TRANSPARENT FAILOVER

• US 20140372521A1
• Filed: 09/02/2014
• Published: 12/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: George, Mathew, Kruse, David M., Pinkerton, James T., Battepati, Roopesh C., Jolly, Tom, Swan, Paul R., Shang, Mingdong, Lovinger, Daniel Edward
• Granted Patent: US 9,462,039 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1443 Transmit or communication errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding

Abstract

Described are embodiments directed at persistent handles that are used to retain state across network failures and server failovers. Persistent handles are requested by a client after a session has been established with a file server. The request for the persistent handle includes a handle identifier generated by the client. The server uses the handle identifier to associate with state information. When there is a network failure or a server failover, and a reconnection to the client, the handle identifier is used to identify replayed requests that if replayed would create an inconsistent state on the server. The replayed requests are then appropriately handled.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of providing consistent availability to clients accessing a shared file system on a server cluster, the method comprising:

receiving at a file server a request to connect to the file server to access file information in a shared file system, the first request being formatted according to a file access protocol, wherein the file server is one of a plurality of servers in a server cluster;

sending a response from the file server, the response establishing a session with a client for allowing access to file information in the shared file system, the response being formatted according to the file access protocol;

receiving a request at the file server to open a persistent handle on the file server for accessing a file in the shared file system by the client, the request including a handle identifier provided by the client;

in response to receiving the request, the file server;

storing first state information about the session in association with the handle identifier; and

sending a response to the client granting access to the file;

after a client disconnect, receiving a request to reestablish the session using the persistent handle; and

reestablishing the session using the first state information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first state information comprises state of an operation that if resent by the client causes the file server to end up in an inconsistent state.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the file access protocol is a version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first state information comprises state of one or more of:

byte range locks held by the client and create operations sent by the client.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

before the client disconnect, registering with a resume filter to store second state information regarding the session.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second state information comprises state of one or more of:

leases held by the client and opens held by the client.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the reestablishing the session further comprises using the second state information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the reestablishing the session, receiving a new request from the client, the request including the handle identifier.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining, using the handle identifier, that the new request is a replay of a previously sent request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the client disconnect occurs because of a failure of the file server and the reestablishing the connection is performed by a second file server in the server cluster.

11. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method of maintaining consistent state, the method comprising:

sending a request by a client to connect to a server to access file information, the request being formatted according to a file access protocol;

receiving a response from the server, the response establishing a session with the client for allowing access to file information on the server, the response being formatted according to the file access protocol;

sending a request to open a persistent handle on the server for accessing a file on the server by the client, the request including a handle identifier provided by the client;

receiving a response at the client granting access to the file;

detecting that the client has been disconnected from the server;

sending a request to reestablish the session using the persistent handle, the request to reestablish the session including the handle identifier;

determining that the session has been reestablished; and

sending a new request.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the server is one of a plurality of servers in a server cluster, and the disconnection occurs because of a failure of the server, wherein the reestablishing the session is performed by a second server of the plurality of servers in the server cluster.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the file access protocol is a version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein after the session is reestablished, determining that the new request is a replay of a previously sent request.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the new request comprises the handle identifier and is a replay of a request for one or more of:

a byte range lock held by the client before the disconnection and a create request sent by the client before the disconnection.

16. A system for providing consistent availability of file information, the system comprising:

a first server comprising;

at least one processor configured to execute computer executable instructions;

at least one computer readable storage media storing the computer executable instructions that when executed by the at least one processor provide;

a first file server configured to;

receive a request to open a persistent handle for accessing a file on the first file server by a client, the request including a handle identifier provided by the client;

store first state information in association with the handle identifier;

register with a resume key filter to store second state information in association with a resume key; and

send a response to the client granting access to the file;

the resume key filter configured to;

receive a registration request from the first file server;

store the second state information with the resume key; and

send the second state information to the first file server in response to a request from the first file server for the second state information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the system further comprises:

at least one client, comprising;

at least one additional processor configured to execute computer executable instructions;

at least one additional computer readable storage media storing the computer executable instructions that when executed by the at least one additional processor provide;

a file access redirector configured to;

send the request to open the persistent handle on the first server for accessing the file on the first server by the client, the request including the handle identifier;

receive the response granting access to the file;

detect that the client has been disconnected from the first file server;

send a request to reestablish a session using the persistent handle, the request to reestablish the session including the handle identifier;

determine that the session has been reestablished; and

send a new request.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the first file server is one of a plurality of servers in a server cluster, and wherein a second server of the plurality of servers in the server cluster comprises:

at least one additional processor configured to execute computer executable instructions;

at least one additional computer readable storage media storing the computer executable instructions that when executed by the at least one additional processor provide;

a second file server configured to;

receive a request to reestablish a session using the persistent handle, the session previously established by the first file server.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the second server of the plurality of servers is further configured to:

use the state information of the first file server to reestablish a previous state of the session.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the file access redirector uses a version of a Server Message Block (SMB) protocol to request file operations from the first file server, and the first file server uses the version of the SMB protocol to communicate with the file access redirector.