A system for facilitating remote reachability checks for a switch. During operation, the system can receive one or more control messages from a management platform. Here, a respective control message can include one or more type-length-value (TLV) data structures. If the system identifies a first TLV data structure associated with validation in a first control message, the system can determine a validating plane based on a value of the first TLV data structure. The system can then validate the first control message at the validating plane. Upon identifying, in a second control message, a second TLV data structure associated with a plurality of parameters for a request in the second control message, the system can determine a subset of active parameters from the plurality of parameters based on an indicator in the second TLV data structure. The system can then process the request based on the subset of active parameters.