Patent ID: 7814364

Claim:
A server cluster comprising: a first physical node including a first active node running a first application, wherein the first application is assigned a first prioritized node affinity for the first physical node; and a second physical node comprising: a first virtual host node including an inactive first virtual node; a virtualization service adapted to: activate the first virtual node; and determine a second prioritized node affinity for the first application, wherein the second prioritized node affinity has a lower priority than the first prioritized node affinity; and a cluster service adapted to: detect a failure of the first active node; direct the virtualization service to activate the first virtual node upon failure of the first active node based upon the virtualization service determining that the second prioritized node affinity is for the first virtual node; and fail the first application over to the first virtual node after the first virtual node is activated; wherein the cluster service and the virtualization service are adapted to automatically recognize the other's presence after both the cluster service and the virtualization service are installed at the second physical node.