Redundant edge hardware

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11860745-B2
Application number	US-202217713304-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2022
Priority date	Apr 5, 2022
Publication date	Jan 2, 2024
Grant date	Jan 2, 2024

Abstract

A method comprises executing a testing operation on a plurality of redundant components of an edge device. In one example, based, at least in part, on the testing operation, at least one redundant component of the plurality of redundant components is identified as having an operational issue, and the at least one redundant component is deactivated in response to the identifying. One or more remaining redundant components of the plurality of redundant components are utilized in one or more operations following the testing operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
executing a testing operation on a plurality of redundant components of an edge device;
identifying, based, at least in part, on the testing operation, at least one redundant component of the plurality of redundant components as having an operational issue;
deactivating the at least one redundant component in response to the identifying;
utilizing one or more remaining redundant components of the plurality of redundant components in one or more operations following the testing operation;
executing a plurality of respective workloads on the plurality of redundant components, wherein the executing of the plurality of respective workloads yields a plurality of respective outputs;
timestamping the plurality of respective outputs with respective times, wherein the executing of the testing operation is performed at a time after the respective times;
invalidating at least one output of the plurality of respective outputs corresponding to the at least one redundant component and timestamped with a corresponding one of the respective times; and
re-executing at least one workload of the plurality of respective workloads corresponding to the at least one invalidated output on a remaining redundant component of the one or more remaining redundant components to produce at least one new output in place of the at least one invalidated output;
wherein the method is performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of redundant components comprise one of a plurality of central processing units, a plurality of storage devices, a plurality of network interface controllers and a plurality of graphics processing units.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the testing operation comprises:
executing a test workload on the plurality of redundant components;
comparing respective outputs from the execution of the test workload by respective ones of the plurality of redundant components; and
determining, based on the comparing, whether one or more of the respective outputs differs from a plurality of same outputs comprising a majority of the respective outputs;
wherein one or more of the plurality of redundant components corresponding to the one or more of the respective outputs differing from the plurality of same outputs is identified as the at least one redundant component having the operational issue.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the testing operation comprises:
storing test data in the plurality of redundant components;
comparing respective instances of the test data stored by respective ones of the plurality of redundant components; and
determining, based on the comparing, whether one or more of the respective instances of the test data differs from a plurality of same instances of the test data comprising a majority of the respective instances of the test data;
wherein one or more of the plurality of redundant components corresponding to the one or more of the respective instances of the test data differing from the plurality of same instances of the test data is identified as the at least one redundant component having the operational issue.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the testing operation comprises:
transmitting a first instance of test data from a first redundant component of the plurality of redundant components to a second redundant component of the plurality of redundant components;
transmitting a second instance of the test data from the second redundant component back to the first redundant component; and
comparing the first and second instances of the test data to determine whether there are differences between the first and second instances of the test data;
wherein the second redundant component is identified as the at least one redundant component having the operational issue responsive to an affirmative determination of differences between the first and second instances of the test data.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the testing operation is performed periodically.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein time periods for performing the executing of the testing operation are dynamically adjusted, and wherein the dynamic adjustment is based, at least in part, on when at least some of the plurality of redundant components at least one of are performing context switching and are in a refresh interval.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the executing of the testing operation is performed responsive to one or more of the plurality of redundant components reaching a threshold number of at least one of context switching occurrences and refresh interval occurrences.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
storing the plurality of respective outputs in a storage location of the edge device.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the storage location comprises a cache of the edge device.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising
validating one or more outputs of the plurality of respective outputs corresponding to the one or more remaining redundant components.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising releasing the one or more validated outputs from the storage location.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the testing operation is encoded in at least one static random access memory location of the edge device.

14. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer program instructions wherein, when the at least one processor executes the computer program instructions, the apparatus is configured:
to execute a testing operation on a plurality of redundant components of an edge device;
to identify, based, at least in part, on the testing operation, at least one redundant component of the plurality of redundant components as having an operational issue;
to deactivate the at least one redundant component in response to the identifying;
to utilize one or more remaining redundant components of the plurality of redundant components in one or more operations following the testing operation;
to execute a plurality of respective workloads on the plurality of redundant components, wherein the executing of the plurality of respective workloads yields a plurality of respective outputs;
to timestamp the plurality of respective outputs with respective times, wherein the executing of the testing operation is performed at a time after the respective times;
to invalidate at least one output of the plurality of respective outputs corresponding to the at least one redundant component and timestamped with a corresponding one of the respective times; and
to re-execute at least one workload of the plurality of respective workloads corresponding to the at least one invalidated output on a remaining redundant component of the one or more remaining redundant components to produce at least one new output in place of the at least one invalidated output.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the apparatus is further configured
to store the plurality of respective outputs in a storage location of the edge device.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the apparatus is further configured
to validate one or more outputs of the plurality of respective outputs corresponding to the one or more remaining redundant components.

17. A computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and comprising machine executable instructions, the machine executable instructions, when executed, causing a proce

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Bruno Eric
• Savic Dragan

Classifications

• G06F11/2002 Primary

  where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant (flexible arrangements for bus networks involving redundancy H04L12/40176) · CPC title

• G06F11/1438

  Restarting or rejuvenating · CPC title

• G06F11/3688

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F11/3692

  for test results analysis · CPC title

• G06F11/3419 Primary

  by assessing time · CPC title