Patent ID: 10715607

Abstract:
Some embodiments provide a novel method for configuring a set of service one or more nodes on a host to perform context-rich, attribute-based services on the host computer, which executes several data compute nodes (DCNs) in addition to the set of service nodes. The method uses a context-filtering node on the host to collect a first set of attributes associated with service rules processed by the set of service nodes on the host computer. The context filter also collects a second set of attributes associated with at least one data message flow of a DCN (e.g., of a virtual machine (VM) or container) executing on the host. After collecting the first and second sets of attributes, the context filtering node on the host compares the first and second sets of attributes to generate a service tag to represent a subset of the first set of attributes associated with the data message flow. The method associates this service tag with the data message flow. This service tag can then be used to identify the subset of attributes associated with the data message flow when a service node needs to process its attribute-based service rules for the data message flow.