Failover method and system for a computer system having clustering configuration

• US 20100011242A1
• Filed: 02/25/2009
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nakamura, Yutaka, Baba, Tsunehiko
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,922 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2043 where the redundant components share a common memory address space

Abstract

A failover method for a computer system having a clustering configuration, in which among a plurality of computers having the clustering configuration, any one of computers, when detecting a malfunction of a system including a certain computer, transmits a detection of the system malfunction to computers configuring the other systems, and the any one of computers, when detecting the malfunction of the system including the certain computer and receiving malfunction notifications of the system including the certain computer from the computers configuring the other systems, issues a reset request to the certain computer.

Claims

1. A failover control method for a computer system including a plurality of computers having a clustering configuration comprising:

monitoring a second computer via a first line by a first computer among the plurality of computers;

detecting a malfunction of the second computer by the first computer;

receiving from the other computers a notification including a monitoring result for the second computer in the other computers among the plurality of computers having the clustering configuration by the first computer;

allowing information relating to a malfunction of the detected second computer and the monitoring result to correspond to each other;

judging whether or not the correspondence satisfies a predetermined condition; and

when the predetermined condition is satisfied, giving the second computer a reset instruction via a second line.

2. The failover control method according to claim 1, wherein:

the predetermined condition is that the number of notifications received by the first computer reaches a predetermined number.

3. The failover control method according to claim 2, wherein:

the predetermined number is the number of computers that have the clustering configuration and that are other than the first and second computers.

4. The failover control method according to claim 2, wherein:

when the first computer detects a malfunction of the second computer, the correspondence is a numeric value obtained by adding one to the number of transmission sources of the monitoring results of the second computer; and

the predetermined condition is that the numeric value reaches the number of computers other than the second computer among computers having the clustering configuration.

5. The failover control method according to claim 1, wherein:

the monitoring results are received from one or more of the other computers; and

when the one or more of the monitoring results and information sets relating to the malfunction of the detected second computer correspond to each other, the predetermined condition is that the number of the monitoring results is the number of the other computers.

6. The failover control method according to claim 1, wherein:

the second computer is a currently-active system computer;

the first computer is a standby-system computer for the currently-active system computer; and

after transmitting the reset, a failover is performed by the first computer.

7. The failover control method according to claim 1, wherein:

when the predetermined condition is satisfied within a predetermined time, a reset instruction is performed.

8. The failover control method according to claim 7, wherein:

when the predetermined time has elapsed, the reset instruction is not performed is outputted.

9. The failover control method according to claim 1, wherein:

in step of executing the monitoring, the first computer judges whether or not a heartbeat transmitted via a first line from the second computer is received; and

in step of detecting the malfunction, detects a malfunction based on whether or not the heartbeat is accepted within a predetermined time due to a malfunction of the first computer or that of the first line.

10. The failover control method according to claim 1, wherein:

it is judged that a priority is set for the first computer, and further, whether or not the reset instruction is performed based on the priority.

11. A computer system comprising three or more of computers having a clustering configuration, wherein:

any one of the computers is a currently-active system computer that executes a predetermined application, and the other computers are standby system computers;

each of the computers has a processor, a memory connected with the processor, a first network interface connected with the processor, and a second network interface;

among the computers, when the processor of a first computer detects a communication malfunction with a second computer among the computers via the first network interface, the processor judges whether or not malfunction information on a communication with the second computer is received via the first network interface from computers other than the second computer;

when the malfunction information is received, stores the malfunction information in the memory, refers to the memory, and calculates how many computers the malfunction information is received from; and

as a result of the calculation, when the malfunction information is received from the predetermined number of computers, issues a reset request to the second computer via the second network interface.

12. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein:

when detecting a communication malfunction with the second computer, the processor issues to the other computers via the first network interface a notification to the effect that the communication malfunction with the second computer is detected.

13. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein:

when a predetermined time has elapsed since a detection of the communication malfunction with the second computer, the processor issues a forceful reset to the second computer via the second network interface.

14. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein:

the computer has an output part connected with the processor; and

when a predetermined time has elapsed since the detection of the communication malfunction with the second computer, the output part outputs a message to the effect that a reset is not yet issued.

15. A reset control device connected with a plurality of computers having a clustering configuration via a network, comprising:

a network interface connected with the network;

a processor connected with the network; and

a memory connected with the processor, wherein;

the processor receives malfunction information relating to a communication malfunction with any one of the computers via the network interface;

stores the malfunction information in the memory;

based on the malfunction information stored in the memory, judges whether or not to receive the information from a predetermined number of computers; and

as a result of the judgment, when receiving the information from the predetermined number of computers, issues a reset via the network interface to a computer in which a malfunction occurs.

16. The reset control device according to claim 15, wherein:

the predetermined number is the number of computers obtained by subtracting the number of computers relating to the malfunction information from the number of computers having the clustering configuration.