Resilient programming frameworks for handling failures in parallel programs

• US 9,652,336 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2015
• Issued: 05/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Iyengar, Arun, Milthorpe, Joshua J.
• Primary Examiner(s): KUDIRKA, JOSEPH R
• Application Number:
  US14/657,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20160266982A1
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

An information processing system, computer readable storage medium, and method for supporting resilient execution of computer programs. A method provides a resilient store wherein information in the resilient store can be accessed in the event of a failure. The method periodically checkpoints application state in the resilient store. A resilient executor comprises software which executes applications by catching failures. The method uses the resilient executor to execute at least one application. In response to the resilient executor detecting a failure, restoring application state information to the at least one application from a checkpoint stored in the resilient store, the resilient executor resuming execution of the at least one application with the restored application state information.

Claims

1. An information processing system capable of supporting resilient execution of applications written in a programming language with exception handling, the information processing system comprising:

memory;

persistent memory for storing data and computer instructions;

a resilient store, communicatively coupled with the memory and the persistent memory, wherein application state information stored in the resilient store can be accessed in response to detection of a failure of an application executing in the information processing system;

a resilient executor, communicatively coupled with the memory and the persistent memory, for executing computations of applications while detecting failures in the execution of the computations; and

a processor, communicatively coupled with the resilient executor, the resilient store, the memory, the persistent memory, and wherein the processor, responsive to executing computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

periodically checkpointing an application state in the resilient store;

executing, with the resilient executor, computations of the application while detecting failures in the execution of the computations, wherein the resilient executor includes computer code which is part of the application;

restoring, based on the resilient executor detecting a failure in the execution of a computation of the application by catching with said computer code at least one exception, application state information for the application from a checkpoint in the resilient store; and

resuming, with the resilient executor, execution of the computation of the application with the restored application state information.

2. The information processing system of claim 1, wherein the resilient executor comprises:

an interface allowing applications to use the resilient executor;

a resilient run method which the application invokes via the interface which executes the application while detecting and catching place failures as exceptions; and

a recovery method which is invoked when the resilient run method catches an exception resulting from a failed place wherein the recovery method recovers from the place failure, restores the application to a previous checkpoint in the resilient store, and resumes execution of the application from the restored checkpoint.

3. A computer readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for supporting resilient execution of applications written in a programming language with exception handling, the operations comprising:

providing a resilient store wherein information in the resilient store can be accessed in the event of a failure;

periodically checkpointing an application state in the resilient store;

providing a resilient executor which comprises software which executes applications while detecting failures of the executing applications;

using the resilient executor to execute at least one application, wherein the resilient executor includes computer code which is part of the at least one application; and

in response to the resilient executor detecting a failure by catching with said computer code at least one exception, restoring application state information to the at least one application from a checkpoint stored in the resilient store; and

the resilient executor resuming execution of the at least one application with the restored application state information.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the resilient executor comprises:

an interface allowing applications to use the resilient executor;

a resilient run method which the at least one application invokes via the interface which executes the at least one application while detecting and catching place failures as exceptions, the place failures comprising failures at a place of computation in the at least one application; and

a recovery method which is invoked when the resilient run method catches an exception resulting from a failed place wherein the recovery method recovers from the place failure, restores the at least one application to application state information from a checkpoint stored in the resilient store, and resumes execution of the at least one application from the restored checkpoint stored in the resilient store.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the processor performs operations further comprising:

providing an interface allowing programs to explicitly reference a place to communicate with or execute at least one computation on the place, wherein each place comprises an entity executing a computation;

providing a virtual place abstraction layer which defines a mapping between virtual places and physical places;

providing an interface allowing an application to communicate with or execute at least one computation on a place p1 by referencing a virtual place p2 which is mapped to physical place p1;

and

in response to a physical place p3 failing, wherein virtual place p4 maps to physical place p3, updating the mapping so that virtual place p4 maps to physical place p5 wherein p5 is live.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein a place comprises at least one of a process and at least one thread.