Patent ID: 7653651

Claim:
A cluster server system comprising: a plurality of instances, each instance including: a dispatcher to distribute a plurality of service requests to one or more server nodes, wherein each server node includes: a lock manager to manage locks on one or more of a plurality of database data as requested by a locking service on a central services instance; a cluster manager to communicate with a messaging service on the central services instance; a configuration manager to communicate with a relational database on a permanent storage medium, the relational database to store the plurality of database data within a plurality of database tables; and a persistence manager to map a plurality of persistent data objects to the plurality of database data and modify the persistent data objects responsive to receiving one of the plurality of service requests, the persistence manager further to associate a state property with each of the persistent data objects indicating an operation to be performed within the plurality of database tables of the relational database when the modifications to the persistent data objects are committed to the relational database, wherein the persistence manager comprises state transition logic defining a plurality of values for the state property associated with each of the plurality of persistent data objects, wherein each of the plurality of values corresponds to a modification performed on the persistent data object with which the state property is associated.