Abstract:
Techniques are provided for responding to the termination of a node executing one or more transactions by selecting another node to complete the transactions, and assigning to the selected node the affinity relationships that existed between the terminated node and the objects being accessed by said transactions.
Abstract:
A system and method for monitoring software locks is presented. Metric data collection is invoked only when thin lock contention arises in a computer system's application layer. Instrumentation in a computer system's middleware layer tracks time-based metric information such as a waiting time for an application to acquire a lock. Instrumentation tracks garbage collection events and removes garbage collection time durations from time-based metric data as to not distort time-based metric data. Instrumentation also tracks quantity-based events such as the number of applications that request a particular lock. An instrumentation user may retrieve metric data for computer system performance analysis.
Abstract:
A method for tracking transactions performed on a non-volatile storage medium. The medium consists of a plurality of storage ranges. The method includes assigning respective local counters to the plurality of storage ranges, the local counters having respective local counter values, and storing the local counter values together in a selected region of the non-volatile storage medium. The method further includes updating the respective local counter values stored in the selected region responsively to the transactions performed on the storage ranges to which the local counters are respectively assigned. The method also includes reading and combining the local counter values from the selected region in order to determine a global counter value with respect to the non-volatile storage medium.
Abstract:
A method and system for employing fast, but easily corrupted mass storage for reliably backing up objects, such as files and databases. In a LUN-based mass storage device, a system or application may request and receive a lock on a particular LUN prior to storing a backup object on the LUN. The system or application may later request lock information for the LUN in order to decide whether or not the backup object can be reliably used for a restore operation. If the system or application continues to hold a lock on the LUN, then the backup object is reliable.
Abstract:
A data processing system participating in two-phase transaction processing operations which, when a system failure occurs while one or more transactions are in process, can successfully rebuild nullin-doubtnull states even when another system failure occurs during an attempt to effect the rebuild. The system includes a file management system having exclusive access to reserved locations in the memory for reading and writing meta-data therein and physical file access logic selectively coupling the memory and the database access application, the physical file access logic incorporating file protections which are controlled by the file management system; such that, in the event of a failure, the local state of the transaction can be faithfully rebuilt after restart by accessing the meta-data. Upon restart after a failure, the results of incomplete non-nullin-doubtnull transactions are removed, the files which have been updated by nullin-doubtnull transactions are locked and normal access to the affected database is then permitted.
Abstract:
During backup of a database's data stored in individual files, it is not permissible for the data in the individual files to be altered, for reasons of consistency. For this reason, the files are blocked to altering access operations after a particular time during a backup operation. According to the invention, the backup operation is carried out in two parts. First, the files are transferred without there being any alteration block. A recording file is used to note files which are altered during transferring. These files are transferred again in a second part. During the second part an alteration block is required. It can be assumed that the number of files needing to be transferred in the second part is much smaller than the number of files needing to be transferred in the first part. For this reason, a significantly shortened alteration block is achieved.
Abstract:
An apparatus and method, using an inter-processor lock to control access to inter-process relationship data structures in the memory of each processor in a multiprocessor system. The apparatus and method insure that each inter-process relationship is modified in the same sequence on each processor. The apparatus and method also insure that an inter-process relationship is maintained in a consistent state in the face of failure of any of the processors.
Abstract:
A data processing system includes a control computer which controls and monitors a cooling subsystem. The control computer has a non-volatile memory holding two status logs for recording stautus data and fault information. One of the logs is selected as the current log. If a fault condition is detected, the control computer writes fault information into the current log and then, if the other log is unlocked, locks the current log and selects the other log as the current log. In response to a "request locked log" command, the control computer transmits the contents of the locked log. In response to an "unlock" command, the control computer unlocks the locked log and then, if the other log contains fault information, locks that other log. The system thus provides an efficient mechanism for ensuring that the fault information is maintained, even through system powerdown.
Abstract:
Apparatus and method insuring that data objects used to maintain state information for shared data at a local central processing complex (CPC) are coherent with respect to state information maintained at a structured external storage facility (SES) over a link is valid. An error detector is attached to the CPC side of the link for detecting errors on the link, and, when an error is detected, setting a error state pending (ESP) latch to indicate that the link has failed and that the shared data in the local data object may be invalid because a message invalidating the data may not have been received by the CPC. In data processing operations, the ESP latch is interrogated by a central processor in the CPC to determine the health of the message path to the SES facility. A local cache vector reflecting the validity of the shared data in the local cache may then be interrogated to determine if the shared data in the local cache is valid. If a healthy path has continuously existed and the vector indicates that the local cache data is valid, the integrity of the data can be relied on.
Abstract:
A system for maintaining the reliability of shared data structures, such as message queues, in a multi-processor data processing system is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of virtual memory-type processor units in which the processors share virtual memory and can access each one of a plurality of virtual memory segments by the same virtual memory address. The system assures the reliability of system-wide shared data structures in the event of a failure of one of the processors by maintaining at least two copies of each data structure and by maintaining two copies of a table used in locating such data structures. The system updates copies of such shared data structures that are stored in at least two different processing units with the results of a specified data processing transaction, which may have affected the information in such data structures, in a manner to insure that either identical updates occur or no update occurs. The system further insures that any changes that might have occurred in the information stored in the data structure prior to the end of an aborted transaction is returned to the initial state to permit the transaction to be retried.