Patent ID: 8676980
Filing Date: 2014-03-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving a request packet at a flow director in communication with a plurality of servers, each server comprising a virtual load balancer module and one or more virtual machines, the flow director operable to distribute flows to the virtual load balancer modules; and forwarding the request packet to one of the virtual load balancer modules, the virtual load balancer module configured to select one of the virtual machines to receive the request packet and transmit a response packet; wherein the virtual load balancers are configured to distribute request packets across a plurality of virtual machines; wherein the response packet is transmitted without passing through the flow director and wherein the virtual load balancer modules comprise a fast path portion and at least one of the virtual load balancer modules comprises a slow path portion, said fast path portion and said slow path portion located at the server in communication with the flow director, said slow path portion configured to perform load balancing to select one of the virtual machines and said fast path portion configured to create an entry in a flow table to identify the selected virtual machine; and wherein the flow director is configured to identify new flows and select one of the virtual load balancer modules to process said new flow, and respond to requests from the virtual load balancer modules to direct packets for a flow to a specified virtual load balancer module, wherein the specified virtual load balancer module may be a different module than was initially selected by the flow director.