Patent ID: 6959337

Claim:
A networked computing system comprising: A) a network resource that is to be maintained; B) a lock data area indicating an ownership status of the network resource; C) a lock server process for maintaining the lock data area; D) a plurality of clients that are to perform maintenance on the network resource, a client being operative to: i) send a command to the lock server process to modify the lock data area to indicate ownership of the network resource by the client; ii) receive a response from the lock server process indicating whether or not ownership of the network resource by the client is indicated by the lock data area; iii) perform maintenance on the network resource only if ownership of the network resource is indicated by the lock data area; iv) if the response indicates that ownership of the network resource by the client is not indicated by the lock data area, the client is operative to: a) set a retry interval timer; and b) upon expiry of the retry interval timer, send a further command to the lock server process to modify the lock data area to indicate ownership of the network resource by the client; and v) after at least two unsuccessful attempts to modify the lock data area to indicate ownership of the network resource by the client, the client is operative to: a) determine, from lock owner viability data received from the lock server process, whether or not a current lock owner is viable; and b) if the current lock owner is not viable, send a command that is configured to establish the client as the lock owner notwithstanding that the client is not the current lock owner.