Provided are techniques for the fast and reliable distribution of security keys within a cluster of computing devices, or computers. One embodiment provides a method for secure distribution of encryption keys, comprising generating a symmetric key for the encryption of communication among a plurality of nodes of a cluster of nodes; encrypting the symmetric key with a plurality of public keys, each public key corresponding to a particular node of the plurality of modes, to generate a plurality of encrypted symmetric keys; storing the plurality of encrypted symmetric keys in a central repository; and distributing the encrypted symmetric keys to the nodes such that each particular node receives an encrypted symmetric key corresponding to a corresponding public key of the particular node.