You can set up your partitioned database system so that if a machine fails, the database partition server (or node) on it can run on another machine. On the Solaris Operating Environment, you implement failover support with Solstice HA 1.3.
Solstice HA 1.3 performs both failure detection and the restarting of resources in a clustered environment, as well as failover support for physical disks and IP addresses.