Patent ID: 7058850

Claim:
A reliable computing and data-storage system comprising: a first host computer linked to a second host computer by a first communications medium; a first mass-storage device, linked to the first host computer by a second communications medium; a second mass-storage device, linked to the second host computer by a third communications medium; a fourth communications medium directly linking the first mass-storage device to the second mass-storage device for transmission of sequenced data written to a dominant logical unit within the first mass-storage device to the second mass-storage device for writing to a remote-mirror logical unit; a first link that directly links the first mass-storage device to the first communications medium; a second link that directly links the second mass-storage device to the first communications medium; controller logic within controllers of the first and second mass-storage devices, the controller logic within at least one controller detecting a failure of the fourth communications medium, the controller logic within both controllers cooperating to retransmit any lost data from the first mass-storage device to the second mass-storage device by way of the first and second links and the first communications medium.