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:
Aug. 27, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 30, 1999
Timothy Roy Block, Rochester, MN (US);
Rodney Lee Rabe, Byron, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a cluster node distress system and method that improves the reliability of a cluster. The cluster node distress system provides a cluster node distress signal when a node on the cluster is about to fail. This allows the cluster to better to determine whether a non-communicating node has failed or has merely been partitioned from the cluster. The preferred cluster node distress system is embedded deeply into the operating system and provides a pre-built node distress signal that can be quickly sent to other nodes in the cluster when an imminent failure of that node is detected, improving the probability that the node distress signal will get out before the node totally fails. When the node distress signal is effectively sent to other nodes in the cluster, the cluster can accurately determine that the node has failed and has not just partitioned from the cluster. This allows the cluster to respond correctly, i.e., by assigning other nodes primary responsibility, with less intervention needed by administrators.