Patent ID: 7774639

Claim:
A method of managing state data associated with a plurality of members in a distributed computing system, the method comprising: selecting a set of coordinating members among the plurality of members, each coordinating member configured to distribute member-specific state data associated with at least one subject among a plurality of subjects to at least one member subscribed to receive member-specific state data associated with such subject; in response to a first member among the plurality of members transitioning between an active and an inactive state, reselecting the set of coordinating members among the plurality of members, further comprising, on a second member among the plurality of members, and in response to the member transitioning between the active and inactive states: for each subject for which member-specific state data is maintained by the second member, communicating such member-specific state data to the coordinating member configured to distribute member-specific state data associate with such subject; and for each subject to which the second member is subscribed, communicating subscription information to the coordinating member configured to distribute member-specific state data associate with such subject.