Method and system for measuring availability in a distributed network
US5790431A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 20, 1995 |
| Grant date | Aug 4, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 20, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2209/503
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for determining the availability of a workstation in a distributed network. Availability is determined using an Availability Measurement System having a Downtime unit, an Availability Disable unit, and a Calculation unit. During the initialization of the workstation, a heartbeat monitor daemon is created to store, at predetermined time intervals, timestamps of the network. Once the workstation becomes unavailable, the recording of the timestamps ceases, thus, allowing an accurate representation of when the workstation became unavailable. Upon the return of the workstation to the status of available, the Downtime unit reads the current time of the network and the stored timestamp to calculate the duration of the unavailability of the workstation. The duration is then stored for later calculation of availability of the workstation for a defined interval of time using the Calculation unit. The Availability Measurement System may be disabled using the Availability Disable unit, thus, allowing selected durations of unavailability to be excluded from an availability calculation.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.