AUTOMATIC RESOURCE GROUP FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE IN A HIGH AVAILABILITY CLUSTER CONFIGURATION

A method and apparatus that automatically generates and maintains resource groups for a clustered computer network configuration. Resource groups are said to be generated "automatically" because the system administrator preferably is not directly involved with defining what resources go within a particular group. Rather, the administrator merely identifies a set of resources that must be collocated with a given application in the event of a failure of a computer on which the application is then executing. One or more resource groups are then automatically generated using a set of collocation "constraints" or rules. A first collocation constraint preferably enforces any user-defined collocations for a given application, and a second constraint collocates disk partition resources residing on the same physical disk. A resource group generated is this manner ensures effective fault-tolerant operation.