Patent ID: 8824686

Claim:
A system for synchronizing encryption key objects between an appliance and a peer, the encryption key objects generated within a cluster of security appliances, the system comprising: a sequence number space (SNS) within a memory of the appliance having a processor, the SNS including a SNS identifier (ID) that identifies a peer, the SNS utilized to store for storing objects created by the peer, wherein the appliance is further configured to create a peer map to route a query to the peer, wherein the peer map associates the peer with the SNS; a first sequence counter for the SNS ID maintained at the appliance, the first sequence counter configured to represent a first number of the encryption key objects previously received by the appliance from the peer and stored in the SNS; a second sequence counter associated with the SNS ID and configured to represent a second number of the encryption key objects stored in a peer SNS of the peer; and an object synchronization process, executed on the appliance, and configured to transmit to the peer a value of the first sequence counter corresponding to the SNS ID of the appliance, wherein the peer is configured to only transmit to the appliance the encryption key objects stored within the peer SNS of the peer that are associated with a value of the second sequence counter that is equal to or higher than the transmitted value of the first sequence counter.