Patent ID: 7698390

Claim:
A distributed computing system implemented on a plurality of server computers, comprising: a first node and a second node, the first node being in communication with the second node, each of the first node and the second node including component specific modules; and a first quorum device coupled to the first node and the second node; a second quorum device differing in device type from the first quorum device; first and second selected component specific modules defined in the first node and the second node, the selected component specific modules configured to correspond with the device types, and to enable the first node and the second node to access both of the quorum devices by providing quorum algorithm interfaces, wherein said interfaces establish a quorum containing at least the first and second nodes; a device type registry defined in the first node and the second node, the device type registry coupled to a quorum algorithm and the component specific modules so as to provide initial communication between the quorum algorithm and the component specific modules, the device type registry further including a type table having an array of function pointers used to point into the selected component specific module.