REMOTE PROCEDURE CALL FOR A DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM

• US 20140067924A1
• Filed: 11/06/2013
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Anantharam, Sushma, Ghosh, Nirapada, Kamath, Dayavanti Gopal, Kamble, Keshav Govind, Leu, Dar-Ren, Mendon, Chandarani J., Peethambaram, Nandakumar, Pandey, Viojy A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,804,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]

Abstract

A distributed system includes first-tier entities, and a master entity in communication with each first-tier entity. The master entity provides a single access point through which an administrator can submit commands to manage all entities. The master entity maintains a table of virtual slots. Each virtual slot points to one of the first-tier entities, and each first-tier entity is pointed to by at least one virtual slot. The processor runs an RPC (remote procedure call) client to submit RPC requests to the first-tier entities, and determines a destination first-tier entity for a given RPC request in response to which virtual slot the administrator submits a command. The distributed system can include second-tier entities, each indirectly communicating with the master entity through a first-tier entity. The table has a virtual slot for each second-tier entity, which points to the first-tier entity acting as proxy for the second-tier entity.

Claims

1. A method of managing a distributed system, comprising:

determining, by a master entity, a number of entities in the distributed system to be managed through the master entity, the number of entities including a plurality of first-tier entities in communication with the master entity and zero, one, or more second-tier entities in indirect communication with the master entity through one of the first-tier entities;

assigning, by the master entity, a virtual slot for each first-tier entity and for each second-tier entity in the distributed system, each virtual slot identifying one of the first-tier entities as a destination entity for requests sent to that virtual slot;

receiving, by the master entity, a request from a management station to submit a command to manage a given one of the entities in the distributed system;

determining, by the master entity, one of the virtual slots associated with the request received from the management station; and

sending, by the master entity, an RPC (remote procedure call) request to the first-tier entity identified by the virtual slot.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving, by the first-tier entity identified by the virtual slot, the RPC request from the master entity;

determining, by the first-tier entity, a virtual slot number from the RPC request;

determining, by the first-tier entity, in response to the virtual slot number, whether to perform a function call requested by the RPC request or to forward a request to perform the function call to a second-tier entity for which the first-tier entity acts as an RPC proxy.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first-tier entity identified by the virtual slot, the RPC request from the master entity;

determining, by the first-tier entity, a virtual slot number from the RPC request;

determining, by the first-tier entity, in response to the virtual slot number, to forward a request to perform the function call to a second-tier entity for which the first-tier entity acts as an RPC proxy.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing, by the master entity, a communication session with the management station during which the master entity receives the request.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating, by the master entity, over an Ethernet link with the first-tier entity identified by the virtual slot.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each entity is a switch.

7. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a first-tier entity, an RPC request from a master entity in communication with the first-tier entity over a communication network;

determining, by the first-tier entity, a virtual slot number from the RPC request;

determining, by the first-tier entity, in response to the virtual slot number, whether to perform a function call requested by the RPC request or to forward a request to perform the function call to a second-tier entity for which the first-tier entity is an RPC proxy.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, by the first-tier entity, a reply from the second-tier entity to the request; and

sending, by the first-tier entity, an RPC reply to the master entity in response to the reply received from the second-tier entity.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising managing, by the first-tier entity, a control plane of the second-tier entity.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein each entity is a switch.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first-tier entity receives the RPC request from the master entity over an Ethernet link.