Floating single master operation

• Main Author: HACHERL DONALD J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 27.11.2001
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; PHYSICS; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A system for switching exclusive authority to perform a predefined system-wide task between machines in a network comprises: a database having an attribute for identifying a master server in the domain to exclusively perform the predefined network-wide task. The database is replicated on each of the servers in the domain. The attribute may be changed so as to change the master server to another one of the servers in the domain. While multiple servers in the network may be physically capable of performing the predefined system-wide task, at any one time only one server may be designated as the master server. The master server role may, however, be "floated" among various servers in the network. At any particular moment, the machine which currently holds the master server role is referred to as the master server role owner and is identified in an attribute, role owner, that is stored on each server in the network. Switching authority to perform a particular network-wide task requires updating the attribute on each of the servers in the network.