Mechanism for rapid network failure detection for faster switch-over in server-to-server applications
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems and methods for monitoring communication connectivity between applications remotely separated from each other in a network. The system includes: one or more processors; a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors; a network interface communicatively coupled to the one or more processors; and an agent communicatively coupled to the network interface and configured to: receive a registration for an application operating on the information handling system; monitor a liveliness status of a communication session between the agent and a remote agent operating on a remote information handling system, the communication session being enabled via the network interface; and notify the application of a fault in the communication session responsive to detecting that the fault exists.
1. An information handling system node for monitoring a communication connectivity between applications, comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;
one or more network interfaces communicatively coupled to the one or more processors; and
an agent communicatively coupled to the one or more network interfaces and configured to:
receive, at an agent that monitors communication connectivity, a registration corresponding to each application of a plurality of applications operating on the information handling system node, wherein the registration is received via a proxy terminator responsive to the proxy terminator acting as an intermediary between an application and the agent and is received via an application when a proxy terminator is not acting as an intermediary between the application and the agent;
monitor a liveliness status of a communication session between the agent and a remote agent operating on a remote information handling system node, the communication session being enabled via at least one of the one or more network interfaces; and
responsive to detecting, based on the liveliness status, that a fault exists, notify each application of the plurality of applications registered with the agent that is affected by the fault that the fault exists.
2. The information handling system node as recited in claim 1 , wherein the registration is achieved using one or more socket calls.
3. The information handling system node as recited in claim 1 , wherein the agent is configured to detect that the fault exists when the agent fails to receive an acknowledgement signal during a preset time interval from the remote agent.
4. The information handling system node as recited in claim 1 wherein:
the proxy terminator is configured to register with the agent such that the application need not directly register with the agent.
5. The information handling system node as recited in claim 4 , wherein the step of responsive to detecting, based on the liveliness status, that a fault exists, notify each application of the plurality of applications registered with the agent that is affected by the fault that the fault exists comprises:
responsive to the fault affecting an application that registered with the agent via the proxy terminator, notifying the proxy terminator that the fault exists; and
the proxy terminator is configured to notify the application that the fault exists.
6. The information handling system node as recited in claim 1 , wherein the agent is configured to operate using a bidirectional forwarding detection protocol.
7. An information handling system node for monitoring a communication connectivity between applications, comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;
one or more network interfaces communicatively coupled to the one or more processors; and
an agent communicatively coupled to the one or more network interfaces and configured to:
receive, at an agent that monitors communication connectivity, a registration corresponding to each application of a set of applications, wherein the registration is received via a proxy terminator responsive to the proxy terminator acting as an intermediary between an application and the agent and is received via an application when a proxy terminator is not acting as an intermediary between the application and the agent;
monitor a liveliness status of a communication session between the agent and a remote agent operating on a remote information handling system node, the communication session being enabled via at least one of the one or more network interfaces; and
responsive to detecting, based on the liveliness status, that a fault exists, notify each application from the set of applications registered with the agent that is affected by the fault that the fault exists.
8. The information handling system node as recited in claim 7 , wherein the registration is achieved using or more socket calls.
9. The information handling system node as recited in claim 7 , wherein the agent is configured to detect the fault when the agent fails to receive an acknowledgement signal during a preset time period from the remote agent.
10. The information handling system node as recited in claim 9 , wherein a set of remote applications are registered with the remote agent and one or more of the set of applications are adapted to communicate with one or more of the set of remote applications.
11. The information handling system node as recited in claim 7 wherein:
the proxy terminator is configured to register with the agent such that an application that uses a proxy terminator need not directly register with the agent.
12. The information handling system node as recited in claim 7 , wherein the agent is configured to operate using a bidirectional forwarding detection protocol.
13. The information handling system node as recited in claim 11 , wherein:
the agent is configured to, responsive to the fault affecting an application that registered with the agent via the proxy terminator, notify the proxy terminator that the fault exists; and
the proxy terminator is configured to notify the application that the fault exists.
14. The information handling system node as recited in claim 7 , wherein:
responsive to the application using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the proxy terminator is configured to generate a TCP Reset to notify the application that the fault exists; and
responsive to the application using User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the proxy terminator is configured to generate an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) unreachable message to notify the application that the fault exists.
15. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes steps to be performed comprising:
receiving, at an agent that monitors communication connectivity, a registration corresponding to each application from a set of applications operating on an information handling system node, wherein the registration is received via a proxy terminator responsive to the proxy terminator acting as an intermediary between an application and the agent and is received via an application when the proxy terminator is not acting as an intermediary between the application and the agent;
monitoring a liveliness status of a communication session with a remote agent operating on a remote information handling system node; and
responsive to detecting, based on the liveliness status, that a fault exists, notify each application from the set of applications registered with the agent that is affected by the fault that the fault exists.
16. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium or media of claim 15 wherein the registration is achieved using one or more socket calls.
17. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium or media of claim 15 wherein the registration that is received via the proxy terminator that is configured to register with the agent such that the application need not be modified to directly register with the agent.
18. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium or media of claim 17 wherein the step of responsive to detecting, based on the liveliness status, that a fault exists, notify each application from the set of applications registered with the agent that is affected by the fault that the fault exists comprises:
responsive to the fault affecting an application that registered with the agent via the proxy terminator, notifying the proxy terminator that the fault exists and the proxy terminator is configured to notify the application that the fault exists.
19. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium or media of claim 17 wherein the agent is configured to operate using a bidirectional forwarding detection protocol.
20. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium or media of claim 15 further comprising one or more sequences of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, causes steps to be performed comprising:
establishing an alternative communication path for the communication session responsive to the information handling system node not being isolated due to the fault.