Failover mechanism involving blocking of access of a malfunctioning server and continuing monitoring to enable unblocking of access if server recovers

摘要

A method and apparatus for blocking access of a malfunctioning server to a data storage facility. Characteristics such as IAmAlive signals from a server are monitored and when out of profile a malfunction is indicated and data access of that server is inhibited. Characteristics continue to be monitored for a return from the malfunction. The system is used in a resilient cluster of servers to shut out a malfunctioning sever and enable its recovery to be indicated so as to enable readmittance to the cluster.