Recovering a blade in scalable software blade architecture

• US 20070101021A1
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Venkatachary, Schulz, Torsten, Boerries, Marco, Meyer, Markus
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/244
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/203 using migration

Abstract

A system and method for servicing user accounts are disclosed. The system includes one or more blades for servicing the user accounts, where each blade includes software components and hardware components, and each blade serves a group of user accounts, a blade manager for managing states of the one or more blades, logic for detecting a failed blade among the one or more blades, and logic for recovering the failed blade using the states of the one or more blades managed by the blade manager.

Claims

1. A system for servicing user accounts, comprising:

one or more blades for servicing the user accounts, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, and wherein each blade serves a group of user accounts;

a blade manager for managing states of the one or more blades;

logic for detecting a failed blade among the one or more blades; and

logic for recovering the failed blade using the states of the one or more blades managed by the blade manager.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the blade manager comprises:

logic for maintaining user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups at the blade manager; and

logic for providing the user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups to the one or more blades.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein user settings comprise:

filter settings;

sharing settings;

type of services; and

type of user devices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for detecting comprises:

logic for monitoring whether a blade has crashed;

logic for monitoring whether data on the blade has been lost; and

logic for providing a user-readable indication concerning the failed blade.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for recovering comprises:

logic for stopping assignment of new user accounts to the failed blade;

logic for moving user accounts from the failed blade to at least one other blade; and

logic for creating new user accounts on the at least one other blade.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic for moving user accounts comprises:

logic for fetching configuration information of the user accounts from the blade manager;

logic for fetching configuration information of the user accounts from another blade;

logic for creating new user accounts at the other blades using the configuration information; and

logic for providing Internet Protocol addresses of new locations of the user accounts at the blade manager.

7. The system of claim 5, further comprising:

logic for receiving a signal for accessing the failed blade from a user device; and

logic for returning an error message to the user device.

8. The system of claim 7 further comprising:

logic for receiving a first inquiry, at the blade manager, from the user device for a new blade location;

logic for returning to the user device information concerning the new blade location;

logic for receiving a second inquiry to access the new blade location from the user device;

logic for informing the user device to initiate a repair process; and

logic for performing repair operations for the user device in response to a repair request from the user device.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

logic for detecting a failed user device; and

logic for recovering the failed user device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the logic for recovering the failed user device comprises:

logic for retrieving configuration information from the blade manager;

logic for removing database entries of the user device at the blade;

logic for reconstructing a user account and user devices from the configuration information; and

logic for importing filter data for the user account and the user devices.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

logic for receiving a signal for exchanging data from the user;

logic for returning a code indicating that a repair operation on the user device is required; and

logic for performing the repair operation by installing the connected-data service and the corresponding connected dataset for the user device.

12. A method for servicing user accounts, comprising:

partitioning tasks for servicing the user accounts into one or more blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, and wherein each blade serves a group of user accounts;

managing states of the one or more blades by a blade manager;

detecting a failed blade among the one or more blades; and

recovering the failed blade using the states of the one or more blades managed by the blade manager.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein managing states of the one or more blades comprises:

maintaining user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups at the blade manager; and

providing the user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups to the one or more blades.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein user settings comprise:

filter settings;

sharing settings;

type of services; and

type of user devices.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein detecting comprises:

monitoring whether a blade has crashed;

monitoring whether data on the blade has been lost; and

providing a user-readable indication concerning the failed blade.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein recovering comprises:

stopping assignment of new user accounts to the failed blade;

moving user accounts from the failed blade to at least one other blade; and

creating new user accounts on the at least one other blade.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein moving user accounts comprises:

fetching configuration information of the user accounts from the blade manager;

fetching configuration information of the user accounts from another blade;

creating new user accounts at the other blades using the configuration information; and

providing Internet Protocol addresses of new locations of the user accounts at the blade manager.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a signal for accessing the failed blade from a user device; and

returning an error message to the user device.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving a first inquiry, at the blade manager, from the user device for a new blade location;

returning to the user device information concerning the new blade location;

receiving a second inquiry to access the new blade location from the user device;

informing the user device to initiate a repair process; and

performing repair operations for the user device in response to a repair request from the user device.

20. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

detecting a failed user device; and

recovering the failed user device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein recovering the failed user device comprises:

retrieving configuration information from the blade manager;

removing database entries of the user device at the blade;

reconstructing a user account and user devices from the configuration information; and

importing filter data for the user account and the user devices.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

receiving a signal for exchanging data from the user;

returning a code indicating a repair operation on the user device is required; and

performing the repair operation by installing the connected-data service and the corresponding connected dataset from scratch for the user device.

23. A computer program product for servicing user accounts, comprising a medium storing computer programs for execution by one or more computer systems having at least a processing unit, a user interface and a memory, the computer program product comprising:

code for partitioning tasks for servicing the user accounts into one or more blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, and wherein each blade serves a group of user accounts;

code for managing states of the one or more blades by a blade manager;

code for detecting a failed blade among the one or more blades; and

code for recovering the failed blade using the states of the one or more blades managed by the blade manager.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the code for managing states of the one or more blades comprises:

code for maintaining user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups at the blade manager; and

code for providing the user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups to the one or more blades.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein user settings comprise:

filter settings;

sharing settings;

type of services; and

type of user devices.

26. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the code for detecting comprises:

code for monitoring whether a blade has crashed;

code for monitoring whether data on the blade has been lost; and

code for providing a user-readable indication concerning the failed blade.

27. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the code for recovering comprises:

code for stopping assignment of new user accounts to the failed blade;

code for moving user accounts from the failed blade to at least one other blade; and

code for creating new user accounts on the at least one other blade.

28. The computer program product of claim 27, wherein the code for moving user accounts comprises:

code for fetching configuration information of the user accounts from the blade manager;

code for fetching configuration information of the user accounts from another blade;

code for creating new user accounts at the other blades using the configuration information; and

code for providing Internet Protocol addresses of new locations of the user accounts at the blade manager.

29. The computer program product of claim 27, further comprising:

code for receiving a signal for accessing the failed blade from a user device; and

code for returning an error message to the user device.

30. The computer program product of claim 29 further comprising:

code for receiving a first inquiry, at the blade manager, from the user device for a new blade location;

code for returning to the user device information concerning the new blade location;

code for receiving a second inquiry to access the new blade location from the user device;

code for informing the user device to initiate a repair process; and

code for performing repair operations for the user device in response to a repair request from the user device.

31. The computer program product of claim 23 further comprising:

code for detecting a failed user device; and

code for recovering the failed user device.

32. The computer program product of claim 31, wherein the code for recovering the failed user device comprises:

code for retrieving configuration information from the blade manager;

code for removing database entries of the user device at the blade;

code for reconstructing a user account and user devices from the configuration information; and

code for importing filter data for the user account and the user devices.

33. The computer program product of claim 32 further comprising:

code for receiving a signal for exchanging data from the user;

code for returning a code indicating a repair operation on the user device is required; and

code for performing the repair operation by installing the connected-data service and the corresponding connected dataset from scratch for the user device.