Patent ID: 7991836

Claim:
A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform: electronically causing one server of a first group of data processing servers to be designated as a primary server that generates the state information to be used by both the first group of data processing servers and a second group of clients; wherein the state information supports communication between clients in the second group of clients according to a network security protocol; electronically causing the remaining servers of the first group of data processing servers to be designated as secondary servers that receive the state information from the primary server and provide the state information to clients, wherein the secondary servers do not generate the state information; and in response to detecting that the primary server cannot communicate with at least one secondary server, electronically causing one of the secondary servers to be designated as the primary server that generates additional state information to be used by both the first group of data processing servers and the second group of clients.