Motorola WS5100 Series Reference Manual page 242

5-34 WS5100 Series Switch System Reference Guide
on the other switches at the same time. This is done by the cluster-protocol running on WS1, by duplicating
the commands and sending them to the group over the virtual connection:
After sending the command to other members, the cluster-management protocol (at WS1) waits for a
response from the members of the redundancy group. Upon receiving a response from each member, WS1
updates the user's screen and allows the user to enter/execute the next command.
The wait time required to collect responses from other switches is predefined, so if any one or more members
does not respond to a given command within the defined interval, the command originating switch displays
whatever responses have been collected and ignores the delayed responses. This time-based response
mechanism eliminates the possibility of indefinite response hangs and allows for quicker redundancy group
configuration.
There is no fixed master-slave relationship between members. Typically, a switch can be considered a master
for the command it originates. Responding members can be considered slaves with respect to that command.
This virtual master-slave relationship makes this design unique when compared to existing centralized
management systems. Having a virtual master-slave relationship eliminates a single point of failure, since a