The present disclosure relates to providing shared resources to virtual devices on a network switch. In one example, a switch comprises a plurality of virtual device contexts (VDCs) and a default virtual device context (DVDC). The DVDC stores configuration data that identifies a network resource. The DVDC transmits a reference to the configuration data to each of the plurality of VDCs. Each of plurality of VDCs receives the reference from the DVDC. When the DVDC receive, from the at least one of the plurality of VDCs, a request to access the configuration data via the reference, the DVDC transmits at least a portion of the configuration data to the at least one of the plurality of VDCs. The at least the portion of the configuration data is operable to initiate a connection between the at least one of the plurality of VDCs and the network resource.