System and method for clustering standalone server applications and extending cluster functionality

• US 8,316,110 B1
• Filed: 12/18/2003
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Operating Corporation (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: Pangarkar, Mangesh D., Deshmukh, Manav, Dalal, Kaushal, Newaskar, Amol, Mathur, Vandita
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Kenny
• Assistant Examiner(s): BEHARRY, NOEL R
• Application Number:
  US10/739,606
• Time in Patent Office: 3,260 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6, 709/201, 709220-222
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5076 Update or notification mechanisms, e.g. DynDNS

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatus and software can implement clusterizing processes on existing standalone server application installations. A server computer system on which a server application resides is renamed from its original name. Cluster software is installed on the server computer system. A virtual server is created to represent the server application to client applications and users. The virtual server is given the original server computer system name and can also be given the server computer system'"'"'s network address. Cluster functionality can further be extended to allow a virtual server to failover to any other node available in a cluster.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

changing a first name of a server computer system to a second name, wherein

the server computer system has no clustering services installed when the changing is performed,

the server computer system includes an operating system and a separate server application installed on the server computer system, and

the server application is configured as a non-clustered standalone installation;

installing cluster software on the server computer system, wherein

the server application is already installed on the server computer system when the cluster software is installed,

the installing the cluster software does not require reinstallation of the server application,

the cluster software provides communications services,

the cluster software allows the server computer system to operate as a node of a computer system cluster, and

the cluster software communicates information indicating a state of at least one node in the computer system cluster using an intra-cluster communication protocol;

installing a plurality of agents on the server computer system, wherein

the plurality of agents act as intermediaries between resources and core clustering services, wherein

the resources comprise hardware resources and software resources,

a first agent of the plurality of agents is a general service agent that controls the hardware resources, wherein

the hardware resources are monitored by the cluster software, and

a second agent of the plurality of agents is an application specific agent associated with the server application, wherein

the second agent provides the server application with any-to-any failover configuration information, and

the any-to-any failover configuration information comprises failover priority information,

creating a virtual server, wherein

the virtual server comprises the server computer system;

assigning the first name as a virtual server name of the virtual server; and

establishing a connection to the virtual server in response to receiving a request to establish a connection to the server application.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the server computer system includes a server computer first IP address, the method further comprising:

changing the server computer first IP address to a server computer second IP address, wherein the virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server is the server computer first IP address.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

transmitting the virtual IP address and virtual server name to at least one of a domain controller, a domain name server, and client computer system.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the server computer system includes a storage device, and wherein the storage device stores server application data, the method further comprising:

transferring at least a portion of the server application data from the server computer system storage device to a cluster shared storage device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the server application is at least one of a communication server application, a collaboration server application, and e-mail server application, a web server application, a file server application, a database management system (DBMS), a media server application, and an enterprise application server.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the server computer system can operate as a cluster node.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

installing a cluster agent on the server computer system, wherein the cluster agent is configured to specifically operate with the server application.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the cluster comprises a plurality of nodes; and

each node is configured such that a cluster service group associated with an instance of the virtual server hosted on that node can fail over to any other node in the cluster, and wherein at least one other node of the plurality of nodes also hosts an instance of the virtual server.

10. A computer system having a first name, wherein

the first name is configured to be changed to a second name,

the server computer system has no clustering services installed when the first name is changed to the second name, and

the computer system comprises:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory;

a local storage device coupled to the processor;

an operating system; and

a separate server application stored on the local storage device, wherein

the server application is initially configured as a non-clustered standalone installation;

cluster software configured to;

create a virtual server, wherein

the virtual server comprises the server computer system,

assign the first name as a virtual server name of the virtual server,

enable the server computer system to operate as a node of a computer system cluster,

establish a connection to the virtual server in response to receiving a request to establish a connection to the server application,

communicate with a plurality of agents, wherein

the plurality of agents are configured to act as intermediaries between resources and core clustering services, wherein

the resources comprise hardware resources and software resources,

a first agent of the plurality of agents is a general service agent that controls the hardware resource, wherein

the hardware resource monitored by the cluster software, and

a second agent of the plurality of agents is an application specific agent associated with the server application, wherein

the second agent provides the server application with any-to-any failover configuration information, and

the any-to-any failover configuration information comprises failover priority information,

the server application is already stored on the local storage device when the cluster software is installed,

installation of the cluster software does not require reinstallation of the server application,

installation of the cluster software comprises storing the cluster software on the local storage device,

the cluster software provides communications services,

the cluster software is configured to communicate information indicating the state of at least one node in the cluster using an intra-cluster communication protocol, and

at least a portion of at least one of the server application and the cluster software is encoded as instructions stored in the memory and executable on the processor.

11. The computer system of claim 10 further comprising:

installation software configured to install the cluster software on the computer system, wherein the cluster software is operable to allow the computer system to operate as a node of a computer system cluster.

12. The computer system of claim 10 wherein the cluster software is further configured to receive a virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server.

13. The computer system of claim 12 further comprising:

a computer system first IP address;

wherein the cluster software is further configured to change the computer system first IP address to a computer system second IP address, and wherein the virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server is the computer system first IP address.

14. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the cluster software is further configured to:

transmit the virtual IP address and virtual server name to at least one of a domain controller, a domain name server, and client computer system.

15. The computer system of claim 10 wherein the local storage devices stores server application data, and wherein the cluster software is further configured to:

transfer at least a portion of the server application data from the computer system to a cluster shared storage device.

16. The computer system of claim 10 wherein the server application is at least one of a communication server application, a collaboration server application, and e-mail server application, a web server application, a file server application, a database management system (DBMS), a media server application, and an enterprise application server.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions executable on a processor, the computer readable medium being at least one of an electronic storage medium, a magnetic storage medium, and an optical storage medium, wherein

the program instructions are executable to

change a first name of a server computer system to a second name, wherein

the server computer system has no clustering services installed when the first name is changed to the second name,

the server computer system includes an operating system and a separate server application installed on the server computer system, and

install cluster software, wherein

installation of the cluster software does not require reinstallation of the server application,

the cluster software is operable to

create a virtual server associated with the server application, wherein

the virtual server comprises the server computer system,

assign the first name as a virtual server name of the virtual server,

establish a connection to the virtual server in response to reception of a request to establish a connection to the server application, and

communicate with a plurality of agents, wherein

the plurality of agents are configured to act as intermediaries between resources and core clustering services, wherein

the resources comprise hardware resources and software resources,

a first agent of the plurality of agents is a general service agent configured to control the hardware resource, wherein

the hardware resource monitored by the cluster software, and

a second agent of the plurality of agents is an application specific agent associated with the server application, wherein

the second agent provides the server application with any-to-any failover configuration information, and

the any-to-any failover configuration information comprises failover priority information,

the cluster software provides communications services, wherein

the communication services communicate information indicative of the state of at least one node in the cluster using an intra-cluster communication protocol,

the cluster software is configured to allow the server computer system to operate as a node of a computer system cluster, and

the server application is already installed on the server computer system when the program instructions are executed.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

installing the cluster software on the server computer system, wherein the cluster software is configured to allow the server computer system to operate as a node of a computer system cluster.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

providing a virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the server computer system includes a server computer first IP address, the computer readable medium further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

changing the server computer first IP address to a server computer second IP address, wherein the virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server is the server computer first IP address.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20 further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

transmitting the virtual IP address and virtual server name to at least one of a domain controller, a domain name server, and client computer system.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the server computer system includes a storage device, and wherein the storage devices stores server application data, the computer readable medium further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

transferring at least a portion of the server application data from the server computer system storage device to a cluster shared storage device.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the server application is at least one of a communication server application, a collaboration server application, and e-mail server application, a web server application, a file server application, a database management system (DBMS), a media server application, and an enterprise application server.

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

determining whether the server computer system can operate as a cluster node.

25. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising program instructions operable to implement:

installing a cluster agent on the server computer system, wherein the cluster agent is configured to specifically operate with the server application.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a means for changing a first name of a server computer system to a second name, wherein

the server computer system has no clustering services installed when the first name is changed to the second name,

the server computer system includes an operating system and a separate server application installed on the server computer system,and

the server application is configured as a non-clustered standalone installation;

a means for installing cluster software on the server computer system, wherein

the server application is already installed on the server computer system when the cluster software is installed,

installation of the cluster software does not require reinstallation of the server application,

the cluster software is configured to allow the server computer system to operate as a node of a computer system cluster,

the cluster software is configured to communicate with a plurality of agents, wherein

the plurality of agents are configured to act as intermediaries between resources and core clustering services, wherein

the resources comprise hardware resources and software resources,

a first agent of the plurality of agents is a general service agent configured to control the hardware resource, wherein

the hardware resource is monitored by the cluster software, and

a second agent of the plurality of agents is an application specific agent associated with the server application, wherein

the second agent provides the server application with any-to-any failover configuration information, and

the any-to-any failover configuration information comprises failover priority information,

the cluster software provides communications services, and

the cluster software is configured to communicate information indicating the state of at least one node in the cluster using an intra-cluster communication protocol; and

a means for creating a virtual server associated with the server application, wherein

the virtual server comprises the server computer system;

a means for assigning the first name as a virtual server name of the virtual server; and

a means for establishing a connection to the virtual server in response to reception of a request to establish a connection to the server application.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 further comprising:

a means for providing a virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the server computer system includes a server computer first IP address, the apparatus further comprising:

a means for changing the server computer first IP address to a server computer second IP address, wherein the virtual IP address corresponding to the virtual server is the server computer first IP address.

29. The apparatus of claim 27 further comprising:

a means for transmitting the virtual IP address and virtual server name to at least one of a domain controller, a domain name server, and client computer system.

30. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the server computer system includes a means for storing data, and wherein the means for storing data stores server application data, the apparatus further comprising:

a means for transferring at least a portion of the server application data from the server computer system means for storing data to a shared means for storing data.

31. The apparatus of claim 26 further comprising:

a means for determining whether the server computer system can operate as a cluster node.