Distributed Multi-System Management

• US 20120198482A1
• Filed: 01/27/2011
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines SA (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Klein, Arnon Henn
• Granted Patent: US 8,789,072 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4806 Task transfer initiation or dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• 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]

Abstract

A method, including arranging multiple digital information devices having respective memories to communicate within a network, and assigning within each of a subset of the respective memories a respective memory region dedicated only to management of a respective subgroup of the multiple devices, the subset and the subgroup each having a cardinality of at least two. The multiple digital information devices are then managed by exchanging information stored in the respective memory regions among the digital information devices over the network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

arranging multiple digital information devices having respective memories to communicate within a network;

assigning within each of a subset of the respective memories a respective memory region dedicated only to management of a respective subgroup of the multiple devices, the subset and the subgroup each having a cardinality of at least two; and

managing the multiple digital information devices by exchanging information stored in the respective memory regions among the digital information devices over the network.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the digital information devices comprise storage controllers.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the subset comprises memories of monitoring nodes configured to manage the multiple digital information devices.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein managing the multiple digital information devices comprises updating, by the monitoring nodes, a distributed database.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein updating the distributed database comprises:

determining a state of one of the networked digital information devices; and

storing the determined state to the distributed database.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the steps of determining the state and storing the determined state are repeated for each of the networked digital information devices.

7. The method according to claim 4, and comprising:

executing, by the monitoring nodes, remote procedure call (RPC) server applications configured to process queries for the distributed database; and

executing, by a management computer coupled to the network, a RPC client application configured to convey the queries to the RPC servers.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein processing the queries comprises:

receiving, from the RPC client application, a request for information stored in the distributed database;

retrieving, by one of the RPC server applications, the requested information from the distributed database; and

conveying the requested information to the RPC client application.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

multiple digital information devices arranged on a network and having respective memories;

a subset of the respective memories each having a respective memory region assigned to manage a respective subgroup of the multiple digital information devices, the subset and the subgroup each having a cardinality of at least two; and

a separate processor coupled to each of the respective memories and configured to manage the multiple digital information devices by exchanging information stored in the respective memory regions among the digital information devices over the network.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the digital information devices comprise storage controllers.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the subset comprises memories of monitoring nodes configured to manage the multiple digital information devices.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the monitoring nodes are configured to manage the multiple digital information devices by updating a distributed database.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the monitoring nodes are configured to update the distributed database by determining a state of one of the networked digital information devices, and storing the determined state to the distributed database.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring nodes are configured to repeat the steps of determining the state and storing the determined state for each of the networked digital information devices.

15. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the monitoring nodes are configured to execute remote procedure call (RPC) server applications configured to process queries for the distributed database, and wherein a management computer coupled to the network is configured to execute a RPC client application configured to convey the queries.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the RPC server applications are configured to process the queries by receiving, from the RPC client application, a request for information stored in the distributed database, retrieving the requested information from the distributed database, and conveying the requested information to the RPC client application.

17. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to assign within each of a subset of respective memories of digital information devices arranged to communicate on a network, a respective memory region dedicated only to management of a respective subgroup of the multiple digital information devices, the subset and the subgroup each having a cardinality of at least two; and

computer readable program code configured to manage the multiple digital information devices by exchanging information stored in the respective memory regions among the digital information devices over the network.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the digital information devices comprise storage controllers.

19. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the subset comprises memories of monitoring nodes configured to manage the multiple digital information devices.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to manage the multiple digital information devices by updating a distributed database.

21. The computer program product according to claim 20, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to update the distributed database by determining a state of one of the networked digital information devices, and storing the determined state to the distributed database.

22. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to repeat, for each of the networked digital information devices, the steps of determining the state and storing the determined state.

23. The computer program product according to claim 20, and comprising:

computer readable program code configured to execute remote procedure call (RPC) server applications configured to process queries for the distributed database; and

computer readable program code configured to execute a RPC client application configured to convey the queries.

24. The computer program product according to claim 23, wherein processing the queries comprises computer readable program code configured to receive, from the RPC client application, a request for information stored in the distributed database, to retrieve the requested information from the distributed database, and to convey the requested information to the RPC client application.