Patent ID: 7467322

Claim:
A failover method in a cluster computer system comprising: a plurality of computers, with respect to the execution of a certain application, at least one of the computers being used as a computer of an active system, and at least one of the other computers being used as a computer of a standby system that takes over processing performed in the computer of the active system; a heartbeat path used by each of the plurality of computers to monitor states of the other computers; a reset path used by each of the plurality of computers to reset any of the other computers; and a reset control unit for controlling reset operation, said failover method comprising the steps of: issuing by said each computer a reset command for resetting one of the other computers as a target on the basis of monitoring the states of the other computers through the heartbeat path, a reset target of said reset command being any one of the other computers; judging whether or not a target of a reset command which has been newly inputted into the reset control unit conflicts with a target and a source of a reset command that is currently being executed; if it is judged that the newly inputted reset command conflicts with no reset command that is currently being executed, allowing the reset control unit to transmit the inputted reset command to a destination computer to which said inputted reset command has been issued, and storing information about the transmitted reset command in a buffer as information about a reset command that is currently being executed; and upon completion of reset operation executed by the transmitted reset command, deleting from the buffer the information about the reset command that is currently executed.