Distributed Dynamic Virtual Machine Configuration Service

1. A method comprising: intercepting a broadcast discovery message generated by a virtual network endpoint, wherein the virtual network endpoint is devoid of a corresponding virtual IP address; determining, in response to accessing a local cache, that a dynamic configuration service is unknown; querying a distributed policy service for a location of the dynamic configuration service in response to the determination, wherein the distributed policy service is different than the dynamic configuration service; receiving the location of the dynamic configuration service from the distributed policy service; sending one or more unicast network configuration messages to the dynamic configuration service in response to receiving the location of the dynamic configuration service; receiving one or more unicast network configuration responses from the dynamic configuration service, wherein at least one of the one or more unicast network configuration responses includes one or more network configuration parameters; and configuring, by one or more processors, the virtual network endpoint according to one or more of the network configuration parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the unicast network configuration messages is a dynamic virtual machine configuration discover message, and wherein the configuring further comprises assigning a virtual IP address included in the network configuration parameters to the virtual network endpoint.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: sending a dynamic virtual machine configuration discovery message to the dynamic configuration service; receiving a dynamic virtual machine configuration offer message in response to the dynamic virtual machine configuration discovery message; sending a dynamic virtual machine configuration request message in response to receiving the dynamic virtual machine configuration offer message; and receiving a dynamic virtual machine configuration reply message, wherein the dynamic virtual machine configuration reply message confirms assignment of the virtual IP address to the virtual network endpoint.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the dynamic configuration service includes a dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module and a network configuration module, the method further comprising: receiving the one or more dynamic configuration messages from the local module at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module; formatting the one or more dynamic configuration messages at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module and forwarding the formatted one or more dynamic configuration messages to the network configuration module; receiving one or more network configuration response at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module from the network configuration module; formatting the one or more network configuration responses at the dynamic virtual machine configuration relay module and forwarding the formatted one or more dynamic virtual machine configuration responses to the local module.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the network configuration module is a DHCP/BOOTP server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual network endpoint corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual domains, and wherein each of the plurality of virtual domains corresponds to an independent virtual address space and is independently managed by one of a plurality of heterogeneous tenants.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein each of the plurality of virtual domains are independent of physical topology constraints of a physical network.