Patent ID: 8769088

Claim:
A method of managing stability of a link for in-band data communications, the method comprising: monitoring, by the management module, link health of a link coupling an adapter of a computing system to a port of a networking device, including retrieving adapter link statistics from the adapter, and retrieving networking device link statistics from the networking device, wherein the adapter and the networking device are each coupled for out-of-band data communications to the management module; determining, in dependence upon the adapter link statistics and the networking device link statistics, whether the link health meets predefined health acceptability criteria; if the link health does not meet predefined health acceptability criteria: instructing, by the management module via a first out-of-band link, the adapter to execute one or more predefined corrective actions, wherein the first out-of-band link couples the management module to the adapter for out-of-band data communications, and wherein the adapter executes the one or more predefined corrective actions responsive to the management module's instruction; and instructing, by the management module via a second out-of-band link, the networking device to execute one or more networking device-specific predefined corrective actions, wherein the second out-of-band link couples the management module to the networking device for out-of-band data communications, and wherein the networking device executes the one or more networking device-specific predefined corrective actions, and wherein upon execution of the predefined corrective actions and execution of the network device-specific predefined corrective actions, the link health of the link for in-band communications meets the predefined health acceptability criteria.