Patent ID: 7162737

Claim:
A method for synchronizing state information in a security gateway cluster, said security gateway cluster comprising at least two nodes, said method: storing state information in a first node and in at least a second node of said at least two nodes in said security gateway cluster, state information stored in said first node comprises common state information and node-specific state information, defining for each node belonging to said security gateway cluster a node-specific backup group comprising at least one node-specific backup node, synchronizing said state information in said security gateway cluster by sending state information from said first node to at least said second node of said at least two nodes, detecting in said security gateway cluster a predetermined irregularly occurring action, initiating said step of synchronization of state information as a response to said predetermined irregularly occurring action, said predetermined irregularly occurring action including a modification of state information so that modification of common state information initiates synchronization of common state information to all other nodes of said security gateway cluster, and modification of node-specific state information initiates synchronization of node-specific state information to nodes belonging to backup group of said first node.