Patent ID: 8265071

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a multi-stage switch fabric; a plurality of edge devices having a first plurality of ports configured to be coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric and a second plurality of ports configured to be coupled to the plurality of peripheral processing devices, the plurality of edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric collectively defining a single logical entity, the plurality of edge devices includes a first edge device and a second edge device, the first edge device being configured to be coupled to a first peripheral processing device from the plurality of peripheral processing devices, the second edge device being configured to be coupled to a second peripheral processing device from the plurality of peripheral processing devices, the first edge device being configured such that a plurality of virtual resources including a first virtual resource are defined at the first peripheral processing device; and a network management module coupled to the plurality of edge devices, the network management module configured to provision the plurality of virtual resources such that the first virtual resource can be migrated from the first peripheral processing device to the second peripheral processing device.