Method and system for transparently failing over application configuration information in a server cluster

• Main Authors: SHRIVASTAVA SUNITA, VERT JOHN D
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 19.03.2002
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A method and system for transparently failing over a legacy application from a first system to a second system of a server cluster by tracking and checkpointing changes to application configuration information stored in a system's local registry. When an application running on the first system makes a change to the application configuration information in a subtree of the registry, the change is detected and a snapshot of the subtree's data is taken. The snapshot is written to a storage device shared by systems of the cluster, such as a quorum disk. When the application is failed over to a second system, the snapshot for that application is retrieved from the quorum disk and written to the registry of the second system in a corresponding subtree. The application is then run on the second system using the most-recent application configuration information as modified by the other system in the cluster.