Method and apparatus for providing serialization support for a computer system

Abstract

Provided are a method and apparatus for providing serialization support for computer systems and computer system resources, in particular for application programs which require sequencing and/or consistency of data. The computer system resource includes serialized processes with units of work. A serialization token is provided at the start of a serialized process including at least one unit of work. The serialization token remains in force until the or all of the units of work of the process have been committed or rolled back. The serialization token controls the commencement of other processes of the computer system during the time that it is in force. The serialization is carried out by storing an abstract representation of the process to be serialized in storage which is accessible by all the programs and computers where the serialization applies. In this way, if a process fails, the serialization token remains in force until the process has recovered and has committed or rolled back the units of work in the process. The serialization token can allow only a single thread process or, alternatively, the serialization token can allow a multiple thread process in which the threads have the same serialization token which allows for multiple users.