Application cache replication to secondary application(s)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016246719-A1
Application number	US-201514631698-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 25, 2015
Priority date	Feb 25, 2015
Publication date	Aug 25, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Replicating a primary application cache that serves a primary application on one network node into a secondary application cache that serves a secondary application on a second network node. Cache portions that are within the primary application cache are identified, and then identifiers (but not the cache portions) are transferred to the second network node. Once these identifiers are received, the cache portions that they identify may then be retrieved into the secondary application caches. This process may be repeatedly performed such that the secondary application cache moves towards the same state as the primary application cache though the state of the primary application cache also changes as the primary application operates by receiving read and write requests.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . In a system in which there is a primary application that operates at least in part on a first network node and that includes a primary application cache on the first network node, the primary application having an associated secondary application that operates at least in part on a second network node and that includes a secondary application cache on the second network node, a method for at least partially replicating the primary application cache in the secondary application cache, the method comprising:
an act of identifying at least some cache portions identifiers that are within the primary application cache; an act of transferring the identified cache portion identifiers to the second network node; and an act of retrieving into the secondary application cache at least one of the cache portions identified in the transferred cache portion identifiers.

2 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the act of retrieving into the secondary application cache comprising an act of retrieving into the secondary application all of the cache portions identified in the transferred cache portion identifier.

3 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the act of identifying and transferring is performed multiple times for different identified cache portion identifiers as the primary application operates, an the identity of the cache portions within the primary application cache changes.

4 . The method in accordance with claim 3 , the act of retrieving into the secondary application cache also occurring multiple times as the primary application operates.

5 . The method in accordance with claim 4 , an average frequency of performing the act of transferring being more frequent than an average frequency of performing the act of retrieving by at least twice.

6 . The method in accordance with claim 4 , an average frequency of performing the act of transferring being more frequent than an average frequency of performing the act of retrieving by at least one order of magnitude.

7 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the first network node being a first compute node of a cloud computing system, the second network node being a second compute node of the cloud computing system, and the act of retrieving into the secondary application cache at least one of the cache portions identified in the transferred cache portion identifiers comprising retrieving from a storage node of the cloud computing system.

8 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the method further comprising the following:
an act of transferring at least some of the identified cache portion identifiers to a third network node that operates at least part of a tertiary application associated with the primary application, the tertiary application including a tertiary application cache on the third network node; and an act of retrieving into the tertiary application cache at least one of the cache portions identified in the cache portion identifiers transferred to the third network node in the act of transferring.

9 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the secondary application cache being volatile memory.

10 . The method in accordance with claim 9 , the primary application cache also being volatile memory.

11 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the secondary application cache being non-volatile memory and/or storage.

12 . The method in accordance with claim 11 , the primary application cache also being non-volatile memory and/or storage.

13 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the primary application being a database application.

14 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the primary application being a virtual machine.

15 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , the primary application being an operating system.

16 . A system comprising:
a first network node on which operates at least part of a primary application, the first network node also having a primary application cache of the primary application, the first network node operating a first portion of a distributed cache replication module; and a second network node on which operates at least part of a secondary application of the primary application, the second network node also having a secondary application cache of the secondary application, the second network node operating a second portion of the distributed cache replication module; the distributed cache replication module configured to at least partially replicate the primary application cache in the secondary application cache by 1) having the first portion of the distributed cache replication module identify at least some cache portions identifiers that are within the primary application cache, and cause the identified cache portion identifiers to be transferred to the second portion of the distributed cache replication module, and by having the second portion of the distributed cache replication module retrieve into the secondary application cache at least one of the cache portions identified in the transferred cache portion identifiers.

17 . A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable storage media having thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system cause the computing system to perform the following:
an act of associating a primary application running on an external network node with a secondary application running on local network node; in response to detecting receipt of an identification of at least some cache portions that are within a primary application cache on the external network node and associated with the primary application, performing the following: an act of identifying which of the received identified cache portions that are to be retrieved into a secondary application cache on the local network node; and an act of causing the identified received identified cache portions to be retrieved from external storage and placed into the secondary application cache.

18 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 17 , wherein the act of identifying which of the received identified cache portions are to be retrieved depends on a role of the secondary application.

19 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 17 , wherein the act of identifying which of the received identified cache portions are to be retrieved depends on which cache portions are already in the secondary application cache.

20 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 17 , wherein the computer-executable instructions are further structured so as to cause the computing system to perform the following in response to the detected receipt of the identification:
an act of identifying one or more cache portions that are to be released from the secondary application cache; and an act of releasing the identified one or more cache portions from the secondary application cache.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Teletia Nikhil
• Do Jae Young
• Park Kwanghyun
• Patel Jignesh M

Classifications

• G06F12/0813 Primary

  with a network or matrix configuration · CPC title

• G06F11/1484

  involving virtual machines · CPC title

• G06F11/00 Primary

  Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring (error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00) · CPC title

• G06F12/0875

  with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack · CPC title

• G06F12/0842

  for multiprocessing or multitasking · CPC title