Managing routing information for tunnel endpoints in overlay networks

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, at a first tunnel endpoint in an overlay network, a packet from a source host associated with the first tunnel endpoint, the packet comprising a destination host address, a source host address and a source tunnel endpoint;
• based on a lookup table, determining a destination tunnel endpoint address that is associated with the destination host address, wherein the first tunnel endpoint is configured to update the lookup table with an association between a host address and a tunnel endpoint address by determining whether an entry of the source host address exists in the lookup table and the source host address is associated with a tunnel endpoint address different from the source tunnel endpoint address in the lookup table, and updating the entry of the source host address in the lookup table based on the association between the source host address and the source tunnel address when the first tunnel endpoint receives an incoming encapsulated packet comprising the source host address and the tunnel endpoint address;
• encapsulating the packet with a header comprising the destination tunnel endpoint address to yield an encapsulated packet;
• and
• transmitting the encapsulated packet from the first tunnel endpoint to the destination tunnel endpoint address.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, at a first tunnel endpoint in an overlay network, an encapsulated packet from a second tunnel endpoint, the encapsulated packet having been encapsulated at the second tunnel endpoint based on a packet originating from a source host associated with the second tunnel endpoint, wherein the encapsulated packet comprises a source host address for the source host, a source tunnel endpoint address for the second tunnel endpoint, and a destination host address for a destination host;
• based on the destination host address, determining whether the destination host is associated with the first tunnel endpoint, and
• when it is determined that the destination host is associated with the first tunnel endpoint, updating a lookup table at the first tunnel endpoint based on an association between the source host address and the source tunnel endpoint address, wherein updating the lookup table further comprises:
• determining whether an entry of the source host address exists in the lookup table and when the source host address is associated with a tunnel end point address different from the source tunnel endpoint address in the lookup table, updating the entry of the source host address in the lookup table based on the association between the source host address and the source tunnel address.