US Patent 11252018 Service chaining with service path monitoring

Example methods and systems for failure handling for service chaining with service path monitoring. One example may comprise a first computer system detecting a data packet that is being forwarded along a first service path. The first computer system may configure a liveness check query and send the liveness check query along with the data packet towards a service virtualized computing instance to cause a liveness check response. In response to detecting the liveness check response from the service virtualized computing instance, the first computer system may determine that the service virtualized computing instance is available. Otherwise, report information may be generated and sent to trigger a switch from the first service path to a second service path that excludes the service virtualized computing instance.