Moving Workloads Between Nodes

Stratum is a software-defined networking platform, not a hypervisor — it manages the network identity of a workload, not the workload's compute or memory. There is no built-in VM live-migration. What Stratum does provide is a network model that lets a workload keep its IP and MAC when it moves between Compute nodes, because a network's endpoints live in the cluster's shared state and are reachable on every host through the VXLAN overlay.

If you run your own hypervisor (QEMU/KVM, etc.) and migrate a guest's memory between hosts yourself, Stratum keeps the network side consistent — you simply move the endpoint binding to the destination node.

Why the network identity survives a move

Each managed network is stretched across all cluster members via VXLAN, and every endpoint profile (IP ↔ MAC) is stored in the Raft-replicated cluster state. The overlay forwards frames for an endpoint's MAC to whichever node currently has that endpoint bound. Because the IP and MAC never change, ARP and NDP caches on peer endpoints stay valid and active TCP connections are not reset by the move itself.

Moving an endpoint

Moving a workload's network identity from one Compute node to another is a detach on the source followed by an attach on the destination, claiming the same IP:

# On the source node — free the endpoint
sudo cenvero-str-ctl network detach <endpoint-id>

# On the destination node — re-claim the same IP
sudo cenvero-str-ctl network attach <network-id> --ip 10.20.0.50

The destination node programs the data plane for the endpoint (including the IP↔MAC anti-spoof binding), and the cluster's shared state updates the MAC-to-node mapping. The VXLAN overlay then delivers frames for that MAC to the new node. Sequence the detach/attach close together — and cut over your actual compute workload at the same time — to minimize the window where the endpoint is unbound.

Pre-move checklist

• Both nodes are healthy cluster members: cenvero-str-ctl cluster status
• The destination node has capacity for the workload: cenvero-str-ctl node info
• The management network between the nodes has sufficient bandwidth
• Firewall rules referencing the endpoint by network and address remain valid

after the move — the IP is preserved, so no rule changes are needed

See also

• Clustering Overview — VXLAN overlay and cluster membership.
• Gateway High Availability — failing over Gateway nodes.
• CLI Reference — the network command group (attach / detach / endpoints).