Patent ID: 8533332

Claim:
A method for obtaining exclusive access to one or more computing resources using a network, the method comprising: sending a discovery request from a sending node within a network segment to one or more recipient nodes within the network segment, wherein the discovery request is configured to determine whether each recipient node is accessing at least one specified computing resource; analyzing one or more replies or an absence of a reply in response to the discovery request to determine whether any one of the recipient nodes is accessing the specified computing resource(s), wherein the absence of a reply indicates that the recipient nodes are not accessing the specified computing resource, wherein the only replies that are received are from the recipient nodes that are accessing the at least one specified computing resource; repeating, N times, the sending of the discovery request, wherein N is greater than one; and obtaining exclusive access to the specified computing resource(s) by the sending node, after waiting a specified period of time after an Nth discovery request, if there is an absence of a reply after the Nth discovery request, and wherein exclusive access is not granted if the sending node receives one or more replies from the recipient nodes.