US 12,141,039 B2
Enhanced fencing scheme for cluster systems without inherent hardware fencing
Inna Reznik, Tel Aviv (IL); Ahia Lieber, Tel Aviv (IL); Peter J. McCann, Mason, NH (US); and Joe Caisse, Burlington, MA (US)
Assigned to EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA (US)
Filed by EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA (US)
Filed on Mar. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/208,213.
Prior Publication US 2022/0300384 A1, Sep. 22, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 11/14 (2006.01); G06F 9/455 (2018.01); G06F 11/07 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 11/1484 (2013.01) [G06F 9/45558 (2013.01); G06F 11/079 (2013.01); G06F 11/1438 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45575 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45579 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45591 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45595 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A cluster system, comprising:
a first storage node and a second storage node arranged in an active-active storage system configuration,
wherein the first storage node is configured as a first virtual machine (VM) executing on at least one hypervisor host, and
wherein the second storage node is configured as a second VM executing on the at least one hypervisor host; and
a plurality of storage drives communicably coupled to the first VM and the second VM,
wherein the first VM is configured to:
engage in communications with the second VM through a plurality of communication mechanisms including the plurality of storage drives and multiple network or channel connections;
determine that the second VM is malfunctioning based at least on a response or a lack of response to the communications;
enforce one or more actions or processes to initiate self-fencing of the second VM determined to be malfunctioning;
obtain, from the at least one hypervisor host, an identifier (ID) of the second VM determined to be malfunctioning; and
force a kernel panic at the second VM having the obtained ID by issuing a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) on the at least one hypervisor host.