Abstract: A network device includes a group of interfaces. Each interface is associated with at least one other interface of the group of interfaces and a group of network addresses. Each interface is configured to monitor at least one of the group of network addresses with which the each interface is associated or the at least one other interface with which the each interface is associated, and determine whether to logically shut down based on the monitoring.

Abstract: Described is looking up network information (e.g., port data) on demand upon receiving a (e.g., DHCP) request packet containing a MAC address. The MAC address may be looked up in a cache to find the port data. If not cached or cached but outdated, the lookup continues via a querying process that finds the relevant switch containing the port data; the cache is updated based on the querying process result. Successful querying results in a valid cache entry, while unsuccessful querying results in an invalid entry. For port data associated with the MAC address found via the cache or via querying, the port data is used to respond to the request packet, e.g., to assign an IP address to a network device corresponding to that MAC address. For a MAC address determined to be invalid via the cache or via querying, the request is rejected.

Abstract: A data processing and storage system is provided. The system includes an aggregator component that stores metadata from at least two disparate data domains. A framework component encapsulates the metadata according to an abstraction model that describes the disparate data domains.

Abstract: A system and method for a network security system are provided. The method includes providing a master device and a backup device within a cluster of network security devices, providing the backup device with state information for the master device, detecting failure in the cluster and using the state information to recover from the failure.