Patent ID: 7577864

Claim:
A control method carried out on a computer, the computer comprising a control module, a memory module for storing a control program executed by the control module, and physical interfaces composing a communication path to an external device, the computer being coupled to the external device via the physical interfaces, the computer having multiple logical partitions constructed therein by the control program, the physical interfaces being shared by virtual interfaces set for each of the multiple logical partitions, the memory module storing management information indicating correspondences between the physical interface and the virtual interface, the control method comprising the steps of: obtaining, by the control module, communication data transferred to the external device and received by the virtual interface; obtaining, by the control module, correspondences between the physical interface and the virtual interface, selecting, by the control module, the physical interface used for the communication with the external device based on the correspondences between the physical interface and the virtual interface; and changing, by the control module, the correspondence between the physical interface and the virtual interface if a failure occurs in the communication path.