Method and apparatus for reliable failover involving incomplete raid disk writes in a clustering system
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for reliable failover capabilities, the apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of RAID controllers configured to access a plurality of shared disks;
a mirror race table (MRT) comprising a plurality of write operation entries indexed by logical drive number, wherein each write operation entry includes a valid flag and a logical block address (LBA); and
a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers.
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Abstract
Disclosed is a system and a method for reliable failover involving incomplete redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) writes in clustering systems. The system comprises the restructuring of a mirror race table (MRT) and a storage location that may be a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) module in a shared disk enclosure to make the MRT accessible to all nodes in the system. In one embodiment, the NVRAM module comprises copies of MRTs from each node operating within the cluster system.
60 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus for reliable failover capabilities, the apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of RAID controllers configured to access a plurality of shared disks; a mirror race table (MRT) comprising a plurality of write operation entries indexed by logical drive number, wherein each write operation entry includes a valid flag and a logical block address (LBA); and a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for reliable failover capabilities, the method comprising:
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accessing a plurality of shared disks with a plurality of RAID controllers; updating a mirror race table (MRT) comprising a plurality of write operation entries indexed by logical drive number, wherein each write operation entry includes a valid flag and a LBA; and providing a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for reliable failover capabilities, the method comprising:
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providing a plurality of shared disks; providing a plurality of RAID controllers; providing a mirror race table (MRT) comprising a plurality of write operation entries indexed by logical drive number, wherein each write operation entry includes a valid flag and a LBA and each write operation entry is cleared in response to a completed write operation; establishing a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers; accessing the MRT; updating the MRT; detecting a failure of at least one RAID controller; distributing a work load of the failed RAID controller; searching the MRT for a first free entry; creating an entry in the MRT by entering a logical block address (LBA) of a first cache line group to be written to the plurality of shared disks; saving an MRT pointer for the entry; finding and retrieving the MRT pointer for the entry; reading the MRT entry to locate data to be made consistent; finding and clearing the entry from the MRT; transferring the MRT from a shared disk enclosure to at least one RAID controller; and performing uncompleted write operations.
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25. A system for reliable failover capabilities, the system comprising:
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a plurality of shared disks; a plurality of RAID controllers; a mirror race table (MRT) comprising a plurality of write operation entries indexed by logical drive number, wherein each write operation entry includes a valid flag and a LBA and each write operation entry is cleared in response to a completed write operation; and a common MRT storage location accessible by each of the RAID controllers, the common MRT storage location comprising a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) module.
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26. An apparatus for reliable failover capabilities, the apparatus comprising:
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means far accessing a plurality of shared disks with a plurality of RAID controllers; means for updating a mirror race table (MRT) comprising a plurality of write operation entries indexed by logical drive number, wherein each write operation entry includes a valid flag and a LBA and each write operation entry is cleared in response to a completed write operation; means for accessing the MRT; and means for storing a common MRT such that the common MRT is accessible by each of the RAID controllers.
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Specification