Garima Goel

US Patent:

20110219263, Sep 8, 2011

Filed:

Mar 4, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/717909

Inventors:

Garima Goel - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

SYMANTEC CORPORATION - Mountain View CA

International Classification:

G06F 11/07

US Classification:

714 25, 714E11024

Abstract:

A method and system for fast failure detection in a distributed computer system. The method includes executing a distributed computer system having a plurality of clusters comprising at least a first cluster, a second cluster and the third cluster, and initializing failure detection by creating a connected cluster list in each of the plurality of clusters, wherein for each one of the plurality of clusters, a respective connected cluster list describes others of the plurality of clusters said each one is communicatively connected with. A status update message is sent upon changes in connectivity between the plurality of clusters, and generating an updated connected cluster list in each of the plurality of clusters in accordance with the status update message. The method then determines whether the change in connectivity results from a cluster failure by examining the updated connected cluster list in each of the plurality of clusters.