Scalable, software-based quorum architecture

Details Scalable, software-based quorum architecture Scalable, software-based quorum architecture

2008-01-15

2008-01-15

Beausoliel, Robert W. (Department: 2113)

Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery

Data processing system error or fault handling

Reliability and availability

C710S200000, C718S104000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07320085

ABSTRACT:
A cluster of computers typically establishes a quorum, i.e., a software method for establishing agreement, to coordinate access to shared resources, such as a shared data store, in applications that must recover from the failure of one or more computers or their associated components. Prior art which associates a single quorum with an entire cluster, has inherent overheads that limit the size of the cluster to a small number of computers. The present invention comprises a scalable, software-based architecture for implementing a quorum mechanism to coordinate the actions of a cluster of computers. In contrast to prior art, the present invention advantageously encapsulates the quorum in a software construct, called a quorum object, which is disassociated from the cluster as a whole and spans a designated subset of the cluster's membership. By employing multiple quorum objects that are distributed across the cluster's membership, the cluster can uniformly scale to a large number of computers that handle a scalable processing workload, such as a partitioned database management system. The software methods that implement one embodiment of the present invention are described in detail.

REFERENCES:
patent: 6314526 (2001-11-01), Arendt et al.
patent: 6487622 (2002-11-01), Coskrey et al.
patent: 6662219 (2003-12-01), Nishanov et al.
patent: 6801937 (2004-10-01), Novaes et al.
patent: 6847993 (2005-01-01), Novaes et al.
patent: 6950855 (2005-09-01), Sampathkumar
patent: 7120681 (2006-10-01), Frelechoux et al.
patent: 2005/0273571 (2005-12-01), Lyon et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Scalable, software-based quorum architecture does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Scalable, software-based quorum architecture, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Scalable, software-based quorum architecture will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2749965