Patent ID: 8023130

Claim:
A method for maintaining imaging device (IDev) activity data in the event of a primary server failure, said method comprising: establishing a primary accounting server (PAS) for maintaining a primary IDev activity log (PIAL)), wherein said PAS is a computing device and said PIAL comprises a financial accounting record of jobs performed by users of said IDev with user accounts and said IDev is connected to said PAS with a first communication connection; establishing a lightweight accounting back-up server (LABS) on a device remote to said PAS for maintaining a temporary IDev activity log (TIAL) when said PAS is not available, wherein said LABS is a computing device and said TIAL comprises a financial accounting record of jobs performed by users of said IDev with said user accounts when said PAS is unavailable and said IDev is connected to said LABS with a second communication connection; listing said LABS on an LABS list accessible to a plurality of IDevs within a geographical region, wherein said LABS list consists of a listing of addresses for a plurality of network devices with LABS capability available only to said plurality of IDevs within said geographical region; sending IDev activity data from at least one of said plurality of IDevs within said geographical region to said PAS when said PAS is available; sending an availability request from said at least one of said IDevs within said geographical region to said LABS when said PAS is unavailable to said at least one of said plurality of IDevs within said geographical region; receiving an availability confirmation from said LABS at said at least one of said plurality of IDevs when said LABS is available and said PAS is unavailable; sending IDev activity data from said at least one of said plurality of IDevs to said LABS when said availability confirmation is received; incorporating said IDev activity data into a TIAL with said LABS; sending said TIAL from said LABS to said PAS after a period of unavailability of said PAS; and updating said PIAL with said TIAL after said period of unavailability such that said PIAL comprises transactions recorded on said IDev activity data when said PAS was unavailable.