Patent ID: 8904224

Claim:
A method for providing session level replication and fail-over as a network service, the method comprising: generating at least one replication rule that replicates network traffic destined for a primary server from an originating server to a network controller and installing said rule in a switch component; identifying one or more flows from the originating server to the primary server, replicating each incoming data packet intended to be routed to the primary server to the to network controller for replication and forwarding to one or more replica servers; determining said primary server to be in a failed state based on a specified number of retransmissions of a packet; selecting one of the one or more replica servers as a fail-over target; and performing a connection level fail-over by installing a redirection flow in the switch component that redirects all packets destined to the primary server to the network controller, which in turn, forwards the packets to the selected replica server after any required packet header modifications and forwards each response from the replica server to said originating server.