System for serializing actions of independent process groups

• US 6,026,447 A
• Filed: 05/12/1998
• Issued: 02/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brenner, Larry Bert, Kirby, Orvalle Theodore, Badovinatz, Peter Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Oberley, Alvin E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): COURTENAY III, ST JOHN
• Application Number:
  US09/076,200
• Time in Patent Office: 644 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.53, 395/200.55, 395/200.56, 709/223-226, 709/100-106, 709/300
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1425 by reconfiguration of node membership
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1482 by means of middleware or OS functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/202 where processing functionality is redundant redundant communication control functionality G06F11/2005, redundant storage control functionality G06F11/2089

Abstract

Actions responsive to changes in the state of independent process groups whose process members are spread across a group of nodes in a distributed computing environment. The process groups are arranged in a hierarchy having source process groups and target process groups immediately above and dependent upon the source process groups. A change in the state or membership of a process group will result in a group services function of the nodes in the group injecting the change into the source group members of the affected group. When the action is successfully completed, the change is reflected up the hierarchy to the target group member or members. Upon successful action by the target group, the target group becomes the new source group which in turn may have target groups, and the changes are again reflected up the hierarchy to the new target groups.

Claims

1. A system for serializing actions of independent process groups comprising:

first means comprising independent process groups arranged into a hierarchy wherein process groups are dependent on those process groups lower in the hierarchy and independent from process groups higher in the hierarchy, wherein an action occurring in a process group higher in the hierarchy has no affect on any process group lower in the hierarchy, but does affect at least one process group higher in the hierarchy;

second means for injecting a state change into a process group in said hierarchy;

third means for taking an action in the process group receiving the state change;

fourth means for reflecting the state change to the next process group up the hierarchy;

fifth means for performing an action in the next process group responsive to the reflected state change; and

sixth means for repeatedly reflecting the state change to the next process group up the hierarchy and performing an action in the next process group responsive to the reflected state change, thereby reflecting the state change further up the hierarchy.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said sixth means reflects the state change completely up the hierarchy.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising seventh means for converting the action of either the third means or the fifth means into a private action wherein the state change is not reflected further up the hierarchy.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the private action of said seventh means affects only the process group where said state change is injected.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said third means and said fifth means successfully complete their actions before said fourth means reflects the state change up the hierarchy, thereby serializing the actions of the process groups in the hierarchy.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the action of the third means is different from the action of the fifth means, as determined by the process group performing the action.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the hierarchy of process groups is arranged into a tree of process groups, and the action of the fifth means for a process group higher in the hierarchy is independent of the action of the fourth means for a process group lower or in a parallel branch in the tree.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the state change reflected up the hierarchy in the fourth means is a state value different from the state change injected by the second means.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein each process group includes multiple members, and the state change injected into the hierarchy by the second means indicates that one member of a process group has failed.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the action of the third means comprises successful recovery from the failure of the failed member before the state change is reflected up the hierarchy by the fourth means.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising eighth means comprising said process group members arranged on different nodes of a computer network, said failed member being on a node different from the node of at least one other member of the process group.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein said eighth means detects that the failed member fails because its node fails.

13. The system of claim 11 comprising ninth means for reporting the state of a process group member on one node by way of an application program interface to members of the process group on other nodes, said ninth means further monitoring the state of each member of a process group to detect the state change to be injected into a process group by the second means.

14. A system for serializing actions of independent process groups comprising:

independent process groups arranged into a hierarchy wherein process groups are dependent on those process groups lower in the hierarchy and independent from process groups higher in the hierarchy, wherein an action occurring in a process group higher in the hierarchy has no affect on any process croup lower in the hierarchy, but does affect at least one process group higher in the hierarchy;

group services servicing each process group, said group services injecting a state change into a process group in said hierarchy;

the process group receiving the state change taking a specified action in the process group;

said group services reflecting the state change to the next process group up the hierarchy;

each process group receiving the reflected state change performing a specified action in the next process group responsive to the reflected state change; and

said group services repeatedly reflecting the state change to the next process group up the hierarchy, said next process group performing an action responsive to the reflected state change, thereby reflecting the state change further up the hierarchy.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said group services reflects the state change completely up the hierarchy.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein each process group may convert the action produced responsive to the state change either injected into the process group or being reflected up the tree into a private action wherein the state change is not reflected further up the hierarchy.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein said private action affects only the process group where said state change is injected.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein each process group successfully completes its action before said group services reflects the state change up the hierarchy, thereby serializing the actions of the process groups in the hierarchy.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the action performed lower in the hierarchy is different from the action performed higher in the hierarchy, as determined by the process group performing the action.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the hierarchy of process groups is arranged into a tree of process groups, and the action of a process group higher in the hierarchy is independent of the action of a process group lower or in a parallel branch in the tree.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the state change reflected up the hierarchy by group services is a state value different from the state change originally injected by group services.

22. The system of claim 14 wherein each process group includes multiple members, and the state change injected into the hierarchy by group services indicates that one member of a process group has failed.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the action of each process group comprises successful recovery from the failure of the failed member before the state change is reflected up the hierarchy by group services.

24. The system of claim 23 further comprising said process group members arranged on different nodes of a computer network, said failed member being on a node different from the node of at least one other member of the process group.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein said group services detects that the failed member fails because its node fails.

26. The system of claim 25 comprising an application program interface reporting the state of a process group member on one node to members of the process group on other nodes, said application program interface further monitoring the state of each member of a process group to detect the state change to be injected into a process group by group services.