CLUSTER AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT

• US 20110173493A1
• Filed: 03/25/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wightwick, Glenn Rowan, Armstrong, William Joseph, Hsu, Yu-Cheng, Hartung, Michael Howard
• Granted Patent: US 10,394,672 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence

Abstract

A first logical partition in a first processing complex of a server cluster is operated in an active mode and a second logical partition in the processing complex is operated in a standby mode. Upon detection of a failure in a second processing complex of the server cluster. the standby mode logical partition in the first processing complex is activated to an active mode. In one embodiment, partition resources are transferred from an active mode logical partition to the logical partition activated from standby mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

operating a first logical partition in a first processing complex of a server cluster in an active mode and a second logical partition in the processing complex in a standby mode;

detecting a failure in a second processing complex of the server cluster; and

in response to said failure detection, activating the standby logical partition in the first processing complex to operate in an active mode.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

repairing said second processing complex; and

in response to said repair, quiescing the second logical partition to operate in a standby mode.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

subsequent to activating the second logical partition, transferring partition resources from the first logical partition to the second logical partition.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reducing the partition resources of the first logical partition; and

subsequent to activating the second logical partition, increasing the partition resources of the second logical partition.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, transferring partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reducing the partition resources of the second logical partition; and

subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, increasing the partition resources of the first logical partition.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transferring partition resources from the first logical partition to the activated second logical partition;

repairing said second processing complex;

subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, transferring partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition; and

quiescing the second logical partition to operate back in the standby mode.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said active mode operating includes providing access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in an active mode and wherein said standby mode operating includes denying access to said shared resource for a logical partition operating in a standby mode.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said shared resource includes data storage disk drives.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein said partition resources include processing, memory and input/output adapter resources.

11. A system, comprising:

a server cluster having a first processing complex and a second processing complex, said first processing complex having a first logical partition and a second logical partition, said server cluster having logic adapted to;

operate said first logical partition in an active mode and said second logical partition in a standby mode;

detect a failure in said second processing complex; and

in response to said failure detection, activate said second logical partition from said standby mode to operate in an active mode.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein said server cluster logic is further adapted to, in response to repair of the second processing complex, quiesce the second logical partition from the active mode to operate in a standby mode.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and said server cluster logic is further adapted to, subsequent to activation of the second logical partition, transfer partition resources from the first logical partition to the second logical partition.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and said server cluster logic is further adapted to:

reduce the partition resources of the first logical partition; and

subsequent to activation of the second logical partition, increase the partition resources of the second logical partition.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said second logical partition has partition resources and wherein said server cluster logic is further adapted to, subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, transfer partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said second logical partition has partition resources and wherein said server cluster logic is further adapted to:

reduce the partition resources of the second logical partition; and

subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, increase the partition resources of the first logical partition.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and said server cluster logic is further adapted to:

transfer partition resources from the first logical partition to the activated second logical partition;

subsequent to repair of the second processing complex, transfer partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition; and

quiesce the second logical partition from the active mode to operate back in the standby mode.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein said first processing complex has shared resources and wherein said active mode operating includes providing access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in an active mode and wherein said standby mode operating includes denying access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in a standby mode.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein said shared resource includes data storage disk drives.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein said partition resources include processing, memory and input/output adapter resources.

21. An article of manufacture, comprising:

code enabled to be executed by a system to perform operations, wherein the system has a server cluster having a first processing complex and a second processing complex, said first processing complex having a first logical partition and a second logical partition, and wherein the system executed operations comprise;

operating said first logical partition in an active mode and said second logical partition in a standby mode;

detecting a failure in said second processing complex; and

in response to said failure detection, activating said second logical partition from said standby mode to operate in an active mode.

22. The article of claim 21 and wherein said system executed operations further comprise, in response to repair of the second processing complex, quiescing the second logical partition from the active mode to operate in a standby mode.

23. The article of claim 21 wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and wherein said system executed operations further comprise, subsequent to activation of the second logical partition, transferring partition resources from the first logical partition to the second logical partition.

24. The article of claim 21, wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and wherein said system executed operations further comprise:

reducing the partition resources of the first logical partition; and

subsequent to activation of the second logical partition, increasing the partition resources of the second logical partition.

25. The article of claim 22, wherein said second logical partition has partition resources and wherein said system executed operations further comprise, subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, transferring partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition.

26. The article of claim 21, wherein said second logical partition has partition resources and wherein said system executed operations further comprise:

reducing the partition resources of the second logical partition; and

subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, increasing the partition resources of the first logical partition.

27. The article of claim 21 wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and wherein said system executed operations further comprise:

transferring partition resources from the first logical partition to the activated second logical partition;

subsequent to repair of the second processing complex, transferring partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition; and

quiescing the second logical partition from the active mode to operate back in the standby mode.

28. The article of claim 21, wherein said first processing complex has shared resources and wherein said active mode operating includes providing access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in an active mode and wherein said standby mode operating includes denying access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in a standby mode.

29. The article of claim 28 wherein said shared resource includes data storage disk drives.

30. The article of claim 23 wherein said partition resources include processing, memory and input/output adapter resources.

31. A method for deploying computing instructions, comprising:

integrating computer-readable code into a system, wherein the system has a server cluster having a first processing complex and a second processing complex, said first processing complex having a first logical partition and a second logical partition, and wherein the code in combination with the system is enabled to cause the system to perform;

operating said first logical partition in an active mode and said second logical partition in a standby mode;

detecting a failure in said second processing complex; and

in response to said failure detection, activating said second logical partition from said standby mode to operate in an active mode.

32. The method of claim 31 and wherein the code in combination with the system is further enabled to cause the system to perform, in response to repair of the second processing complex, quiescing the second logical partition from the active mode to operate in a standby mode.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and wherein the code in combination with the system is further enabled to cause the system to perform, subsequent to activation of the second logical partition, transferring partition resources from the first logical partition to the second logical partition.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and wherein the code in combination with the system is further enabled to cause the system to perform:

reducing the partition resources of the first logical partition; and

subsequent to activation of the second logical partition, increasing the partition resources of the second logical partition.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein said second logical partition has partition resources and wherein the code in combination with the system is further enabled to cause the system to perform, subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, transferring partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition.

36. The method of claim 31, wherein said second logical partition has partition resources and wherein the code in combination with the system is further enabled to cause the system to perform:

reducing the partition resources of the second logical partition; and

subsequent to the repair of the second processing complex, increasing the partition resources of the first logical partition.

37. The method of claim 31 wherein said first logical partition has partition resources, and wherein the code in combination with the system is further enabled to cause the system to perform:

transferring partition resources from the first logical partition to the activated second logical partition;

subsequent to repair of the second processing complex, transferring partition resources from the second logical partition to the first logical partition; and

quiescing the second logical partition from the active mode to operate back in the standby mode.

38. The method of claim 31, wherein said first processing complex has shared resources and wherein said active mode operating includes providing access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in an active mode and wherein said standby mode operating includes denying access to a shared resource for a logical partition operating in a standby mode.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein said shared resource includes data storage disk drives.

40. The method of claim 33 wherein said partition resources include processing, memory and input/output adapter resources.