SVC CLUSTER CONFIGURATION NODE FAILOVER SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20110078490A1
• Filed: 09/22/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: ZHANG, Jun Wei, HE, Hao, SUN, Ling
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,600 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2007 using redundant communication media
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2017 where memory access, memory control or I/O control functionality is redundant redundant communication control functionality G06F11/2005; redundant storage control functionality G06F11/2089
• 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 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2089 Redundant storage control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/85 Active fault masking without idle spares active fault masking without idle spare hardware where processing functionality is redundant G06F11/2035
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for failover responses to configuration node failures in SVC clusters. An SVC cluster manages a plurality of storage devices and includes a plurality of SVCs interconnected via a network, each SVC acting as a separate node. A new configuration node is activated in response to configuration node failures. The new configuration node retrieves client subscription information about events occurring in storage devices managed by the SVC cluster from the storage devices. In response to events occurring in the storage device managed by the SVC cluster, the new configuration node obtains storage device event information from a storage device event monitoring unit. The new configuration node sends storage device events to clients who have subscribed to this information according to subscription information obtained. The storage device is not installed in the original configuration node. This method allows complete transparency of the configuration node failover process to clients.

Claims

1. A failover method for responding to configuration node failures in a SAN Volume Controller (SVC) cluster, wherein the SVC cluster manages a plurality of storage devices and comprises a plurality of SVCs interconnected via the internet, each SVC acting as a separate node, and at any given time, only one node within the SVC cluster functions as a configuration node to operate external services, the method comprising:

activating a new configuration node in response to failures of an original configuration node;

obtaining client subscription information related to storage device events managed by the SVC cluster from the plurality of storage devices with the new configuration node, wherein the plurality of storage devices are not in the original configuration node;

retrieving the storage device events from a storage device event monitoring unit with the new configuration node in response to the storage device events occurring in the plurality of storage devices managed by the SVC cluster; and

sending storage device events to subscribed clients with the new configuration node based on obtained subscription information.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storage device event monitoring unit is in a node other than the original configuration node of the SVC cluster.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising saving with the original configuration node a storage device event log in the plurality of storage devices.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein any of the entries in the storage device event log contains at least the following information:

an event code;

an event description; and

whether the event has been handled or not.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the saving of the storage device event log in the plurality of storage devices with the original configuration node comprises:

with the original configuration node, making an entry in said event log every time the original configuration node receives a storage device event and setting the entry to NO for whether the event has been handled or not; and

with the original configuration node, setting the entry to YES for whether the event has been handled or not after the original configuration node notifies the respective subscribed clients about the storage device events the original configuration node receives.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

with the new configuration node, searching for entries that are set to NO for whether the event has been handled or not in the storage device event log after activation;

searching for subscribed clients who have subscribed to events corresponding to all the records based on the stored subscription information; and

sending the corresponding events to clients who have subscribed to these events.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein any of the entries in the storage device event log contains at least the following information:

an event code;

an event description; and

a time of event occurrence.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

with the original configuration node, making an entry in the storage device event log every time the original configuration node receives a storage device event and recording the time at which the event occurs for the time of event occurrence.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

recording the time at which the failure of the original configuration node occurs in response to a failure of the original configuration node;

recording successful activation of the new configuration node in response to a successful activation of the new configuration node;

determining which events in the storage device event log occurred between the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node based on the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node;

searching for subscribed clients for the events that occurred between the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node based on the subscription information stored in the storage device; and

sending the corresponding events to the subscribed clients for the events that occurred between the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node.

10. A failover system for responding to configuration node failures in a SAN Volume Controller (SVC) cluster, the SVC cluster manages a plurality of storage devices and comprises a plurality of SVCs interconnected via the internet, each SVC acting as a separate node, and at any given time, only one node within the SVC cluster functions as a configuration node to operate external services, the system comprises:

an activation unit to activate new configuration node in response to node failures of the original configuration node;

a storage device to store clients'"'"' subscription information regarding storage device events managed by the SVC cluster, and the storage device is not in the original configuration node;

a storage device event monitoring unit to monitor storage devices managed by the SVC cluster;

a first retrieval unit to enable the new configuration node to retrieve subscription information from the storage devices;

a second retrieval unit to enable the new configuration node to retrieve storage device event from the storage device event monitoring unit; and

a submission device to enable the new configuration node to send storage device events to subscribed clients based on the subscription information.

11. The failover system according to claim 10, wherein the storage device event monitoring unit is in a node other than the original configuration node of the SVC cluster.

12. The failover system according to claim 11, wherein the storage device is also used to store event log information of the original configuration node.

13. The failover system according to claim 12, wherein any of the entries in the storage device event log contains at least the following information:

an event code;

an event description; and

whether the event been handled or not.

14. The failover system according to claim 13, wherein the storage device event monitoring unit of the original configuration node makes an entry in the event log every time the storage device event monitoring unit receives a storage device event and sets the entry to NO for whether the event been handled or not and sets the entry to YES for whether the event has been handled or not after the notification interface of the original configuration node notifies the respective subscribed clients.

15. The failover system according to claims 14, wherein following the activation of the new configuration node, the new configuration node searches for all the entries which have been set to NO for whether the event has been handled or not, searches for the subscribed clients who have subscribed to events corresponding to the entries which have been set to NO for whether the event has been handled or not based on the subscription information, and sends the corresponding events to the respective subscribed clients.

16. The failover system according to claim 12, wherein any of the entries in the storage device event log contains at least the following information:

an event code;

an event description; and

a time of event occurrence.

17. The failover system according to claim 16, wherein the storage device event monitoring unit of the original configuration node makes an entry in the event log every time the storage device event monitoring unit receives a storage device event and records the time at which the event occurred for the time of event occurrence.

18. The failover system according to claim 17, wherein

when the activation unit monitors the failure of the original configuration node, the activation unit records the time at which failure of the original configuration node occurs,

the new configuration node records the successful activation time of the new configuration node following successful activation of the new configuration node, and

the new configuration node determines which events in the storage device event log occurred between the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node based on the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node and searches for subscribed clients for the events that occurred between the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node based on the subscription information stored in the storage device and the corresponding events to the subscribed clients for the events that occurred between the failure time of the original configuration node and the successful activation time of the new configuration node.

19. A computer program product for responding to configuration node failures in a SAN Volume Controller (SVC) cluster, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

a first executable portion for activating a new configuration node in response to failures of an original configuration node;

a second executable portion for obtaining with the new configuration node client subscription information related to storage device events managed by the SVC cluster from a plurality of storage devices managed by the SVC, wherein the plurality of storage device are not in the original configuration node;

a third executable portion for retrieving with the new configuration node the storage device events from a storage device event monitoring unit in response to the storage device events occurring in the plurality of storage devices managed by the SVC cluster; and

a fourth executable portion for sending storage device events to subscribed clients with the new configuration node based on obtained subscription information.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein the storage device event monitoring unit is in a node other than the original configuration node of the SVC cluster.

21. The computer program product according to claim 20, further comprising a fifth executable portion for saving with the original configuration node a storage device event log in the plurality of storage devices.

22. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein any of the entries in the storage device event log contains at least the following information:

an event code;

an event description; and

whether the event has been handled or not.

23. The computer program product according to claim 22, wherein the saving of the storage device event log in the plurality of storage devices with the original configuration node comprises:

with the original configuration node, making an entry in said event log every time the original configuration node receives a storage device event and setting the entry to NO for whether the event has been handled or not; and

with the original configuration node, setting the entry to YES for whether the event has been handled or not after the original configuration node notifies the respective subscribed clients about the storage device events the original configuration node receives.

24. The computer program product according to claim 23, further comprising:

a sixth executable portion for searching for entries that are set to NO for whether the event has been handled or not in the storage device event log after activation with the new configuration node;

a seventh executable portion for searching for subscribed clients who have subscribed to events corresponding to all the records based on the stored subscription information; and

an eighth executable portion for sending the corresponding events to clients who have subscribed to these events.

25. The computer program product according to claim 24, wherein any of the entries in the storage device event log contains at least the following information:

an event code;

an event description; and

a time of event occurrence.