1. A method of operating a fault-tolerant computer system, the method comprising: having each server of a fault tolerant computer system that includes at least two servers, each of which is configured to perform a first set of operations, communicate with a computer that does not perform the first set of operations, and in the event of a failure of a component of the system, determining which of the servers will continue to perform the first set of operations based on communication between at least one of the servers and the computer.