 would be able to communicate with an application at address 10.10.2.60, but not at 10.10.0.1. Although using a subnet/netmask to specify the VNE is described herein for illustrative purposes, it is to be understood that other methods may be used to accomplish the same mechanism (e.g. an access control list). 
       FIG. 2  illustrates in high level block diagram form a computer that may be utilized in connection with the present invention. Computer  150  incorporates a processor  152  utilizing a central processing unit (CPU) and supporting integrated circuitry. Memory  154  may include RAM and NVRAM such as flash memory, to facilitate storage of software modules executed by processor  152 , such as VNE framework  200 . Also included in computer  150  are keyboard  158 , pointing device  160 , and monitor  162 , which allow a user to interact with computer  150  during execution of software programs. Mass storage devices such as disk drive  164  and CD ROM  166  may also be in computer  150  to provide storage for computer programs and associated files. Computer  150  may communicate with other computers via modem  168  and telephone line  170  to allow the computer  150  to be operated remotely, or utilize files stored at different locations. Other media may also be used in place of modem  168  and telephone line  170 , such as a direct connection or high speed data line. The components described above may be operatively connected by a communications bus  172 . 
       FIG. 3  is a data flow diagram illustrating the registration of virtual network environment parameters. The VNE framework  200  is a software module that processes transactions between the applications and the operating system. The VNE parameters are registered with the VNE framework  200  at the time the application is started. The VNE parameters include the application IP address, the virtual network subnet, and the global virtual address subnet. At step  250 , the registration harness  220  supplies the application IP address, virtual subnet, and the global virtual address subnet for a process x  to the VNE framework  200 . The VNE framework  200  then records the IP address, virtual subnet, and the global virtual address subnet for the process x  at step  252 . The process x  can then spawn additional processes (or create additional objects) at step  254 , the new process y  inherits the IP address, virtual subnet, and global virtual address subnet from process x . At step  256 , the registration harness  220  launches the application related to process y . 
     The VNE framework  200  isolates an application within a VNE. Whenever an application running within the VNE communicates over a network connection, checks are made by the VNE framework  200  to ensure the remote address is either within the application&#39;s VNE or is to an allowable destination. Any communication to an application in another VNE is not permitted (i.e. the packet is not sent and an error is returned). 
     The purpose of the VNE is to isolate applications running in the shared resource environment. Therefore, although checks are made to ensure there is no communication between VNEs, communication with remote applications is still allowed. For illustrative purposes, consider a first VNE containing a web server for company X and a second VNE containing a web server for company Z. The VNE framework  200  keeps the two VNEs separate, but both VNEs can communicate with a remote client. 
     Virtual Network Environments are contained in a Global Virtual Address Space. The Global Virtual Address Space is used by the VNE framework  200  to define the list of all VNEs. The Global Virtual Address Space allows the VNE framework  200  to distinguish between communication with a remote application and communication with another VNE. In a similar fashion as the VNE, in the preferred embodiment the Global Virtual Address Space is specified using a network/subnet and a netmask. However, it can be specified using other methods, such as by using an access list. 
       FIG. 4  is a data flow diagram illustrating the steps executed to connect a client application with a server application, both having a virtual network identity from the perspective of the client application. The VNE framework  200  ensures that the specified application IP address is chosen as the local address whenever the application performs any network communications. This ensures the application is running within the correct VNE. When the application instance accepts a connection or receives data from a remote application, the local IP address chosen must be the specified IP address. When connecting or sending data to a remote application, the local address again must be the application IP address. 
     Beginning at step  270 , a client application requests to the VNE framework  200  to connect or send to an address of another application, such as a server application having the address 10.10.2.70: port 9001. At step  272 , the VNE framework  200  requests the VNE parameters for the process corresponding to the client application from a process state storage structure. The structure that stores process state is a structure that the operating system uses to store private information about the process. Therefore, it may differ depending on the operating system. The parameters added the process state storage structure as part of the virtual network environment are listed below: 
     
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                  typedef struct { 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 ipaddr_t app_address; 
               
               
                   
                 ipaddr_t virtual_subnet; 
               
               
                   
                 ipaddr_t virtual_mask; 
               
               
                   
                 ipaddr_t global_subnet; 
               
               
                   
                 ipaddr_t global_mask; 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 } vne_param_t; 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     At step  274 , the VNE parameters for the client application are returned, in this case local address 10.10.2.1 virtual subnet/mask 10.10.2.0/255.255.255.0 and global virtual subnet/mask 10.10.0.0/255.255.0.0. At step  276  the VNE makes a call to the TCP/UDP module to ensure the TCP/UDP module picks the application IP address (in this case 10. 10.2.1) as the local address. The TCP/UDP module is the transport layer module provided in the host&#39;s operating system. Next, the VNE compares the destination address, in this case 10.10.2.70, to the virtual subnet and mask (10.10.2.0/255.255.255.0) of the client application, to determine if the destination server application address is in the same VNE as the sending application. Since the destination is in the same VNE, the VNE framework  200  allows the client to connect to the server by passing the client connect system call on to the TCP/UDP module. At step  278 , The TCP/UDP module then initiates a TCP connection to the server application at 10.10.2.70 port 9001 on behalf of the client. 
       FIG. 5  is a data flow diagram illustrating the steps executed to connect a client application with a server application, both having a virtual network identity, from the perspective of the server application. 
     At step  300 , a server application makes to the VNE framework  200  a request to listen or receive on a port. At step  302 , the VNE framework  200  gets the IP address for the process corresponding to the server application. At step  304 , the local IP address (10.10.2.1) for the server application is returned. At step  306 , the VNE framework  200  makes a call to the TCP/UDP module to ensure that the application IP address (in this case 10.10.2.1) is used as the local address for any incoming connections/data. At step  308 , the client application connects to the server application at address 10.10.2.1:9000 using the standard TCP protocol. 
       FIG. 6  is a flow chart illustrating the logical sequence of steps to control outgoing packets. For the applications running within a VNE, the following checks are made during a send or connection attempt system call. When outgoing packets are sent by an application (step  330 ), if the destination address is within the application&#39;s VNE (step  332 ), the packet is sent (step  342 ). If the destination is not within the application&#39;s VNE, checks are made to determine if the destination address is in the Global Virtual Address space (step  334 ). If the destination is to another VNE (i.e. some other VNE), a permission denied error is returned (step  336 ). If the destination is outside of the Global Virtual Address space (step  338 ), the application IP address is used as the local address (step  340 ) and the packet is sent (step  342 ). 
       FIG. 7  is a flow chart illustrating the logical sequence of steps to control incoming packets. For the applications running within the VNE, inbound packets ( 350 ) are checked to determine if the source address is in the listening/receiving application&#39;s VNE (step  352 ). If so, the packet is queued on the receive queue (step  362 ). If the packet&#39;s source address is not from the listening/receiving application&#39;s VNE, control proceeds to step  354  where a check is made by the VNE framework  200  to determine if the source address is in the Global Virtual Address space but not the application&#39;s VNE. If this is true, the packet is discarded (step  356 ). If not, the source is determined to be a remote host (step  358 ) and the application IP address is used as the local address (step  360 ) and the packet is queued on the receive queue (step  362 ). 
     Virtualization of network identity is achieved by assigning a unique virtual IP address and virtual hostname to a group of processes that make up the application instance which the instance keeps throughout its execution. This virtual network identity stays with the application instance regardless of which node the application is running on. The framework, in essence, provides a mechanism to create this virtual network identity (VNI) around the application using the virtual network parameters assigned to it. In one embodiment, the virtual network parameters include an IP address and hostname. The framework  200  ensures that the application&#39;s instance uses the virtual network parameters, transparently, so that it can be moved across machines, without modifications to the application. 
     The virtual hostname resolves to the virtual IP address for both the applications registered with the VNI framework as well as those that are not registered. This may require configuration of a name service or OS host configuration files. For example, if an application instance used a virtual IP address of 10.10.0.1 and a virtual hostname of host  1055 , the standard hostname to IP address resolution mechanisms (e.g. DNS or the /etc/hosts file) would have to be preconfigured to resolve a query of host  1055  to IP address 10.10.0.1. 
     Any application configuration of addresses and hostmames uses the virtual hostmame and virtual IP address assigned to the instance. Virtualization of network identities is transparent to the application running within a VNI. From the perspective of the application, the application is running on a single node which has an assigned IP address that corresponds to one of its network interfaces. The application requires no modifications to run in within the VNI framework. 
     A virtual address and virtual hostname are assigned to the application instance before the application is run. This virtual address may be statically preassigned or it can be dynamically assigned by an address resource manager. Registration of the virtual address and virtual hostname is made to the framework  200 , which in turn installs a virtual interface for the virtual IP address and records the IP address and hostname for the processes associated with the application. The virtual IP address is unique to the application while the application is running. Similarly, the virtual hostname can be preassigned or dynamically assigned by an external entity or created using an algorithm based on the IP address to ensure uniqueness. When the application is to be run, the virtual IP address is allocated/installed as a virtual interface on the node. The virtual interface remains on the node as long as the application is running on that node. In one embodiment, a virtual network interface is a logical interface that allows a node to associate one or more IP addresses with existing physical or loopback network interfaces on the computer. This functionality is provided by some standard operating systems and allows the host to use one or more IP addresses as the local address for a single network interface. 
     Having disclosed exemplary embodiments and the best mode, modifications and variations may be made to the disclosed embodiments while remaining within the scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.