A virtual chassis includes two or more physical chassis and operates as a single, logical device. Each of the two or more physical chassis include two route processor modules (RPM) and each RPM is assigned a first and a second role within the virtual chassis. The first role is a physical chassis level role and the second role is a virtual chassis level role. The RPMs operate in coordination such that the failure of any one of the RPMs results in one or more other RPMs taking over the first and second roles of the failed RPM.