Patent ID: 7107355

Claim:
A method implemented by a secondary server to maintain a secondary directory, comprising: receiving notification from a primary server that a particular non-idempotent operation has been performed by the primary server on a primary directory; in response to the notification, performing the particular non-idempotent operation on the secondary directory such that the secondary directory mirrors the primary directory; receiving a request, from a client, to perform the particular non-idempotent operation on the secondary directory, wherein the client sends the request because the client has not received confirmation that the primary server has performed the particular non-idempotent operation on the primary directory; recognizing that the particular non-idempotent operation, identified in the request, cannot be performed on the secondary directory because the particular non-idempotent operation has already been performed on the secondary directory as a result of receiving the notification from the primary server; and in response to the recognition that the particular non-idempotent operation has already been performed on the secondary directory, the secondary server sending an indication to the client that the particular non-idempotent operation was successfully performed on the secondary directory even though the non-idempotent operation was not performed on the secondary directory after receiving the request.