Dynamic mirroring of a network connection

A method of mirroring a connection in a network, comprising:

• receiving, by a client-receiver from a client device, a network packet, wherein the client-receiver is determined from one of an active network device or a standby network device and employs information from the network packet to maintain a state for the connection;
• communicating, by the client-receiver, the network packet to the non client-receiver other one of the active network device or the standby network device such that the network packet is not received through from the client device by the non client-receiver, wherein the communicating enables the non client-receiver to separately construct for the connection a substantially similar state to the state maintained by the client-receiver based at least on the network packet;
• forwarding the network packet to a server device over the network, wherein the network packet is forwarded by a forwarder that is determined from one of the active network device or the standby network device;
• receiving, by a server-receiver from the server device, a response packet, wherein the server-receiver is determined from one of the active network device or the standby network device;
• communicating, by the server-receiver, the response packet to the non server-receiver other one of the active network device or the standby network device;
• and
• forwarding the response packet to the client device over the network, wherein the response packet is forwarded by a response-forwarder that is determined from one of the active network device or the standby network device, and wherein in one of client-receiver and server-receiver are on different ones of the active network device and standby network device or one of the forwarder and response-forwarder are on different ones of the active network device and standby network device and both the active network device and the standby network device are operational to perform respective actions.

A first network device useable in mirroring a network connection with a second network device, comprising:

• a transceiver arranged to receive and to forward a network packet;
• a processor, coupled to the transceiver, that is configured to perform actions, including:
• if the first network device is designated to receive a packet from a client device and the second network device is not so designated, then receiving the packet from the client device,
• if the first network device is not designated to receive the packet from the client device and the second network device is so designated, receiving the packet from the second network device instead of the client device, wherein receiving the packet from the second network device enables the first network device to separately construct for the connection a first connection state that is substantially similar to a second connection state maintained by the second network device, wherein the separate construction of the first connection state is based at least on the received packet;
• if the first network device is designated to forward the packet to a server device and the second network device is not so designated, forwarding the packet to the server device;
• if the first network device is designated to receive a response packet from the server device and the second network device is not so designated, then receiving the response packet from the server device,
• if the second network device is designated to receive the response packet from the server device, receiving the response packet from the second network device instead of the server device;
• and
• if the first network device is designated to forward the response packet to the client device and the second network device is not so designated, forwarding the packet to the client device and both the first network device and the second network device are currently operational to perform respective actions.