Patent ID: 7764702

Claim:
A method for managing routing in a virtual private network, comprising: receiving user settings from a user of the virtual private network, the user settings specifying at least one of: virtual private network topology and routing preferences, wherein the user settings provide for a conversion of an any-to-any topology to a hub and spoke topology; provisioning the virtual private network in accordance with the user settings, wherein the provisioning comprises: designating at least one hub private virtual channel for a first site designated as a hub by the user settings; designating at least one Internet Protocol virtual channel for the first site, after designating the at least one hub private virtual channel, where a first end of the at least one Internet Protocol virtual channel has a virtual private network site type set to “hub” and is coupled to the first site and a second end of the at least one Internet Protocol virtual channel has a virtual private network site type set to “spoke” and is coupled to a second site designated as a spoke by the user settings; and designating at least one spoke private virtual channel for the second site, after designating the at least one Internet Protocol virtual channel; and validating the virtual private network after the provisioning wherein at least one of: the receiving, the provisioning, or the validating is performed by a processor.