Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Paul R Beck

Larry Cohen

In accordance with the present invention a method is provided for encoding connection ownership information in the sequence number field of an outgoing TCP/IP data packet header. That connection information includes the network layer address of the processor node to which the packet is associated. With such an invention, the connection registration database is only updated after 32 megabytes have been transferred across that connection. Because fewer data packets are being registered in the connection registration database, sufficient time is allowed for registering other connections in background operations. Further, connections that do not send more than 32 megabytes of data never need to be registered.

Method for using outgoing TCP/IP sequence number fields to provide a desired cluster node

In accordance with the present invention, a method is disclosed for making a cluster of processor nodes appear as a single processor node to client applications that operate in conjunction with that cluster. More particularly, the cluster is provided with a skinny stack application for selecting a processor node, to which a connection will be established, after consideration has been given to the TCP port numbers that the processor node is listening for. Further, the cluster is provided with a method for tunneling data packets between processor nodes of the cluster such that the data packets do not have to be re-transmitted across a network. Further still, the cluster is provided with a virtual subnet to which the cluster alias address is associated. The route to that subnet is advertised to the network routers by the processor nodes that are associated with the virtual subnet. Lastly, the cluster is provided with a method for substituting a processor node of the cluster in place of a processor node that has failed, for the duration of the routing failover delay. Using such a method, data packets directed to the failed processor node are prevented from being dropped during that routing failover delay.

Method and apparatus for providing an integrated cluster alias address

In accordance with the present invention a method is provided for managing TCP port numbers used by applications running on a cluster. Using that method, ranges of TCP port numbers are locked (reserved) by a processor node of a cluster. An application running on one of those processor nodes uses a locked TCP port number when issuing a data packet that includes the cluster alias address as the source address. With such an invention, applications running on each processor node within a cluster will use unique TCP port numbers when using the cluster alias address. Therefore, connections between a source and destination application can be uniquely registered at the destination processor node using an index formed by a combination of the source address and the TCP port number with the destination address and TCP port number.

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Carlisle, MA, United States of America

Paul R Beck