Multi-class heterogeneous clients in a clustered filesystem
US8396908B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 10, 2009 |
| Grant date | Mar 12, 2013 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 10, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L69/329
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A cluster of computer system nodes connected by a storage area network include two classes of nodes. The first class of nodes can act as clients or servers, while the other nodes can only be clients. The client-only nodes require much less functionality and can be more easily supported by different operating systems. To minimize the amount of data transmitted during normal operation, the server responsible for maintaining a cluster configuration database repeatedly multicasts the IP address, its incarnation number and the most recent database generation number. Each node stores this information and when a change is detected, each node can request an update of the data needed by that node. A client-only node uses the IP address of the server to connect to the server, to download the information from the cluster database required by the client-only node and to upload local disk connectivity information.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.