Patent ID: 8234518

Claim:
A method for recovering from a failure of a primary server storing a file that is replicated in each of a plurality of secondary servers in a server cluster, the method comprising: transmitting a request from a particular server in the server cluster to one or more servers in the server cluster for a portion of a master secret value, wherein, at the time of the failure, the complete master secret value is known to the primary server but not to any one of the other servers in the server cluster; receiving a threshold number of different portions of the master secret value at the particular server; reconstructing the master secret value based on the received threshold number of different portions at the particular server; generating an authentication value derived from the master secret value at the particular server, the authentication value being used by at least some of the secondary servers to authenticate an operation as originating from the primary server; distributing the authentication value from the particular server to each of the plurality of secondary servers; and acting as a new primary server by the particular server after the master secret value is reconstructed at the particular server.