Fault tolerant computer system

Details Fault tolerant computer system Fault tolerant computer system

1990-09-24

1992-10-20

Beausoliel, Robert W.

Excavating

371 12, 3642683, 3642686, 3642689, 3642692, 3642853, 3642803, 364DIG1, 364944, 3649442, 364DIG2, 395575, G06F 1120

Patent

active

051576635

ABSTRACT:
A method and apparatus for providing a fault-tolerant backup system such that if there is a failure of a primary processing system, a replicated system can take over without interruption. The invention provides a software solution for providing a backup system. Two servers are provided, a primary and secondary server. The two servers are connected via a communications channel. The servers have associated with them an operating system. The present invention divides this operating system into two "engines." An I/O engine is responsible for handling and receiving all data and asynchronous events on the system. The I/O engine controls and interfaces with physical devices and device drivers. The operating system (OS) engine is used to operate on data received from the I/O engine. All events or data which can change the state of the operating system are channeled through the I/O engine and converted to a message format. The I/O engine on the two servers coordinate with each other and provide the same sequence of messages to the OS engines. The messages are provided to a message queue accessed by the OS engine. Therefore, regardless of the timing of the events, (i.e., asynchronous events), the OS engine receives all events sequentially through a continuous sequential stream of input data. As a result, the OS engine is a finite state automata with a one-dimensional input "view" of the rest of the system and the state of the OS engines on both primary and secondary servers will converge.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4471429 (1984-09-01), Porter
patent: 4530052 (1985-07-01), King
patent: 4615001 (1986-09-01), Hudgins
patent: 4941087 (1990-07-01), Kap
patent: 4959768 (1990-09-01), Gerhart
patent: 4979108 (1990-12-01), Grabbe

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