Patent ID: 7047299

Claim:
A process for brokering of locks used on a clustered computer system to control access to Resources of a Cluster by determining whether a Resource on the Cluster may be locked by a First Node, wherein the Cluster includes the First Node and at least one Peer Node, the process comprising: communicating a request by the First Node to establish a lock on a Resource accessible through the Cluster; determining whether the at least one Peer Node on the Cluster holds an active lock on the Resource; if an active lock on the Resource is not held by any of the at least one Peer Node, approving the lock request; and if an active lock on the Resource is held by any of the at least one Peer Node further comprising: determining for each active lock held on the Resource whether the requested lock conflicts with the active lock; if the requested lock does not conflict with the active lock, approving the lock request; and if the requested lock conflicts with the active lock, denying the lock request.