Patent ID: 8493959

Claim:
A system comprising: a slave device communicatively connected to a master device in the system, the slave device including: a first storage device that stores a real media access control (MAC) address of the slave device, the real MAC address of the slave device mapping to a real Internet protocol (IP) address associated with the slave device, and a second storage device that stores a virtual MAC address that is different from the real MAC address of the slave device, the second storage device being different from the first storage device, and the virtual MAC address mapping to a real IP address associated with the master device and a virtual IP address associated with the master device, and when a failure is associated with the master device, the slave device is to: receive the virtual MAC address from the master device, store the virtual MAC address in the second storage device, receive and process information, intended for the master device, based on the virtual MAC address, and receive administrative services based on the real MAC address of the slave device.