Systems and methods for managing application availability

• US 8,688,642 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2010
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Manmohan, Sarin Sumit
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEEMA, AZAM M
• Application Number:
  US12/713,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20110213753A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/640
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for managing application availability. The method may include identifying an application running on a first cluster node of a failover cluster and copying configuration data of the application to a storage location accessible by a second cluster node of the failover cluster. The method may also include detecting failure of the first cluster node, restoring the configuration data to the second cluster node, and executing the application on the second cluster node in accordance with the configuration data. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing application availability, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying an application running on a first cluster node of a failover cluster by receiving a request to stop the application;

determining that the application is a non-cluster-aware application that is not configured to take advantage of failover capabilities in a traditional cluster environment;

in response to determining that the application is not cluster aware, determining that configuration data of the application should be copied to a storage location accessible by a second cluster node of the failover cluster;

in response to determining that the configuration data of the application should be copied to the storage location, copying the configuration data of the application to the storage location by taking a backup of the configuration data after the application is stopped;

detecting failure of the first cluster node;

restoring the configuration data to the second cluster node by copying the configuration data to a memory region that stores registry data for the application such that the application is configured with the configuration data on the second cluster node;

executing the application on the second cluster node in accordance with the configuration data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to start the application on the first cluster node, wherein;

identifying the application running on the first cluster node comprises receiving the request to start the application;

copying the configuration data of the application comprises taking an initial backup of the configuration data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the configuration data of the application has changed, wherein copying the configuration data of the application is performed in response to the determination that the configuration data of the application has changed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining that the configuration data of the application has changed comprises:

identifying a directory on the first cluster node that contains the configuration data of the application;

monitoring the directory on the first cluster node;

detecting a change to data in the monitored directory.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

merging the restored configuration data with configuration data for the application that is already stored on the second cluster node at the time of the failure of the first cluster node as a result of the second cluster node executing an instance of the application at the time of the failure of the first cluster node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the application comprises a non-cluster-aware application that is not capable of maintaining a cluster heartbeat between nodes, is not capable of mirroring cluster information in real-time, and is not capable of changing a configuration data path.

7. A system for managing application availability, the system comprising:

an identification module programmed to;

identify an application running on a first cluster node of a failover cluster by receiving a request to stop the application;

determine that the application is a non-cluster-aware application that is not configured to take advantage of failover capabilities in a traditional cluster environment;

in response to determining that the application is not cluster aware, determining that configuration data of the application should be copied to a storage location accessible by a second cluster node of the failover cluster;

a monitoring module programmed to, in response to determining that the configuration data of the application should be copied to the storage location, copy the configuration data of the application to the storage location by taking a backup of the configuration data after the application is stopped;

a first cluster agent installed on the first cluster node and programmed to communicate with the monitoring module;

a second cluster agent installed on the second cluster node and programmed to;

detect failure of the first cluster node;

restore the configuration data to the second cluster node by copying the configuration data to a memory region that stores registry data for the application such that the application is configured with the configuration data on the second cluster node;

execute the application on the second cluster node in accordance with the configuration data;

at least one processor configured to execute the identification module, the monitoring module, the first cluster agent, and the second cluster agent.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the first cluster agent is programmed to receive a request to start the application on the first cluster node;

the identification module is programmed to identify the application running on the first cluster node by receiving the request to start the application;

the monitoring module is programmed to copy the configuration data of the application by taking an initial backup of the configuration data.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the first cluster agent is further programmed to determine that the configuration data of the application has changed;

the monitoring module is programmed to copy the configuration data of the application in response to the determination that the configuration data of the application has changed.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first cluster agent is programmed to determine that the configuration data of the application has changed by:

identifying a directory on the first cluster node that contains the configuration data of the application;

monitoring the directory on the first cluster node;

detecting a change to data in the monitored directory.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the second cluster agent is further programmed to merge the restored configuration data with existing configuration data of the application that is already stored on the second cluster node by performing a differential merge of the restored configuration data and the existing configuration data such that the merged configuration data comprises a single copy of settings that are the same in the existing and restored configuration data and different copies of settings that are different in the existing and restored configuration data.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the application comprises a non-cluster-aware application that is not designed to call cluster application programming interfaces.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

identify an application running on a first cluster node of a failover cluster by receiving a request to stop the application;

determine that the application is a non-cluster-aware application that is not configured to take advantage of failover capabilities in a traditional cluster environment;

in response to determining that the application is not cluster aware, determine that configuration data of the application should be copied to a storage location accessible by a second cluster node of the failover cluster;

in response to determining that the configuration data of the application should be copied to the storage location, copy the configuration data of the application to the storage location by taking a backup of the configuration data after the application is stopped;

detect failure of the first cluster node;

restore the configuration data to the second cluster node by copying the configuration data to a memory region that stores registry data for the application such that the application is configured with the configuration data on the second cluster node;

execute the application on the second cluster node in accordance with the configuration data.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions are programmed to cause the computing device to:

receive a request to start the application on the first cluster node;

identify the application running on the first cluster node by receiving the request to start the application;

copy the configuration data of the application by taking an initial backup of the configuration data.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions are programmed to cause the computing device to:

determine that the configuration data of the application has changed;

copy the configuration data of the application in response to the determination that the configuration data of the application has changed.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions are programmed to cause the computing device to determine that the configuration data of the application has changed by:

identifying a directory on the first cluster node that contains the configuration data of the application;

monitoring the directory on the first cluster node;

detecting a change to data in the monitored directory.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium of claim 13, wherein:

the application comprises a non-cluster-aware application that is not capable of mirroring cluster information in real-time.