The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 04, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 01, 1998
Jeffrey Phillip Snover, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a mechanism for retrying a system operation on a remote node in a distributed environment. In an “optimistic” embodiment of the invention, a local system issues a set of commands over a network to a remote node to perform a system operation. Responsive to a failure by the remote node to perform the requested system action, the retry mechanism determines whether the remote node could be in a nonoperational state. If the remote node could be in the nonoperational state, the system issues a magic packet to the remote node. Next, the system waits a predetermined period of time for the remote node to be brought to a fully operational state. The system issues the set of commands a second time to the remote node to perform the system operation. In a “preemptive” or “pessimistic” embodiment of the invention, the likelihood that the remote node is in a powered down or similar state is sufficiently high to outweigh the cost of sending a magic packet over the network. Thus, to perform a system operation on a remote node, a magic packet is issued preemptively to the remote node over a network to bring it to a fully operational state. Then, the local system issues a set of commands over the network to the remote node to perform the system operation.