Patent ID: 7039827

Claim:
A method for supporting failover between networked storage systems, coupled between a first storage system and a second storage system and a set of one or more storage systems, comprising: providing a single homogeneous environment distributed across a plurality of processors, cards, and storage systems; identifying member candidates using a standard protocol; creating Failover Sets, each Failover Set comprising one or more of said member candidates; using a database to store and synchronize a configuration on all member candidates in a Failover Set; for each Failover Set, designating one of the member candidates as a Primary, designating one of the member candidates as a Secondary, and designating remaining member candidates as Alternates; performing startup processing of the member candidates; and providing policies for run-time member behavior including fault characterization and detection, health monitoring, compatibility requirements, corrective action during failover, member restart and re-integration, and member failure limit exceeded condition.