US Patent 8107360 Dynamic addition of redundant network in distributed system communications

Disclosed is a computer implemented method and apparatus for establishing a redundant channel from an application to a peer data processing system. The interrupt-driven hot standby program receives, through the operation of a data processing system, a communication channel status corresponding to an application. The application has a first channel using local access across a first physical conduit to a first switch. In addition the communication channel status is, in part, an interrupt. The interrupt-driven hot standby program determines whether the redundant channel is present. The redundant channel is configured to use a second physical conduit distinct from the first physical conduit for traffic of the application. Responding to a determination that the redundant channel is present, the interrupt-driven hot standby program determines whether the redundant channel is configured to use the second physical conduit as local access to a redundant switch, wherein the redundant switch is not the first switch. The interrupt-driven hot standby program responds to a determination that the redundant channel is configured to use the second physical conduit by updating a communication channel list to include at least one attribute of the redundant channel, wherein the communication channel list is resident in the data processing system.