Patent ID: 7716320

Claim:
A method for maintaining persistence across a plurality of network elements in a peer group, the method comprising: configuring a network element in the peer group, and generating a configuration string therefrom to represent the network element configuration, wherein the network element is operable to transfer data from an active side to a standby side using stateflil switch over (SSO) during a high system availability (HSA) mode; performing a hashing algorithm in the network element using the configuration string as a hash key that is input to the hashing algorithm, wherein a hash value is provided therefrom as an output of the hashing algorithm, the hash value being derived in both the active and standby sides for the HSA mode; determining if any collisions exists between the hash value from the network element and corresponding values from among the peer group of network elements by checking with each member of the peer group and comparing the hash value against each corresponding value; assigning the hash value as a management table index in the network element when no collision is found; and assigning a new value for the management table index in the network element when a collision is found, wherein the new value is stored on the network element for subsequent retrieval, the management table index being persisted in the network element to locate the data for transfer from the active side to the standby side during the HSA mode.