Systems and methods for initiating a forced migration of a virtual machine. An exemplary embodiment can provide a subnet manager (SM) and an active virtual machine registration cache, where the subnet manager can access the active virtual machine registration cache. The SM can record a first virtual machine incarnation number in the active virtual machine registration cache, where the virtual machine incarnation number is associated with an active virtual machine (VM). Upon receiving a request to register the active VM on a different host, the SM can evaluate a second virtual machine incarnation number with the first virtual machine incarnation number to determine the legality of the request. In accordance with an embodiment, if the second virtual machine incarnation number is evaluated as greater than the first virtual machine incarnation number, the SM determines the request is legal.