Patent ID: 8879554

Claim:
A computer-implemented method to secure a media access control (MAC) address of a first virtual machine in order to prohibit spoofing of the MAC address by a second virtual machine across virtualization servers collectively providing a distributed virtual switch having at least first and second component virtual switches, the virtualization servers each hosting a respective one of the first and second virtual machines and each executing a respective one of the first and second component virtual switches, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, over a first port on the first component virtual switch, a first network frame having at least a source MAC address; forwarding at least the source MAC address in the first network frame and a port identifier (ID) of the first port to a supervisor agent of the distributed virtual switch, wherein the supervisor agent is configured to respond by broadcasting a message to the first and second component virtual switches; in response to receiving the message at the first component virtual switch, updating a forwarding table on the first component virtual switch in order to include forwarding entry specifying the source MAC address and a valid port ID comprising the port ID of the first port; and in response to receiving the message at the second component virtual switch, updating a forwarding table on the second component virtual switch in order to include an anti-spoof entry specifying the source MAC address and an invalid port ID.