Patent ID: 8732261

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for a slave computing apparatus of a load balancer, comprising: determining, according to a common predetermined health maintenance algorithm independently operable by each of a plurality of slaves in the load balancer, if a master of the load balancer is functioning; and if the master is not functioning, then attempting to become the master according to a common predetermined role transitioning algorithm independently operable by each of the plurality of slaves in the load balancer, wherein the predetermined role transitioning algorithm includes using a communication interface with a separate database of the load balancer for setting a master network identification in a master database table stored on the separate database of the load balancer to a self network identification before at least one other slave sets a corresponding other slave network identification as the master network identification in the master database table, and wherein attempting to become the master further includes setting the self network identification in a master network identification portion of the master database table having a master code, wherein the master code comprises a predetermined constant value for a primary key of the master database table that controls access to the master network identification portion to implement a semaphore so that only a single slave is able to successfully write to the master table.