Method and apparatus for virtualizing a locally initiated outbound connection from a connection manager

A connection manager for distributing remotely initiated connections to a virtual machine using a physical machine and virtualizing locally initiated connections from the physical machine comprising:

• a virtual machine object having a virtual IP address that corresponds to the virtual machine wherein inbound connections directed to the virtual machine are handled by the physical machine having a physical machine IP address;
• a static physical machine object wherein the static physical machine object contains the virtual IP address and the physical machine IP address;
• a packet interceptor that is operative to intercept a SYN packet for an outbound connection having a SYN packet source IP address that corresponds to the physical machine IP address and a packet destination address that corresponds to a foreign IP address;
• and
• a connection object that includes the virtual IP address and the physical IP address that is used to handle outbound connections from the physical machine IP address.

A computer program product for virtualizing a locally initiated outbound connection from a physical machine used to implement a virtual machine, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

• providing a virtual machine object having a virtual IP address that corresponds to the virtual machine wherein inbound connections directed to the virtual machine are handled by the physical machine having a physical machine IP address;
• providing a static physical machine object wherein the static physical machine object contains the virtual IP address and the physical machine IP address;
• intercepting a SYN packet for an outbound connection having a SYN packet source IP address that corresponds to the physical machine IP address and a packet destination address that corresponds to a foreign IP address;
• determining that the packet source IP address matches the physical machine IP address;
• and
• creating a connection object for handling outbound connections from the physical machine IP address.

A system for virtualizing a locally initiated outbound connection from a physical machine used to implement a virtual machine, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• computer memory accessible by the processor and configured to store computer code executable by the processor, the computer code comprising computer instructions for:
• providing a virtual machine object having a virtual IP address that corresponds to the virtual machine wherein inbound connections directed to the virtual machine are handled by the physical machine having a physical machine IP address;
• providing a static physical machine object wherein the static physical machine object contains the virtual IP address and the physical machine IP address;
• intercepting a SYN packet for an outbound connection having a SYN packet source IP address that corresponds to the physical machine IP address and a packet destination address that corresponds to a foreign IP address;
• determining that the packet source IP address matches the physical machine IP address;
• and
• creating a connection object for handling outbound connections from the physical machine IP address.

A system for virtualizing a locally initiated outbound connection from a physical machine used to implement a virtual machine, comprising:

• means for providing a virtual machine object having a virtual IP address that corresponds to the virtual machine wherein inbound connections directed to the virtual machine are handled by the physical machine having a physical machine IP address;
• means for providing a static physical machine object wherein the static physical machine object contains the virtual IP address and the physical machine IP address;
• means for intercepting a SYN packet for an outbound connection having a SYN packet source IP address that corresponds to the physical machine IP address and a packet destination address that corresponds to a foreign IP address;
• means for determining that the packet source IP address matches the physical machine IP address;
• and
• means for creating a connection object for handling outbound connections from the physical machine IP address.