Patent ID: 8353020

Claim:
A method comprising: operating a firewall cluster comprising a plurality of firewall processors in a master-slave configuration to manage and coordinate message traffic across the firewall cluster, wherein any given firewall processor among the plurality of firewall processors can operate as both a master firewall processor for first message traffic and as a slave firewall processor for second message traffic that is assigned to another master firewall processor, wherein operating the firewall cluster in a master-slave configuration comprises: receiving message traffic by a receiving processor, wherein the receiving processor is a firewall processor among the plurality of firewall processors forming the firewall cluster, and wherein the message traffic is originated from a first network; determining by the receiving processor, if the receiving processor is a master firewall processor within the firewall cluster, which is assigned to process the message traffic received by said receiving processor; determining by the receiving processor, if another firewall processor within the firewall cluster is a master firewall processor which is assigned to process the received message traffic; if the receiving processor is a master firewall processor assigned to process the received message traffic, allowing the receiving processor to evaluate the received message traffic in accordance with firewall policy comprising determining a matching state, and transmit the received message traffic through a virtual adapter of the receiving processor to a physical adapter of a slave firewall processor, the virtual adapter of the receiving processor allowing the receiver processor to control the physical adapter of the slave firewall processor, the slave firewall processor operative as a conduit to route the received message traffic to a second network that is different than the first network; and if another firewall processor is determined to be a master firewall processor that is assigned to process the received message traffic, the receiving processor operative as a slave processor that is configured as a conduit to route the received message traffic to the another firewall processor determined as a master firewall processor.