Abstract: A virtual edge router network for providing managed services to distributed remote office locations can include routing components that are capable of being autonomously deployed at the network edge, as well as remotely managed, thereby obviating the need for on-site technical support in remote offices of the a small and medium business (SMB) client. Autonomous deployment and remote management is achieved through abstraction of the control and management planes from the data plane. Virtual edge routers may include virtual forwarding units and virtual remote agents instantiated on host devices in each remote office location, as well as a virtual network controller instantiated on a host device in a head-office location. A data plane of the virtual edge router communicatively couples the virtual forwarding units to one another, while a control plane communicatively couples the virtual network controller to each virtual data forwarding unit.

Abstract: A virtual edge router network for providing managed services to distributed remote office locations can include routing components that are capable of being autonomously deployed at the network edge, as well as remotely managed, thereby obviating the need for on-site technical support in remote offices of the a small and medium business (SMB) client. Autonomous deployment and remote management is achieved through abstraction of the control and management planes from the data plane. Virtual edge routers may include virtual forwarding units and virtual remote agents instantiated on host devices in each remote office location, as well as a virtual network controller instantiated on a host device in a head-office location. A data plane of the virtual edge router communicatively couples the virtual forwarding units to one another, while a control plane communicatively couples the virtual network controller to each virtual data forwarding unit.

Abstract: Virtual machines can be remotely configured on distributed host devices by communicating management instructions over remote access tunnels. The management instructions prompt virtual remote agents on instantiated on the distributed host devices to configure virtual machines on the distributed host devices. The management instruction may prompt the virtual remote agents to instantiate a new virtual machine, to re-configure an existing virtual machine, or to create, remove, and/or modify virtual paths between two or more virtual machines on the distributed host device. Management signaling can be broadcast over multiple management tunnels to coordinate the configuration of multiple virtual machines at different distributed host devices based on a single virtual machine installation instance in an MSP server.