Patent ID: 7359335

Claim:
A method for configuring a plurality of network interfaces for monitoring functionality of the network interfaces with a monitoring process, the network interfaces being grouped into a plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a base address and subnet mask for the plurality of network interfaces; automatically generating a monitoring address for each of the network interfaces based on the base address, the subnet mask, and the nodes, the monitoring addresses being generated such that the monitoring address for each of the network interfaces is on a different subnet than the monitoring addresses for all of the other network interfaces in the same node as that network interface; and assigning the monitoring addresses to the network interfaces for use by the monitoring process, each of the monitoring addresses being assigned by being added as an additional network interface address of its network interface, wherein the automatically generating step includes the sub-steps of: generating the monitoring address for the first network interface in each node by adding the base address to a node index for that node; and generating the monitoring address for the second network interface in each node using the node index for that node in the formula: ((network ID+subnet increment) AND host ID)+node index, wherein the network ID and the host ID are based on the base address and the subnet mask, and the subnet increment is based on the subnet mask.