within a computer cluster using cluster membership and cluster voting services such a method includes the maintaining of a local reference count for all open distributed data resources within a given node tracking by a group services client of those nodes that have the open distributed data resources and using cluster membership services to update the local reference counts for node failures application_number US 28222599 A description in the following description numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention it should be noted however that those skilled in the art are capable of practicing the present invention without such specific details in other instances well known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail although the present invention is described with reference to a specific embodiment for a technique to provide an aspect of high availability to a cluster it should be understood that the present invention can be adapted for use with other high availability techniques all such variations are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention it will be recognized that in the drawings only those signal lines and processor blocks necessary for the operation of the present invention are shown referring to the drawings depicted elements are not.