VIRTUAL MACHINE (VM)-TO-VM FLOW CONTROL USING CONGESTION STATUS MESSAGES FOR OVERLAY NETWORKS

In one embodiment, a system includes a processing circuit and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processing circuit that causes the processing circuit to receive a congestion notification message from a first virtual switch of a first server indicating that a first virtual machine (VM) hosted by the first server is overloaded. The logic also causes the processing circuit to advertise a congestion status of the first VM in a congestion status message to one or more virtual switches in a network in response to receiving the congestion notification message. Moreover, the logic causes the processing circuit to cause all virtual switches in the network except for the first virtual switch to stop sending traffic destined for the first VM while the first VM is overloaded without restricting sending traffic that is destined for other VMs hosted by the first server.