Patent ID: 7656788

Claim:
A method for managing a cluster of network devices, the network devices belonging to a management virtual network, the cluster including a command network device and at least one member network device, the command network device having a commander internet protocol (IP) address and a commander media access control (MAC) address, the cluster configured to be managed through the command network device using the commander IP address, the command network device communicating with the member network device using the commander MAC address, the method comprising: defining a standby group by assigning a virtual IP address and a virtual MAC address to the standby group; selecting a first network device for the standby group, the first network device being the command network device; selecting a second network device for the standby group, the second network device having an IP address and belonging to the management virtual network; defining a standby priority for each network device in the standby group; binding the standby group to the cluster by replacing the commander IP address with the virtual IP address and the commander MAC address with the virtual MAC address, and configuring the network device with a highest standby priority in the standby group to be an active commander and the network device with a second highest standby priority in the standby group to be a standby commander, the active commander being configured to receive command instructions for implementing command of the at least one network device of the cluster, the command instructions being directed to the virtual IP address of the active commander in lieu of an individual addresses of the at least one network device of the cluster, and the active commander being configured to control the at least one network device by generating and assigning a Cluster Management Protocol (CMP) address to each at least one member network device when each at least one network device first joins the cluster, each CMP address identifying a corresponding at least one network device within the cluster for intra-cluster communication; sharing of cluster configuration information from the active commander to the standby commander on a periodic basis to synchronize the active commander with the standby commander; configuring the network device with a third highest standby priority in the standby group to be a passive commander; and in response to the active commander and the standby commander failing together and the network device with the third highest priority switching from the passive commander to become the active commander, configuring the active commander to receive cluster member information from each of the at least one member network device, the cluster member information including a member MAC address and a member number.