The invention aims at providing a method and device for sending and receiving a message. The method for sending and receiving the message comprises firstly, receiving an internet protocol message to be sent from a source virtual machine, then removing a target media access control address in the internet protocol message in order to generate a virtual extensible LAN message, and finally sending the virtual extensible LAN message to a switch corresponding to a target virtual machine according to a preset address list recorded with the mapping relation between the internet protocol address of the target virtual machine and the internet protocol address of a host machine. The media access control address learning problem is solved, at the same time, the virtual extensible LAN message gettingrid of the redundant media access control address is employed, the message is forwarded completely based on the internet protocol address of the target virtual machine, the bandwidth utilization rateis effectively increased, and good scalability is achieved at the same time.