Patent ID: 7627584

Claim:
An automatic failover configuration comprising: configuration participants including a primary database system that produces redo data, a standby database system that receives the redo data, and an observer; each participant including processor that has access to memory, a messaging system for sending and receiving messages among the participants, and in each participant, a copy in the memory of configuration state of the automatic failover configuration that specifies one of a plurality of configuration states, the messages being used to propagate a most recent configuration state among the participants and each configuration state including a monotonically increasing version number, a more recent configuration state being a configuration state that has a higher version number, a message from a participant to another participant including the most recent configuration state known to the participant and if the other participant knows of a more recent configuration state, a reply by the other participant to the message, the reply containing the more recent configuration state; and a participant responding to a message or a reply with a more recent configuration state by setting its copy of the configuration state to the more recent configuration state.