1. A method of parallel execution of recovery in a multi-processor system including a plurality of processing units the method comprising the steps of: scheduling recovery actions, including the step of providing criteria to determine which recovery actions are to be performed and on which processing units; providing access to shared resources, including the step of providing rules to determine how multiple processing units executing recovery in parallel can access shared resources; and selecting and using one or more of the processing units, according to said criteria and rules, to perform the scheduled recovery actions, the selecting and using step including using a first of the processing units to enter a recovery process to execute all of a scheduled set of recovery actions.