In one example, a management component executes on a network device, a first routing component executing on a first server device physically separate from the network device to provide control plane routing functionality for a virtual node on the network device, and a second routing component executing on a second server device physically separate from the network device to provide control plane routing functionality for the virtual node, wherein the first routing component and the second routing component operate as a redundant master-backup pair for the virtual node. The management component is configured to detect first reachability of the network device with a first routing component and second reachability of the network device with a second routing component, and send a control message to each of the first routing component and the second routing component, the control message specifying reachability information indicating the first reachability and the second reachability.