Self-healing using a virtual boot device

• US 9,940,202 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2013
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Friedman, Alex, Gavrilov, Constantine
• Primary Examiner(s): Abbaszadeh, Jaweed A
• Assistant Examiner(s): PANDEY, KESHAB R
• Application Number:
  US14/074,479
• Publication Number:
  US 20140281462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 713 1, 713 2, 713 3, 713300, 713310, 713320, 713321, 713322, 713323, 713324, 713330, 713340, 713375
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/32 Means for saving power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that enable a computer system comprising networked computers to self-heal from a boot failure of one of the computers. In some embodiments, upon detecting a first computer having a memory and a physical boot device failing to successfully load a boot image, a second computer defines a virtual boot device in communication with the first computer and the second computer and having a boot image for the first computer. Subsequent to defining the virtual boot device, the second computer can configure the first computer to boot from the virtual boot device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

defining, using a second computer, a virtual boot device, the virtual boot device having a boot image for a first computer having a memory and a physical boot device, the virtual boot device in communication with the first computer and the second computer;

subsequent to configuring the first computer, power cycling the first computer, and upon the power cycling, loading, by the first computer, the boot image from the virtual boot device to a software stack in the memory;

configuring, by the second computer, the first computer to boot from the virtual boot device;

wherein the second computer is configured to define the virtual boot device in response to detecting a failure of the first computer, and detecting the failure comprises the second computer conveying a request to the first computer and not receiving a response to the request; and

subsequent to booting the first computer from the virtual boot device, automatically reconfiguring, by the second computer, the first computer to boot from the physical boot device upon a subsequent power cycle, wherein the second computer reconfigures the first computer by reformatting the physical boot device of the first computer, reporting and repairing problems of the physical boot device encountered during the reformatting to the second computer, saving a factory default boot image to the physical boot device, and reconfiguring a basic input/output system (BIOS) of the first computer to switch from booting from the virtual boot device to the physical boot device of the first computer upon the subsequent power cycle.

2. The method according to claim 1, and comprising saving the software stack to a physical boot device, and configuring the first computer to boot from the physical boot device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the boot image comprises at least one of an operating system kernel, a service, and a software application.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein loading the boot image comprises retrieving the one or more software components from the boot image, storing the retrieved one or more components to a software stack in a memory, and executing the one or more components in the software stack.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein configuring the first computer comprises storing a boot loader and the boot image to the virtual boot device, mapping the virtual boot device to the first computer, and arranging the first computer to load the boot loader from the virtual boot device upon the power cycling, the boot loader configured to load the boot image.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the virtual boot device comprises a logical volume on a storage device coupled to the first and the second computer, and configured to store the boot loader and the boot image.