Server clustering in a computing-on-demand system

• US 9,886,360 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2015
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Witt, Emily Katherine, Cooke, Richard, Everhart, Jr., William Thomas, Patel, Jinendrakumar J., Kumar, Vijay
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): La, Phong
• Application Number:
  US14/637,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20150242292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/203 using migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing

Abstract

A device may provision two or more servers, each of the servers including a network interface. In addition, the device may enable the network interface in each of the provisioned servers, create a shared volume, assign the shared volume to each of the provisioned servers, and enable a clustering application on each of the provisioned servers to form a cluster comprising the provisioned servers, the cluster having a heartbeat via the network interfaces.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a network and from a client using a web-based portal and a browser providing a graphical user interface for receiving user selections of clusters and shared storage volumes, a user request to provision a cluster including two or more servers in the network and to create a shared storage volume;

provisioning, by at least one device of the network and in response to the user request to provision the cluster including the two or more servers in the network, the cluster including the two or more servers;

creating, by any device of the at least one device of the network and in response to the user request to create the shared storage volume, the shared storage volume;

assigning, by any device of the at least one device of the network, the shared storage volume to each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster, such that access to the shared storage volume is provided to each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster; and

enabling an application on each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster,

wherein the provisioned cluster has a heartbeat via the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster, and

wherein the user request to provision the cluster including the two or more servers in the network and to create the shared storage volume is received as a result of a user selecting at least one of the cluster and the shared storage volume from the graphical user interface provided by the browser.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the cluster.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising one of:

selecting a least used cluster of the network; and

selecting a most used cluster of the network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning of the cluster including the two or more servers comprises creating two or more virtual servers by cloning the two or more virtual servers.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing a clustering application on each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster; and

updating the clustering application on each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing a first server of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster in a standby mode; and

placing a second server of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster in an active mode.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising activating the first server when the second server fails.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising preventing the second server from writing to the shared storage volume.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning of the shared storage volume includes:

mapping the shared storage volume to one of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster;

rescanning the shared storage volume at the one of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster; and

formatting the shared storage volume at the one of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

mounting the shared storage volume at a mount point on the one of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster; and

recording the mount point and an identifier for the shared storage volume in a file system table (FSTAB) on the one of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a cluster name;

reserving an Internet Protocol (IP) address for the cluster at a network device; and

registering the cluster name and the IP address at a domain name server.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising de-provisioning the cluster.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one server of the two or more servers is a physical server.

13. A system comprising:

a network including a portal device, at least one device and two or more servers,

wherein the portal device is configured to receive, from a client using a web-based portal and a browser providing a graphical user interface for receiving user selections of clusters and shared storage volumes, a user request to provision a cluster including the two or more servers in the network and to create a shared storage volume in the network,

wherein any device of the at least one device of the network is configured to provision, in response to the user request to provision the cluster including the two or more servers in the network, cluster including the two or more servers,

wherein any device of the at least one device of the network is configured to create the shared storage volume in response to the user request to create the shared storage volume,

wherein any device of the at least one device of the network is configured to assign the shared storage volume to each of the two or more servers of the provisioned cluster, such that access to the shared storage volume is provided to each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster,

wherein any device of the at least one device of the network is configured to enable an application on each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster,

wherein the provisioned cluster has a heartbeat via the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster, and

wherein the user request to provision the cluster including the two or more servers in the network and to create the shared storage volume is received as a result of a user selecting at least one of the cluster and the shared storage volume from the graphical user interface provided by the browser.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium impressed with computer program instructions that, when executed on a processor included in a network, implement a method comprising:

receiving, at the network and from a client using a web-based portal and a browser providing a graphical user interface for receiving user selections of clusters and shared storage volumes, a user request to provision a cluster including two or more servers in the network and to create a shared storage volume;

provisioning, in response to the user request to provision the cluster including the two or more servers in the network, the cluster including the two or more servers;

creating, in response to the user request to create the shared storage volume, the shared storage volume;

assigning the shared storage volume to each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster, such that access to the shared storage volume is provided to each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster; and

enabling an application on each of the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster,

wherein the provisioned cluster has a heartbeat via the two or more servers included in the provisioned cluster, and

wherein the user request to provision the cluster including the two or more servers in the network and to create the shared storage volume is received as a result of a user selecting at least one of the cluster and the shared storage volume from the graphical user interface provided by the browser.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises creating two or more virtual servers by cloning the two or more virtual servers.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

creating a cluster name for the two or more servers;

reserving an Internet Protocol (IP) address for the cluster name at a network device; and

registering the cluster name and the IP address at a domain name server.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further includes instantiating a cluster object, in a memory, that corresponds to the two or more servers.