Patent ID: 8824485

Claim:
In a host data processing system having a virtualization manager that configures and enables a virtualized computing environment that includes one or more virtual machines and locally-accessible components of a layer 2 distributed virtual switch (DVS) including a plurality of virtual ports supporting packet transmission within at least one virtual local area network (VLAN), a processing resource of the virtualization manager executing packet processing logic of the virtualization manager to perform a method comprising: detecting an incoming transmission of a packet at an ingress receiving interface of an ingress path to a first virtual port of the plurality of virtual ports of the layer 2 DVS, wherein the first virtual port is assigned to enable routing of received packets to and from one or more devices within one or more VLANs; retrieving a VLAN identifier (VID) from a header of the packet, wherein the VID comprises a value that is used to uniquely identify a particular VLAN from among a plurality of VLANs supported by the first virtual port; and in response to detecting the packet on the ingress path to the first virtual port: determining whether an ingress array offset position within an ingress bitmap array of the first virtual port is set, indicating that the particular VLAN is supported by the first virtual port, and wherein the ingress array offset position corresponds to the value of the VID and is set within the ingress bitmap array during configuration of the VLAN on the first virtual port; in response to the ingress array offset position is set, receiving the packet at the first virtual port and initiating processing of the received packet by the first virtual port; and in response to the ingress array offset position not being set, discarding the packet; wherein a detected packet on the ingress path is only allowed to be processed by the first virtual port when a VID within a header of the detected packet identifies a VLAN from among the plurality of VLANs that has a corresponding offset position within the ingress bitmap array that is set.