Patent ID: 8250642

Claim:
A computer program product for managing a firewall for a first server having a copy of a first application and a copy of a second application, the first server added to a server cluster comprising second and third servers, the second server having a copy of the first application and a copy of the second application and the third server having a copy of the first application but not a copy of the second application, the firewall comprising rules of permitted message flows from respective source IP address to respective destination IP address through the firewall, the computer program product comprising: a computer-readable tangible storage device; first program instructions to (a) identify first rules of the permitted message flows through the firewall to the second and third servers for respective copies of the first application installed in the second and third servers, wherein the first rules are substantially the same as each other except for designation of the second or third server as a destination of the messages to the second or third server, respectively, and (b) identify a second rule of the permitted message flow through the firewall to the second server for the second application installed in the second server; and second program instructions, responsive to the addition of the first server to the server cluster and (a) responsive to the identification by the first program instructions of the first rules for both the second and third servers, to automatically generate a new rule for the firewall for a permitted message flow from a source IP address to a destination IP address of the first server, the new rule being substantially the same as the first rules except the new rule designating the first server for messages to the copy of the first application installed in the first server instead of messages to the second and third servers for their respective copies of the first application, and (b) responsive to the identification by the first program instructions of the second rule for messages to the second application in the second server and the absence of a corresponding rule for messages to the third server for the second application indicating that the second application is not installed in the third server, to determine not to automatically generate another rule for the firewall for messages to the second application installed in the first server; and wherein the first and second program instructions are stored on the computer-readable tangible storage device.