Patent ID: 8667126

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a processing cluster including a plurality of physical or virtual processing nodes, the computer system comprising at least one processor for executing program instructions; and at least one memory coupled to the processor for executing the program instructions, wherein the program instructions are program instructions for determining node operating status among a cluster of the physical or virtual processing nodes, the program instructions comprising program instructions for transmitting messages periodically according to a heartbeat rate among nodes in the cluster of nodes; program instructions for receiving the messages at the nodes and storing indications of communications delays for the messages determined from times of the receiving of the messages at the nodes; program instructions for computing statistics of the communications delay for the messages from the indications of communications delay; program instructions for adjusting parameters for node status monitoring according to the computed statistics; and program instructions for monitoring, at the nodes, the operational status of other ones of the nodes according to the indications of communications delay and the parameters.