Patent ID: 8369968

Claim:
A system comprising: a first database server including a database instance; a second database server in communication with the first database server, the second database server including a mirror of the database instance, wherein the first database server and the second database server are in a primary and secondary server relationship with the second database server as a secondary server; a third database server in communication with the second database server, the third database server configured to store a copy of a database within the database instance; and an application server configured to be placed in communication with the first, second, and third database servers, configured to assign the first database server as a primary server and the second database server as the secondary server for the application server, to fail over between the first and second database servers, further configured to fail over between the second and third database servers, and to assign the third database server as the primary server for the application server when the first database server is decommissioned, wherein the third database server and the second database server are in a new primary and secondary server relationship with the second database server as the secondary server.