Patent ID: 6983324

Claim:
A method of dynamically modifying a cluster communication parameter in a clustered computer system, the method comprising: (a) initiating a cluster communication parameter modification by transmitting a message to a plurality of nodes in the clustered computer system; (b) locally confirming, within each node, receipt of the message by each of the plurality of nodes; (c) in response to confirming receipt of the message by each of the plurality of nodes, invoking a local cluster communication parameter modification operation on each node; (d) transmitting from each node a status of the local cluster communication parameter modification invoked on that node; (e) locally detecting, within each node, an unsuccessful status for the local cluster communication parameter modification on any node; and (f) in response to detecting an unsuccessful status for any node, locally undoing, in each node for which the local cluster communication operation was performed, the local cluster communication parameter modification operation performed on that node; wherein the cluster communication parameter is selected from the group consisting of heartbeat message time out, heartbeat acknowledgment message time out, heartbeat frequency or interval, heartbeat failure threshold, heartbeat acknowledgment failure threshold, receive/send timer ratio, maximum fragment size, message retry timer value, maximum message retry time, send queue overflow threshold, message send window size, and combinations thereof.