RESOURCE INTEGRITY DURING PARTIAL BACKOUT OF APPLICATION UPDATES

• US 20100205478A1
• Filed: 02/10/2009
• Published: 08/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mitchell, Ian James, Kettley, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,110,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

At least one physically inconsistent system resource is identified in response to a failure of an application, where the physically inconsistent system resource was left in a physically inconsistent state as a result of the failure of the application. Available backout operations for any system resources updated by the failed application other than the physically inconsistent system resource are ignored. An automated partial backout of the physically inconsistent system resource is performed. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, in response to failure of an application, at least one physically inconsistent system resource that was left in a physically inconsistent state as a result of the failure of the application from a plurality of system resources updated by the failed application;

ignoring available backout operations for any of the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource; and

performing an automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource.

2. The method of claim 1, where identifying, in response to failure of the application, at least one of the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application that was left in the physically inconsistent state as the result of the failure of the application further comprises:

identifying a previous state of physical consistency for each of the plurality of system resources based at least upon stored recovery log records associated with each of the plurality of system resources;

determining, for each of the plurality of system resources, whether any pending application update operations are indicated by the stored recovery log records at the time of failure of the application; and

selecting the at least one physically inconsistent system resource based upon a determination that at least one pending application update operation caused the physically inconsistent state for the at least one physically inconsistent system resource.

3. The method of claim 1, where performing the automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource further comprises performing available updates to the at least one physically inconsistent system resource referenced by stored recovery log records as previously initiated by the failed application to bring the at least one system physically inconsistent system resource to a physically consistent state.

4. The method of claim 3, where performing the automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource further comprises ignoring available updates referenced by the stored recovery log records associated with the at least one physically inconsistent system resource after the physically consistent state is achieved.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising marking the at least one partially backed out system resource for verification.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising verifying physical integrity of the at least one partially backed out system resource prior to restart of the at least one partially backed out system resource.

7. The method of claim 6, where verifying the physical integrity of the at least one partially backed out system resource further comprises verifying that at least one of:

each memory index operator associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource references a valid storage location within a memory;

each memory storage location referenced by the at least one partially backed out system resource is accessible;

each configuration register value associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource represents a valid configuration value; and

each peripheral component associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource is in an appropriate state for startup of the at least one partially backed out system resource.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying physical integrity of any of the plurality of system resources other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource prior to restart.

9. A system, comprising:

a memory adapted to store resource recovery information; and

a processor programmed to;

identify, in response to failure of an application, at least one physically inconsistent system resource that was left in a physically inconsistent state as a result of the failure of the application from a plurality of system resources updated by the failed application based upon the stored resource recovery information;

ignore available backout operations for any of the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource; and

perform an automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource.

10. The system of claim 9, where the processor, in being programmed to identify, in response to failure of the application, the at least one of the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application that was left in the physically inconsistent state as the result of the failure of the application, is further programmed to:

identify a previous state of physical consistency for each of the plurality of system resources based at least upon stored recovery log records associated with each of the plurality of system resources;

determine, for each of the plurality of system resources, whether any pending application update operations are indicated by the stored recovery log records at the time of failure of the application; and

select the at least one physically inconsistent system resource based upon a determination that at least one pending application update operation caused the physically inconsistent state for the at least one physically inconsistent system resource.

11. The system of claim 9, where the processor, in being programmed to perform the automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource, is further programmed to perform available updates to the at least one physically inconsistent system resource referenced by stored recovery log records as previously initiated by the failed application to bring the at least one system physically inconsistent system resource to a physically consistent state.

12. The system of claim 11, where the processor, in being programmed to perform the automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource, is further programmed to ignore available updates referenced by the stored recovery log records associated with the at least one physically inconsistent system resource after the physically consistent state is achieved.

13. The system of claim 9, where the processor is further programmed to mark the at least one partially backed out system resource for verification.

14. The system of claim 13, where the processor is further programmed to verify physical integrity of the at least one partially backed out system resource prior to restart of the at least one partially backed out system resource.

15. The system of claim 14, where the processor, in being programmed to verify the physical integrity of the at least one partially backed out system resource further comprises verifying that at least one of:

each memory index operator associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource references a valid storage location within a memory associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource;

each memory storage location referenced by the at least one partially backed out system resource is accessible;

each configuration register value associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource represents a valid configuration value; and

each peripheral component associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource is in an appropriate state for startup of the at least one partially backed out system resource.

16. The system of claim 9, where the processor is further programmed to verify physical integrity of any of the plurality of system resources other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource prior to restart.

17. A system, comprising:

a memory adapted to store recovery log records for a plurality of system resources; and

a processor programmed to;

retrieve, in response to failure of an application, the recovery log records from the memory;

identify at least one physically inconsistent system resource that was left in a physically inconsistent state as a result of the failure of the application from the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application based upon the retrieved recovery log records;

ignore available backout operations for any of the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource;

perform an automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource by performing available updates to the at least one physically inconsistent system resource referenced by the retrieved recovery log records as previously initiated by the failed application to bring the at least one system physically inconsistent system resource to a physically consistent state;

ignore available updates referenced by the retrieved recovery log records associated with the at least one physically inconsistent system resource after the physically consistent state is achieved;

mark the at least one partially backed out system resource for verification;

verify physical integrity of the at least one partially backed out system resource prior to restart of the at least one partially backed out system resource; and

restart at least one of the application and the plurality of system resources.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium including a computer readable program, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

identify, in response to failure of an application, at least one physically inconsistent system resource that was left in a physically inconsistent state as a result of the failure of the application from a plurality of system resources updated by the failed application based upon the stored resource recovery information;

ignore available backout operations for any of the plurality of system resources updated by the failed application other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource; and

perform an automated partial backout of the at least one physically inconsistent system resource.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to:

identify a previous state of physical consistency for each of the plurality of system resources based at least upon stored recovery log records associated with each of the plurality of system resources;

determine, for each of the plurality of system resources, whether any pending application update operations are indicated by the stored recovery log records at the time of failure of the application; and

select the at least one physically inconsistent system resource based upon a determination that at least one pending application update operation caused the physically inconsistent state for the at least one physically inconsistent system resource.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to perform available updates to the at least one physically inconsistent system resource referenced by stored recovery log records as previously initiated by the failed application to bring the at least one system physically inconsistent system resource to a physically consistent state.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to ignore available updates referenced by the stored recovery log records associated with the at least one physically inconsistent system resource after the physically consistent state is achieved.

22. The computer program product of claim 18, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to mark the at least one partially backed out system resource for verification.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to verify physical integrity of the at least one partially backed out system resource prior to restart of the at least one partially backed out system resource.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to verifying, for the at least one partially backed out system resource, that at least one of:

each memory index operator associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource references a valid storage location within a memory associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource;

each memory storage location referenced by the at least one partially backed out system resource is accessible;

each configuration register value associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource represents a valid configuration value; and

each peripheral component associated with the at least one partially backed out system resource is in an appropriate state for startup of the at least one partially backed out system resource.

25. The computer program product of claim 18, where the computer readable program when executed on a computer further causes the computer to verify physical integrity of any of the plurality of system resources other than the at least one physically inconsistent system resource prior to restart.