Patent ID: 11811558

Abstract:
A network interface controller (NIC) associated with a virtual machine (VM) in a cloud computing network is configured to be flexibly attached and detached from a parent NIC to thereby enable the virtual machine to simultaneously be attached to multiple different virtual networks (VNets) and/or subnets that are associated with the same or different subscriptions. The inventive NIC, referred to herein as a flexibly extensible NIC (eNIC), enables a service provider to inject compute instances into an existing VNet using a multi-homing configuration in which the data plane uses a dedicated network interface to connect the customer's VNet, while another dedicated network interface provides management plane connectivity to the service provider. Such multi-VNet homing advantageously provides data plane isolation for the customer's VNet to comply with applicable security policies without disrupting management traffic between the injected resources and the service provider.