Patent ID: 8024605

Claim:
A computer implemented method for maintaining the ability of a server to communicate with one or more client processes, comprising: handling, by a parent server process, client communications to the one or more client processes; initiating, by the parent server process, a first child server process; monitoring, by the first child server process, for failure of the parent server process, wherein the monitoring comprises: establishing, by the first child server process, a communications link with the parent server process; performing, by the first child server process, a read operation over the communications link; and placing, when the read operation is performed and there is no data available to read, the first child server process into a sleep mode until there is data available to read, wherein when in sleep mode read operations are blocked; detecting, by the first child server process, the termination of the communications link between the parent server process and the first child server process; and responding, by the first child server process, to the failure of the parent server process by: continuing the handling of existing client communications to the one or more client processes handled by the parent server process prior to the failure of the parent server process; and initiating a second child server process which is initiated to perform, for the first client server process, monitoring and responding as performed by the first client server process prior to the failure of the parent server process.