High availability in packet processing for high-speed networks

A computer program product for high-availability data processing, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable by a computer to cause the computer to:

• detect, at a first data processing system that stores a plurality of high availability policies, each high availability policy corresponding to a respective number of processing system failures in a network, a change in link state between the first data processing system and a second data processing system;
• change a link state between the first data processing system and a third data processing system responsive to said detection in accordance with a first high availability policy of the plurality of high availability policies stored at the first data processing system;
• change an identifier of the first data processing system in accordance with the first high availability policy to conform to a second high availability policy of the plurality of high availability policies stored at the first data processing system;
• and
• repeat said detection, change of the link state, and change of the identifier in accordance with the second high availability policy.

A high-availability data processing system, comprising:

• a memory configured to store a plurality of high availability policies, each high availability policy corresponding to a respective number of data processing system failures in a network;
• and
• a network interface configured to detect a change in link state between the network interface and a second data processing system and to change a link state between the network interface and a third data processing system responsive to said detection in accordance with a first high availability policy of the plurality of high availability policies;
• and
• a recovery module configured to change an identifier of the high availability data processing system in accordance with the first high availability policy to conform to a second high availability policy of the plurality of high availability policies,
• wherein the network interface and the recovery module are further configured to repeat said detection, change of the link state, and change of the identifier in accordance with the second high availability policy.