Automated integrated high availability of the in-memory database cache and the backend enterprise database

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9870412-B2
Application number	US-201213627370-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2012
Priority date	Sep 18, 2009
Publication date	Jan 16, 2018
Grant date	Jan 16, 2018

Abstract

A cluster manager manages copies of a mid-tier database as a mid-tier database cluster. The cluster manager may concurrently manage a backend database system. The cluster manager is configured to monitor for and react to failures of mid-tier database nodes. The cluster manager may react to a mid-tier database failure by, for example, assigning a new active node, creating a new standby node, creating new copies of the mid-tier databases, implementing new replication or backup schemes, reassigning the node's virtual address to another node, or relocating applications that were directly linked to the mid-tier database to another host. Each node or an associated agent may configure the cluster manager during initialization, based on common cluster configuration information. Each copy of the mid-tier database may be, for example, a memory resident database. Thus, a node must reload the entire database into memory to recover a copy of the database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
at a first node, storing a first database comprising a first set of data;
at the first node, executing, within a memory space that stores the first database, a first instance of an application directly linked to a first database server for the first database;
wherein the first instance of the application provides, to a client, services that involve database transactions with the first database;
wherein the first instance of the application depends upon the first database to provide said services;

responsive to detecting that the first database is no longer accessible at the first node, causing the client to be redirected to a second instance of the application for provision of services that involve transactions with a second database;
wherein the second database stores a copy of the first set of data;
wherein the second instance of the application executes, within a memory space that stores the second database at a second node that is different than the first node, the second instance being directly linked to a second database server for the second database;

wherein a portion of a persistently stored database of a backend database server is replicated on said first database and said second database;
accessing configuration information describing a database duster, the database duster comprising at least the first node and the second node;
based on the configuration information, configuring a cluster manager executing on one or more computing devices to perform; monitoring status information for each of the first database and the second database and the persistently stored database to detect whether the first database is accessible at the first node and whether the second database is accessible at the second node and whether the persistently stored database is accessible at the backend database server;
wherein the method is performed by the one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the client to be redirected to the second instance comprises starting the second instance of the application at the second node.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the client to be redirected to the second instance comprises loading the second database into a memory at the second node.

4. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the first database is stored in a volatile memory of the first node;
wherein detecting that the first database is no longer accessible comprises detecting an at least temporary removal of the first copy from the volatile memory of the first node.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing the client to be redirected to the second instance without requiring the client to be aware of the redirection, wherein causing the client to be redirected to the second instance comprises remapping a virtual address from the first node to the second node.

6. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the first database is implemented based, at least in part, on software provided by a provider;
wherein the application is a third-party application that is not provided by the provider.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first node is a first set of one or more mid-tier computing devices and the second node is a second and different set of one or more mid-tier computing devices.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at a first agent executing at the first node, discovering a second agent at the second node;
wherein causing the client to be redirected to a second instance of the application comprising the first agent indicating to the second agent that the second node is to assume responsibility for providing the services.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recovering the first database at the first node.

10. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause:
at a first node, storing a first database comprising a first set of data;
at the first node, executing, within a memory space that stores the first database, a first instance of an application directly linked to a first database server for the first database;
wherein the first instance of the application provides, to a client, services that involve database transactions with the first database;
wherein the first instance of the application depends upon the first database to provide said services;

responsive to detecting that the first database is no longer accessible at the first node, causing the client to be redirected to a second instance of the application for provision of services that involve transactions with a second database;
wherein the second database stores a copy of the first set of data;
wherein the second instance of the application executes, within a memory space that stores the second database at a second node that is different than the first node, the second instance being directly linked to a second database server for the second database;

wherein a portion of a persistently stored database of a backend database server is replicated on said first database and said second database;
accessing configuration information describing a database cluster, the database cluster comprising at least the first node and the second node;
based on the configuration information, configuring a cluster manager executing on one or more computing devices to perform: monitoring status information for each of the first database and the second database and the persistently stored database to detect whether the first database is accessible at the first node and whether the second database is accessible at the second node and whether the persistently stored database is accessible at the backend database server.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein causing the client to be redirected to the second instance comprises starting the second instance of the application at the second node.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein causing the client to be redirected to the second instance comprises loading the second database into a memory at the second node.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 ,
wherein the first database is stored in a volatile memory of the first node;
wherein detecting that the first database is no longer accessible comprises detecting an at least temporary removal of the first copy from the volatile memory of the first node.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further cause the client to be redirected to the second instance without requiring the client to be aware of the redirection, wherein causing the client to be redirected to the second instance comprises remapping a virtual address from the first node to the second node.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 ,
wherein the first database is implemented based, at least in part, on software provided by a provider;
wherein the application is a third-party application that is not provided by the provider.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the first node is a first set of one or more mid-tier computing devices and the second node is a second and different set of one or more mid-tier computing devices.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , further comprising:
at a first agent executing at the first node, discovering a second

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Ghosh Sourav
• Motivala Ashish
• Hoch Charles
• Aranha Rohan
• Fulton Ben
• Gusev Andrey
• Lahiri Tirthankar
• Tellez Juan

Classifications

• G06F11/2097

  maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated (initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups) · CPC title

• G06F11/2025

  using centralised failover control functionality · CPC title

• G06F17/30575 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F11/2028

  eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare · CPC title

• G06F2201/80

  Database-specific techniques · CPC title