Patent ID: 7962449

Claim:
A method, comprising: updating, by a slave device, a change list; sending into a network, by the slave device, packetized information pertaining to the updating to a shared storage device for publication to a master device, the packetized information including: i) information that identifies the slave device as a slave device; ii) the identity of a file in which a change was made; iii) the change; iv) an operation performed on the slave device that imparted the change to the file; receiving from the network, by the slave device, a published master list of changes provided by the shared storage device, the published master list of changes reflecting changes made by other slave devices updating at the slave device, a local metadata database and a local index database of the slave device; transforming, by the slave device, into a new master device; receiving from the network, by the new master device, additional changes made by at least certain ones of the other slave devices and processing the additional changes into a new master list of changes; updating, by the new master device, the shared storage device with the new master list of changes for publication.