Inventors:
Manoj Narayanan - San Jose CA, US
Hemant Hebbar - Santa Clara CA, US
Vinayakumar Parameswarannair - San Jose CA, US
Eden Tan - Campbell CA, US
Michael Smith - San Jose CA, US
Norman Finn - Livermore CA, US
International Classification:
H04J 1/16
Abstract:
A system and method detects and responds to failures occurring in a virtual switch. The virtual switch is formed from two or more physical switches interconnected by a Virtual Switch Link (VSL). One physical switch is elected the Master, and it executes a link aggregation protocol for the virtual switch. If the VSL fails, one of the other physical switches assumes that it should become the Master for the virtual switch, and it begins executing the link aggregation protocol. By adding information unique to the physical switches in the control packets of the link aggregation protocol, remote switches can identify when the VSL fails, and report this condition to the original Master. In response, the original Master or the new Master takes corrective action.