Patent ID: 8775589

Claim:
A distributed network management system comprising: a plurality of servers, each of said plurality of servers comprising an element management system (EMS) function for receiving network status data from network elements within the network for managing the network elements and a network management system (NMS) function for receiving messages from each of said EMS functions for managing said plurality of servers, said plurality of servers being configured to ensure that said EMS function is active on all of said servers and said NMS function is also active on one of said plurality of servers and inactive on the others of said plurality of servers when said plurality of servers share one network domain, whereby said EMS and said NMS function are both active on said one of said plurality of servers and only said EMS function is active on said others of said plurality of servers, and when said one network domain is separated into first and second separate domains said plurality of servers being configured to ensure that said EMS function is active on all of said servers and to automatically also activate said NMS function on a first one of said plurality of servers associated said first domain and a second one of said plurality of servers associated with said second domain, whereby each of said first and second separate domains has a separate associated one of said plurality of servers performing said NMS function, and ensure that said NMS function on the others of said servers comprising said first and second separate domains is inactive, and when said first and second separate domains are re-combined into said one network domain, said first and second ones of said plurality of servers being configured to automatically request each other's runtime precedence, wherein the server with the lowest activation priority or the lowest runtime progress relinquishes NMS functionality, and when both servers have the same activation priority, the servers comparing runtime progress to determine which server should relinquish NMS functionality.