Patent ID: 9513970
Filing Date: 2016-12-06
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: at a first physical server configured to host a first virtual switch and to connect with a first physical switch in a communication network including a second physical server configured to host a second virtual switch and to connect with a second physical switch: instantiating a virtual machine; obtaining, from the virtual machine via the first virtual switch, address information that was assigned to the virtual machine when the virtual machine joined the network and that is used for network communications with the virtual machine, wherein the address information comprises Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) link-local address information and IPv6 global address identifier information of the virtual machine; responsive to the obtaining, sending the address information of the virtual machine from the first virtual switch to the first physical switch and the second physical switch so that the first physical switch and the second physical switch are able to support network communications with the virtual machine during a subsequent live migration of the virtual machine; after the sending, performing a live migration of the virtual machine from the first physical server to the second physical server during which the virtual machine is able to send and receive network communications with other virtual machines in the network via the first physical switch and the second physical switch as a result of the sending; and prior to the live migration, synchronizing virtual machine address information across the first virtual switch and the second virtual switch, the synchronizing including, at a virtual supervisor module: receiving from the first virtual switch address information, including (IPv6) link-local address information and IPv6 global address identifier information, assigned to each of multiple first virtual machines hosted on the first physical server, and receiving from the second virtual switch address information, including IPv6 link-local address information and IPv6 global address identifier information, assigned to each of multiple second virtual machines hosted on the second physical server; and distributing to the first virtual switch all of the address information received from all of the multiple first virtual machines and all of the multiple second virtual machines, and distributing to the second virtual switch all of the address information received from all of the multiple first virtual machines and all of the multiple second virtual machines.