Coordinated Checkpointing for Application Group Migration
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current enterprise and wireless systems face challenges in achieving high availability due to the lack of mechanisms for protecting multi-application services, which are often provided by different vendors and loaded at different times, leading to potential outages and revenue loss.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for transparent migration and fail-over of application groups with checkpointing services that capture and store the state of applications, allowing for loss-less migration and failover without client involvement, using a coordinator to manage registration, fault detection, and recovery across multiple nodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional customized applications run on custom hardware to achieve high availability, then system reliability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of application groups that can be migrated between physical hosts. Instead of requiring custom hardware for each application, the system uses virtualization to copy and transfer application states, achieving high availability through software-based replication rather than hardware duplication
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments applications into independent application groups that can be individually managed, checkpointed, and migrated. This segmentation allows the system to provide high availability for specific applications without requiring complete custom hardware infrastructure for entire systems
2Adaptability or versatility
If multi-application services from different vendors are integrated, then system versatility is improved, but coordination complexity for checkpointing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a coordinator component that acts as an intermediary between multiple independent applications from different vendors. The coordinator manages checkpointing operations centrally, handling the complexity of coordinating state capture across multiple applications without requiring each application to implement its own coordination logic
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the checkpointing functionality of multiple independent applications into a unified application group checkpoint. By combining individual application states into a coordinated group checkpoint, the system simplifies the management of multi-vendor applications while maintaining their individual functionalities
3Adaptability or versatility
If applications are loaded at different times to meet diverse requirements, then system adaptability is improved, but achieving coordinated checkpointing becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic application group registration where applications can join and leave the group at different times based on system needs. The coordinator dynamically updates the application group composition, allowing flexible loading schedules while maintaining checkpointing consistency through adaptive coordination mechanisms
4Ease of operation
If transparent migration without client involvement is implemented, then ease of operation is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service migration where the application group and coordinator automatically perform checkpointing, packaging, and transfer operations without client intervention. The system manages its own migration process, handling state capture, compression, and restoration automatically, which simplifies operation for users while the backend complexity is contained within the automated migration infrastructure
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method thereof for performing loss-less migration of an application group. In an exemplary embodiment, the system may include a high-availability services module structured for execution in conjunction with an operating system, and one or more computer nodes of a distributed system upon which at least one independent application can be executed upon. The high-availability services module may be structured to be executable on the one or more computer nodes for loss-less migration of the one or more independent applications, and is operable to perform checkpointing of all state in a transport connection.