Patent ID: 7478264

Claim:
A method of providing a redundant communication path in a high availability storage environment, said method comprising: a first storage management server querying a first storage device server to determine a set of storage-connected management servers that said first storage device server is connected to; wherein said first storage management server and said set of storage-connected management servers are in a plurality of storage management servers; wherein said first storage device server is in a plurality of storage device servers; wherein said plurality of storage management servers and said plurality of storage device servers are in said high availability storage environment; wherein each of said plurality of storage management servers is identified by a corresponding unique identifier; wherein said unique identifier is established at an initial high availability communication between said plurality of storage management servers; wherein a second storage management server is in said set of storage-connected management servers; said first storage device server routing a high availability message sent from said first storage management server to said second storage management server, based on a header of said high availability message; wherein said header indicates a unique identifier of said first storage management server and a unique identifier of said second storage management server; if said first storage device server fails to route said high availability message to said second storage management server, then said first storage device server notifying said first storage management server about said failure, said first storage management server determining an alternate communication path to said second storage management server via a second storage device server, wherein said second storage management server is connected to said second storage device server, and said second storage device server routing said high availability message from said first storage management server to said second storage management server; and said first storage management server communicating with multiple storage management servers of said plurality of storage management servers, via multiple storage device servers of said plurality of storage device servers to load-balance said communicating with said multiple storage management servers.