END NODE PARTITIONING USING LOCAL IDENTIFIERS

A method and system for a distributed computing system having components like end nodes, switches, routers and links interconnecting packets over the interconnecting links. The switches and routers interconnect the end nodes and route the packets to the appropriate end node. The end nodes reassemble the packets into a message at a destination. A mechanism is provided to allow a single physical component to appear as multiple components each with unique control levels. These components may be host channel adapters (HCAs), target channel adapters (TCAs) or switches. A method and system for end node partitioning for a physical element is provided. A configuration of the physical element is selected. A port associated with the physical element is probed, wherein the port is probed with a subnet management packet by a subnet manager. In response to detecting a switch associated with the port, a local identifier is assigned to the port resulting in a configuration change of the physical element.