Patent ID: 7936666
Filing Date: 2011-05-03
Classification: H04Q

Abstract:
1. A method of managing a virtual router that spans a first physical routing device and a second physical routing device, said method comprising: monitoring a trunk associated with said virtual router, said trunk comprising a plurality of physical ports of said first physical routing device and operable for handling network traffic for a host, wherein a respective port priority value is associated with each of said plurality of physical ports and wherein higher ranked ports of said plurality of physical ports have respective port priority values, greater than that of lower ranked ports of said plurality of physical ports, and wherein a trunk priority value is associated with said trunk, wherein said trunk priority value is greater than the sum of port priority values for all physical ports in said plurality of physical ports; and wherein a first device priority value is associated with said first physical routing device; and a second device priority value is associated with said second physical routing device; wherein said first device priority value is decremented by a first port priority value associated with a first out-of-service port to produce a first adjusted priority value for said first physical routing device, wherein said first physical routing device fails over to said second physical routing device if said first adjusted priority value is less than said second device priority value, wherein further said first adjusted priority value is decremented by a second port priority value associated with a second out-of-service port to produce a second adjusted priority value for said first physical routing device, wherein said first physical routing device fails over to said second physical routing device if said second adjusted priority value is less than said second device priority value; and wherein said first device priority value is decremented by said trunk priority value if said all physical ports in said plurality of physical ports are deemed out-of-service, wherein said trunk priority value is greater than the difference between said first device priority value and said second device priority value, thereby causing failover from said first physical routing device to said second physical routing device.