International Business Machines Corporation

James O Cox

Christopher Shane Claussen

James M Mott

Eric R Carpenter

A method and system for providing communications services between multiple processes running in multiple computer systems is provided. A single system semantic can be used to access processes, whether such processes reside on a local or remote computer. A mechanism is provided to allow processes to register as part of a distributed context. Registration may be accomplished explicitly by any child process to name its parent in the hierarchy, or automatically by the parent process when spawning children. This mechanism allows the additional flexibility that destination nodes in the distributed environment may be selected at run time without requiring knowledge on the part of the executing process. This allows the ability to cause processes to be distributed based on machine type, facilities available on a specific node or load balancing considerations. This registration mechanism is expandable to allow general purpose server implementations in a distributed environment, thus providing to the user system transparent facilities for control in a distributed environment.

Method and system for optionally registering a local process to allow

A computerized data backup system and method for dynamically preserving a consistent state of primary data stored in a logical volume of a disk volume management system during processing thereof in a real-time environment. A file system command invokes a cloning of the logical volume, thereby reserving a portion for shadow-paged blocks. A read/write translation map is generated, mapping non-shadowed pages to corresponding shadowed pages in the reserved portion. Upon generating a read command for a page in the logical volume, a map search detects that a shadow page is allocated in the shadow-paged blocks corresponding to the page and effects the read. In like manner, in response to a write command to a page of the logical volume, the map is searched and a shadow page in the shadow-paged blocks is allocated if there has been no prior allocation, whereupon writing to such allocated page occurs. The backup occurs during runtime, facilitating reading from the non-shadow paged blocks during backup.

Computerized system and method for data backup

Disclosed is a method and system for providing a complex testing framework/scaffold. Also included are testing tools that automate and simplify the testing process. The disclosed design handles networking and task concurrency. The testing scaffold is aimed at being a flexible test case driver that can be used to execute functional verification tests on a single host or large networked system level integration tests involving dozens of hosts. The testing scaffold is designed to meet the requirements of large scale testing environments. The ability to execute these environments similarly allows manipulation of smaller scale environments.

Hierarchical testing environment

A client workstation generates a network request for an initial program load. The request is serviced by a server which preferably includes in the reply to the client the addresses of an authentication server (AS), client, and a secure initial program load server (SECIPL). The client then requests an SECIPL service ticket from the AS, also sending a common identifier known to the AS and the client, preferably stored in the client ROM. This identifier is utilized by the AS to validate the ticket request as originating from a bona fide client, whereupon the ticket is provided by the AS to the client, the SECIPL service ticket is then presented by the client to the SECIPL server which then authenticates that the ticket is bona fide and was received by the client from the AS. The SECIPL then provides a secure kernel to the client, either encrypted with a key known to the SECIPL and client, or otherwise secured by a cryptographic checksum utilizing a key known to the client and the SECIPL. In this manner, the client workstation is thereby assured that an authenticated boot image has been received through potentially non-secure communication links.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

James O Cox