the database server depends on the file system in addition the policy engine 122 operates on the status and configuration of the cluster 102 from inputs received from the cluster resource manager 121 then based on the dependencies maintained by the policy engine 122 and the status and configuration of the cluster 102 the policy engine 122 provides back to the cluster resource manager 121 the information necessary for the cluster resource manager 121 to provision resources and perform an intelligent backup in this regard the policy engine 122 provides a transition graph to the cluster resource manager 120 121 as an output 134 the transition graph includes a set of actions and sequencing instructions that is used by the cluster resource manager 121 to implement an intelligent backup technique as described later in further detail fig3 is a flowchart of an intelligent backup method 136 that is implemented in the bcc system 100 shown in fig1 the intelligent backup method 136 begins at block 138 the method 136 proceeds to block 140 where the cluster resource administrator not shown requests backup of a cluster resource or cluster resources a request by the administrator can be initiated in one of several.