Patent ID: 7747770

Claim:
In a communication system including a plurality of host computing devices connected through a network, an apparatus for managing state information, the apparatus comprising: a data store for storing information, wherein the information stored on the data store includes state information having two or more variables about a host computing device, each variable associated with a version; an interface for communicating with a connected host; and a data processing component having an executable component, which, when executed, the data processing component: determines a current version value for the state information about the host computing device, wherein the current version value corresponds to a highest version value selected from the version values associated with each of the two or more variables of the state information on the data store; obtains a remote current version value from the connected host, wherein the remote current version value corresponds to the highest version value selected from the version values associated with each of the two or more variables of corresponding state information about the host computing device on a remote data store; determines whether the remote current version value is greater than the current version value; updates values of variables of the state information about the host computing device on the data store associated with values of variables of the corresponding state information about the host computing device on the remote data store if the variables from the remote data store are associated with a version greater than the current version value of the data store.