MAC-sync based mechanism for bridge port failover

One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more computer instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

• upon detecting a failover of a previously active bridge node, a standby bridge node performing:
• sending a request to one or more hosts to cause the one or more hosts to remove, from one or more corresponding forwarding tables, one or more media access control (MAC) addresses, of one or more virtual machines, that the one or more hosts learned based on communications tunnels established with the previously active bridge node;
• for each MAC address stored in a MAC-SYNC table maintained by the standby bridge node:
• generating a first-type reverse address resolution protocol (“RARP”) packet having a source MAC address retrieved from the MAC-SYNC table;
• broadcasting the first-type RARP packet to a virtual extensible LAN (“VXLAN”) switch via a bridge port of the VXLAN switch for the VXLAN switch to register the source MAC address on the bridge port;
• storing an association of the source MAC address and an identifier of the bridge port in a forwarding table maintained by the standby bridge node;
• for each MAC address that is stored in the forwarding table, but not in the MAC-SYNC table:
• generating a second-type RARP packet with such a MAC address to be the source MAC address;
• broadcasting the second-type RARP packet from the VXLAN switch to a VLAN switch causing a physical switch to update a forwarding table maintained by the physical switch;
• and
• starting to forward traffic, via the bridge port, as an active bridge node.

A standby bridge node implemented in a virtual extensible LAN (“VXLAN”) overlay computer network and configured to implement a media access control (MAC) address synchronization mechanism for a bridge port failover, the standby bridge node comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more memory units;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more computer instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:
• upon detecting a failover of a previously active bridge node, the standby bridge node performing:
• sending a request to one or more hosts to cause the one or more hosts to remove, from one or more corresponding forwarding tables, one or more MAC addresses, of one or more virtual machines, that the one or more hosts learned based on communications tunnels established with the previously active bridge node;
• for each MAC address stored in a MAC-SYNC table maintained by the standby bridge node:
• generating a first-type reverse address resolution protocol (“RARP”) packet having a source MAC address retrieved from the MAC-SYNC table;
• broadcasting the first-type RARP packet to a virtual extensible LAN (“VXLAN”) switch via a bridge port of the VXLAN switch for the VXLAN switch to register the source MAC address on the bridge port;
• storing an association of the source MAC address and an identifier of the bridge port in a forwarding table maintained by the standby bridge node;
• for each MAC address that is stored in the forwarding table, but not in the MAC-SYNC table:
• generating a second-type RARP packet with such a MAC address to be the source MAC address;
• broadcasting the second-type RARP packet from the VXLAN switch to a VLAN switch causing a physical switch to update a forwarding table maintained by the physical switch;
• and
• starting to forward traffic, via the bridge port, as an active bridge node.