Redundant message processing system featuring reception server controlling communication between client and server process, and stand-by server retransmitting message with information indicating the message being a retransmitted message

• US 5,596,720 A
• Filed: 05/03/1994
• Issued: 01/21/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Maruyama, Hidefumi, Hamada, Syuji, Miyazaki, Koji
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DINH, DUNG C
• Application Number:
  US08/237,408
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: 371/12, 371/13, 371/8.1, 371/9.1, 395/600, 395/650, 395/575, 395/182.08, 395/182.09, 395/182.11, 395/182.16, 395/200.03
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1443 Transmit or communication errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1497 Details of time redundant execution on a single processing unit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2048 where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W

Abstract

The present invention discloses a message communication system and a distribution system. The feature of the present invention lies in various functions in the reception server, which is provided between the client server and the processing server. For example, the reception server performs reference processing, update processing, redundancy processing, etc. In the claimed invention, a reception server 20 is arranged between a client process 10, and a processing server 30. A demand discrimination stage 25 is provided for discriminating a demand only for a reference process and not requiring an update of medium and exclusive resources, and a demand for a reference process and reference and update process requiring a change of condition of the resource. The demand discrimination stage 25 classifies respective message communications systems into three aspects.

Claims

1. A message communication processing system implemented by a computer network including first, second, and third interconnected computers, said message communication processing system comprising:

client process means for issuing a message including a demand and implemented by the first computer of the computer network;

processing server means for processing the message and implemented by the second computer of the computer network; and

processing server means for processing the message implemented by the second computer of the computer network; and

reception server means for controlling communication between said client process means and said processing server means and implemented by the second computer of the computer network or by the third computer of the computer network, said reception server means including demand discrimination means for distinguishing between a first demand used only for referencing and not updating one of a medium and a state of a source, and a second demand used for referencing and updating a process associated with a change of the state of the source, wherein

said processing server means comprises;

discrimination stage means for determining whether the processing of the message transmitted from the client process means has already been completed;

demand processing stage means for performing a demand process for the message received from the client process means when said discrimination stage means determines that the processing of the message transmitted from the client processing means is not completed;

writing stage means for writing the results of the demand process performed in said demand processing stage to a non-volatile memory; and

issuing stage means for issuing a first notice that the message processing has already been completed as determined by said discrimination stage means and a second notice that the demand process performed by the demand processing stage means is normally completed when said discrimination stage means determines that the processing is not completed, said client process means determines that the message communication is normal when a re-transmission process for the message is performed and said first notice that the process has already been performed is issued.

2. A message communication processing system including a stand-by system, said message communication processing system being in a distributed processing system implemented by a computer network including first, second, and third interconnected computers, said message communication processing system comprising:

client process means for issuing a message including a demand and implemented by the first computer of the computer network;

processing server means for processing the message and implemented by the second computer of the computer network; and

reception server means for controlling communication between said client process means and said processing server means and implemented by the second computer of the computer network or by the third computer of the computer network, said reception server means including demand discrimination means for distinguishing between a first demand used only for referencing and not updating one of a medium and a state of a source, and a second demand used for referencing and updating a process associated with a change of the state of the source, wherein

said reception server means identifies said processing server means which becomes a service provider for a service demand, and demands provision of the service demand from the processing server means,

said reception server means adds an identifier and a reception re-transmission count to the message issued from the client process means forming a process message to be transmitted to the processing server means, and

said processing server means stores the identifier and first and second re-transmission counts as change over information used for a stand-by system, said processing server means performing a comparison between said first and second re-transmission counts and said reception re-transmission count to determine whether said message is a re-transmitted message or a redundantly transmitted message.

3. A message communication processing system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the comparison is performed in such a manner that, when said reception re-transmission count is greater than the first re-transmission count, said processing server means determines that the message is the re-transmitted message, when said reception re-transmission count is smaller than said first re-transmission count, said processing server means determines that the message is the redundantly transmitted message, and when said reception re-transmission count and said first re-transmission count are equal, a further comparison is performed between the reception re-transmission count added to said message by said reception server means and the second re-transmission count, and when said reception re-transmission count is greater than the second re-transmission count said processing server means determines that the message is the re-transmitted message, and when said reception re-transmission count is smaller than or equal to said second re-transmission count, said processing server means determines that the message is the redundantly transmitted message.

4. A message communication processing system as set forth in claim 2,

wherein the message communication processing system includes the stand-by system, a current system, and a non-volatile memory for storing the message and the identifier as a stored message and a stored message identifier and connected to and in common with said current system and said stand-by system,

wherein each of the current system and the stand-by system include current and stand-by identifier discrimination stages, each for discriminating whether the stored identifier is identical to a new identifier included in a new message, and

wherein said identifier comprises a multi demand identifier, a demand counter and a re-transmission counter, said multi demand identifier and the identifier used for determining new transmissions and re-transmissions, are added to the message when the message is transmitted.

5. A recovery system in a distributed processing system implemented by a computer network including connected computers, transmitting a first message issued by a client process after a software problem has been experienced, said recovery system comprising:

process server means, implemented by a first one of the computers of the network, for receiving and processing a second message and determining whether the second message is one of a new, redundant and re-transmitted message using a message identifier and first and second re-transmission counts included in the second message; and

reception server means, implemented by a first one of the computers of the network or by a second computer of the network, for identifying said process server means for processing the message and receiving the first message from the client process and inserting in the first message the message identifier, and the first and second re-transmission counts forming the second message, and for identifying said process server means and transmitting the second message to the said process server means identified without maintaining storage of the first and second messages.

6. A recovery system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the second message includes a process content, and said process server means includes a non-volatile memory, and wherein the process content of the second message is only stored in said non-volatile memory.

7. A recovery system in a distributed processing system including current and stand-by global service systems, comprising:

a message controller connected between said current and stand-by global service systems and transmitting messages including a message identifier between said current and stand-by global service systems; and

a non-volatile memory, connected to each of said current and stand-by global service systems, and commonly storing the messages accessible to each of said current and stand-by global service systems and used by said stand-by system when said current system experiences a software failure, said stand-by global service system adding an identifier indicative of a retransmission of said messages when said current global service system experiences a software failure.

8. A recovery method in a distributed processing system implemented by a computer network, transmitting a first message issued by a client process after a software problem has been experienced, said recovery method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving the first message from the client process and inserting in the first message a message identifier, and first and second re-transmission counts forming a second message using a reception server;

(b) identifying a process server using the reception server;

(c) transmitting the second message to the process server without maintaining storage of the first and second messages in the reception server; and

(d) processing the second message and determining whether the second message is one of a new, redundant and retransmitted message using the message identifier and the first and second re-transmission counts using the process server.

9. A recovery system as set forth in claim 8, wherein the second message includes a process content, and the process server includes a non-volatile memory, and wherein said processing step (d) further comprises the step of storing the process content of the second message only in the non-volatile memory.

10. A message communication processing system in a distributed processing system implemented by a computer network including first, second, and third interconnected computers, said message communication processing system comprising:

client process means for issuing a message including one of a first type demand and a second type demand, and implemented by the first computer of the computer network;

processing server means for processing the message and implemented by the second computer of the computer network; and

reception server means for controlling communication between said client process means and said processing server means and implemented by the second computer of the computer network or by the third computer of the computer network, said reception server means including demand discrimination means for distinguishing between said first type demand and said second type demand, wherein

said processing server means comprises;

discrimination stage means for determining whether the processing of the message transmitted from the client process means has already been completed,

demand processing stage means for performing a demand process for the message received from the client process means when said discrimination stage means determines that the processing of the message transmitted from the client processing means is not completed,

writing stage means for writing the results of the demand process performed in said demand processing stage to a non-volatile memory, and

issuing stage means for issuing a first notice that the message processing has already been completed as determined by said discrimination stage means and a second notice that the demand process performed by the demand processing stage means is normally completed when said discrimination stage means determines that the processing is not completed, and

said client process means determines that the message communication is normal when a re-transmission process for the message is performed and said first notice that the process has already been performed is issued.

11. A message communication processing system, including a stand-by system, in a distributed processing system implemented by a computer network including first, second, and third interconnected computers, said message communication processing system comprising:

client process means for issuing a message including one of a first type demand and a second type demand, and implemented by the first computer of the computer network;

processing server means for processing the message and implemented by the second computer of the computer network; and

reception server means for controlling communication between said client process means and said processing server means and implemented by the second computer of the computer network or by the third computer of the computer network, said reception server means including demand discrimination means for distinguishing between said first type demand and said second type demand, wherein

said reception server means identifies said processing server means which becomes a service provider for a service demand, and demands provision of the service demand from the processing server means,

said reception server means adds an identifier and a reception re-transmission count to the message issued from the client process means forming a process message to be transmitted to the processing server means, and

said processing server means stores the identifier and first and second re-transmission counts as change over information used for the stand-by system, said processing server means performing a comparison between said first and second re-transmission counts and said reception re-transmission count to determine whether said message is a re-transmitted message or a redundantly transmitted message.

12. A message communication processing system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the comparison is performed in such a manner that, if said reception re-transmission count is greater than the first re-transmission count, said processing server means determines that the message is the re-transmitted message, if said reception re-transmission count is smaller than said first re-transmission count, said processing server means determines that the message is the redundantly transmitted message, and if said reception re-transmission count and said first re-transmission count are equal, a further comparison is performed between the reception re-transmission count added to said message by said reception server means and the second re-transmission count, and if said reception re-transmission count is greater than the second re-transmission count said processing server means determines that the message is the re-transmitted message, and if said reception re-transmission count is smaller than or equal to said second re-transmission count, said processing server means determines that the message is the redundantly transmitted message.

13. A message communication processing system as claimed in claim 22, wherein

the message communication processing system includes the stand-by system, a current system, and a non-volatile memory for storing the message and the identifier as a stored message and a stored message identifier and connected to and in common with said current system and said stand-by system,

each of the current system and the stand-by system include current and stand-by identifier discrimination stages, each for discriminating whether the stored identifier is identical to a new identifier included in a new message, and

said identifier comprises a multi demand identifier, a demand counter and a re-transmission counter, said multi demand identifier and the identifier used for determining new transmissions and re-transmissions, are added to the message when the message is transmitted.