Patent ID: 7475134

Claim:
A method for remotely monitoring activity, the method comprising the following operations: generating first server heartbeat information at a first server at a local site; storing the first server heartbeat information on a first primary site disk at the local site; periodically repeating at a second frequency, the operation of sending the first server heartbeat information from the first primary site disk, to a first secondary site disk at a remote site; periodically repeating at a first frequency, wherein the second frequency is larger than the first frequency, the operation of receiving information from a second secondary site disk at the local site; determining if the information received from the second secondary site disk includes updated heartbeat information, and if so, transmitting a confirming signal from the local site to the remote site, wherein the confirming signal transmitted from the local site indicates that updated heartbeat information was received from the remote site at the local site; and determining if the information received from the second secondary site disk at the local site does not include updated heartbeat information for a pre-defined threshold consecutive number of repetitions of the operation of receiving information from the second secondary site disk at the local site.