Patent ID: 8195613

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first instance of a server transaction manager application stored in a memory on an archival portal server in an archival unit, where the server transaction manager application is configured to 1) transactionally archive an electronic document between multiple interconnected archive units of a distributed server network in geographically-dispersed locations in order to store identical copies of the electronic document in two or more of the archive units at the same time, 2) monitor a persistent state of the archiving of the electronic document, and 3) reconcile the multiple interconnected archive units if an error occurs between a start of a transmission of the electronic document and a permanent archiving of that electronic document in any of the multiple interconnected archive units, where the archive units of the distributed server network are configured to allow uninterrupted access from a client machine to at least one of the copies of the archived electronic document even if one archive unit location is not accessible, where the first instance of the server transaction manager application is coded to send a two-phase commit protocol to a selected set of transaction manager instances resident on archive units remote from that archival portal server; a permanent data storage location in each of the archive units configured to store the electronic document; and a temporary data storage location in each of the archive units configured to store the electronic document during the two-phase commit protocol, where when the selected set of transaction manager instances resident on the remote archive units validate that the electronic document is uncompromised and stored in the temporary storage location, then the first instance of the transaction manager application is configured to communicate to the selected set of transaction manager instances resident on the remote archive units to move the electronic document from the temporary storage location to the permanent storage location.