Abstract: In a cluster system comprising at least two nodes connected via a communication network and having a name and a host weight assigned to it, a method is implemented comprising the steps of inspecting the communication link, determining which node has to be shut down after a failure, creating an advertisement report for the node to be shut down, sending the advertisement report to at least one node of the cluster system, calculating a delay time depending on the weight of the first node and sending the shut down command to the node for which a failure report was received. In one embodiment of the invention the advertisement reports include a master node, which allows identifying and specifying the surviving subcluster. The method will send shut down signals to those nodes of a subcluster with lower weight than the surviving subcluster. A failsafe mechanism is implemented.