by incorporating a referral mechanism , a failover method and system for remotely mirrored clustered file servers enables a client computer to transparently access a remotely mirrored file system during a failover of a first nas storing the file system . the first nas is clustered with a second nas that takes over the ip address of the first nas on failover . a mirroring relationship is established between the first nas and a third nas whereby a copy of the file system is replicated to the third nas . a referral is created on the second nas , such that an access attempt from the client computer for accessing the first file system that is directed to the second nas following ip address takeover from the first nas after failover is referred to the third nas by the referral to enable the client computer to access the copy of the file system .