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

Abstract

A multi-blade network traffic management apparatus with improved failure handling and a method for making the same includes a backplane switch and a plurality of blades configured to communicate with the backplane switch wherein each blade includes at least one network interface configured to receive network traffic from at least one external network device and automatically redirect the network traffic from the at least one external network device to the backplane switch upon occurrence of a blade failure condition.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A network traffic management computing device, comprising:
 a backplane switch coupled to a plurality of network traffic management computing devices;   a hardwire failover switch comprising a bus coupled to the backplane switch, the hardwire failover switch configured to pass network traffic to the backplane switch via the bus;   a memory comprising programmed instructions stored in the memory and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to be capable of executing the programmed instructions stored in the memory to:
 monitor network traffic exchanged with 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 has experienced a failure event; 
 redirect network traffic from the one of the plurality of network traffic management devices to at least another of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices using the hardwire failover switch, when the determining indicates that the one of the plurality of network traffic management computing devices has experienced a failure event.