Patent ID: 8326805

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a first server and a second server coupled through a wide area network (WAN); providing a first instance of a file archiving program on the first server, wherein the first instance of the file archiving program is configured to manage a first storage volume and a second storage volume storing a plurality of files; providing a second instance of the file archiving program on a second server, wherein the second instance of the file archiving program is configured to manage a third storage volume storing a plurality of files; archiving, by the first instance of the file archiving program, files from the first storage volume and the second storage volume; stopping one or more archiving functions on the first storage volume in response to receiving an input, while continuing archiving functions on the second storage volume, wherein the archiving functions include archiving files from the first and second storage volumes to an archive storage system and retrieving archived files from the archive storage system; and transferring via the WAN at least some of the capabilities of the first instance of the file archiving program for the first storage volume from the first server to the second server, the at least some of the capabilities of the first instance of the file archiving program including an ability to retrieve at least one file that was archived by the first instance of the file archiving program while executed on the first server.