Distributing manager failure-induced workload through the use of a manager-naming scheme

摘要

A data storage methodology wherein fault tolerance is accomplished by generation of multiple canonical names for each primary manager active in the data storage system and then balancing the primary manager's failure-induced workload across the multiple backup managers using the canonical names. A qualified name for each backup manager is derived from a canonical name assigned to the primary manager. During fault-free state of operation, all the qualified names are assigned to the primary manager, which serves all its qualified names. When that primary manager fails, the work it was supporting is distributed among its backup managers using the qualified names for those backups. The distribution of primary manager's workload among multiple backups eliminates the severe performance bottlenecks present in the traditional approach of keeping one backup manager for a primary manager and keeping that backup manager idle during the fault-free state of its primary manager.