System and method for live migration of a virtualized networking stack

A method and apparatus are provided in which a source (130) and target (160) perform bidirectional forwarding of traffic while a migration guest (110) is being transferred from the source (130) to the target (160). In some examples, the migration guest (110) is exposed to the impending migration and takes an action in response. A virtual network programming controller (180) informs other devices in the network of the change, such that those devices may communicate directly with the migration guest on the target host. According to some examples, an "other" virtual network device in communication with the controller and the target host facilitates the seamless migration. In such examples, the forwarding may be performed only until the other virtual machine receives an incoming packet from the target host, and then the other virtual machine resumes communication with the migration guest on the target host.