Computer system comprising a plurality of terminal computers capable of backing up one another on occurrence of a fault

Claim 1

A computer system comprising a host computer and first through N-th terminal computers connected to said host computer, where N represents a positive integer which is greater than one, said first through said N- th terminal computers carrying out first through N-th jobs different from one another, said host computer comprising: monitoring means for monitoring said first through said N-th terminal computers to judge whether or not a fault occurs in each of said first through said N-th terminal computers, said monitoring means producing a fault signal when said fault occurs in a faulty one of said first through said N-th terminal computers; first producing means responsive to said fault signal for producing a command signal to a specific one of said first through said N-th terminal computers that is different from said faulty one of said first through said N-th terminal computers, said specific terminal computer being predetermined in each of said first through said N-th terminal computers; and second producing means for producing an operating command signal and a stop command signal in accordance with a restoration command to supply said operating command signal and said stop command signal to a restored terminal computer and said specific terminal computer, respectively; said computer system further comprising console means connected to said host computer for supplying said second producing means with said restoration command when said faulty one of said first through said N-th terminal computers is restored to a normal state to be said restored terminal computer; each of said first through said N-th terminal computers comprising: control means responsive to said command signal, for controlling, on the basis of allotment information, a process of the job which is carried out at said faulty one of the first through the N-th terminal computers when said terminal computer is supplied with said command signal, said allotment information indicating said specific terminal computer in each of said first through said N-th terminal computers in correspondence to each of said first through said N-th jobs; said control means being responsive to said operating command signal, for restarting the job which is carried out at said restored terminal computer; said control means being responsive to said stop command signal, for stopping the control of the process of the job which is carried out at the faulty one of said first through said N-th terminal computers.