METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPLEMENTING A SCALABLE, HIGH-PERFORMANCE, FAULT-TOLERANT LOCKING MECHANISM IN A MULTI-PROCESS ENVIRONMENT

• US 20100257404A1
• Filed: 04/04/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Saha, Rakesh, Singh, Atul, Patel, Ashwin, Joshi, Maneesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,578,218 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0757 by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs
• 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 11/1474 in transactions G06F16/20 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

Described is an improved method, system, and computer program product for preventing concurrent access and processing of data by multiple threads. The inventive approach may be applied to prevent concurrent access in resequencers.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring the health of a processing entity in a computing system, comprising:

initializing the processing entity with the computing system;

associating a time point with the processing entity in the computing system;

attempting to refresh the time point for the processing entity;

checking the time point for the processing entity to see if the time point was refreshed within a designated threshold time period, wherein failure to refresh the time point within the designated time period provides an indication of an error relative to the processing entity, and

displaying results of analyzing the time point for the processing entity or storing the results in a computer readable medium.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the time point comprises a timestamp.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the processing entity comprises a process, thread, or container.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing error handling to address failure of the processing entity.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the error handling comprises releasing locks held by the processing entity or rolling back uncommitted operations performed by the processing entity.

6. The method of claim 5 in which a database column is employed as a lock, wherein an identifier for the processing entity is inserted into the database column to implement the lock upon a resource associated with a row corresponding to the lock.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the processing entity is initialized by creating a unique identifier for the processing entity.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the unique identifier and the time point are inserted into a database table that is used to track initialized processing entities.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the processing entity comprises a thread that performs the act of refreshing the time point and checking time points for other processing entities.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the processing entity performs resequencing operations upon a group of messages.

11. The method of claim 1 in which multiple data items are locked to amortize costs of database operations.

12. The method of claim 1 in which locking and processing of data are performed in separate transactions.

13. The method of claim 12 in which database locks are aquired in a first transaction and application processing is performed in a second transaction.

14. A computer program product that includes a computer readable medium, the computer readable medium comprising a plurality of computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a process for monitoring the health of a processing entity in a computing system, the process comprising:

initializing the processing entity with the computing system;

associating a time point with the processing entity in the computing system;

attempting to refresh the time point for the processing entity; and

checking the time point for the processing entity to see if the time point was refreshed within a designated threshold time period, wherein failure to refresh the time point within the designated time period provides an indication of an error relative to the processing entity.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 in which the time point comprises a timestamp.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 in which the processing entity comprises a process, thread, or container.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 further comprising performing error handling to address failure of the processing entity.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 in which the error handling comprises releasing locks held by the processing entity or rolling back uncommitted operations performed by the processing entity.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 in which a database column is employed as a lock, wherein an identifier for the processing entity is inserted into the database column to implement the lock upon a resource associated with a row corresponding to the lock.

20. The computer program product of claim 14 in which the processing entity is initialized by creating a unique identifier for the processing entity.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 in which the unique identifier and the time point are inserted into a database table that is used to track initialized processing entities.

22. The computer program product of claim 14 in which the processing entity comprises a thread that performs the act of refreshing the time point and checking time points for other processing entities.

23. The computer program product of claim 14 in which the processing entity performs resequencing operations upon a group of messages.

24. The computer program product of claim 14 in which multiple data items are locked to amortize costs of database operations.

25. The computer program product of claim 14 in which locking and processing of data are performed in separate transactions.

26. The computer program product of claim 25 in which database locks are aquired in a first transaction and application processing is performed in a second transaction.

27. A system for monitoring the health of a processing entity in a computing system, comprising:

a processor capable of executing a sequence of computing instructions;

a computer readable storage medium comprising a first storage structure to store information about processing entities, wherein the information about processing entities comprises a time point associated with the processing entity, wherein the time point is refreshed for the processing entity on a regular time period such that failure to refresh the time point within the designated time period provides an indication of an error relative to the processing entity.

28. The system of claim 27 in which the time point comprises a timestamp.

29. The system of claim 27 in which the processing entity comprises a process, thread, or container.

30. The system of claim 27 in which error handling is addressed to address failure of the processing entity.

31. The system of claim 30 in which the error handling comprises releasing locks held by the processing entity or rolling back uncommitted operations performed by the processing entity.

32. The system of claim 31 in which a database column is employed as a lock, wherein an identifier for the processing entity is inserted into the database column to implement the lock upon a resource associated with a row corresponding to the lock.

33. The system of claim 27 in which the processing entity is initialized by creating a unique identifier for the processing entity.

34. The system of claim 33 in which the unique identifier and the time point are inserted into a database table that is used to track initialized processing entities.

35. The system of claim 27 in which the processing entity comprises a thread that performs the act of refreshing the time point and checking time points for other processing entities.

36. The system of claim 27 in which the processing entity performs resequencing operations upon a group of messages.

37. The system of claim 27 in which multiple data items are locked to amortize costs of database operations.

38. The system of claim 27 in which locking and processing of data are performed in separate transactions.

39. The system of claim 38 in which database locks are aquired in a first transaction and application processing is performed in a second transaction.