Supporting ephemeral ports in a virtualized environment

A computing device comprising:

• one or more processors configurable to operate one or more virtual machines instantiated on the computing device, each virtual machine having an operating system controlling instruction executions within the virtual machine, each virtual machine further having a network stack facilitating network communication with a network for the virtual machine, the network being coupled to the computing device;
• an ephemeral port manager instantiable into an ephemeral port manager instance within a virtual machine manager operated by one of the one or more processors to
• receive a request for an allocation of one or more ephemeral ports from a pool of ephemeral ports associated with the computing device, for a first virtual machine of the computing device;
• allocate up to the one or more ephemeral ports requested from the pool of ephemeral ports, if up to the one or more ephemeral ports are available for allocation from the pool of ephemeral ports;
• and
• mark the allocated one or more ephemeral ports as unavailable to meet an ephemeral port allocation request of any other virtual machine of the computing device;
• and
• a routing module, operable by one of the one or more processors to route one or more packets received by the physical device, and addressed to a first port of the up to one or more ephemeral ports, to the first virtual machine which has been allocated the first port;
• wherein the ephemeral port manager instance is configured to notify the routing module of the allocation of up to one or more ephemeral ports allocated to the first virtual machine.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a tangible computer-accessible storage medium;
• and
• a plurality of programming instructions stored in the tangible computer-accessible storage medium and configured to enable a computing device, when the programming instructions are executed by the computing device, to
• receive, using an ephemeral port manager, a request for an allocation of one or more ephemeral ports to a virtual machine of one or more virtual machines instantiated on the computing device, from a pool of ephemeral ports associated with the computing device, each virtual machine having an operating system controlling instruction executions within the virtual machine, each virtual machine further having a network stack to facilitate communication with a network for the virtual machine, the computing device being coupled to the network;
• allocate, using the ephemeral port manager, up to the one or more ephemeral ports requested from the pool of ephemeral ports to the virtual machine, if up to the one or more ephemeral ports are available for allocation from the pool of ephemeral ports;
• mark, using the ephemeral port manager, the allocated one or more ephemeral ports as unavailable to meet an ephemeral port allocation request of any other of the one or more virtual machines instantiated on the computing device;
• and
• notify a routing module of the computing device, using the ephemeral port manager, of the allocation of up to one or more ephemeral ports to the virtual machine, the notification facilitating the routing module in routing one or more packets received by the computing device, and addressed to a first port of the up to one or more ephemeral ports, to the virtual machine which has been allocated the first port.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a routing module operated by the processor;
• and
• a mass storage coupled to the one or more processors, and having stored therein, an ephemeral port manager instantiable into an ephemeral port manager instance within a virtual machine manager operated by one of the one or more processors to
• receive a request for an allocation of one or more ephemeral ports to a first virtual machine of one or more virtual machines instantiated on the system, from a pool of ephemeral ports associated with the system, each virtual machine having an operating system controlling instruction executions within the virtual machine, each virtual machine further having a network stack facilitating communication with a network for the virtual machine, the system being coupled to the network;
• allocate up to the one or more ephemeral ports requested from the pool of ephemeral ports to the first virtual machine, if up to the one or more ephemeral ports are available for allocation from the pool of ephemeral ports;
• mark the allocated one or more ephemeral ports as unavailable to meet an ephemeral port allocation request of any other virtual machine of the system;
• and
• notify the routing module of the allocation of up to one or more ephemeral ports to the first virtual machine, the notification facilitating the routing module in routing one or more packets received by the computing device, and addressed to a first port of the up to one or more ephemeral ports, to the first virtual machine which has been allocated the first port.