International Business Machines Corporation

Serban C Maerean

Robert R Gensler, Jr

Hanhong Xue

Christopher V Derobertis

Tsai-Yang Jea

Ilie G Tanase

Hemant R Suri

Felipe Knop

Myung Mun Bae

John Robert Hare

Robert K Gardner

Johannes Sayre

Clarence B Parker, Jr

John Hare

Robert Gensler

Hemant Suri

Acknowledging incoming messages, including: determining, by an acknowledgement dispatching module, whether an incoming message has been received in an active message queue; responsive to determining that the incoming message has been received in the active message queue, resetting, by the acknowledgement dispatching module, an acknowledgment iteration counter; incrementing, by the acknowledgement dispatching module, the acknowledgment iteration counter; determining, by the acknowledgement dispatching module, whether the acknowledgment iteration counter has reached a predetermined threshold; and responsive to determining that the acknowledgment iteration counter has reached the predetermined threshold, processing, by the acknowledgement dispatching module, all messages in the active message queue.

Acknowledging incoming messages

A system to improve communication security in cluster machine processing may include interconnected computers that can jointly process data. The system may also include a shared secret key used by each of the interconnected computers to encrypt, decrypt, and/or authenticate data being sent, or received, from one of the interconnected computers to another of the interconnected computers. The system may further include a new shared secret key used by each of the interconnected computers to encrypt, decrypt, and/or authenticate data being sent, or received, from one of the interconnected computers to another of the interconnected computers. In addition, the new shared secret key may coexist with the shared secret key without adversely affecting the joint processing of data performed by the plurality of interconnected computers.

Secure communications in computer cluster systems

Generic session keys are pre-generated and stored in a pool of session keys for later use in communicating within a communications environment. The session keys that are stored in the pool are pre-encrypted with the private key of the entity storing those keys. To communicate between entities, a pre-encrypted session key is extracted from the pool and then further encrypted with the destination entity's public key to ensure data integrity and data confidentiality. The encrypted key is then forwarded to the destination entity and used during communications between the two entities.

Pre-generation of generic session keys for use in communicating within communications environments

The problem of providing and interacting with a number of different security mechanisms in a clustered data processing environment is solved by providing a Mechanism Abstract Layer which presents a consistent interface to applications running on the various nodes within the cluster. Mechanism Pluggable Modules are provided for each security mechanism that one wishes to employ. The Pluggable Modules provide a mechanism for mapping individualized security mechanism parameters through an interface with the Mechanism Abstract Layer. This provides a consistent interface for applications running on the nodes and it also avoids costly adaptations that would otherwise be necessary to accommodate new security mechanisms or variations in prior security mechanisms.

Mechanism independent cluster security services

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Ridgefield, CT, United States of America

Serban C Maerean