Patent ID: 7545741

Claim:
A method for specifically identifying a failed network interface card (NIC) in a system having at least three NICs configured as a team, the method comprising: transmitting a first keep-alive data packet from a first NIC to a second NIC; determining whether the second NIC receives the first keep-alive data packet from the first NIC; if the second NIC does not receive the first keep-alive data packet from the first NIC, then transmitting a second keep-alive data packet from a third NIC to the second NIC, or if the second NIC does receive the first keep-alive data packet from the first NIC, then transmitting the second data keep-alive data packet from the second NIC to the third NIC; and after transmitting the second keep-alive data packet from the third NIC to the second NIC or after transmitting the second keep-alive data packet from the second NIC to the third NIC, transmitting a third keep-alive data packet between the first NIC and the third NIC, wherein, based on the ability of each of the first NIC, second NIC and third NIC to transmit and receive the different keep-alive data packets, a failure of any of the first NIC, second NIC or third NIC can be determined.