Patent · US Expired

Method and system for providing transparent incremental and multiprocess checkpointing to computer applications

US7293200B2 · kind B2 · utility

73Cited by
3References
71Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 26, 2005
Grant dateNov 6, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 10, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/203
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Incremental single and multiprocess checkpointing and restoration is described, which is transparent in that the application program need not be modified, re-compiled, or re-linked to gain the benefits of the invention. The processes subject to checkpointing can be either single or multi-threaded. The method includes incremental page-boundary checkpointing, as well as storage checkpointing of data files associated with applications to ensure correct restoration without the need to restore files for other application programs. Incremental and full checkpoints are asynchronously merged to ensure proper operation while reducing checkpointing delay. By way of example a user-level programming library is described for loading into the address space of the application in conjunction with a loadable kernel module (LKM) or device driver used to capture and restore process state on behalf of the application. These techniques are particularly well suited for use with high-availability (HA) protection programming.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.