Patent ID: 6918120

Claim:
A method of responding to a request in a distributed system, said distributed system including a plurality of hosts, wherein each host is operable to respond to at least one type of request, the method comprising steps of: receiving a multicasted message, said message including a request; determining if said request is of a first type or a second type; designating a subset of said plurality of hosts for said first and second types of request; responding to said request if said request is of the first type; and a host of said plurality of hosts responding to said request is included in a subset for said first type of said request and, the host ignores said request if said request is of the second type; wherein said step of responding further comprises determining whether responding to said request includes providing a state-changing response; generating multiple responses from multiple hosts in said subset for said first type of said request; transmitting said multiple responses to a client in response to said responding including a non-state-changing-response; and synchronizing said multiple responses by transmitting a single response to said client response to said multiple hosts in said subset generating the state-changing-response.