DYNAMICALLY ADDING PARTITIONS TO BE DISTRIBUTED DIRECTORY SETUP WITH NO DOWNTIME

• US 20090157777A1
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Williams, Gary Dale, Rajamani, Magesh, Hazlewood, Kristin M., Golwalkar, Yogesh V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

Dynamically adding n partitions to a distributed directory setup having x existing servers by modifying the configuration file to include the n new servers and implementing a replication setup mechanism with agreements to x+n−1 servers. The migration to dynamically add partitions is carried out while continuing to serve clients.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically adding partitions to a distributed directory setup with a number “

x”

of existing servers, the method comprising;

modifying a configuration file to include an additional “

n”

number of new servers;

implementing a replication setup mechanism with agreements to a number equal to “

x+n−

1”

servers; and

carrying out a migration to dynamically add the partitions while continuing to serve clients.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a scalability threshold being reached;

wherein said modifying of the configuration file is performed in response to the detecting of the scalability threshold being reached.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conducting operations for replicating the “

x”

number of the servers while continuing to continuing to serve the clients.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

detecting a low water mark being reached while conducting the operations for replicating the “

x”

number of the servers;

entering a quiescent state in response to the detecting of the low water mark; and

continuing to accept requests during the quiescent state without processing the requests.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the replication setup mechanism comprises a full replication with hash mechanism.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting replication completion; and

removing the replication setup mechanism in response to the detecting of the replication completion.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

moving to an “

x+n”

partition scheme in response to detection of the replication completion.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining usage of a proxy server; and

delaying the migration for a predetermined amount of time if the usage of the proxy server is determined to be greater than a predetermined value.

9. A software product comprising a machine readable medium including a program of instructions for dynamically adding partitions to a distributed directory setup with a number “

x”

of existing servers, wherein the program of instructions upon being executed on a device causes the device to perform activities comprising;

modifying a configuration file to include an additional “

n”

number of new servers;

implementing a replication setup mechanism with agreements to a number equal to “

x+n−

1”

servers; and

carrying out a migration to dynamically add the partitions while continuing to serve clients.

10. The software product of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting a scalability threshold being reached;

wherein said modifying of the configuration file is performed in response to the detecting of the scalability threshold being reached.

11. The software product of claim 9, further comprising:

conducting operations for replicating the “

x”

number of the servers while continuing to continuing to serve the clients.

12. The software product of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting a low water mark being reached while conducting the operations for replicating the “

x”

number of the servers;

entering a quiescent state in response to the detecting of the low water mark; and

continuing to accept requests during the quiescent state without processing the requests.

13. The software product of claim 9, wherein the replication setup mechanism comprises a full replication with hash mechanism.

14. The software product of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting replication completion; and

removing the replication setup mechanism in response to the detecting of the replication completion.

15. The software product of claim 14, further comprising:

moving to an “

x+n”

partition scheme in response to detection of the replication completion.

16. The software product of claim 9, further comprising:

determining usage of a proxy server; and

delaying the migration for a predetermined amount of time if the usage of the proxy server is determined to be greater than a predetermined value.

17. A proxy server configured to dynamically add partitions to a distributed directory setup with a number “

x”

of existing servers, the method comprising;

connections to a plurality of servers, the plurality of servers and the proxy server equaling a number “

x+n”

servers;

memory configured to store instructions for modifying a configuration file to include a number “

n”

of new servers in addition to “

x”

number of the existing servers, wherein the instructions implement a replication setup mechanism with agreements to a number equal to “

x+n−

1”

servers; and

a processor configured to carrying out a migration to dynamically add the partitions while continuing to serve clients.

18. The proxy server of claim 17, further comprising:

detecting a scalability threshold being reached;

wherein said modifying of the configuration file is performed in response to the detecting of the scalability threshold being reached.

19. The proxy server of claim 17, further comprising:

detecting replication completion; and

removing the replication setup mechanism in response to the detecting of the replication completion.