Patent ID: 7487277

Claim:
An apparatus to autonomously override a global resource lock, the apparatus comprising: a detection module configured to detect a disruption severing communications in message traffic between a primary resource controller and a secondary resource controller, wherein the primary resource controller wins a race for ownership of a global resource lock over the secondary resource controller in response to the disruption and an activity indicator indicates that the primary resource controller has ownership of the global resource; a determination module configured to determine whether the global resource lock is owned by the primary resource controller and to determine that the primary resource controller is offline and communicate a signal in response to the primary resource controller owning the global resource lock and the primary resource controller not updating the activity indicator within a check interval, the global resource lock comprising a lock indicator configured to indicate a unique ID of the primary resource controller which currently owns the global resource lock and the activity indicator and wherein the primary resource controller updates the activity indicator within a heartbeat interval that is half the check interval when the primary resource controller is online; and the determination module further configured to detect an end of the disruption and direct a clear module to release the global resource lock.