Patent ID: 8806500

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a policy based automation engine of a computing system, a first request that specifies a first desired state of a first computing resource of a plurality of computing resources, wherein the first desired state is one of online, offline, and standby; placing the first computing resource into the first desired state; when the first desired state is one of online and offline: when the first computing resource is in a passive behavioral mode, placing the first computing resource into an active behavioral mode, wherein a second computing resource of the plurality of computing resources has a relationship to the first computing resource, wherein a desired state of the second computing resource is a second desired state, and wherein the second desired state is one of online, offline, and standby; and submitting a second request from the first computing resource to the second computing resource, the second request specifying that the desired state of the second computing resource is the first desired state; and when the first desired state is standby and when the first computing resource is in the active behavioral mode: placing the first computing resource into the passive behavioral mode; removing one or more prior requests submitted from the first computing resource to the second computing resource; and restoring the desired state of the second computing resource to the second desired state.