Methods, systems and apparatus to dynamically facilitate boundaryless, high availability system management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12572394-B2
Application number	US-202318501394-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2023
Priority date	Jun 24, 2016
Publication date	Mar 10, 2026
Grant date	Mar 10, 2026

Abstract

In a Boundaryless Control High Availability (“BCHA”) system (e.g., industrial control system) comprising multiple computing resources (or computational engines) running on multiple machines, technology for computing in real time the overall system availability based upon the capabilities/characteristics of the available computing resources, applications to execute and the distribution of the applications across those resources is disclosed. In some embodiments, the disclosed technology can dynamically manage, coordinate recommend certain actions to system operators to maintain availability of the overall system at a desired level. High Availability features may be implemented across a variety of different computing resources distributed across various aspects of a BCHA system and/or computing resources. Two example implementations of BCHA systems described involve an M:N working configuration and M:N+R working configuration.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A system for dynamically load-balancing redistribution elements across a group of computing resources that facilitate at least an aspect of an Industrial Execution Process, comprising:
a system configured to: monitor the operational state data and availability metrics associated with an Execution Process control system components/computing resources; simulate computing resource failures iteratively for each of the Execution Process control system component/computing resource; determine an aggregated operational state for HA−M:N Validation load-balancing based on the simulation wherein aggregated operational state is used to determine a transition supplemental resource request to facilitate transitioning operational state back to a viable M:N working configuration and maintain high availability requirements; identify a load-balancing opportunity to trigger redistribution of at least one redistribution element to a proposed redistribution target wherein the load-balancing opportunity involves a Resource Failure Detection Load-Balancing and a HA−M:N Validation which executes a Z Validation Degree computing resource failure simulation, wherein Z is greater than or equal to 1; process the Execution Process control system components/computing resources to determine a target redistribution pool of potential redistribution candidates that maintain system availability constraints; generate an operational state transition Supplement computing resource request to facilitate transitioning back to a viable M:N working configuration that maintains high availability requirements; and redistribute the at least one redistribution element to at least one target redistribution component/computing resource selected from the target redistribution pool.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting the redistribution target from the target redistribution pool according to a Load-Balancing Redeployment Type.

3 . The system of claim 2 wherein the Load-Balancing Redeployment Type includes one of: Fastest Failover Load Balancing, Optimal Failure Load Balancing, or Balanced Failure Load Balancing.

4 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
redistributing one or more Applications as the at least one redistribution element.

5 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
redistributing one or more Applications and corresponding Work Items as the at least one redistribution element.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one redistribution element is associated with a failed computing resource.

7 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing a remediation operational state determination.

8 . The system of claim 7 wherein the remediation operational state determination validates that computing resources are facilitating a viable M:N working configuration and maintain high availability requirements.

9 . The system of claim 7 wherein the remediation operational state determination validates that computing resources are facilitating a viable M:N working configuration and does not maintain high availability requirements.

10 . The system of claim 7 wherein the remediation operational state determination validates that computing resources are not facilitating a viable M:N working configuration and does not maintain high availability requirements.

11 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing auto-remediation to obtain and provision the Supplement computing resource; and redistributing at least one redistribution element to the Supplement computing resource.

12 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the Work Items include:
executing auto-remediation to obtain and provision the Supplement computing resource; and redistributing at least one redistribution element to the Supplement computing resource.

13 . The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
activating redistributed elements along with corresponding application or work item operational data stored in a data services module at or near the time of the computing resource failure.

14 . A method for dynamically load-balancing redistribution elements across a group of computing resources that facilitate at least an aspect of an Industrial Execution Process comprising:
monitoring operational state data and availability metrics associated with Execution Process control system components/computing resources; simulating computing resource failures iteratively for each of the Execution Process control system component/computing resource; determining an aggregated operational state for HA−M:N Validation load-balancing based on the simulation wherein aggregated operational state is used to determine a transition supplemental resource request to facilitate transitioning operational state back to a viable M:N working configuration and maintain high availability requirements; identifying a load-balancing opportunity to trigger redistribution of at least one redistribution element to a proposed redistribution target wherein the load-balancing opportunity involves a Resource Failure Detection Load-Balancing and a HA−M:N Validation which executes a Z Validation Degree computing resource failure simulation, wherein Z is greater than or equal to 1; processing Execution Process control system components/computing resources to determine a target redistribution pool of potential redistribution candidates that maintain system availability constraints; generate an operational state transition Supplement computing resource request to facilitate transitioning back to a viable M:N working configuration that maintains high availability requirements; and redistributing the at least one redistribution element to at least one target redistribution component/computing resource selected from the target redistribution pool.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
selecting the redistribution target from the target redistribution pool according to a Load-Balancing Redeployment Type.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the Load-Balancing Redeployment Type includes one of: Fastest Failover Load Balancing, Optimal Failure Load Balancing, or Balanced Failure Load Balancing.

17 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
redistributing one or more Applications as the at least one redistribution element.

18 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
redistributing one or more Applications and corresponding Work Items as the at least one redistribution element.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the at least one redistribution element is associated with a failed computing resource.

20 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
executing a remediation operational state determination.

21 . The method of claim 20 wherein the remediation operational state determination validates that computing resources are facilitating a viable M:N working configuration and maintain high availability requirements.

22 . The method of claim 20 wherein the remediation operational state determination validates that computing resources are facilitating a viable M:N working configuration and does not maintain high availability requirements.

23 . The method of claim 20 wherein the remediation operational state determination validates that computing resources are not facilitating a viable M:N working configuration and does not maintain high availability requirements.

24 . The method of claim 14

Assignees

• Schneider Electric Systems Usa Inc

Inventors

• Macha Raja Ramana
• Kling Andrew Lee David
• Middeldorp Frans
• Camino Jr Nestor Jesus
• Luth James Gerard
• Mcintyre James P

Classifications

• G06F2209/5011

  Pool · CPC title

• G06F2201/805

  Real-time · CPC title

• G05B2219/31449

  Monitor workflow, to optimize business, industrial processes · CPC title

• G05B19/4155

  characterised by program execution, i.e. part program or machine function execution, e.g. selection of a program · CPC title

• H04L67/1034

  Reaction to server failures by a load balancer · CPC title