Patent ID: 7363534

Claim:
A method comprising: detecting a change in state of a point to point link between a first peer data processing system and a second peer data processing system, wherein said detecting comprises detecting an authentication of said point to point link; in response to said detecting, storing state data for said point to point link with an active processor within said first peer data processing system, wherein said storing comprises storing an authenticated peer data processing system name; in response to said storing, transferring a copy of said state data to a standby processor within said first peer data processing system; detecting a switch-over condition, wherein said detecting a switch-over condition comprises detecting a hardware failure of said active processor; transferring data between said first peer data processing system and said second peer data processing system utilizing said active processor; and transferring said data between said first peer data processing system and said second peer data processing system utilizing said standby processor in response to said detecting said switch-over condition.