Abstract: Multiple virtual instances of a hardware network interface can be provided and associated with virtual machines implemented by a computer system. In one embodiment, the invention includes receiving a packet from a hardware network interface at a service processor of such a host computer system, and identifying one of the virtual machine implemented by the host computer system for which the received packet is destined. The received packet can then be forwarded to the identified virtual instance of the hardware network interface provided by the service processor, which in turn is bound to the one of the virtual machines.