Incremental Memory Dump with Parallel Reboot
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional systems for dumping main memory content and CPU states in large virtual machines or logical partitions take several hours, leading to significant system outages and requiring twice the original memory, with the inability to boot during the dump process.
Innovation Solution
A system that manages a pre-defined set of minimal dedicated resources for executing the dump and reboot, allowing the process to start with a minimum resource availability, and continuously allocates additional resources until the full configuration is reached, enabling parallel execution of dumping and rebooting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional dumping process is used to store memory content and CPU states, then complete system dump is achieved, but system outage time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by starting the reboot process before the dump process is fully completed. The system initiates reboot with available dumped data, then continues dumping remaining memory content in the background. This allows the system to begin recovery operations while still gathering complete diagnostic information, thereby reducing overall outage time without sacrificing dump completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamics by making the resource allocation flexible during the dump and reboot process. Instead of requiring all resources to be available before starting reboot, the system dynamically allocates resources as they become available during dumping. The reboot process can start with partial resources and acquire additional resources during execution, enabling parallel operation of dump and reboot activities.
2Reliability
If traditional dumping process is used to store all memory content, then complete dump is achieved, but memory resource requirements double
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the memory dumping process into multiple segments or phases. Instead of requiring all memory to be dumped simultaneously into available space, the system dumps memory in segments as they become available. This allows the dump process to proceed with smaller memory allocations at any given time, reducing the peak memory resource requirement from double the original to a more manageable amount while still achieving complete dump coverage.
3Reliability
If traditional system waits for complete dump before reboot, then full dump data is available, but resource utilization efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuity of useful action by ensuring that both dump and reboot processes continue simultaneously rather than sequentially. The dump process continues in the background while the reboot process progresses, maximizing resource utilization. Resources that would otherwise remain idle during a sequential approach are actively used for both dumping and rebooting in parallel, thereby improving resource utilization efficiency while maintaining complete data availability.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for executing dumping of main memory content and CPU states and for an adaptive boot. The methods and the systems provide a configuration list of the computer system comprising a pre-defined set of dedicated resources for the dumping, provide threshold values for a pre-defined set of minimum resources for executing a reboot of the computer system, assign the pre-defined set of the dedicated resources for executing the dumping, start the dumping, release ones of the dedicated resources after content of the ones of the dedicated resources has been dumped, start a reboot process of the computer system in response to determining that the ones of the dedicated resources exceeds the threshold values for the pre-defined set of the minimum resources for executing the reboot process, and continue to release others of the dedicated resources to the reboot process until the dumping is completed.