Techniques for synchronizing application object instances

• US 8,769,155 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2010
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nagappan, Senthil Kumar, Karampurwala, Hasnain, Sudarshan, Reshma, Dholakia, Mehul, Yeung, Wing-Keung Adam
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilles, Jude Jean
• Assistant Examiner(s): Means, Jaren M
• Application Number:
  US12/823,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20110231578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 709/248, 713/375
• US Class Current: 709/248
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Techniques for synchronizing data object instances between applications/processes in an efficient manner. In one set of embodiments, the techniques described herein can be implemented in one or more network routers to synchronize data between a process running on an active management processor and a process running on a standby management processor, thereby facilitating features such as non-stop routing (NSR).

Claims

1. A method comprising:

instantiating, by a first application running on an active processor of a network device, a data object instance in a first memory accessible by the active processor, the data object instance having a first type;

invoking, by the first application, a command to synchronize the data object instance to a second memory accessible by a standby processor; and

in response to the invoking, moving, by the active processor, the data object instance to a first portion of a memory structure in the first memory, wherein the first portion of the memory structure comprises data object instances not yet synchronized to the second memory, and wherein the first portion of the memory structure is specific to the first application and the first type.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronizing causes the data object instance to be replicated in the second memory.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the standby processor and the second memory are resident on another network device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portion of the memory structure is a linked list.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising invoking, by the first application, a first function for packing the data object instance into a synchronization buffer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the synchronization buffer is an inter-process communication (IPC) buffer.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the first function is a callback function that is registered by the first application.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising, if the standby processor is available:

transmitting the synchronization buffer to a second application running on the standby processor, wherein the second application invokes a second function for unpacking the data object instance from the synchronization buffer.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the second function is a callback function that is registered by the second application.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising, subsequently to the transmitting, moving the data object instance from the first portion of the memory structure to a second portion of the memory structure, the second portion of the memory structure including data object instances of the first application that have been sent to the second application but have not yet been acknowledged as being received.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising determining whether an acknowledgement is received from the second application within a predetermined time interval, the acknowledgement indicating that the data object instance has been received by the second application.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, if the acknowledgement is received within the predetermined time interval:

invoking a third function for notifying the first application that synchronization of the data object instance is successful.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising moving the data object instance to a third portion of the memory structure, the third portion of the memory structure including data object instances of the first application that have been sent to the second application and acknowledged.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising, if the acknowledgement is not received within the predetermined time interval, moving the data object instance to the end of the first portion of the memory structure.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising, if the standby processor is unavailable:

adding the data object instance to the third portion of the memory structure; and

invoking the third function.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising, once the standby processor becomes available, moving the data object instance from the third portion of the memory structure to a fourth portion of the memory structure, the fourth portion of the memory structure including data object instances of the first application that are intended to be sent to the second application in a bulk fashion.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the predetermined time interval is configurable.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the data object instance includes routing data used by a routing protocol.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the first memory and the second memory are non-persistent memories.

20. A network device comprising:

an active processor for performing management functions of the network device;

a first memory accessible by the active processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program code that, when executed by the active processor, causes the active processor to;

instantiate, via a first application running on the active processor, a first data object instance in the first memory, the first data object instance having a first type;

invoke a command to synchronize the first data object instance to a second memory accessible by a standby processor; and

in response to the invoking, move the first data object instance to a first portion of a memory structure in the first memory, wherein the first portion of the memory structure comprises data object instances not yet synchronized to the second memory, and wherein the first portion of the memory structure is specific to the first application and the first type.

21. The network device of claim 20 wherein the standby processor and the second memory are resident in another network device.

22. The network device of claim 20 further comprising synchronizing the data object instances between the active processor and the standby processor in a single synchronization transaction.

23. The network device of claim 20 wherein the program code further causes the active processor to:

instantiate, via a second application running on the active processor, a second data object instance in the first memory, the second data object instance having a second type that is distinct from the first type;

invoke a command to synchronize the second data object instance to the second memory; and

in response to the invoking, move the second data object instance to a second portion of the memory structure in the first memory, wherein the second portion of the memory structure is specific to the second application and the second type.

24. The network device of claim 23 wherein the first and second applications correspond to first and second routing protocol instances.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a network device, the program code comprising:

code that causes an application running on an active processor of the network device to instantiate a data object instance in a first memory accessible by the active processor, the data object instance having a first type;

code that cause the application to invoke a command to synchronize the data object instance to a second memory accessible by a standby processor; and

code that causes the active processor to, in response to the invoking, move the data object instance to a first portion of a memory structure in the first memory, wherein the first portion of the memory structure comprises data object instances not yet synchronized to the second memory, and wherein the first portion of the memory structure is specific to the application and the first type.