US Patent 7145866 Virtual network devices

A trunk in a network file server includes at least two communications ports. The trunk is created by combining the communications ports into a single virtual device and assigning ownership of the communications ports to the virtual device. A failsafe network device including at least two trunks, with each trunk coupled to different switches can be created by creating a third virtual device. Ownership of a first virtual device including communication ports coupled to a first switch and a second virtual device including communication ports coupled to a second switch is assigned to the third virtual device.