FLOW OWNERSHIP ASSIGNMENT IN A DISTRIBUTED PROCESSOR SYSTEM

A security device for processing network flows includes one or more packet processors configured to receive incoming data packets associated with one or more network flows where a packet processor is assigned as an owner of one or more network flows and each packet processor processes data packets associated with flows for which it is the assigned owner; and a packet processing manager configured to assign ownership of network flows to the one or more packet processors where the packet processing manager includes a global flow table containing entries mapping network flows to packet processor ownership assignments. The packet processing manager informs a packet processor of an ownership assignment after one or more packets are received, and the one or more packet processors learns of ownership assignments of network flows from the packet processing manager.