Distributed multi-system management

• US 8,793,710 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2012
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Klein, Arnon Henn
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mudrick, Timothy A
• Application Number:
  US13/532,938
• Publication Number:
  US 20120272253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: 719/330
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• 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: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4806 Task transfer initiation or dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• 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

A method, including arranging multiple digital information devices having respective memories to communicate within a network, and assigning within each of a subset of the respective memories a respective memory region dedicated only to management of a respective subgroup of the multiple devices, the subset and the subgroup each having a cardinality of at least two. The multiple digital information devices are then managed by exchanging information stored in the respective memory regions among the digital information devices over the network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

arranging multiple digital information devices having respective memories to communicate within a network;

operating a first subset of the multiple digital information devices being non-monitoring devices and having respective memories not being assigned to manage any other device of the multiple digital information devices, the respective memories not storing replicated data from other ones of the multiple digital information devices;

assigning within each of the respective memories of a second subset of the multiple digital information devices a respective memory region dedicated only to management of a respective subgroup of the multiple devices including respective digital information devices in the first subset, the management occurring by updating a distributed database including management metadata and state data, the second subset and the subgroup each having a cardinality of at least two, and the second subset of the multiple digital information devices being monitoring devices;

managing at least one of the multiple digital information devices of the first subset of multiple digital information devices and the respective subgroup of the second subset of digital information devices;

storing in one or more of the respective memories of the monitoring devices in the second subset replicated data from at least one of the non-monitoring devices in the first subset and other ones of the monitoring devices of the second subset of the multiple digital information devices;

managing the multiple digital information devices by exchanging information stored in the respective memory regions among the digital information devices over the network; and

the monitoring devices retrieving tasks from a task list for the updating of the distributed database and managing the monitoring devices and the non-monitoring devices.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the digital information devices comprise storage controllers.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second subset comprises memories of monitoring nodes configured to manage the multiple digital information devices.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein updating the distributed database comprises:

determining a state of one of the networked digital information devices; and

storing the determined state to the distributed database.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the steps of determining the state and storing the determined state are repeated for each of the networked digital information devices.

6. The method according to claim 1, and comprising:

executing, by the monitoring devices, remote procedure call (RPC) server applications configured to process queries for the distributed database; and

executing, by a management computer coupled to the network, a RPC client application configured to convey the queries to the RPC servers.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein processing the queries comprises:

receiving, from the RPC client application, a request for information stored in the distributed database;

retrieving, by one of the RPC server applications, the requested information from the distributed database; and

conveying the requested information to the RPC client application.