Method and system for providing fault tolerant access between clients and a server

摘要

A method and system for providing a fault tolerant access between network clients and a network server. Accordingly, a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a first primary input/output process (IOP) and a second backup IOP are provided in a first network client. A first backup IOP and a second primary IOP are provided in a second network client. The first backup IOP is a backup of the first primary IOP and the second backup IOP is a backup of the second primary IOP. A first preferred access path between the first primary IOP and the network server as well as a first alternate access path between the first backup IOP and the network server are defined. Similarly, a second preferred access path between the second primary IOP and the network server as well as a second alternate access path between the second backup IOP and the network server are defined. A first network connection between the first primary IOP and the network server is established via the first preferred access path. If the first network connection fails, a first alternate network connection between the first backup IOP and the network server is established via the first alternate access path. In addition, a second network connection between the second primary IOP and the network server is established via the second preferred access path. If the second network connection fails, a second alternate network connection between the second backup IOP and the network server is established via the second alternate access path. The first and second network connections are independent of each other and can be operable at the same time. Additionally, a fault tolerant network system is provided.