Patent · US Active

Maintaining high availability of a group of virtual machines using heartbeat messages

US8924967B2 · kind B2 · utility

69Cited by
10References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 28, 2011
Grant dateDec 30, 2014
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 10, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/0757
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Embodiments maintain high availability of software application instances in a fault domain. Subordinate hosts are monitored by a master host. The subordinate hosts publish heartbeats via a network and datastores. Based at least in part on the published heartbeats, the master host determines the status of each subordinate host, distinguishing between subordinate hosts that are entirely inoperative and subordinate hosts that are operative but partitioned (e.g., unreachable via the network). The master host may restart software application instances, such as virtual machines, that are executed by inoperative subordinate hosts or that cease executing on partitioned subordinate hosts.

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