Patent ID: 9519657
Filing Date: 2016-12-13
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L,Y10S

Claim Text:
1. A method for establishing cluster membership of computer system nodes sharing read/write access to storage devices via a storage area network, the method comprising: sending a withdrawal request from a node in a viable quorum cluster to two or more other nodes in the viable quorum cluster when the node is scheduled to withdraw from the viable quorum cluster to upgrade a version of an operating system software at the node, wherein the withdrawal request is sent according to a rolling upgrade, the rolling upgrade performed such that at least one other node of the two or more other nodes in the viable quorum cluster can receive the upgraded version of the operating system software at a later point in time, and the node withdraws from membership in the viable quorum cluster after sending the withdrawal request; upgrading the version of the operating system software program at the node; receiving a request for information from a leader node; providing information identifying the upgraded version of the operating system software at the node to the leader node, wherein the leader node aggregates the upgraded operating system software version information and provides the aggregated information to all nodes in the viable quorum cluster when proposing a renewed membership in the viable quorum cluster and re-joining the viable quorum cluster after the leader node provides the aggregated information to all the nodes in the viable quorum cluster after the renewed membership in the viable quorum cluster has been proposed, wherein the renewed membership in the viable quorum cluster includes the node that previously withdrew from the viable quorum cluster and at least one other node, and the at least one other node formats a message consistent with the upgraded version of the operating system software at the node for transmission to the node.