Patent ID: 7653682

Claim:
A method for performing fencing in a clustered storage environment, comprising: providing a plurality of nodes configured in a cluster for sharing data, each node being a cluster member; providing a storage system that supports a plurality of files for access by each cluster member, said storage system supporting a protocol that configures export lists, said export lists assigning each cluster member certain access permission rights including read-write access permission or read only access permission as to each respective file associated with the storage system; connecting a quorum device directly to each node of the plurality of nodes and the quorum device is configured in such a manner that the cluster member that reserves the quorum device through a SCSI-based reservation first is thereby granted access to the storage system and establishes quorum in the cluster, wherein the quorum device allows for quorum to be reached by a single node in a two node cluster and traditional quorum requires greater than fifty percent of nodes are active in the cluster; providing a fencing program in each cluster member; detecting a change in cluster membership; and in response to the change in cluster membership, initiating, by a surviving member, the fencing program by transmitting an application program interface message to said storage system commanding said storage system to modify one or more of said export lists such that the access permission rights of one or more identified cluster members are modified, wherein the surviving member is the cluster member that reserves the quorum device through the SCSI-based reservation first.