SERVER CLUSTERING IN A COMPUTING-ON-DEMAND SYSTEM

• US 20120117241A1
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Witt, Emily Katherine, Cooke, Richard, Everhart, William Thomas Jr., Patel, Jinendrakumar, Kumar, Vijay
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,238 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/203 using migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing

Abstract

A device may provision two or more servers, each of the servers including a first network interface. In addition, the device may enable a second network interface in each of the provisioned servers, create a shared volume, assign the shared volume to each of the provisioned servers, and enable a clustering application on each of the provisioned servers to form a cluster comprising the provisioned servers, the cluster having a heartbeat via the second network interfaces.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

provisioning two or more servers, each of the servers including a first network interface;

enabling a second network interface in each of the provisioned servers;

creating a shared volume;

assigning the shared volume to each of the provisioned servers; and

enabling a clustering application on each of the provisioned servers to form a cluster comprising the provisioned servers, the cluster having a heartbeat via the second network interfaces.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein provisioning the two or more servers includes:

provisioning virtual servers;

or

provisioning physical servers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the shared volume includes:

creating a quorum disk.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing a first server of the provisioned servers in a standby mode; and

placing a second server of the provisioned servers in an active mode.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

activating the first server when the second server fails.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

preventing the second server from writing to the shared volume after the second server fails.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein preventing the second server from writing includes:

powering down the second server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the shared volume includes:

mapping the shared volume to one of the provisioned servers;

rescanning the shared volume at the one of the provisioned servers; and

formatting the shared volume at the one of the provisioned servers.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

mounting the shared volume at a mount point on the one of the provisioned servers; and

recording the mount point and an identifier for the shared volume in a file system table (FSTAB) on the one of the provisioned servers.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user request for the cluster to be provisioned.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to provision the cluster;

generating a job in to be performed,

storing the job in a database,

wherein the job includes instructions for one or more devices to provision the cluster.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a cluster name;

reserving an Internet Protocol (IP) address for the cluster at a network device; and

registering the cluster name and the IP address at a domain name server.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising de-provisioning the cluster.

14. A system comprising:

first logic to;

generate a job for provisioning a cluster; and

place the job in a database; and

second logic to drive an execution of the job in the database, the job comprising instructions for one or more of devices in the system to;

provision two servers, each of the two servers including a first network interface;

enable a second network interface in each of the provisioned servers;

create a shared volume;

assign the shared volume to each of the provisioned servers; and

create a cluster from the provisioned servers, the cluster having a heartbeat over the second network interfaces.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a portal device to receive a user request to provision the cluster, from a client application on a remote device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the client application includes a browser.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the first logic is configured to instantiate at least one of:

a cluster object that corresponds to the cluster in the system;

an application object that represents an application in the system;

or

a storage volume object that represents a storage volume in the system.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a power control device for fencing one of the two servers when the one of the two servers fails.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the two servers include:

virtual servers or physical servers.

20. Computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions for causing one or more processors to:

provision two or more devices, each of the devices including a first network interface;

enable a second network interface in each of the provisioned devices;

create a quorum disk;

assign a logical volume associated with the quorum disk to each of the provisioned devices,

install a clustering application on each of the provisioned devices, and

enable the clustering application and a heartbeat between the provisioned devices via the second network interfaces in the provisioned devices.