Patent ID: 7716323

Claim:
A method for initiating a peer-to-peer communication session, comprising: creating, using a cluster connection manager executing on a first server, an initial connection with a cluster partner on a second server; exchanging a set of peer connection information between the first and second servers; passing a set of cluster connection manager client information to the cluster partner, wherein the set of cluster connection manager client information includes at least one virtual interface and any memory requirements for a cluster manager client; creating a set of communication ports using the set of cluster connection manager client information, wherein the at least one virtual interface connection allows remote direct memory access (RDMA) operations that allow the cluster connection manager executing on the first server to directly access memory regions of the cluster partner operating on the second server before a storage operating system executing on the cluster partner is fully active, the RDMA read operation bypassing the operating system; alerting the cluster partner of a ready status; and alerting a set of cluster connection manager clients that the cluster partner is in a ready state.