Binding of processes in network systems

• US 7,043,726 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2001
• Issued: 05/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Scheetz, Michael, Sanchez, Humberto A II
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ali, Syed J
• Application Number:
  US09/812,769
• Publication Number:
  US 20020138665A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,876 Days
• Field of Search: 719/313, 719315-316, 718/1, 718/100
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Binding processes in a network system involves monitoring the status of RMI processes by running a thread associated with a parent process. Each parent process in the network system is associated with a watchdog object that initiates a thread, the thread monitoring the status of RMI processes. If the thread determines that its associated parent process is not bound with an active RMI process, the thread automatically rebinds its parent process with an active RMI process.

Claims

1. A computerized method of error recovery of a bound remote method invocation (RMI) interface object, the method comprising:

binding an interface object of a parent process with a first RMI process; and

starting a monitoring agent associated with the interface object, the monitoring agent comprising a thread to perform the steps of;

determining if the first RMI process is active and if the interface object is bound with any active RMI processes, wherein if the first RMI process is not active and if the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes, an error occurs, the determining step including;

obtaining a bound uniform resource locator (URL) list from active RMI processes; and

determining whether the interface object'"'"'s name is in the bound URL list obtained from the active RMI processes;

informing the interface object of the error when the monitoring agent determines that the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes; and

rebinding the interface object with an active RMI process when the monitoring agent determines that the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes, thereby recovering from the error without restarting the parent process that is bound with the first RMI process.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

binding a second interface object of a second parent process with an RMI process; and

calling a second monitoring agent associated with the second interface object, the second monitoring agent comprising a second thread to perform the steps of;

monitoring the status of RMI processes; and

rebinding the second interface object with an active RMI process when the second monitoring agent determines that the second interface object is not bound with an active RMI process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of binding the interface object comprises:

binding one of an RMI daemon, a distributed task facility daemon, a log manager daemon, or a domain manager daemon, with an active RMI daemon.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

terminating the thread of the monitoring agent when the parent process is terminated.

5. A network system, comprising:

a plurality of remote nodes, at least one of the remote nodes running a remote method invocation (RMI) process; and

a management server for managing the remote nodes, the management server including at least one processor for running an RMI process and at least one management process that is bound with a first RMI process through an interface object, each at least one management process being associated with a monitoring agent comprising a thread to perform the steps of;

determining if the first RMI process is active and if the interface object is bound with any active RMI processes, wherein if the first RMI process is not active and if the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes, an error occurs, the determining step including;

obtaining a bound uniform resource locator (URL) list from active RMI processes; and

determining whether the interface object'"'"'s name is in the bound URL list obtained from the active RMI processes;

informing the interface object of the error when the monitoring agent determines that the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes; and

rebinding the interface object with an active RMI process when the monitoring agent determines that the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes, thereby recovering from the error without restarting the parent process that is bound with the first RMI process.

6. The network system of claim 5, wherein the at least one management process comprises a plurality of management processes.

7. The network system of claim 5, wherein the at least one management process comprises:

a distributed task facility process;

a domain manager process; and

a log manager process.

8. The network system of claim 5, wherein each of the remote nodes runs a service control manager agent process for performing server management tasks.

9. The network system of claim 5, wherein the management server comprises:

a secondary storage device, the secondary storage device comprising;

a data repository;

a depot; and

a web server.

10. The network system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of remote nodes are arranged into at least one node group, the network system comprising a service control manager for managing the at least one node group.

11. A computerized method of error recovery of a bound remote method invocation (RMI) interface object, the method comprising:

a) performing a rebind call to a first RMI process to provide a network address and an interface object of a parent process to the first RMI process; and

b) performing an initialization call to a monitoring agent associated with the interface object, the monitoring agent comprising a thread, the thread performing the steps of;

1) performing a list call to active RMI processes to determine whether the interface object is bound with any active RMI processes, the list call obtains a bound uniform resource locator (URL) list from the active RMI processes and determines whether the parent process'"'"'s name is in the bound URL list obtained from the active RMI processes, wherein if the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes, an error occurs;

2) informing the interface object of the error when the monitoring agent determines that the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes;

3) performing a rebind call to an active RMI process if the monitoring agent determines that the interface object is not bound with any active RMI processes, thereby recovering from the error without restarting the parent process that is bound with the first RMI process; and

4) repeating steps 1 through 3.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the parent process is one of a remote method invocation daemon, a distributed task facility daemon, a log manager daemon, and a domain manager daemon.

13. The method of claim 11, comprising:

terminating the thread of the monitoring agent when the parent process is terminated.