VMware, Inc.
MAC-sync based mechanism for bridge port failover

Abstract:

A computer-implemented method for a media access control (MAC) address synchronization mechanism for a bridge port failover is disclosed. The method comprises: detecting a failover of a previously active bridge node; for each MAC address stored in a MAC-SYNC table: generating a first reverse address resolution protocol ("RARP") packet having a source MAC address; broadcasting the first RARP message to a virtual extensible LAN ("VXLAN") switch via a bridge port to register the source MAC address on the bridge port; and storing an association of the MAC address and an identifier of the bridge port in a forwarding table; for each MAC address stored in the forwarding table but not stored in the MAC-SYNC table: generating a second RARP packet with a MAC address to be the source MAC address; causing a physical switch to update a forwarding table maintained by the physical switch; and forwarding traffic via the bridge port.