Patent ID: 8254577

Claim:
A method comprising, storing, at a primary cryptographic key manager server, a cryptographic key and a password corresponding to the cryptographic key; storing at an alternate cryptographic key manager server, both the cryptographic key and the password stored in the primary cryptographic manager server; receiving, at a storage controller, a user provided password; sending a ping command from the storage controller to the primary cryptographic key manager server, in response to receiving the user provided password at the storage controller; generating, by the storage controller, a message for the user indicating that the primary cryptographic key manager is unavailable, in response to receiving no response to the ping command from the cryptographic key manager server; sending another ping command to the alternate cryptographic key manager server, in response to receiving no response to the ping command from the primary cryptographic key manager server; using the alternate cryptographic key manager server to compare the user provided password to the password stored at the alternate cryptographic key manager server, in response to receiving a response to the another ping command from the alternate cryptographic key manager server; and using the cryptographic key stored at the alternate cryptographic key manager server to perform cryptographic operations on data stored in a storage device coupled to the storage controller, in response to determining that the user provided password matches the password stored at the alternate cryptographic key manager server.