Enterprise service availability through identity preservation

• US 7,870,416 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Mimosa Systems Incorporated (Iron Mountain Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ravi, Thirumalai Muppur, D'Souza, Roy P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman; Scott T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Leibovich; Yair
• Application Number:
  US11/500,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168500A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,618 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/3, 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• 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: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for service availability that provides automated recovery of server service in a timely and application intelligent manner, maintaining application consistency and integrity, while preserving server identity. The systems and methods, referred to herein as a Service Preservation System (SPS), manage complete recovery of server data and preserve continuity of server service, reestablishing user access to server(s) after an event or disaster in which in which primary or other server(s) fail. The failures, disasters, and losses referred to herein can be at many levels and include, but are not limited to, accidental deletion of an item, loss of an entire mailbox, loss of an entire disk drive, loss of an entire server, and/or loss of an entire server site.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

continuously shadowing one or more servers using a first near-line server communicatively coupled to a second near-line server, the one or more servers including application data that provides services to a plurality of clients;

generating and maintaining a copy of the application data on the first near-line server during the shadowing, wherein the generating and maintaining comprises generating write-ahead logs by the one or more servers and receiving the write-ahead logs by the first near-line server, the first near-line server updating the copy by applying the write-ahead logs to the copy;

maintaining a copy of the first near-line server data on the second near-line server; and

restoring the services to the clients using one or more standby servers communicatively coupled to the first near-line server and the second near-line server in response to a detected failure of the one or more servers, the restoring including copying the copy of the application data from one of the first near-line server and the second near-line server to the standby server including using one of the first near-line server and the second near-line server to re-home the clients to the one or more standby servers as part of preserving continuity of services and automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients using the one or more standby servers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the servers and the standby servers is identified and addressed independently.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the copy of the application data includes one or more portions of the data of one or more of the servers, the first near-line server, and the standby servers, the shadowing further including using one of the first near-line server and the second near-line server to generate a data surrogate that corresponds with a current copy of the application data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the shadowing generates and maintains the copy of the application data in near real-time on the first near-line server, wherein the shadowing maintains complete integrity and consistency of the application data.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the restoring includes preserving continuity of the services by automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients using a generated data surrogate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the restoring includes restarting services corresponding to the application data on the standby server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the restoring includes rebinding mailboxes in a directory service to the standby server.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the restoring includes re-homing the clients based in part on the generated data surrogate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the servers include one or more messaging and collaboration servers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the application data includes one or more of application data, databases, storage groups, mailbox data, and server data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the servers include Exchange Servers.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein generating and maintaining the copy of the application data on the first near-line server includes generating at least one data surrogate using information of the application data and a plurality of data changes of the application data received from the one or more servers.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising updating the at least one data surrogate using information of at least one additional data change received from the one or more servers.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the updating is performed at least one of upon receipt of the at least one additional data change, subsequent to receipt of a plurality of additional data changes, and following processing operations on the at least one additional data change.

15. A method comprising:

continuously shadowing one or more live servers using a first near-line server communicatively coupled to a second near-line server, the live servers including data that provides services to a plurality of clients;

generating and maintaining a replica of the data on the first near-line server during the shadowing, wherein the generating and maintaining comprises generating write-ahead logs by the one or more live servers and receiving the write-ahead logs by the first near-line server, the first near-line server updating the replica by applying the write-ahead logs to the replica;

maintaining a replica of the first near-line server data on the second near-line server; and

automatically restoring the services to the clients in response to a detected failure of the one or more live servers, wherein the one or more live servers are communicatively coupled to the first near-line server and the second near-line server and one or more standby servers, the restoring including copying the replica of the data from one of the first near line server and the second near-line server to the one or more live servers including using one of the first near-line server and the second near-line server as part of preserving continuity of services to the clients and automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients using the one or more live servers.

16. Computer readable storage medium including executable instructions which, when executed in a processing system, provide service preservation by:

continuously shadowing one or more servers using a first near-line server communicatively coupled to a second near-line server, the one or more servers including application data that provides services to a plurality of clients;

generating and maintaining a copy of the application data on the first near-line server during the shadowing, wherein the generating and maintaining comprises generating write-ahead logs by the one or more servers and receiving the write-ahead logs by the first near-line server, the first near-line server updating the copy by applying the write-ahead logs to the copy;

maintaining a replica of the first near-line server data on the second near-line server; and

automatically restoring the services to the clients using one or more standby servers communicatively coupled to the first near-line server and the second near-line server in response to a detected failure of the one or more servers, the restoring including copying the replica of the application data from one of the first near-line server and the second near-line server to the standby server including using one of the first near-line server and the second near-line server to re-home the clients to the one or more standby servers as part of preserving continuity of services and automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients using the one or more standby servers.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein each of the servers and the standby servers is identified and addressed independently.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the replica includes one or more portions of the application data of one or more of the servers, the first near-line server, and the standby servers.

19. The medium of claim 16, wherein the shadowing generates and maintains the replica of the application data in near real-time on the first near-line server, wherein the shadowing maintains complete integrity and consistency of the application data.

20. The medium of claim 16, wherein the restoring includes one or more of preserving continuity of the services by automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients, restarting services corresponding to the application data on the standby server, rebinding mailboxes in a directory service to the standby server, and re-homing the clients.

21. The medium of claim 16, wherein generating and maintaining the replica includes generating at least one data surrogate using information of the application data and a plurality of data changes of the application data received from the one or more servers.

22. The medium of claim 21, further comprising updating the at least one data surrogate using information of at least one additional data change received from the one or more servers, wherein the updating is performed at least one of upon receipt of the at least one additional data change, subsequent to receipt of a plurality of additional data changes, and following processing operations on the at least one additional data change.