Patent ID: 8478853

Claim:
A method for managing a guest operating system (OS) executing on a host comprising: receiving, by a host OS, from the guest OS associated with a first media access control (MAC) address, a second MAC address, wherein the first MAC address is associated with a first guest virtual network interface card (VNIC) residing on the guest OS, wherein the second MAC address is associated with a second guest VNIC residing on the guest OS, wherein the second MAC address is sent from the guest OS in response to a creation of the second guest VNIC, and wherein the guest OS and the host OS are executing on the host; determining, by the host OS after receiving the second MAC address , an intermediate VNIC, to forward packets associated with the second MAC address to the guest OS, wherein packets associated with the first MAC address and received by the intermediate VNIC are forwarded to the guest OS; and wherein the intermediate VNIC is executing on the host OS; and forwarding, by the host OS, the second MAC address from the intermediate VNIC to a device driver associated with a physical network interface card (NIC) operatively connected to the host, wherein the device driver configures a classifier on the physical NIC to forward packets associated with the second MAC address to a guest OS hardware receive ring (HRR) located on the physical NIC, wherein the guest OS HRR is associated with the intermediate VNIC; and wherein packets associated with the first MAC address and received by the physical NIC are classified by the classifier and forwarded to the guest OS HRR.