US Patent 10412066 Hierarchical input/output fencing in clustered environments

Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and processes to perform hierarchical fencing in clustered environments. A first set of registration keys is received from a first set of nodes that are supported by a first hypervisor and are part of a cluster. A first key value is generated based on the first set of registration keys. The first key value is then stored on a shared storage device shared by the first set of nodes and a second set of nodes supported by a second hypervisor. Upon receiving a request to perform an input/output (I/O) fencing operation, the first key value is modified and the second key value is removed from the shared storage device.