SELF-HEALING USING A VIRTUAL BOOT DEVICE

• US 20140281453A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: FRIEDMAN, Alex, GAVRILOV, Constantine
• Granted Patent: US 9,959,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/32 Means for saving power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs

Abstract

Apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that enable a computer system comprising networked computers to self-heal from a boot failure of one of the computers. In some embodiments, upon detecting a first computer having a memory and a physical boot device failing to successfully load a boot image, a second computer defines a virtual boot device in communication with the first computer and the second computer and having a boot image for the first computer. Subsequent to defining the virtual boot device, the second computer can configure the first computer to boot from the virtual boot device.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a first computer having a memory and a physical boot device; and

a second computer arranged to define a virtual boot device in communication with the first and the second computer and having a boot image for the first computer, and to configure the first computer to boot from the virtual boot device.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein upon power cycling the first computer, the first computer is configured to load the boot image from the virtual boot device to a software stack in the memory.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first computer is configured to save the software stack to the physical boot device, and to arrange the first computer to boot from the physical boot device.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the boot image comprises one or more components that the first computer is configured to select from a list comprising an operating system kernel, a service, and a software application.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, and comprising a memory, and wherein the first computer is configured to load the boot image by retrieving the one or more software components from the boot image, to store the retrieved one or more components to a software stack in the memory, and to execute the one or more components in the software stack.

15. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the second computer is configured to define the virtual boot device in response to detecting a failure of the first computer.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the second computer is configured to detect the failure by conveying a request to the first computer and not receiving a response to the request.

17. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the second computer is arranged to configure the first computer by storing a boot loader and the boot image to the virtual boot device, mapping the virtual boot device to the first computer, and arranging the first computer to load the boot loader from the virtual boot device upon the power cycling, the boot loader configured to load the boot image.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the virtual boot device comprises a logical volume on a storage device coupled to the first and the second computer, and configured to store the boot loader and the boot image.

19. 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 define a virtual boot device having a boot image for a first computer having a memory and a physical boot device, the virtual boot device in communication with the first computer and the second computer; and

computer readable program code configured to arrange the first computer to boot from the virtual boot device.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, and comprising computer readable program code configured to load, upon power cycling the first computer, the boot image from the virtual boot device to a software stack in the memory, computer readable program code configured to save the software stack to the physical boot device, and computer readable program code configured to arrange the first computer to boot from the physical boot device.