Patent ID: 8711681

Claim:
A method for coordinating backplane redundancy in a system including a plurality of node blades configured to communicate data packets through a first switching hub and a second switching hub within the system, the method comprising: assigning the first switching hub to an active state and the second switching hub to a standby state such that the plurality of node blades communicate the data packets through physically enabled first backplane links to the first switching hub, and wherein the plurality of node blades physically enable second backplane links so that they are in a condition to communicate the data packets to the second switching hub; detecting a failover condition; and in response to the detected failover condition, triggering a link state toggling process to change the second switching hub to the active state and the first switching hub to the standby state, the link state toggling process including temporarily disabling, at a physical layer of the first switching hub, the first backplane links between the first switching hub and the plurality of node blades, the link state toggling process causing a link state change for each link of the first backplane links to a down state; wherein each of the plurality of node blades independently detects the disabled first backplane links to the first switching hub based on the down state of the corresponding link state, and wherein, in response to detecting the down state of the corresponding link state, each of the plurality of node blades independently configures itself to communicate the data packets through the second backplane links to the second switching hub and to stop communicating the packets through the first backplane links to the first switching hub.