Patent ID: 7634679

Claim:
A method for performing a failover on a mail Exchange server, the method comprising: receiving one or more periodic snapshot backups of a first Exchange server's data that are generated by a snapshot tool utilizing a volume shadow copy service application, wherein a periodic snapshot backup provides one of a complete copy of a current state of one or more databases and transaction logs at the first Exchange server or an update to a previous periodic snapshot backup; receiving a replication of one or more transaction logs that provide current state information for one or more databases at the first Exchange server, wherein the one or more transaction logs are replicated on one of a continuous, asynchronous, or scheduled basis, and wherein the replication provides an update to a most recent periodic snapshot backup; detecting a failover at the first Exchange server, the first Exchange server having a network name; automatically issuing a storage area network command to mount at least one database and at least one transaction log drive, the database and the transaction log drive being mounted at a second Exchange server; identifying a failure of one or more of the at least one database and the at least one transaction log drive to mount; rectifying the failure of the one or more of the at least one database and the at least one transaction log drive to mount, wherein the failure to mount is rectified by one or more of remounting the at least one database or the at least one transaction log drive, manually mounting the at least one database or the at least one transaction log drive, mounting a most recent periodic snapshot backup of the at least one database, and providing a soft recovery of the at least one database or transaction log drive; replaying one or more transaction logs to update the mounted database; determining global catalog servers and a configuration domain controller corresponding to the second Exchange server that is useable by the second Exchange server to save updates to a database or transaction log files; starting an IP address resource service to create a network name resource on the second Exchange server, wherein the network name resource includes a listing of one or more corresponding virtual names and physical names; assigning the network name of the first Exchange server to the second Exchange server; creating a System Attendant resource for the second Exchange server that uses the same name as a system attendant resource on the first Exchange server; starting one or more Exchange operations on the second Exchange server in the same configuration as the first Exchange server; and storing one or more log files generated by a failover process.