Patent ID: 8301589

Claim:
In a distributed system having a plurality of nodes, a method for allocating identifiers for use at nodes of the distributed system, the method comprising: allocating a pool of identifiers for use in the system; maintaining a list of free identifiers in the pool at all participating nodes in the system; obtaining at a first node permission to update the list of free identifiers; upon receiving permission to update the list, the first node allocating for itself a set of identifiers from the list of free identifiers; updating the list of free identifiers to reflect allocation of the set of identifiers for the first node; sending the updated list of free identifiers from the first node to other participating nodes; upon receiving the updated list of free identifiers at each other participating node, updating each other participating node's respective copy of the list of free identifiers; and relinquishing the first node's permission to update the list of free identifiers.