Abstract: Disclosed are methods and apparatus for restarting a first network device having a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data. The first network device belongs to a network of network devices. When a restart of at least a portion of the first network device is imminent whereby STP is no longer functioning for the first network device during the restart and can no longer alter a spanning tree protocol (STP) state of one or more of the ports and such ports that remain in a fixed state during the restart are referred to as restarting ports, a current state (such as forwarding) of each restarting port is maintained during the restart under predefined conditions. During the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network device portion cooperate with its peer port of a second non-restarting network device that is a neighbor of the first network device so as to prevent layer 2 loops in the network.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an indication of a fault condition is received relating to a first service running on a physical device in a computer network. The first service is associated with a first virtual device context defined on the physical device. Then, the first service is disabled without affecting operation of a second service on the physical device. The second service is associated with a second virtual device context defined on the physical device. In another embodiment, a first virtual device context is created on a physical device in a computer network. Then, a second virtual device context is created on the physical device. The first virtual device context may then be managed independently of the second virtual device context such that resources assigned to a virtual device context are managed without affecting management of another virtual device context.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and apparatus for restarting a first network device having a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data is disclosed. The first network device belongs to a network of network devices. When a restart of at least a portion of the first network device is imminent whereby STP is no longer functioning for the first network device during the restart and can no longer alter a spanning tree protocol (STP) state of one or more of the ports and such ports that remain in a fixed state during the restart are referred to as restarting ports, a current state (such as forwarding) of each restarting port is maintained during the restart under predefined conditions. During the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network device portion cooperate with its peer port of a second non-restarting network device that is a neighbor of the first network device so as to prevent layer 2 loops in the network.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and apparatus for restarting a first network device having a plurality of ports for receiving and transmitting layer 2 data is disclosed. The first network device belongs to a network of network devices. When a restart of at least a portion of the first network device is imminent whereby the restarting network device portion can no longer alter a spanning tree protocol (STP) state of one or more of the ports and such ports that remain in a fixed state during the restart are referred to as restarting ports, a current state (such as forwarding) of each restarting port is maintained during the restart under predefined conditions. During the restart, each of the restarting ports of the restarting network device portion cooperate with its peer port of a second non-restarting network device that is a neighbor of the first network device so as to prevent layer 2 loops in the network.