Patent ID: 8015431

Claim:
A failover method for a cluster system, the cluster system comprising: first and second virtualization units operated in at least one physical computer; a first system including a guest OS operated in the first virtualization unit and an application operated in the guest OS; and a second system including a guest OS operated in the second virtualization unit and an application operated in the guest OS, wherein the cluster system for failing over one of the guest OS and the application between the first system and the second system executes: a cluster processing operated in each guest OS of monitoring the application in the guest OS and failing over the application between the first system and the second system when a failure occurs, the failover method for the cluster system comprising the steps of: monitoring one of the guest OS of the first system and the first virtualization unit to detect a failure; judging the cluster processing in the failure-detected guest OS when the failure is detected; instructing failover to the judged cluster processing; monitoring a failure of the application in the guest OS in the cluster processing; failing over the application between the first and second systems when a failure of the application is detected in the cluster processing; failing over the application and the guest OS between the first and second systems when the failover instruction is obtained in the cluster processing.