Patent ID: 7716386

Claim:
A method comprising: determining if a first unit having a first local card manager is designated as a management unit or as a non-management unit, wherein the first unit is one of multiple units operably coupled using a virtual backplane, with each of the units comprising a local card manager; if the first unit is designated as a management unit, running a first card manager protocol on the first local card manager; and if the first unit is designated as a non-management unit, running a second card manager protocol on the first local card manager, wherein the first card manager protocol is a different protocol than the second card manager protocol, wherein the first card manager protocol includes receiving card information from each of the local card managers, the card information including a status of each of card associated with each of the local card managers; storing the card information as stored data; receiving a status change message associated with a change of the status of one or more of the cards; and updating the stored data based on the status change message.