International Business Machines Corporation

Thomas V Weaver

Gerald Francis McBrearty

Johnny Meng-Han Shieh

James A O'Connor

Limei Shaw

Ian A MacQuarrie

Shawn T Wright

Kevin Forress Rodgers

Thomas Walter

Patrick A Buah

Shawn Patrick Mullen

Richard Edwin Harper

Ravi Shankar

James P Allen

Felipe Knop

David Carl Frank

Jeffrey S Lucash

Manjunath Basappa Muttur

Kyung D Ryu

Astrid Jaehde

John Robert Hare

Barry P Lubart

Robert Gorczyca

Stuart Warnsman

Aamir Arshad Rashid

Emy Ying-Mei Tseng

Michael Nelson Galassi

Jeffrey Michael Dangel

Alexander Duncan Carr

Embodiments relate to a computer for transmitting data in a network. The computer includes at least one data transmission port configured to be connected to at least one storage device via a plurality of paths of a network. The computer further includes a processor configured to detect recurring intermittent errors in one or more paths of the plurality of paths and to disable access to the one or more paths based on detecting the recurring intermittent errors.

Handling intermittent recurring errors in a network

An aspect of this invention is a method that includes evaluating a computing environment by performing auditing of a fault tolerance ability of the computing environment to tolerate each of a plurality of failure scenarios; constructing a failover plan for each of the plurality of scenarios; identifying one or more physical resource limitations which constrain the fault tolerance ability; and identifying one or more physical resources to be added to the computing environment to tolerate each of the plurality of failure scenarios.

Systems and methods for open and extensible integration of management domains in computation and orchestration of resource placement

Mechanisms are provided for performing a failover operation of an application from a faulty node of a high availability cluster to a selected target node. The mechanisms receive a notification of an imminent failure of the faulty node. The mechanisms further receive health information from nodes of a local failover scope of a failover policy associated with the faulty node. Moreover, the mechanisms dynamically modify the failover policy based on the health information from the nodes of the local failover scope and select a node from the modified failover policy as a target node for failover of an application running on the faulty node to the target node. Additionally, the mechanisms perform failover of the application to the target node based on the selection of the node from the modified failover policy.

Dynamic updating of failover policies for increased application availability

A method for communicating node liveness in a multinode data processing system employs an operating system function that provides a degree of self-awareness in 'sensing' an imminent but still pending failure as the basis for providing special flag signals over a channel which employs nonvolatile storage in a heartbeat signaling path.

Fast node failure detection via disk based last gasp mechanism

The state of data of a communications environment is automatically managed. The automatic management is provided via a facility that automatically obtains the current state of the data and uses that information to place the data in an appropriate state for a selected event to be processed. The data is, for instance, maintained on replicated storage media.

Automatically managing the state of replicated data of a computing environment, and methods therefor

Automatically managing the state of replicated data of a computing environment

A method, system, and program product for controlling multi-node access to a disk storage system. In accordance with the method of the present invention, an active access authorization is set for a first node. The active access authorization enables read and write access by the first node to user and meta data within the disk storage system. A passive access authorization is set for a second node. The passive access authorization enables read-only access by the second node to logical volume management meta data within the disk storage system.

Limited concurrent host access in a logical volume management data storage environment

A method, system, apparatus and computer program product for reducing the number of physical storage systems needed for a volume group to remain active are provided. This is accomplished by creating mirroring sets out of the physical storage systems in the volume group and by setting up a policy that so long as one mirror out of each mirror set is available, the volume group should be allowed to remain active. To activate a volume group (i.e., when the computer system is turned or reset), there have to be at least one full mirror set and at least one mirror out of each remaining mirror set available. These two policies guarantee that there will always be valid metadata in the system.

Apparatus and method of reducing physical storage systems needed for a volume group to remain active

A system and method for recovering from a failure in a clustered environment sharing a common nonvolatile storage device. The first computer reserves the device by identifying itself in a reservation key associated with the device. The first device sends a signal to one or more backup computers informing the backup computers that the first computer is operational. When the first computer fails to operate, one of the backup computers breaks the first computer's reservation to the storage device and writes a new reservation key to the reservation storage area identifying the backup computer as the reservation holder of the storage device. When the first computer is reinitialized, it reads the reservation storage area and does not attempt to break the reservation made by the backup computer. One embodiment provides for the first computer to request control from the backup computer upon being reinitialized whereupon the backup computer releases its reservation and relinquishes control. Another embodiment provides for the first computer to act as a backup computer. Writing to the nonvolatile storage device simultaneously from multiple paths, such as from a NUMA machine, is further disclosed using a reservation key identifying the computer.

System and method for establishing persistent reserves to nonvolatile storage in a clustered computer environment

A method and system for automatically performing one or more operations on multiple computer systems within a cluster are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, a begin operations command construct is defined within an input file. In addition, an input command indicating one or more operations to be performed on at least two computer systems within the cluster and an end operations command construct are defined. In response to a selected input, one or more operations indicated by the input command are automatically performed on at least two computer systems. In accordance with one embodiment, the begin operations command construct indicates selected computer systems within the cluster on which the one or more operations are to be performed and whether the operations are to be performed on the selected computer systems serially or in parallel.

Method and system for automatically performing an operation on multiple

A method and system for dynamically reconfiguring a cluster of computer systems are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, a first configuration file is provided at a plurality of computer systems within a cluster that specifies a current configuration of the cluster. A second configuration file is created at each of the plurality of computer systems that specifies a modified configuration of the cluster. The modified configuration is then verified. In response to the verification, the cluster is operated utilizing the modified configuration. In accordance with one embodiment, the dynamic reconfiguration of the cluster can include a reconfiguration of the cluster topology or resources.

Method and system for dynamically reconfiguring a cluster of computer

A system and method for establishing a passive recovery environment for an operating system kernel. A cross reference between an instruction address range and recovery routine address is established during binding of the kernel. Normal process initiation and termination includes no recovery overhead. In the case of system failure, the failing instruction address is used to access the recovery routine cross reference tables to determine recovery routine address. The error detection process then initiates recovery routine processing.

Growing community of inventors

Dripping Springs, TX, United States of America

Thomas V Weaver