Controlling access of clients to service in cluster environment

• US 9,665,450 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2015
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Troppens, Ulf, Diederich, Michael, Rueger, Erik
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheema, Umar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Anh
• Application Number:
  US14/883,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20160034364A1
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2005 using redundant communication controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/50 Address allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5076 Update or notification mechanisms, e.g. DynDNS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/58 Caching of addresses or names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

First, second, and third sets of addresses are created. The first set includes addresses registered in a name server; both the second and third sets include addresses not registered in the name server and that are disjoint. A first address of a first server that has failed and to which access is to be prohibited is moved from the first to the third set, is removed from the first server, assigned to a second server, and removed from the name server. Usage parameter values of the first address are monitored to determine whether at least one is below a value. If so, the first address is removed from the second server and moved from the third to the second set. Upon access to the first server no longer being prohibited, a second address of the second set is assigned to the first server and added to the name server.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating a first set of addresses registered in a name server, a second set of addresses not registered in the name server, and available for assignment to any server because no client accesses any server via any address within the second set, and a third set of addresses not registered in the name server, and unavailable for assignment to any server because each address of the third set is used by at least one client to access a corresponding server to which the address was previously assigned;

moving, by an address pool controller hardware device, a first address of the first set of addresses registered in the name server from a first server that has failed to a second server;

prohibiting access to the first server;

moving, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the first set of addresses to the third set of addresses;

removing, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the name server;

evaluating, by the address pool controller hardware device, one or more monitored usage parameter values of the first address to determine whether at least one of the monitored usage parameter values is below a minimum usage threshold value; and

in response to determining that the at least one of the monitored usage parameter values is below the minimum usage threshold value, moving, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the third set of addresses to the second set of addresses,

wherein the second server holds processes assigned to the first address, the processes assigned to the first address being one or more of processes that were already initiated on the first server before occurrence of an incident resulting in failure of the first server, and processes being requested by the client after the occurrence of the incident, the client having cached the first address before the occurrence of the incident.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that access to the first server is no longer prohibited; and

in response to determining that access is no longer prohibited, assigning a second address of the third set of addresses to the first server, and adding the second address to the name server to permit failback of the first server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each address comprises one or more of an Internet protocol (IP) address, a fiber channel address, and a universal resource locator (URL) address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the name server comprises a domain name system (DNS) server, and each address of the first set of addresses is registered in the DNS server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each server is associated with at least one address registered in the name server.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising removing the second address from the third set of addresses and adding the second address to the first set of addresses as a further first address.

7. A memory having computer-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of an address pool controller hardware device, cause the processor to:

create a first set of addresses registered in a name server, a second set of addresses not registered in the name server, and available for assignment to any server because no client accesses any server via any address within the second set, and a third set of addresses not registered in the name server, and unavailable for assignment to any server because each address of the third set is used by at least one client to access a corresponding server to which the address was previously assigned;

move, by the address pool controller hardware device, a first address of the first set of addresses registered in the name server from a first server that has failed to a second server;

prohibit access to the first server;

move, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the first set of addresses to the third set of addresses;

remove, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the name server;

evaluate, by the address pool controller hardware device, one or more monitored usage parameter values of the first address to determine whether at least one of the monitored usage parameter values is below a minimum usage threshold value;

in response to determining that the at least one of the monitored usage parameter values is below the minimum usage threshold value, move, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the third set of addresses to the second set of addresses;

determine that access to the first server is no longer prohibited; and

in response to determining that access is no longer prohibited, assign a second address of the third set of addresses to the first server, and add the second address to the name server to permit failback of the first server.

8. The memory of claim 7, wherein each address comprises one or more of an Internet protocol (IP) address, a fiber channel address, and a universal resource locator (URL) address.

9. The memory of claim 7, wherein the name server comprises a domain name system (DNS) server, and each address of the first set of addresses is registered in the DNS server.

10. The memory of claim 7, wherein each server is associated with at least one address registered in the name server.

11. The memory of claim 7, wherein the processor is further to remove the second address from the third set of addresses and adding the second address to the first set of addresses as a further first address.

12. The memory of claim 7, wherein the second server holds processes assigned to the first address, the processes assigned to the first address being one or more of processes that were already initiated on the first server before occurrence of an incident resulting in failure of the first server, and processes being requested by the client after the occurrence of the incident, the client having cached the first address before the occurrence of the incident.

13. An apparatus implementing an address pool controller hardware device, comprising:

networking hardware to operably couple to a name server;

a processor; and

a computer-readable data storage medium storing processor-executable instructions performable by the processor to;

create a first set of addresses registered in a name server, a second set of addresses not registered in the name server, and available for assignment to any server because no client accesses any server via any address within the second set, and a third set of addresses not registered in the name server, and unavailable for assignment to any server because each address of the third set is used by at least one client to access a corresponding server to which the address was previously assigned;

move, by the address pool controller hardware device, a first address of the first set of addresses registered in the name server from a first server that has failed to a second server;

prohibit access to the first server;

move, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the first set of addresses to the third set of addresses;

remove, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the name server;

evaluate, by the address pool controller hardware device, one or more monitored usage parameter values of the first address to determine whether at least one of the monitored usage parameter values is below a minimum usage threshold value; and

in response to determining that the at least one of the monitored usage parameter values is below the minimum usage threshold value, move, by the address pool controller hardware device, the first address from the third set of addresses to the second set of addresses,

wherein the second server holds processes assigned to the first address, the processes assigned to the first address being one or more of processes that were already initiated on the first server before occurrence of an incident resulting in failure of the first server, and processes being requested by the client after the occurrence of the incident, the client having cached the first address before the occurrence of the incident.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further performable by the processor to:

determine that access to the first server is no longer prohibited; and

in response to determining that access is no longer prohibited, assign a second address of the third set of addresses to the first server, and adding the second address to the name server to permit failback of the first server.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each address comprises one or more of an Internet protocol (IP) address, a fiber channel address, and a universal resource locator (URL) address.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each server is associated with at least one address registered in the name server.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further performable by the processor to:

remove the second address from the third set of addresses and adding the second address to the first set of addresses as a further first address.