Patent ID: 7571255

Claim:
A system for communicating information about server resources between servers in a cluster, the system comprising: one or more computers; a server cluster, run on the one or more computers, having a plurality of cluster members, including a first cluster member and a second cluster member; a set of resources or services on the first cluster member that can be used by other cluster members in the server cluster, wherein the first cluster member can send advertisements of the set of resources or services to the other cluster members; wherein if the second cluster member determines the second cluster member is out of synchronization with the first cluster member the second cluster member makes a point-to-point request to the first cluster member requesting a naming service update, the first cluster member responds to the point-to-point request by sending a point-to-point response including the naming service update to the second cluster member, the second cluster member receives the point-to-point response from the first cluster member, and the second cluster member updates its naming service using the naming service update; and wherein when a subsequent cluster member is newly added to the server cluster, the subsequent cluster member waits for advertisements from the plurality of cluster members and makes a point-to-point request to a single cluster member in the server cluster requesting a statedump from the single cluster member.