Patent ID: 7593996

Claim:
A method for initiating a peer-to-peer communication session, the method comprising: initiating a boot process; initializing a cluster connection manager in the booting process before a storage operating system executing on a cluster partner is fully active; initiating, by the cluster connection manger, a first remote direct memory access (RDMA) read operation directed to a cluster partner before a storage operating system executing on the cluster partner is fully active, the RDMA read operation bypassing the operating system; performing, in response to a successful first RDMA read operation, a first RDMA write operation to the cluster partner; performing, in response to a successful RDMA write operation, a second RDMA read operation directed to the cluster partner; and performing, in response to a successful second RDMA read operation, a second RDMA write operation to the cluster partner before a storage operating system executing on the cluster partner is fully active, in the booting process.