METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING A SHARED DATA STORE FOR PEER DISCOVERY

• US 20120221636A1
• Filed: 02/28/2011
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Surtani, Manik, Ban, Bela
• Granted Patent: US 9,712,340 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1061 using node-based peer discovery mechanisms static access to replicated servers H04L67/1006; service discovery H04L67/51
• 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 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding

Abstract

After acquiring a network address, a computing device accesses a shared data store and writes the network address to the shared data store. The computing device additionally reads a plurality of network addresses from the shared data store, wherein the plurality of network addresses are for a plurality of nodes that are members of a peer-to-peer system. The computing device then joins the peer-to-peer system based on communicating with the plurality of nodes using the plurality of network addresses.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

writing a network address for a machine to a shared data store;

reading a plurality of network addresses from the shared data store, wherein the plurality of network addresses are for a plurality of nodes that are members of a peer-to-peer system; and

joining the peer-to-peer system based on communicating with the plurality of nodes using the plurality of network addresses.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically querying the shared data store to determine whether any new network addresses for new nodes have been added to the shared data store; and

if new network addresses for new nodes have been added to the shared data store, updating a membership data structure maintained by the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a membership data structure having entries for the plurality of network addresses;

querying at least one node of the plurality of nodes for an additional membership data structure maintained by the at least one node; and

updating the membership data structure based on the additional membership data structure.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an error message indicating that at least one of the writing or the reading was unsuccessful;

multicasting the network address on a network in response to receiving the error message; and

receiving the plurality of network addresses from the plurality of nodes in response to multicasting the network address.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared data store is a container in a storage cloud, and wherein the computing device is preconfigured with a network address for the container.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared data store is a directory in a network storage device, and wherein the computing device is preconfigured with a network address for the directory.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing credentials for access to the shared data store; and

obtaining access to the shared data store in response to providing the credentials.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the machine operates in a cloud computing platform, and wherein multicast is disabled for the cloud computing platform.

9. A computer readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method comprising:

writing a network address for a machine to a shared data store;

reading a plurality of network addresses from the shared data store, wherein the plurality of network addresses are for a plurality of nodes that are members of a peer-to-peer system; and

joining the peer-to-peer system based on communicating with the plurality of nodes using the plurality of network addresses.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

periodically querying the shared data store to determine whether any new network addresses for new nodes have been added to the shared data store; and

if new network addresses for new nodes have been added to the shared data store, updating a membership data structure maintained by the computing device.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

storing a membership data structure having entries for the plurality of network addresses;

querying at least one node of the plurality of nodes for an additional membership data structure maintained by the at least one node; and

updating the membership data structure based on the additional membership data structure.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

receiving an error message indicating that at least one of the writing or the reading was unsuccessful;

multicasting the network address on a network in response to receiving the error message; and

receiving the plurality of network addresses from the plurality of nodes in response to multicasting the network address.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the shared data store is a container in a storage cloud, and wherein the computing device is preconfigured with a network address for the container.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the shared data store is a directory in a network storage device, and wherein the computing device is preconfigured with a network address for the directory.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

providing credentials for access to the shared data store; and

obtaining access to the shared data store in response to providing the credentials.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the machine operates in a cloud computing platform, and wherein multicast is disabled for the cloud computing platform.

17. A computing device comprising:

a memory to store instructions for a peer-to-peer system joiner; and

a processing device to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processing device to;

write a network address for the computing device to a shared data store;

read a plurality of network addresses from the shared data store, wherein the plurality of network addresses are for a plurality of nodes that are members of a peer-to-peer system; and

join the peer-to-peer system based on communicating with the plurality of nodes using the plurality of network addresses.

18. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising the instructions to cause the processing device to:

periodically query the shared data store to determine whether any new network addresses for new nodes have been added to the shared data store; and

update a membership data structure maintained by the computing device if new network addresses for new nodes have been added to the shared data store.

19. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising the instructions to cause the processing device to:

store a membership data structure having entries for the plurality of network addresses;

query at least one node of the plurality of nodes for an additional membership data structure maintained by the at least one node; and

update the membership data structure based on the additional membership data structure.

20. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising the instructions to cause the processing device to:

receive an error message indicating that at least one of the writing or the reading was unsuccessful;

multicast the network address on a network in response to receiving the error message; and

receive the plurality of network addresses from the plurality of nodes in response to multicasting the network address.

21. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the shared data store is a container in a storage cloud, and wherein the computing device is preconfigured with a network address for the container.

22. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the shared data store is a directory in a network storage device, and wherein the computing device is preconfigured with a network address for the directory.

23. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the computing device operates in a cloud computing platform, and wherein multicast is disabled for the cloud computing platform.