Patent ID: 7606141

Claim:
A method for implementing N-way fast failover in a virtualized Ethernet adapter comprising the steps of: providing at least one Host Ethernet Adapter (HEA), providing at least a pair of physical Ethernet ports with each said HEA; each of said physical Ethernet ports being coupled by a respective switch to a network; providing each said HEA supporting virtualization with InfiniBand constructs with each said HEA including separate Logical Ethernet adapters; said logical Ethernet adapters being segregated into two sets, each said set being assigned to a different port; coupling a plurality of queue pairs (QPs) to said at least one Host Ethernet Adapter (HEA); posting requests to the queue pairs (QPs) to send and receive Ethernet packets with each QP storing a designated physical Ethernet port, each QP functioning as a queue for each separate Logical Ethernet adapter, and the queue pairs (QPs) function as standard InfiniBand queue pairs except for ,generating Ethernet packets; responsive to a failover, changing a stored failed designated physical Ethernet port in a QP to a stored new functional physical Ethernet port; switching to a functional physical Ethernet port based upon the stored new functional physical Ethernet port in the QP; and transmitting and receiving Ethernet packets through the functional physical Ethernet ports.