STORING STATE OF DISTRIBUTED ARCHITECTURE IN EXTERNAL STORE

• US 20110231450A1
• Filed: 03/16/2010
• Published: 09/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sinha, Rishi Rakesh, Xun, Lu
• Granted Patent: US 8,307,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/802
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/256 in federated or virtual databases

Abstract

Architecture that applies to a collection of nodes (e.g., a federation) and manages membership of the nodes to the collection via an external datastore. The storage of node state and collection state is stored in the external and highly available datastore. New nodes can now join the collection through the external store. The machines (nodes) in the collection create a lease with the external store that allows the external store to maintain precise knowledge of the set of machines alive in the collection. The external store thus allows the new machines to join the collection while ensuring that there exists only one ring in the collection. In other words, the disclosed architecture protocol ensures that any given point of time there is just one ring for the collection. Moreover, this can be in addition to a current join protocol, which ensures that consistent routing is available.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented federation system having non-transitory computer readable media that store executable instructions executed by a processor, comprising:

a collection of nodes, one or more of the nodes leave the collection and new nodes attempt to join the collection to communicate messages with one or more other nodes of the collection; and

an external storage component that manages membership of the nodes to the collection and a new node that attempts to join the collection, the external storage component assigns a state to the new node based on membership status of other nodes.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the external storage component receives parameters from the new node in a request to join the collection and the external storage component determines if the new node is joined into the collection based on the parameters.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the external storage component applies state that to the new node that starts a new collection using the new node, joins the new node to the collection, or blocks the new node from joining the collection based on the parameters.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the new node attempts to join the collection via the external storage component rather than an alternative join mechanism.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the external storage component manages membership of the nodes in the collection according to leases established between the external storage component and each of the nodes, the leases allow the external storage component to determine which of the nodes is a member of the collection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a node removes itself from the collection if an associated lease is not renewed by the external storage component.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each node renews an associated lease maintained at the external storage component according to a predetermined time interval.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the external storage component drops a node from the collection that fails to renew an associated lease, as managed by the external storage component.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the collection is constrained as a single ring of the nodes.

10. A computer-implemented node management method executable via a processor and memory, comprising:

receiving node parameters at an external store in a join request from a new node attempting to join a collection of nodes;

comparing the parameters to lease information in the store to obtain compare results; and

managing join to the collection via the store based on the compare results.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving new node information, new node instance, new node state, and new node lease time as parameters in the join request.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising constraining the collection to a single federation ring based on the external store.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending a response from the external store to the new node indicating the new node can join the collection.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending a response from the external store to the new node indicating the new node can form a new collection.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising blocking join of the new node to the collection for a predetermined period of time.

16. A computer-implemented node management method executable via a processor and memory, comprising:

receiving node parameters in a join request at an external store from a new node attempting to join a collection of nodes;

comparing the parameters to collection information in the external store to obtain compare results;

managing join of the new node to the collection via the external store based on the compare results; and

managing membership in the collection based on leases maintained in the store.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving new node information, new node instance, new node state, and new node lease time in the join request.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising constraining the collection to a single ring based on the external store.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising sending a response from the external store to the new node, the response indicating the new node can join the collection, the new node can form a new ring or join of the new node to the collection is blocked for a predetermined period of time.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising updating the leases of the nodes at predetermined time intervals.