FAULT HANDLING MONITOR TRANSPARENTLY USING MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES FOR FAULT HANDLING IN A MULTIPLE HIERARCHAL/PEER DOMAIN FILE SERVER WITH DOMAIN CENTERED, CROSS DOMAIN COOPERATIVE FAULT HANDLING MECHANISMS

摘要

A fault handling monitor transparently using multiple technologies for fault handling in a shared system resource, such as a network file server, providing services to clients communicating with the system resource through a network. The system resource is organized as a cluster of multiple hierarchical and peer domains wherein each domain includes domain centered fault handling mechanisms operating cooperatively across domains. The system resource includes a network domain including a plurality of client/resource communications paths and supporting client/resource communications between the system resource and clients of the system resource, a resource service domain performing low level resource services operations, and a control/processing domain supporting the client/resource communications of the network domain, performing high level resource service operations and providing communications for resource service operations between the network domain and the resource service domain. The control/processing domain includes peer domains connected to the communications paths of the network domain and performing related operations in mutual support of the network domain, including supporting the client/resource communications operations and providing communications between the peer domains through an inter-domain communications link. Each peer domain includes a monitoring mechanism for detecting a communications failure in a peer domain and directing communications affected by the communications failure through one or more of a plurality of alternate paths, including an alternate one of the plurality of client/resource communications paths and the inter-domain communications link.