Method and apparatus for managing, configuring, and controlling an I/O virtualization device through a network switch

A network switch, comprising:

• a physical port in communication over a physical link with a physical network interface of a server, the physical network interface having an IOV device with a bridging function capable of bridging frames from a source entity to a destination entity, both entities running on the server;
• a switching fabric coupled to the physical port to transmit frames to and receive frames from the IOV device;
• and
• a control processor, in communication with the IOV device, configuring the bridging function of the IOV device to bridge some frames locally within the server between the entities running on the server and to pass other frames through the IOV device over the physical link to the switching fabric, for bridging by the switching fabric of these other frames between the entities.

A data center, comprising:

• a server having a physical network interface that supports I/0 virtualization, the physical network interface having an IOV device with a bridging function capable of bridging frames from a source entity to a destination entity, both entities running on the server;
• a network switch having a physical port coupled to the server by a physical link and a switching fabric in communication with the physical port for transmitting and receiving Ethernet data frames to and from the IOV device;
• and
• a control processor, in communication with the IOV device, configuring the bridging function of the IOV device to bridge some frames locally within the server between the entities running on the server and to pass other frames through the IOV device over the physical link to the physical port and the switching fabric, so that the switching fabric bridges these other frames between the entities.

A physical network interface, comprising:

• an IOV device with a configurable bridging function for bridging frames from a source entity to a destination entity, both entities running on a server;
• a port receiving a frame from the source entity running on the server targeted to the destination entity running on the server;
• and
• a processing element bridging the frame locally within the IOV device if the bridging function is capable of and configured to bridge the frame locally to the destination entity, and otherwise transmitting the frame through an Ethernet port over a physical link to an external switching device, so that the external switching device bridges the frame between the source and destination entities.