Performing code load operations on managed components in a system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9557984-B2
Application number	US-201514659491-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2015
Priority date	Mar 16, 2015
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for performing code load operations on managed components in a system. A first node group comprising at least one computational node in the computer system performs code load operations for the managed components. Status of the code load operations at the managed component is written to a status data structure while the code load operations are being performed at the managed component. The first node group transfers control of the code load operations for the managed components to a second node group comprising at least computational node in the computer system while the code load operations are occurring at the managed components. A second node group reads the status data structure for the managed components to determine the status of the code load operations and continue the code load operations at managed components.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for performing code load operations at managed components of a computer system, wherein the computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium having program instructions executable by computational nodes in a first node group and a second node group to cause the first node group and the second node group to perform operations, the operations comprising:
performing, by the first node group comprising at least one computational node in the computer system, code load operations for the managed components;
writing status of the code load operations at the managed components to a status data structure while the code load operations are being performed at the managed component;
transferring, by the first node group, control of the code load operations for the managed components to the second node group comprising at least one computational node in the computer system while the code load operations are occurring at the managed components; and
reading, by the second node group, the status data structure for the managed components to determine the status of the code load operations and continue the code load operations at the managed components, wherein the second node group continues performing the code load operations with respect to at least one of the managed components at which the first node group was performing the code load operations when control of the code load operations was transferred to the second node group before the code load operations completed at the at least one of the managed components.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the status data structure comprises a message box for each of the managed components to store status information on the code load operations progress at the managed component.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the first node group transfers the control of the code load operations to the second node group in response to determining to perform a code update at the at least one computational node in the first node group.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the operations further comprise:
in response to completing transferring control of the code load operations for the managed components from the first node group to the second node group, initiating the code update at the at least one computational node in the first node group.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein there are redundant first and second instances of the managed components, wherein the first node group and the second node group perform the code load operations at the managed components by performing:
performing the code load operations at the first instance of the managed components while the second instance of the managed components performs component operations unrelated to the code load operations; and
in response to determining from the status data structure for the first instance of one of the managed components that the code load operations have completed at the first instance and the first instance of the managed component is available, performing the code load operations at the second instance of the managed component while the first instance of the managed component performs component operations unrelated to the code load operations.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the first and second node groups perform storage controller and Input/Output operations with respect to a storage, and wherein the managed components include redundant instances of at least one of a storage enclosure, an adaptor, and a power component, and wherein the second instance of the managed components support I/O operations to the storage while the code load operations are performed at the first instance of the managed components, and wherein the first instance of the managed components support I/O operations to the storage while the code load operations are performed at the second instance of the managed components.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the first and second node groups perform the code load operations by performing for each of the managed components:
initiating a sequence of code load operations at the managed component, wherein the code load operations in the sequence are not performed until a previous code load operation in the sequence has completed; and
reporting a status recorded in the status data structure for each of the code load operations indicating the operation in the sequence and a status of one of initiated, in-progress, completed, or failed.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the sequence of code load operations for at least one managed component comprises:
pre-verifying a need of the managed component to undergo a code load update comprising computer program instructions implementing the sequence of code load operations;
distributing to the first node group the code load update to apply to the managed component in response to pre-verifying that the managed component needs to undergo the code load update;
performing a health check of the managed component to determine whether it is in a healthy operational state to receive the code load update in response to distributing the code load update to the first node group; and
wherein the first node group is instructed to perform the code load update from the distributed code load update to the managed component in response to completing the health check and determining that the managed component is in the healthy operational state to receive the code load update.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein a management console performs the operations of:
instructing the first node group to perform the code load operations for the managed components;
determining that the first node group is to update code in at least one computational node at the first node group;
instructing the first node group to cease the code load operations and begin the code load operations of the at least one computational node in the first node group; and
instructing the second node group to continue the code load operations of the management components based on the status of the code load operations indicated in the status data structure.

10. A system for performing code load operations at managed components of a computer system, comprising:
a first node group comprising at least one computational node in the computer system;
a second node group comprising at least one computational node in the computer system;
a computer readable storage medium having program instructions that when executed by the computational nodes in the first node group and the second node group cause the first node group and the second node group to perform operations, the operations comprising:
performing, by the first node group, code load operations for the managed components;
writing status of the code load operations at the managed component to a status data structure while the code load operations are being performed at the managed component;
transferring, by the first node group, control of the code load operations for the managed components to the second node group while the code load operations are occurring at the managed components; and
reading, by the second node group, the status data structure for the managed components to determine the status of the code load operations and continue the code load operations at managed components, wherein the second node group continues performing the code load operations with respect to at least one of the managed components at which the first node group was performing the code load operations when control of the code load operations was transferred to the

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Groover Michael P
• Han Robin
• Hoac Cindy K
• Martens Ronald D
• Zhang Tony J

Classifications

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F9/44578

  Preparing or optimising for loading · CPC title

• G06F8/656

  while running · CPC title

• G06F11/202

  where processing functionality is redundant (redundant communication control functionality G06F11/2005, redundant storage control functionality G06F11/2089) · CPC title

• G06F11/1433

  during software upgrading · CPC title