Patent ID: 8006129

Claim:
A method comprising: detecting loss of signaling between active and standby peer processing units in a high-availability system, with the active and standby peer processing units connected by an interconnect over which interconnect keepalive signals are sent between active and standby peer processing units and over which interconnect acknowledge signals responsive to the interconnect keepalive signals are sent between the active and standby peer processing units and where the standby processing unit takes over functions of the active processing unit should the active processing unit fail; diagnosing a cause of loss of signaling if loss of signaling is detected at either the active or standby processing unit to differentiate between a peer processing unit failure and an interconnect failure, where diagnosing is always performed at the active peer processing unit prior to being performed at the standby peer processing unit if the active peer processing unit is still operational; and treating the peer processing unit subsequent to diagnosing a cause of detected loss of signaling, where treating is always performed by the active peer processing unit prior to being performed by the standby peer processing unit if the active peer processing unit is still operational to prevent the standby peer processing unit from assuming an active role while the active peer processing unit continues to provide service.