One embodiment disclosed relates to a node system of a high-availability cluster. The node system includes at least a first register and an output port. The first register stores multi-state status data of the node, and the output port sends signals representing this multi-state status data. The multi-state status data includes at least one degraded state. The node system may also include a second register and an input port. The input port receives signals representing the multi-state status data of another node. The second stores this multi-state status data from the other node. Another embodiment disclosed relates to a method of status reporting for a node of a cluster. A set of rules is applied to determine current multi-state status of the node. The states of the multi-state status including a good state, a bad state, and at least one degraded state.
This presentation allows for two or more storage management servers to be in an active high availability (HA) state for the same set of storage devices and copy services relationships; rather than having a single server be in an active HA state and the other servers being in a standby HA state. This makes each HA server to be able to accept commands at any time so that they will not have to issue a takeover command to a standby server just to start issuing commands. This will also ensure that the data replication pairs will continue copying data until an event of an actual disaster; in which the active servers would then cause the data replication to be suspended so that a consistent set of data is secured on the secondary site.
A distributed and scalable architecture is described to facilitate reactive detection of operational state changes in diverse, heterogeneous objects, logging of detected state-changes, and generating alerts in response to detected state-changes for the purpose of remediation. Such heterogeneous objects include but are not limited to stand-alone workstations, network appliances, files and directories, as well as embedded micro-systems such as digital assistants, cellular devices, and even remotely controlled peripherals such as environmental sensors, effectors and actuators. In one embodiment, user interaction with such diverse objects is facilitated through a homogeneous user-interface metaphor through which, the rules of interaction remain constant independent of the object being monitored.
