Automatic optimal route reflector root address assignment to route reflector clients and fast failover in a network environment

An apparatus comprising:

• a communication interface configured to enable network communication;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the communication interface, wherein the one or processors are configured to:
• determine, in a cloud-based route reflector, whether a first root node is a leaf node in a spanning tree computed for a second root node;
• determine route metric differences associated with a spanning tree computed for the first root node and the spanning tree of the second root node;
• and
• populate a delta database with the route metric differences, wherein the second root node is a backup of the first root node according to a failover policy group assigned to a plurality of client nodes in an autonomous system.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• determine, in a cloud-based route reflector, whether a first root node is a leaf node in a spanning tree computed for a second root node;
• determine route metric differences associated with a spanning tree computed for the first root node and the spanning tree of the second root node;
• and
• populate a delta database with the route metric differences, wherein the second root node is a backup of the first root node according to a failover policy group assigned to a plurality of client nodes in an autonomous system.