Patent Abstract:
A system and method for maintaining functionality during component failures is presented. During application registration, a recovery engine generates a recovery plan for the application. The recovery plan includes recovery actions that correspond to each component that the application intends to access. When an application encounters an unavailable component, the recovery engine provides a recovery action to the application which instructs the application how to proceed, such as accessing a backup component. The recovery engine tracks unavailable components and, when a subsequent application registers that intends to use an unavailable component, the recovery engine provides the subsequent application a recovery action, instructing the subsequent application how to proceed.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Technical Field  
         [0002]     The present invention relates in general to a system and method for maintaining functionality during component failures. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing component access alternatives to an application when one of the applications encounters an unavailable component.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Computer applications are becoming increasingly complex. In the process of becoming more complex, computer applications are also becoming more dependent upon outside components, such as databases and other applications. During a large application&#39;s operation, the application may launch other applications and access many databases. In a distributed computer system, an application may launch these components on servers that may be located in a different office complex.  
         [0005]     A challenge found, however, is that components that an application depends may become unavailable. For example, an application may attempt to access a database and discover that the database is not responding possibly due to a database interface failure. When an application encounters an unavailable component, the application attempts to recover from the encounter, which typically involves attempting to access the same component a second time. If the application is unsuccessful, the application tends to take an “all or nothing” approach. Either the application completely restarts, or, if the failure is severe, an entire server or set of servers on which the application executes is restarted. In today&#39;s business environment where more and more businesses depend upon continuous availability of computer application systems, this is an invasive and time-consuming approach to managing application availability.  
         [0006]     Another challenge is developing as systems evolve in support of the extremely dynamic nature of today&#39;s business environment. In order to fit this need, applications are becoming less aware of the computer infrastructure on which they run. Technologies such as Virtualization, Automated Provisioning of new servers in real time, and automated business process orchestration make it more difficult to develop component failure contingency plans in advance without a “flexible manager” function to address real outage situations as they arise.  
         [0007]     What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for an application to continue operation when the application encounters an unavailable component by offering the application an alternative action to perform.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0008]     It has been discovered that the aforementioned challenges are resolved by providing an application with alternative operating instructions when the application encounters an unavailable component. During application registration, a recovery engine generates a recovery plan for the application. The recovery plan includes recovery actions that correspond to each component that the application intends to access. When an application encounters an unavailable component, the recovery engine provides a recovery action to the application which instructs the application how to proceed, such as accessing a backup component. For example, if an application detects a specific database interface failure, the recovery engine may instruct the application to access a backup copy of the database, run in degraded mode without the database, or place database transaction requests onto a queue for future processing when the database recovers.  
         [0009]     A first application sends a registration request that includes a profile to the recovery engine. The profile includes component links that the first application plans to access, such as a database. The recovery engine uses business rules to generate a recovery action for each component, and stores the recovery actions in a recovery plan.  
         [0010]     The first application begins to execute, and sends a request to a component, such as component “X”, in an effort to access component X. For example, component X may be a database interface that has failed. In this example, component X does not send a response to the first application. As a result, the first application sends a “component alert” to the recovery engine, informing the recovery engine of component X&#39;s unavailability.  
         [0011]     In turn, the recovery engine retrieves the first application&#39;s recovery plan and identifies a recovery action that corresponds to component X&#39;s unavailability. The recovery engine sends the identified recovery action to the first application, which instructs the first application to access an alternative component, such as a back-up component. The first application sends a request to the back-up component which, in turn, sends a response to the first application. In addition to sending the recovery action to the first application, the recovery engine stores a component identifier corresponding to component X in a tracking look-up table. The recovery engine uses the tracking look-up table during subsequent application registrations to identify unavailable components. In one embodiment, the recovery engine may also store the tracking look-up table in internal memory for faster data access.  
         [0012]     The first application continues executing, and launches a second application. The second application sends a registration request to the recovery engine in order to register with the recovery engine. In turn, the recovery engine retrieves the business rules and begins to generate a recovery plan for the second application. During the registration process, the recovery engine identifies the availability of each component that the second application intents to access by looking-up each component in the tracking look-up table, as well as pinging each component. The recovery engine determines that the second application intends to use component X by detecting the corresponding component identifier in the tracking look-up table. The recovery engine generates and stores a recovery plan for the second application, and sends a recovery action to the second application that instructs the second application to access the back-up component instead of accessing component X. The first application and the second application continue to access the back-up component until they finish executing, or until they are instructed to start using component X once component X becomes available.  
         [0013]     The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth below.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]     The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.  
         [0015]      FIG. 1  is a diagram showing a recovery engine generating recovery plans and providing recovery actions to applications;  
         [0016]      FIG. 2  is a high-level diagram showing steps taken in generating a recovery plan and providing recovery actions to an application;  
         [0017]      FIG. 3  is a detail level flowchart showing steps taken in registering an application;  
         [0018]      FIG. 4  is a detail level flowchart showing steps taken in generating a recovery plan for an application;  
         [0019]      FIG. 5  is a detail level flowchart showing steps taken in processing a recovery action that corresponds to an unavailable component; and  
         [0020]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram of an information handling system capable of implementing the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0021]     The following is intended to provide a detailed description of an example of the invention and should not be taken to be limiting of the invention itself. Rather, any number of variations may fall within the scope of the invention which is defined in the claims following the description.  
         [0022]      FIG. 1  is a diagram showing a recovery engine generating recovery plans and providing recovery actions to applications. Recovery engine  100  generates recovery plans that include recovery actions which correspond to particular components. When an application informs recovery engine  100  of an unavailable component, recovery engine  100  provides a recovery action to the application that corresponds to the component. For example, if an application detects a specific database interface failure, recovery engine  100  may instruct the application to access a backup copy of the database, run in degraded mode without the database, or place database transaction requests onto a queue for future processing when the database recovers.  
         [0023]     Application A  105  sends registration request  110  that includes a profile to recovery engine  100 . The profile includes component links which application A  105  plans to access, such as a database. Recovery engine  100  retrieves rules  120  from rules store  115  that includes business rules for generating a recovery action (see  FIG. 3  and corresponding text for further details regarding registration details). During registration, recovery engine  100  may ping the component links included in the profile, such as component X  140 , to verify that each component is available.  
         [0024]     Recovery engine  100  generates a recovery plan for application A  105 , which includes a recovery action for each component link, and stores plan A  125  in data store  130  (see  FIG. 4  and corresponding text for further details regarding recovery plan generation). Plan A  125  includes recovery actions which describe alternative actions for application A  105  to execute when application A  105  identifies an unavailable component. For example, if application A  105  fails to access a particular database, a recovery action may instruct application A  105  to access a backup database. Rules  115  and recovery plan store  130  may be stored on a nonvolatile storage area, such as a computer hard drive.  
         [0025]     Once registered, application A  105  begins execution and sends request  135  to component X  140  in an effort to access component X  140 . For example, component X  140  may be a database interface. In this example, component X  140  is unavailable and does not send a response to application A  105 . As a result, application A  105  sends component alert  145  to recovery engine  100 , which informs recovery engine  100  of component X  140 &#39;s unavailability.  
         [0026]     Recovery engine  100  retrieves plan A  125  from data store  130  and identifies a recovery action included in plan A  125  that corresponds to component X  140 &#39;s unavailability (see  FIG. 5  and corresponding text for further details regarding component recovery processing). Recovery engine  100  sends recovery action  150  to application A  105  which instructs application A  105  to access an alternative component, such as back-up component X  160 . Application A  105  sends request  155  to back-up component X  160  which, in turn, sends response  165  to application A  105 . In addition to sending recovery action  150  to application A  105 , recovery engine  100  stores a component identifier corresponding to component X  140  in a tracking look-up table located in tracking store  148 . Recovery engine  100  uses the tracking look-up table during subsequent application registrations to identify unavailable components (see below for further details). In one embodiment, recovery engine  100  may also store the tracking look-up table in internal memory for faster data access.  
         [0027]     Application A  105  continues executing, and sends launch  170  to application B  175  which launches application B  175 . Application B  175  sends registration request  180  to recovery engine  100  in order to register with recovery engine  100 . In turn, recovery engine  100  retrieves rules  120  from rules store  115  and begins to generate a recovery plan for application B  175 . During the registration process, recovery engine  100  identifies the availability of each component that application B  175  intents to access by looking-up each component in the tracking look-up table, as well as pinging the components. Recovery engine  100  determines that application B  175  intends to use component X  140  which has a corresponding component identifier in the tracking look-up table which indicates that component X  140  is unavailable. Recovery engine  100  generates and stores a recovery plan (e.g. plan B  185 ) and sends recovery action  150  to application B  175  that instructs application B  175  to access back-up component X  160  instead of component X  140 .  
         [0028]     Application B  175  sends request  195  to back-up component X  160  which, in turn, sends response  199  to application B  175 . Application A  105  and application B  175  continue to access back-up component X  160  until they finish executing, or until they are instructed to start using component X  140  once component X  140  becomes available.  
         [0029]      FIG. 2  is a high-level diagram showing steps taken in generating a recovery plan and providing recovery actions to an application. Processing commences at  200 , whereupon processing receives a registration request from application  205 , and stores the registration request in temp store  215  (step  210 ). The registration request includes a list of component links that application  205  plans to access. Temp store  215  may be stored on a nonvolatile storage area, such as a computer hard drive.  
         [0030]     Processing registers application  205  and, during application registration, processing stores the component link information in data store  130  that identifies the operability of each component that is specified in the registration request. If one of the components is unavailable, processing sets a “component recovery flag” which indicates that a recovery action is required for an unavailable component (pre-defined process block  220 , see  FIG. 3  and corresponding text for further details). Data store  130  is the same as that shown in  FIG. 1  and may be stored on a nonvolatile storage area, such as a computer hard drive.  
         [0031]     Once application  205  is registered, processing uses information gathered during the registration process to generate a recovery plan. Processing uses business rules that are retrieved from rule store  115 , as well as component information that is retrieved from data store  130 , in order to generate the recovery plan (pre-defined process block  230 , see  FIG. 4  and corresponding text for further details).  
         [0032]     A determination is made as to whether the component recovery flag was set during application registration, signifying that a recovery action is required for one of the components (decision  240 ). If the component recovery flag is set, decision  240  braches to “Yes” branch  242  whereupon the recovery action is identified and processed (pre-defined process block  270 , see  FIG. 5  and corresponding text for further details). On the other hand, if the component recovery flag is not set, decision  240  branches to “No” branch  248  whereupon processing monitors components  255  and application  205  (step  250 ). For example, processing may monitor components  255  by invoking a “heartbeat” ping to each component to ensure that each component available, and processing may monitor application  205  by checking for component alerts sent from application  205 .  
         [0033]     A determination is made as to whether there is an unavailable component (decision  260 ). If there is not an unavailable component, decision  260  branches to “No” branch  262  which loops back to continue to monitor the computer system. This looping continues until an unavailable component is detected, at which point decision  260  branches to “Yes” branch  268  whereupon processing identifies a recovery action corresponding to the unavailable component, sends the recovery action to application  205 , and logs the unavailable component in a look-up table located in tracking store  148  (pre-defined process block  270 , see  FIG. 5  and corresponding text for further details).  
         [0034]     A determination is made as to whether to continue recovery processing (decision  280 ). If recovery processing should continue, decision  280  branches to “Yes” branch  282  which loops back to continue to monitor the system. This looping continues until recovery processing should stop, at which point decision  280  branches to “No” branch  288  whereupon processing ends at  290 .  
         [0035]      FIG. 3  is a detail level flowchart showing steps taken in registering an application. Application registration commences at  300 , whereupon processing retrieves the application&#39;s profile from temp store  215  and identifies whether the profile includes a start-up sequence (step  310 ). For example, the application may initialize the components it plans to access, and the application requires time to perform the initialization steps before the recovery engine accesses the components.  
         [0036]     At step  320 , processing selects the first component link that is included in the profile, and looks-up the component link in a tracking look-up table located in tracking store  148  to identify whether the component has been logged as being unavailable. For example, if an application attempted to access the component and the component did not respond, the application sent a component alert to a recovery engine which, in turn, stored a component identifier corresponding to the component in the tracking look-up table in order to track the unavailable component (see  FIG. 5  and corresponding text for further details regarding component identifier storage steps).  
         [0037]     A determination is made as to whether the component has a corresponding component identifier located in the tracking look-up table (decision  330 ). If the first component has a corresponding component identifier in the tracking look-up table, decision  330  branches to “Yes” branch  332  whereupon processing stores the component link in data store  130  (step  365 ), and sets a component recovery flag that indicates that a recovery action is required for the unavailable component (step  370 ). On the other hand, if the component does not have a corresponding component identifier located in the tracking look-up table, decision  330  branches to “No” branch  348 .  
         [0038]     A determination is made as to whether to ping the first component (step  340 ). For example, if a start-up sequence is specified, processing may be required to wait until the start-up sequence is complete before pinging the component. If processing should not ping the component, decision  340  branches to “No” branch  342  which loops back to wait to ping the components. This looping continues until processing should ping the component (i.e. the start-up sequence is complete), at which point decision  320  branches to “Yes” branch  348  and pings component  255  at step  350 . Component  255  is the same as that shown in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0039]     A determination is made as to whether component  255  responds to the ping (decision  360 ). If component  255  does not respond, decision  360  branches to “No” branch  362  whereupon processing stores the component link in data store  130  (step  365 ), and sets a component recovery flag (step  370 ). On the other hand, if component  255  responds to the ping, decision  360  branches to “Yes” branch  368  whereupon processing stores the component link in data store  130  at step  380 .  
         [0040]     A determination is made as to whether there are more components to ping (decision  390 ). If there are more components to ping, decision  390  branches to “Yes” branch  392  whereupon processing selects (step  395 ) and processes the next component. This looping continues until there are no more components to ping, at which point decision  390  branches to “No” branch  398  whereupon processing returns at  399 .  
         [0041]      FIG. 4  is a detail level flowchart showing steps taken in generating a recovery plan for an application. Processing commences at  400 , whereupon processing retrieves a first component link from data store  130  (step  410 ). Component links that correspond to the application were stored in data store  130  during the application&#39;s registration. For example, if the application is an automated teller machine, one of the component links would correspond to accessing a client account database with the intent to update the database in support of the ability to withdraw funds from a client&#39;s account (see  FIG. 3  and corresponding text for further details regarding registration steps). Data store  130  is the same as that shown in  FIG. 1  and may be stored on a nonvolatile storage area, such as a computer hard drive.  
         [0042]     Processing retrieves business rules that correspond to the first component link from rules store  115  at step  420 . Using the example described above, if the client database is unavailable, a business rule may allow a user to withdraw up to $100 each day. Processing generates a recovery action using the retrieved business rules at step  430 , and stores the recovery action in data store  130  at step  440 . Using the example described above, a recovery action may instruct the application to store withdraws in a local storage area, and update the client database when the client database becomes available.  
         [0043]     A determination is made as to whether there are more component links located in data store  130  to generate a recovery action (decision  450 ). If there are more component links, decision  450  branches to “Yes” branch  452  which loops back to retrieve (step  460 ) and process the next component link. This looping continues until there are no more component links to process, at which point decision  450  branches to “No” branch  458  whereupon processing returns at  470 .  
         [0044]      FIG. 5  is a detail level flowchart showing steps taken in processing a recovery action that corresponds to an unavailable component. Processing commences at  500 , whereupon processing identifies an application that requires the recovery action (step  510 ). At step  520 , processing identifies the component that is deemed unavailable either from receiving a component alert from the application or from not receiving a ping response from the component.  
         [0045]     Processing sends a message to system administrator  540  informing him of the unavailable component and which application is effected (step  530 ). At step  550 , processing retrieves a recovery plan that corresponds to the identified application from data store  130 . The recovery plan includes recovery actions that correspond to components that the identified application access (see  FIG. 4  and corresponding text for further details regarding recovery plan generation). Data store  130  is the same as that shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0046]     At step  560 , processing identifies a recovery action included in the recovery plan that corresponds to the unavailable component. For example, if the unavailable component is a database, the recovery action may instruct an application to use a back-up database. Processing sends recovery action  150  to application  210  at step  570 . Recovery action  150  and application  210  are the same as that shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , respectively.  
         [0047]     Processing stores a “component identifier” in tracking store  148  at step  580 , which is used to identify unavailable components when other applications register (see  FIG. 3  and corresponding text for further details regarding application registration). Tracking store  148  is the same as that shown in  FIG. 1 . Processing returns at  590 .  
         [0048]      FIG. 6  illustrates information handling system  601  which is a simplified example of a computer system capable of performing the computing operations described herein. Computer system  601  includes processor  600  which is coupled to host bus  602 . A level two (L2) cache memory  604  is also coupled to host bus  602 . Host-to-PCI bridge  606  is coupled to main memory  608 , includes cache memory and main memory control functions, and provides bus control to handle transfers among PCI bus  610 , processor  600 , L2 cache  604 , main memory  608 , and host bus  602 . Main memory  608  is coupled to Host-to-PCI bridge  606  as well as host bus  602 . Devices used solely by host processor(s)  600 , such as LAN card  630 , are coupled to PCI bus  610 . Service Processor Interface and ISA Access Pass-through  612  provides an interface between PCI bus  610  and PCI bus  614 . In this manner, PCI bus  614  is insulated from PCI bus  610 . Devices, such as flash memory  618 , are coupled to PCI bus  614 . In one implementation, flash memory  618  includes BIOS code that incorporates the necessary processor executable code for a variety of low-level system functions and system boot functions.  
         [0049]     PCI bus  614  provides an interface for a variety of devices that are shared by host processor(s)  600  and Service Processor  616  including, for example, flash memory  618 . PCI-to-ISA bridge  635  provides bus control to handle transfers between PCI bus  614  and ISA bus  640 , universal serial bus (USB) functionality  645 , power management functionality  655 , and can include other functional elements not shown, such as a real-time clock (RTC), DMA control, interrupt support, and system management bus support. Nonvolatile RAM  620  is attached to ISA Bus  640 . Service Processor  616  includes JTAG and I2C busses  622  for communication with processor(s)  600  during initialization steps. JTAG/I2C busses  622  are also coupled to L2 cache  604 , Host-to-PCI bridge  606 , and main memory  608  providing a communications path between the processor, the Service Processor, the L2 cache, the Host-to-PCI bridge, and the main memory. Service Processor  616  also has access to system power resources for powering down information handling device  601 .  
         [0050]     Peripheral devices and input/output (I/O) devices can be attached to various interfaces (e.g., parallel interface  662 , serial interface  664 , keyboard interface  668 , and mouse interface  670  coupled to ISA bus  640 . Alternatively, many I/O devices can be accommodated by a super I/O controller (not shown) attached to ISA bus  640 .  
         [0051]     In order to attach computer system  601  to another computer system to copy files over a network, LAN card  630  is coupled to PCI bus  610 . Similarly, to connect computer system  601  to an ISP to connect to the Internet using a telephone line connection, modem  675  is connected to serial port  664  and PCI-to-ISA Bridge  635 .  
         [0052]     While the computer system described in  FIG. 6  is capable of executing the processes described herein, this computer system is simply one example of a computer system. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that many other computer system designs are capable of performing the processes described herein.  
         [0053]     One of the preferred implementations of the invention is an application, namely, a set of instructions (program code) in a code module which may, for example, be resident in the random access memory of the computer. Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer memory, for example, on a hard disk drive, or in removable storage such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM) or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloaded via the Internet or other computer network. Thus, the present invention may be implemented as a computer program product for use in a computer. In addition, although the various methods described are conveniently implemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the required method steps.  
         [0054]     While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this invention. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those with skill in the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such limitation is present. For a non-limiting example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim elements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the same holds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6