Patent ID: 7627780

Claim:
A network storage appliance for deterministically performing active-active failover of redundant servers enclosed therein, comprising: two redundant servers, each having at least one unique ID for communicating on a network; at least one storage controller, coupled to said redundant servers, for transferring data between storage devices and said servers, wherein said at least one storage controller comprises redundant storage controllers; a backplane, wherein said storage controller and servers comprise a plurality of blades for plugging into said backplane, wherein two of said plurality of blades each comprise: one of said two redundant servers; and a portion of one of said redundant storage controllers; and first and second status paths, comprised in said backplane, each for providing a heartbeat from one of the servers to the other server; wherein each of said servers is configured to deterministically disable the other server from communicating on said network in response to detecting that said heartbeat of the other server has stopped, and to assume said at least one unique ID of the other server for communicating on said network thereafter.