Patent ID: 7168001

Claim:
A method of transferring a transaction processing workload, the method comprising; establishing a plurality of primary process pairs on a first node in a cluster of nodes, each node including one or more servers and being associated with a plurality of stable storage volumes, the plurality of primary process pairs including a plurality of first primary processes and a plurality of first backup processes; grouping the plurality of stable storage volumes of the first node into a number of groups and assigning a separate audit trail to each group of stable storage volumes, each of the separate audit trails and their associated group of stable storage volumes forming a log storage group, the separate audit trail for each log storage group recording stable storage updates for the stable storage volumes in the log storage group; establishing a plurality of backup process pairs on a second node in the cluster, the plurality of backup process pairs including a plurality of second primary processes and a plurality of second backup processes; if the node on which the plurality of backup process pairs is established is in communication with the node hosting the plurality of primary process pairs, performing checkpointing operations via the network from the plurality of primary process pairs to the plurality of backup process pairs; performing checkpointing operations on the node hosting the plurality of primary process pairs; detecting a failure that makes the first node inoperable or inaccessible; after detecting the failure, engaging the plurality of backup process pairs as a new plurality of primary process pairs to perform the transaction processing workload of the plurality of primary process pairs in the failed node, the plurality of backup process pairs being configured to operate with a log storage group associated with the plurality of primary process pairs on the failed node.