Patent ID: 9690675
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for managing a consensus group in a distributed computing cluster, the method comprising: reaching consensus, by at least two members of a consensus group of nodes in the distributed computing cluster, to elect an instance of an authority module executing on a first node, of the consensus group of nodes, to serve as a master instance of the authority module for the consensus group of nodes, wherein each member of the consensus group of nodes executes a respective instance of the authority module, wherein the master instance of the authority module is configured to assign locks to processes executing in the distributed computing cluster; reaching consensus, by at least two members of the consensus group of nodes, that an instance of an authority module executing on the first node, of the consensus group of nodes, has failed; reaching consensus, by the remaining members of the consensus group of nodes, to elect the instance of the authority module executing on a second node, of the consensus group of nodes, to serve as the master instance of the authority module for the consensus group; receiving, by the master authority module on the second node, an advertisement from a new node in the computing cluster via a zero-configuration networking protocol, wherein the new node comprises a node in the computing cluster that was not a member of the consensus group at the time the at least two members of the consensus group of nodes reached consensus that the instance of the authority module executing on the first node failed; and adding, by the master authority module on the second node, the new node to the consensus group to replace the first node.