Virtual MAC address system and method

• US 7,415,535 B1
• Filed: 04/22/2002
• Issued: 08/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bakke, Mark A., Kuik, Timothy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess; Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chea; Philip J
• Application Number:
  US10/131,782
• Time in Patent Office: 2,311 Days
• Field of Search: 709/245, 709/223, 714/2, 714/4, 370/217
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]

Abstract

A method for creating a virtual MAC address, the method includes receiving an Internet Protocol address that is to be associated with a virtual MAC address. The method creates a virtual MAC address by setting an OUI portion of the virtual MAC address to an OUI value and setting the non-OUI portion of the virtual MAC address to a subset of the Internet Protocol (IP) address. In one embodiment, the lower three bytes of the IP address are used. Additionally, a method of migrating a virtual MAC address includes detecting a migration event on a first system; creating a virtual MAC address on a second system; and issuing a gratuitous ARP packet containing the virtual MAC address.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring in a configuration for a first storage router a plurality Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for each of a plurality of SCSI routing applications on the first storage router, wherein each SCSI routing application is provided a different IP address;

replicating the configuration to a second storage router;

creating a plurality of virtual MAC (Media Access and Control) addresses, each virtual MAC address associated with one of the different IP addresses;

setting an OUI (Organization Unique Identifier) portion of each virtual MAC address to an OUI value;

setting a non-OUI portion of each virtual MAC address to a subset of the different Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the virtual MAC address;

detecting a migration event on the first storage router;

initializing on the second storage router the plurality of SCSI routing applications according to the replicated configuration, wherein each of the plurality of SCSI routing applications is assigned the different IP address according to the replicated configuration; and

recreating on the second storage router the plurality of virtual MAC addresses, each virtual MAC address associated with one of the different IP addresses and each created on the second storage router by setting an OUI (Organization Unique Identifier) portion of each virtual MAC address to an OUI value and setting a non-OUI portion of each virtual MAC address to a subset of the different Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the virtual MAC address.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting the local bit of the OUI portion of each virtual MAC address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the IP address comprises three bytes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the IP address comprises a subset of the low order bytes of the IP address.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing the virtual MAC address on the first storage router.

6. A system comprising:

first means for configuring in a configuration for a first storage router an IP address for each of a plurality of SCSI routing applications on a storage router, wherein each SCSI routing application is provided a different IP address;

means for replicating the configuration to a second storage router;

second means for creating a plurality of virtual MAC address, each virtual MAC address associated with one of the different IP addresses;

third means for setting an OUI portion of each virtual MAC address to an OUI value and means for setting a non-OUI portion of each virtual MAC address to a subset of the different IP address associated with the virtual MAC address

means for detecting a migration event on the first storage router;

means for initializing on the second storage router the plurality of SCSI routing applications according to the replicated configuration, wherein each of the plurality of SCSI routing applications is assigned the different IP address according to the replicated configuration; and

means for recreating on the second storage router the plurality of virtual MAC addresses, each virtual MAC address associated with one of the different IP addresses and each created on the second storage router by setting an OUI (Organization Unique Identifier) portion of each virtual MAC address to an OUI value and setting a non-OUI portion of each virtual MAC address to a subset of the different Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the virtual MAC address.