A method for acquiring a physical address of a virtual machine includes acquiring, by a first switching endpoint, an address list of N switching endpoints from a centralized controller after receiving an address acquisition request sent by a first virtual machine, where the N switching endpoints include a second switching endpoint, sending, in a unicast manner according to the address list, the request to the N switching endpoints that include the second switching endpoint, and after receiving a second response sent by the second switching endpoint, sending the second response to the first virtual machine. The method may avoid the limitation on the quantity of created switching endpoints caused by the insufficient quantity of multicast groups of the switch in order to increase the quantity of created switching endpoints.