Cluster computing support for application programs

• US 8,140,612 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2008
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Cluster Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Cluster Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Tannenbaum, Zvi, Dauger, Dean E.
• Primary Examiner(s): DONAGHUE, LARRY D
• Application Number:
  US12/040,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20080148244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,481 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 717/177, 719/320
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/76 Architectures of general purpose stored program computers with program plugboard G06F15/08; multicomputers G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/04 Network management architectures or arrangements

Abstract

A computer cluster system comprising a plurality of nodes and a software package comprising a user interface and a kernel for interpreting program code instructions is provided. In one embodiment, a cluster node module is configured to communicate with the kernel and other cluster node modules. The cluster node module accepts instructions from the user interface and interprets at least some of the instructions such that several cluster node modules in communication with one another and with a kernel can act as a computer cluster.

Claims

1. A computer cluster comprising:

a plurality of nodes, wherein each node is configured to access a computer-readable medium comprising program code for a single-node kernel module configured to interpret user instructions;

a plurality of cluster node modules, wherein each cluster node module is stored in a computer-readable medium and configured to communicate with a single-node kernel and with one or more other cluster node modules, to accept instructions from a user interface or a script, and to interpret at least some of the user instructions such that the plurality of cluster node modules communicate with one another in order to act as a cluster; and

a communications network to connect the nodes;

wherein the plurality of cluster node modules are configured to cooperate to interpret, translate, or interpret and translate commands for execution by a plurality of single-node kernel modules, and wherein at least one of the plurality of cluster node modules returns a result to the user interface.

2. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cluster node modules reside in an operating system space.

3. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cluster node modules are integrated into an operating system.

4. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein an operating system incorporates at least one of the plurality of cluster node modules.

5. The computer cluster of claim 4, wherein the operating system comprises a programming interface exposed to an application program, the programming interface being configured to allow the application program to access functionality supplied by the at least one cluster node module.

6. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of cluster node modules is configured to use an application-specific toolkit comprising commands that can be interpreted by at least one of the plurality of single-node kernels into code executable by a hardware processor, wherein each of the plurality of cluster node modules is paired with a single-node kernel that is able to interpret the commands of the application-specific toolkit, and wherein each cluster node module and single-node kernel pairing is associated with a unique identifier.

7. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of single-node kernels is configured to access a partitioned space to perform processing of data.

8. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of cluster node modules is configured to access a partitioned space to perform processing of data.

9. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of cluster node modules is configured to receive a command from a user interface or from a script, activate at least some other cluster node modules, and initialize operation of a computer cluster in which each of the plurality of cluster node modules is configured to access a partitioned space to perform processing of data.

10. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the computer cluster runs on a computer system that is remote from one or more other computer systems running the computer cluster.

11. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein a cluster node module is stored in a computer-readable medium that is separate from a computer-readable medium in which at least some other cluster node modules are stored.

12. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein a single-node kernel is stored in a computer-readable medium that is separate from a computer-readable medium in which at least some other single-node kernels are stored.

13. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein each of at least two single-node kernels are configured to perform processing of data in memory shared by multiple nodes.

14. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein each of at least two cluster node modules are configured to perform processing of data in memory shared by multiple nodes.

15. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein a user interface module is stored on a computer system that has one or more local storage devices.

26. The computer cluster of claim 9, wherein the processing of data involves communications among at least three cluster node modules.

27. The computer cluster of claim 9, wherein the processing of data involves exchanging data between two or more partitioned spaces.

28. The computer cluster of claim 9, wherein the processing of data occurs on fewer than all cluster node modules connected to the communications network.

29. The computer cluster of claim 1, wherein a user interface module is stored in a computer-readable medium that is separate from a computer-readable medium in which at least some of the plurality of cluster node modules are stored.

16. A method of evaluating a command on a computer cluster comprising:

communicating a command from at least one of a user interface or a script to one or more cluster node modules within the computer cluster;

for each of the one or more cluster node modules, communicating a message based on the command to a respective kernel module associated with the cluster node module;

for each of the one or more cluster node modules, receiving a result from the respective kernel module associated with the cluster node module; and

for at least one of the one or more cluster node modules, responding to messages from other cluster node modules;

wherein the one or more cluster node modules reside in an operating system space.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein responding to messages from other cluster node modules comprises:

forwarding messages from the other cluster node modules to a received message queue;

matching data from each entry in a message receiving queue with entries in the received message queue;

combining data from the message receiving queue with matching data in the received message queue; and

marking the matching data as completed.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more cluster node modules are integrated into an operating system.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein an operating system incorporates at least one of the one or more cluster node modules.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the operating system comprises a programming interface exposed to an application program, the programming interface being configured to allow the application program to access functionality supplied by the at least one of the one or more cluster node modules.

21. A computing system for executing Mathematica code on multiple nodes comprising:

a first node module in communication with a first Mathematica kernel executing on a first node;

a second node module in communication with a second Mathematica kernel executing on a second node; and

a third node module in communication with a third Mathematica kernel executing on a third node;

wherein the first node module, the second node module, and the third node module are configured to communicate with one another using a peer-to-peer architecture; and

wherein the first node module resides in an operating system space.

22. The computing system of claim 21, wherein each of the first node module, the second node module, and the third node module comprises:

a data structure for maintaining messages originating from other node modules; and

a data structure for maintaining data specifying;

a location to which a message is expected to be received; and

an identifier for a node from which the message is expected to be sent.

23. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the first node module is integrated into an operating system.

24. The computing system of claim 21, wherein an operating system incorporates at least one of the first node module, the second node module, or the third node module.

25. The computing system of claim 24, wherein the operating system comprises a programming interface exposed to an application program, the programming interface being configured to allow the application program to access functionality supplied by the at least one node module.