Patent ID: 8713649

Claim:
A method for providing subnet manager (SM) restriction in an InfiniBand (IB) network, comprising: detecting, via a local SM that runs on one or more microprocessors, a remote port that is associated with a remote SM, wherein the local SM is associated with a local management key and the remote SM is associated with a remote management key; determining, via the local SM, whether the remote SM associated with the remote port is trustworthy based on at least one of: known secret management key values in an incoming SM-SM request received from the remote SM before the local SM discovers type, location and trustfulness of an port that the remote SM operates from, and a public/private key based authentication procedure initiated by either the remote SM or the local SM before the local SM discovers type, location and trustfulness of an port that the remote SM operates from; and allowing the local SM to send at least one of a request and a response that contains a secret management key to the remote SM, if the local SM determines that the remote SM is trustworthy, and preventing the local SM from initiating a communication with the remote SM using a secret management key, if otherwise.