Efficient maintenance of a distributed system membership view
First Claim
1. A method of maintaining a view of members available in a distributed computing system comprising a multitude of current members, and wherein new members are added to the computing system, and each of the new members and selected ones of the current members of the computing system generates messages indicating that said each new member and said selected ones of the current members is available in the computing system, the method comprising:
- concurrently maintaining first and second separate lists of ones of the members of the computing system, the first list comprising a working list of the current members of the computing system, the second list comprising a listening list of selected ones of the current members of the computing system and of the new members added to the computing system during a given time period, includingduring said given time period, when one of the current members of the computing system generates the message indicating that said one current member is available in the computing system, adding said one current member to the listening list, andwhen one of the new members added to the computing system during the given time period generates the message indicating that said one new member is available in the computing system, adding said one of the new members to the listening list and to the working list; and
at a specified time, replacing the working list with the listening list to form a new working list, and starting a new, empty listening list.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for maintaining a membership view of a distributed computing system comprising a multitude of members, wherein each of said members sends out a message indicating that said each of the members is available in the system. In one embodiment, the method comprises maintaining a first list of at least some of the members in the distributed system; and over a period of time, when one of the members sends out the message indicating that said one of the members is available in the distributed system, adding said one of the members to a second list. At defined times, the first list is replaced with the second list. In an embodiment, the method further comprises at said defined times, starting a new, empty second list.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of maintaining a view of members available in a distributed computing system comprising a multitude of current members, and wherein new members are added to the computing system, and each of the new members and selected ones of the current members of the computing system generates messages indicating that said each new member and said selected ones of the current members is available in the computing system, the method comprising:
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concurrently maintaining first and second separate lists of ones of the members of the computing system, the first list comprising a working list of the current members of the computing system, the second list comprising a listening list of selected ones of the current members of the computing system and of the new members added to the computing system during a given time period, including during said given time period, when one of the current members of the computing system generates the message indicating that said one current member is available in the computing system, adding said one current member to the listening list, and when one of the new members added to the computing system during the given time period generates the message indicating that said one new member is available in the computing system, adding said one of the new members to the listening list and to the working list; and at a specified time, replacing the working list with the listening list to form a new working list, and starting a new, empty listening list. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A membership view maintenance system for maintaining a view of members available in a distributed computing system comprising a multitude of current members, wherein new members are added to the computing system, and each of the new members and the selected ones of the current members of the computing system periodically generates messages indicating that said each now member and said selected ones of the current members is available in the computing system, the membership view maintenance system comprising:
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a computer system comprising a memory for storing data, and one or more hardware processor units connected to the memory for transmitting data to and receiving data from the memory, the one or more hardware processor units configured for; concurrently maintaining first and second separate lists of ones of the members of the computing system, the first list comprising a working list of at least some of the current members of the computing system, the second list comprising a listening list of selected ones of the current members of the computing system and the new members added to the computing system during a given time period, including during the given time period, when one of the current members of the computing system generates the message indicating that said one current member is available in the computing system, adding said one current member to the listening list, when one of the new members added to the computing system during the given time period generates the message indicating that said one new member is available in the computing system, adding said one of the new members to the listening list and to the working list; and at a specified time, replacing the working list with the listening list to form a new working list, and starting a new, empty listening list. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An article of manufacture comprising:
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at least one computer usable tangible hardware device having computer readable program code logic tangibly embodied therein to execute a machine instruction in a processing member for maintaining a view of members available in a distributed computing system comprising a multitude of current members, wherein new members are added to the computing system and each of the new members and selected ones of the current members of the computing system periodically generates messages indicating that said each new member and said selected ones of the current members is available in the computing system, the computer readable program code logic, when executing, performing the following; concurrently maintaining first and second separate lists of ones of the members of the computing system, the first list comprising a working list of at least some of the current members of the computing system, the second list comprising a listening list of selected ones of the current members of the computing system and the new members added to the computing system during a given time period, including during the given time period, when one of the current members of the computing system generates the messages indicating that said one current member is available in the computing system, adding said one current member to the listening list, when one of the new members is added to the computing system during the given time period generates the message indicating that said one new member is available in the computing system, adding said one of the new members to the listening list and to the working list; and at a specified time, replacing the working list with the listening list, and starting a new, empty listening list. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification