A disclosed relay apparatus includes: a generator that generates, upon receipt of a first packet that includes a first identifier of a virtual machine that is newly executed in an information processing apparatus connected to the relay apparatus from the information processing apparatus, a second packet that includes a second identifier of the virtual machine, which is different from the first identifier, and requests to set relay for the virtual machine; and a processing unit that sets the relay for the virtual machine by using the second identifier of the virtual machine, which is included in the second packet generated by the generator or received from the information processing apparatus.