Patent ID: 7769874

Claim:
A method operative in a system in which a set of distributed servers accept file submissions, comprising: in response to receipt of a submission of a file at a given server, communicating the file from the given server to other servers in the set to which the given server has connectivity; if within a first timeout period the file has been successfully communicated from the given server to the other servers in the set, accepting the submission at the given server only if within a second timeout period a given subset of the other servers reach an agreement to the submission, where the agreement is determined using a data exchange protocol that includes sub-steps as follows: passing a bit vector from a first server to a second server, the bit vector including a first indication that the first server has knowledge of the file; upon receipt of the bit vector at the second server, having the second server modify the bit vector to include, together with the first indication, a second indication that the second server also has knowledge of the file; having the second server pass the bit vector, which includes the first and second indications, to one or more other servers in the given subset; and upon a given state being reached, as indicated by at least the first and second indications in the bit vector, determining that the agreement has been reached within the second timeout period; and upon acceptance of the submission, staging the file for subsequent transport.