Patent ID: 8346732

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a first front end server, wherein the first front end server is configured to be coupled to a plurality of clients, the first front end server is configured to receive input/output requests from the plurality of clients, the input/output requests comprise database access requests directed to a database, and the first front end server is configured to provide protocol services that handle the input/output requests; a first back end server configured to provide database protocol services that handle access to the database wherein, the first front end server is coupled to the first back end server; a second front end server, wherein the first front end server is configured to failover to the second front end server, and the first front end server and the second front end server are configured to virtualize a registry key of the database; a second back end server, wherein the first back end server is configured to failover to the second back end server, the second front end server is coupled to the second back end server, failover to the second back end server comprises a failover process, the failover process comprises re-associating the database from the first back end server to the second back end server during the failover process, the re-associating comprises dismounting the database from the first back end server, and remounting the database on the second back end server; and a storage area network configured to store the database, wherein the storage area network is configured to be coupled to the first back end server and the second back end server.