Disruption minimization for guests when applying changes to a data plane of a packet handler in a host

A system for applying changes to a data plane component of a packet handler within a hypervisor executed by a host computing system to host one or more virtual machines, without disrupting operation of the one or more virtual machines, wherein the packet handler comprises a control plane component and a data plane component through which network traffic exchanged with the one or more virtual machines pass, the system comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media;
• a processing system operatively coupled with the one or more computer readable storage media;
• and
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that, when read and executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to:
• receive the network traffic in the hypervisor;
• extract, from the data plane component to the control plane component, state information about states of the data plane component;
• pause the network traffic to the data plane component from the hypervisor, wherein pausing the network traffic includes buffering the network traffic in the hypervisor to prevent the network traffic from reaching the data plane component until the network traffic is resumed;
• after pausing the network traffic to the data plane component, update one or more versions of one or more components of the data plane component;
• and
• after applying the changes to the components of the data plane component, restore the states to the data plane component using the state information and resuming the network traffic to the data plane component from the hypervisor.