A system comprising: a management component executing on a network device, the management component configured to provide management plane functionality in respect of all physical components of the network device, including all line cards, said line cards being logically assigned by the management component to a plurality of virtual nodes (18, 20A, 20B) configured on the network device; a first routing component executing on a first server device physically separate from the network device and configured to provide control plane routing functionality for a virtual node of the plurality of virtual nodes; and a second routing component executing on a second server device physically separate from the network device and configured to provide control plane routing functionality for the virtual node, wherein the first routing component and the second routing component operate as a redundant master-backup pair for the virtual node, wherein the management component is configured to detect first reachability of the network device with a first routing component and second reachability of the network device with a second routing component, and send a control message to each of the first routing component and the second routing component, the control message specifying reachability information indicating the first reachability and the second reachability, and wherein one or more of the first routing component and the second routing component are configured to determine, in response to receiving the control message and based on the reachability information, whether to operate as a master routing component for the virtual node. a management component executing on a network device, the management component configured to provide management plane functionality in respect of all physical components of the network device, including all line cards, said line cards being logically assigned by the management component to a plurality of virtual nodes (18, 20A, 20B) configured on the network device; a first routing component executing on a first server device physically separate from the network device and configured to provide control plane routing functionality for a virtual node of the plurality of virtual nodes; and a second routing component executing on a second server device physically separate from the network device and configured to provide control plane routing functionality for the virtual node, wherein the first routing component and the second routing component operate as a redundant master-backup pair for the virtual node, wherein the management component is configured to detect first reachability of the network device with a first routing component and second reachability of the network device with a second routing component, and send a control message to each of the first routing component and the second routing component, the control message specifying reachability information indicating the first reachability and the second reachability, and wherein one or more of the first routing component and the second routing component are configured to determine, in response to receiving the control message and based on the reachability information, whether to operate as a master routing component for the virtual node.