Multi-blade network traffic management apparatus with improved failure handling and methods thereof

A network traffic management computing device cluster, the cluster comprising:

• a backplane switch coupled to a plurality of network traffic management computing devices, wherein each of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices further comprises:
• a network interface;
• a hardwire failover switch comprising a primary bus coupled to the network interface and a secondary bus coupled to the backplane switch, the hardwire failover switch configured to pass network traffic to the network interface via the primary bus when the network traffic management device is operational;
• at least one processor or configurable hardware logic;
• a memory coupled to at least one of the configurable hardware logic to implement or the processor which is configured to be capable of executing, programmed instructions comprising and stored in the memory to:
• monitor network traffic sent or received by the plurality of network traffic management computing devices, wherein the network traffic comprises heartbeat messages sent at a predetermined rate to indicate a healthy operational status in the plurality of network traffic management computing devices;
• detect when one of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices experiences a failure event, based on a measured rate of the heartbeat messages sent from the one of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices falling below the predetermined rate;
• perform a failover to redirect the network traffic from the one of the plurality of network traffic management devices that experienced the failure event to at least one of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices in the cluster that did not experience a failure event, when a failure event is detected, wherein a failure event halts or disrupts the sending or receiving of network traffic by at least one of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices.