Automatically freezing functionality of a computing entity responsive to an error

• US 20040230877A1
• Filed: 04/29/2003
• Published: 11/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clark, Thomas K., Jujjuri, Venkateswararao, Everhart, Craig F., Weight, Russell H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,493,513 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

Facilitating error handling of computing environments, including those environments having file systems. Responsive to an entity of the computing environment, such as a client of a file system, obtaining at least an indication of an error, a portion of functionality of the entity is automatically frozen. The obtaining is, for instance, responsive to an event of another entity of the computing environment, such as a server of the file system. Eventually, the frozen functionality is thawed allowing the functionality to proceed.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating error handling of a computing environment, said method comprising:

obtaining, by an entity of the computing environment, at least an indication of an error responsive to an event of another entity of the computing environment, said another entity being remote to the entity; and

automatically freezing a portion of functionality of the entity, in response to the obtaining.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises a client and the another entity comprises a server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the client comprises a client of a file system of the computing environment, and wherein the server comprises a server of the file system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the automatically freezing comprises setting a freeze indicator, wherein the freeze indicator is located within the client.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the automatically freezing comprises altering behavior of one or more threads of the client, in response to setting the freeze indicator.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the automatically freezing comprises failing one or more validity checks, in response to setting the freeze indicator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of functionality of the entity remains functional.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more other entities of the computing environment remain unfrozen.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically freezing comprises altering behavior of one or more threads of the entity.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the altering behavior comprises locking at least one thread of the one or more threads.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the altering behavior comprises prohibiting at least one thread of the one or more threads from sending one or more messages.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically freezing comprises failing one or more validity checks.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising thawing the portion of functionality that is frozen.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the thawing comprises resetting a freeze indicator.

15. A method of managing processing of a computing environment, said method comprising:

detecting by an entity of the computing environment a situation in which processing of the entity is affected; and

automatically freezing one or more distributed input/output (I/O) operations of the entity, in response to the detecting, wherein one or more other operations of the entity are allowed to proceed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the entity comprises a client of a file system of the computing environment.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more distributed I/O operations comprise one or more file system operations of the client.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising thawing the one or more file system operations that are frozen.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the thawing is performed absent a remount of the file system.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of one or more other clients of the file system or one or more servers of the file system are not frozen.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the automatically freezing comprises altering behavior of one or more threads of the client.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the situation comprises an error that is responsive to an event of a server of the file system, said server being remote from the client.

23. A system of facilitating error handling of a computing environment, said system comprising:

an entity of the computing environment to obtain at least an indication of an error responsive to an event of another entity of the computing environment, said another entity being remote to the entity; and

means for automatically freezing a portion of functionality of the entity, in response to the obtaining.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein a portion of functionality of the entity remains functional.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the means for automatically freezing comprises means for altering behavior of one or more threads of the entity.

26. The system of claim 23, further comprising means for thawing the portion of functionality that is frozen.

27. A system of managing processing of a computing environment, said system comprising:

an entity of the computing environment to detect a situation in which processing of the entity is affected, and to automatically freeze one or more distributed input/output (I/O) operations of the entity, in response to the detecting, wherein one or more other operations of the entity are allowed to proceed.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the entity is a client of a file system of the computing environment, and wherein the situation comprises an error that is responsive to an event of a server of the file system, said server being remote from the client.

29. An article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer usable medium having computer readable program code logic to facilitate error handling of a computing environment, the computer readable program code logic comprising;

obtain logic to obtain, by an entity of the computing environment, at least an indication of an error responsive to an event of another entity of the computing environment, said another entity being remote to the entity; and

freeze logic to automatically freeze a portion of functionality of the entity, in response to the at least an indication of the error.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 29, wherein a portion of functionality of the entity remains functional.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 29, wherein the freeze logic comprises behavior logic to alter behavior of one or more threads of the entity.

32. The article of manufacture of claim 29, wherein the computer readable program code logic further comprises thaw logic to thaw the portion of functionality that is frozen.

33. An article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer usable medium having computer readable program code logic to manage processing of a computing environment, the computer readable program code logic comprising;

detect logic to detect by an entity of the computing environment a situation in which processing of the entity is affected; and

freeze logic to automatically freeze one or more distributed input/output (I/O) operations of the entity, wherein one or more other operations of the entity are allowed to proceed.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 33, wherein the entity is a client of a file system of the computing environment, and wherein the situation comprises an error that is responsive to an event of a server of the file system, said server being remote from the client.