Managed Volume Replication with Per-Server Standby Failover
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Computing clusters face reliability issues due to the lack of adequate standby servers, leading to performance degradation when multiple active servers fail, especially in cloud computing environments.
Innovation Solution
Implementing multiple standby servers for each active server in a computing cluster, with data replication across these servers, ensuring immediate failover and maintaining system reliability even in the event of multiple failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple standby servers are implemented for each active server, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the standby server configuration into individual server-level units, where each active server has its own dedicated standby server. This segmentation allows independent management and failover at the server level, improving reliability without requiring complex cluster-wide coordination for multiple failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The standby servers are pre-configured and pre-positioned in a ready state before failures occur. The system maintains replication and standby configurations in advance, enabling immediate failover when active servers fail, thus improving reliability response time without adding operational complexity during failure events.
2Reliability
If data replication is implemented across multiple servers, then reliability is improved, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local data replication at the server level, where each active server replicates data to its dedicated standby server. This localized replication approach ensures data availability for failover while minimizing the overall energy consumption compared to cluster-wide replication, as only necessary data is replicated to immediate failover targets.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of data and server configurations at the standby servers. These copies are maintained in a ready state to enable rapid failover. The copying mechanism ensures data availability without requiring continuous active processing, thus balancing reliability with energy consumption by using idle standby resources.
3Speed
If standby servers are activated immediately upon failure, then response time is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The standby servers are configured to automatically activate and take over failed active servers without requiring manual intervention or complex centralized coordination. The failover process is self-managed at the server level, enabling immediate response while simplifying overall system management through automated peer-to-peer failover mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A scale-out computing cluster may include a large number of computing servers and storage devices. In order to provide high reliability, the computing cluster must be able to handle failures of individual devices. Reliability of the computing cluster may be improved by providing a standby server for each active server in the computing cluster. If any active server fails, the corresponding standby server is activated. The failed server may be brought back online or replaced, at which time the restored server becomes the standby server for the now-active original standby server. During the restoration period, if any other active server fails, the standby server for that active server is immediately activated. As a result, the recovery ability of the computing cluster is only challenged if both servers of an active/standby pair fail during the restoration period, substantially improving reliability.