Systems and methods of reserving a specific queue pair number for proprietary management traffic in a subnet of a high performance computing environment. An exemplary embodiment can provide a host channel adapter (HCA), including a control circuit with a processor and a memory, and at least one port operative to connect the HCA to a network fabric. Additionally, the HCA can include a subnet management agent (SMA) that executes on the HCA, and a configurable attribute stored in the memory of the HCA. A communication including a number value, can be received by the subnet management agent from a subnet manager of the subnet. The value of the configurable attribute can be set equal to the value of the received number. A QP number that corresponds to the set number value of the configurable attribute can then be reserved for sending and receiving proprietary network management traffic.