Patent ID: 8051322
Filing Date: 2011-11-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A redundant failover system for switching an application processing apparatus to execute a first application in a communication system which comprises a plurality of application processing apparatuses including a failover source application processing apparatus to execute the first application, a failover destination application processing apparatus to execute the first application instead of the failover source application processing apparatus, and a communication partner application processing apparatus to communicate with the failover source application processing apparatus and the failover destination application processing apparatus, a redundancy managing apparatus and a backup apparatus, and in which respective applications executed by the plurality of application processing apparatuses perform communication control, wherein each of the failover source application processing apparatus and the failover destination application processing apparatus includes a memory storing the first application and tunnel information, and a packet transfer processing section, the tunnel information includes a correspondence between a virtual IP address of a second application executed by the communication partner application processing apparatus and an IP address of the communication partner application processing apparatus, the packet transfer processing section refers to the tunnel information to change a packet addressed to the virtual IP address of the second application from the first application into a packet addressed to the IP address of the communication partner application processing apparatus and transmits the packet to the communication partner application processing apparatus, the failover source application processing apparatus further includes an application communication information notification section to notify the virtual IP address of the second application to the backup apparatus, the backup apparatus stores the virtual IP address of the second application notified from the application communication information notification section, and notifies the virtual IP address of the second application to the failover destination application processing apparatus, the redundancy managing apparatus includes a memory storing address information and a tunnel information update instruction section, the address information includes correspondences between IP addresses of the plurality of application processing apparatuses in the redundant failover system and virtual IP addresses of applications executed by the respective application processing apparatuses, the tunnel information update instruction section refers to the address information and notifies at least the virtual IP address of the second application and the IP address of the communication partner application processing apparatus corresponding to the virtual IP address to the failover destination application processing apparatus corresponding to the virtual IP address to the failover destination application processing apparatus in response to an inquiry including the virtual IP address of the second application received from the failover destination application processing apparatus, or notifies the virtual IP addresses of the plurality of the applications stored in the address information and the IP addresses of the communication partner application processing apparatus corresponding to the respective virtual IP addresses to the failover destination application processing apparatus in response to a notification of failure occurrence, the failover destination application processing apparatus further includes a tunnel information management section, and starts a process of the first application, irrespective of whether the first application transmits a packet to the virtual IP address of the second application, the tunnel information management section sets the virtual IP address of the second application and the IP address of the communication partner application processing apparatus correspondingly, which are notified from the redundancy managing apparatus, into the tunnel information, or sets the virtual IP address of the second application received from the backup apparatus and the IP address of the application processing apparatus corresponding to the virtual IP address among the plurality of virtual IP addresses and the IP addresses, which are notified from the redundancy managing apparatus, into the tunnel information.