Patent ID: 7761735

Claim:
A system, comprising: hardware logic at a first programmable hardware device in a server performing operations, the operations comprising: periodically determining whether a second programmable hardware device in the server needs a valid firmware image; and in response to determining that the second programmable hardware device needs the valid firmware image, retrieving a copy of the valid firmware image for the second programmable hardware device; and sending the valid firmware image to the second programmable hardware device via a private communication link, wherein the private communication link enables private communication between the first programmable hardware device and the second programmable hardware device; and hardware logic at the second programmable hardware device performing operations, the operations comprising: in response to receiving the valid firmware image from the first programmable storage device, restoring existing firmware using the valid firmware image; periodically determining whether the first programmable hardware device needs a valid firmware image; and in response to determining that the first programmable hardware device needs the valid firmware image, retrieving a copy of the valid firmware image for the first programmable hardware device; and sending the valid firmware image to the first programmable hardware device via the private communication link.