Patent ID: 8161318

Claim:
A method comprising: continuously shadowing one or more live servers using at least one near-line server including a first near-line server by generating and maintaining a replica of data of the one or more live servers in an application consistent manner, wherein the generating and maintaining comprises generating write-ahead logs by the one or more live servers and receiving the write-ahead logs by the at least one near-line server, the at least one near-line server updating the replica by applying the write-ahead logs to the replica, the one or more live servers including data that provides services to a plurality of clients; storing the replica of the data using the at least one near-line server in communication with the one or more live servers; and automatically restoring the services to the clients using one or more standby servers in communication with the at least one near-line server in response to a detected failure of the one or more live servers, the restoring including copying the replica of the data to the one or more standby servers, the at least one near-line server to provide data access to at least one of the one or more live servers and the one or more standby servers as part of a restore operation in continuing to provide the services to the plurality of clients.