Method and apparatus for reliable failover involving incomplete raid disk writes in a clustering system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus for reliable failover capabilities, the apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of RAID controllers configured to access a plurality of shared disks;
a mirror race table (MRT); and
a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers.
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Abstract
Disclosed is a system and a method for reliable failover involving incomplete redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) writes in clustering systems. The system comprises the restructuring of a mirror race table (MRT) and a storage location that may be a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) module in a shared disk enclosure to make the MRT accessible to all nodes in the system. In one embodiment, the NVRAM module comprises copies of MRTs from each node operating within the cluster system.
41 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus for reliable failover capabilities, the apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of RAID controllers configured to access a plurality of shared disks;
a mirror race table (MRT); and
a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for reliable failover capabilities, the method comprising:
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accessing a plurality of shared disks with a plurality of RAID controllers;
updating a mirror race table (MRT); and
providing a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for reliable failover capabilities, the method comprising:
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providing a plurality of shared disks;
providing a plurality of RAID controllers;
providing a mirror race table (MRT);
establishing a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers;
accessing the MRT;
updating the MRT;
detecting a failure of at least one RAID controller;
distributing the work load of the failed RAID controller;
searching the MRT for the first free entry;
creating an entry in the MRT by entering the logical block address (LBA) of the first cache line group to be written to the plurality of shared disks;
saving an MRT pointer for the entry;
finding and retrieving the MRT pointer for the entry;
reading the MRT entry to locate data to be made consistent;
finding and clearing the entry from the MRT;
transferring the MRT from the shared disk enclosure to at least one RAID controller; and
performing uncompleted write operations.
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25. A system for reliable failover capabilities, the system comprising:
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a plurality of shared disks, a plurality of RAID controllers;
a mirror race table (MRT); and
a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers, the common MRT storage location comprising a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) module.
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26. An apparatus for reliable failover capabilities, the apparatus comprising:
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means for accessing a plurality of shared disks with a plurality of RAID controllers;
means for updating a mirror race table (MRT);
means for accessing the MRT; and
means for storing a common MRT such that the common MRT is accessible by each of the RAID controllers.
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Specification