Methods and apparatus for processing partitioned changes

• US 7,711,705 B1
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Shmuylovich, Samuil, Patsenker, Svetlana, Ninan, Anoop George, Farizon, Boris
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Application Number:
  US11/476,523
• Time in Patent Office: 1,406 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-102, 707200-206
• US Class Current: 707/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

In a storage area network, agents provide transactions of data sets containing updates to manageable entities in a SAN. A SAN server avoids intermittent dissemination of events pertaining to a single transaction by storing events in a cache until completion of all subtransactions in the transaction, and then disseminating all events pertaining to the transaction. Transactions are broken down into update sections, each containing one or more subtransactions collectively defining the entire transaction. Update sections corresponding to the transaction are tagged with a section ID. Events indicating completion of processing of the update section are identified by the section ID, and suppressed temporarily by storing them in the event cache pending completion of the transaction. Other events not matching a tagged section ID are allowed to disseminate. Upon completion of the transaction, events for all section IDs corresponding to the transaction are disseminated from the cache.

Claims

1. A tangible computer program product having a computer readable storage medium operable to store computer program logic embodied in computer program code encoded thereon for atomic processing of partitioned event data in a storage area network (SAN) comprising:

computer program code for receiving an update section, the update section including at least one subtransaction of a transaction;

computer program code for processing the update section in a managed object database, the managed object database operable to process a plurality of the update sections collectively defining the transaction;

computer program code for receiving a registration request from a process, the registration request including an event type that the requesting process is listening for;

computer program code for detecting occurrence of the listened-for event matching the event type in the registration request;

computer program code for selectively transmitting the listened-for event based on whether the event corresponds to an update section; and

computer program code for suppressing events indicative of the update section pending completion of each of the update sections corresponding to the transaction, the suppressed events operable to be released upon processing of each update section in the transaction, wherein each of the update sections results in at least one change to the managed object database, further comprising;

computer program code for generating an event for each change in the managed object database;

computer program code for suppressing, if the event corresponds to completion of processing an update section, propagation of the event, suppressing including storing events in a queuing area;

computer program code for propagating, if the event does not correspond to an update section, the event to registered processes adapted to receive the event;

computer program code for waiting for an indication of completion of each subtransaction defining the transaction; and

computer program code for releasing suppressed events from the queuing area for dissemination upon the indication of completion.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising:

receiving an update section indicative of updates to at least one storage device in a storage array, the update section comprising a subtransaction of a transaction, wherein the update section corresponds to a portion of a transaction, the transaction operable to be reported as an atomic occurrence.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving a registration request from a process, the registration request including an event type that the requesting process is listening for;

detecting occurrence of the listened-for event matching the event type in the registration request; and

selectively transmitting the listened-for event based on whether the event corresponds to an update section.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

suppressing includes storing events in a queuing area;

waiting for an indication of completion of each subtransaction defining the transaction; and

releasing suppressed events from the queuing area for dissemination upon receipt of the indication of completion.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the indication of completion of each subtransaction is a notification of transaction completion from an agent, further comprising:

gathering, from an agent in communication with a storage array, each of the subtransactions occurring at the storage array;

building a series of update sections comprising a transaction, the series of update sections collectively including each of the gathered subtransactions;

sending, from the agent, each of the update sections included in the transaction;

sending an indication of transmission completion of each of the update sections included in the transaction.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the subtransactions corresponds to a unit of work performed by updating the managed object database, each unit of work defining an atomic activity within the managed object database.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

defining a batch ID corresponding to a transaction

associating each update section of the transaction with the batch ID

suppressing events corresponding to the transaction based on the batch ID; and

releasing events corresponding to the batch ID upon receiving the transaction completion indicative of completion of the transaction corresponding to the batch ID.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

storing a unit of work associated with each update section for each update section in the transaction;

identifying suppressed events from the stored units of work associated with the batch ID.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

invoking a listener to identify and receive events corresponding to a batch ID; and

selectively identifying events based on the batch ID.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying an inconsistency with a particular update section;

computing the unit of work associated with the particular update section; and

performing a rollback based on the unit of work to reverse the stored section update.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

examining each of the update sections in the transaction; and

consolidating multiple updates to the same database object such that a single event reflects the change to the object.

2. A method of processing event data in a storage area network (SAN) comprising:

receiving an update section, the update section including at least one subtransaction of a transaction;

processing the update section in a managed object database, the managed object database operable to process a plurality of the update sections collectively defining the transaction;

suppressing events indicative of the update section pending completion of each of the update sections corresponding to the transaction, the suppressed events operable to be released upon processing of each update section in the transaction;

wherein each of the update sections results in at least one change to the managed object database;

generating an event for each change in the managed object database;

suppressing, if the event corresponds to completion of processing an update section, propagation of the event;

propagating, if the event does not correspond to an update section, the event to registered processes adapted to receive the event;

receiving a transaction completion indicating completion of each of the update sections in the transaction; and

propagating each of the suppressed events corresponding to the transaction.