Method and apparatus for distributed configuration management

A method implemented by a computer network, the method comprising:

• obtaining information in a replica of a data structure that is replicated on multiple peer nodes, the information indicating one of the peer nodes as an owner node that has exclusive rights to update the data structure;
• determining if a peer node is the owner node via the information;
• if the peer node is not the owner node, performing actions comprising:
• sending a present request to update the data structure to all directly connected peer nodes to propagate the present request;
• determining whether the owner node has processed each prior request that was created before the present request;
• and
• when the owner node executes each prior request that was created before the present request, creating a record maintained by the owner node with:
• a monotonically increasing transaction number that is owned by the owner node,
• a schema revision modified by changes to the data structure, and
• the changes that were made to the data structure;
• and
• the owner node receiving the present request, updating the data structure after receiving the present request;
• sending an update regarding the updated data structure to all directly connected peer nodes to propagate the update;
• and
• creating a new record of the modification associated with the present request.

A peer node in a distributed computer system including a plurality of peer nodes, the peer node comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-readable instructions, wherein the processor is to execute the computer-readable instructions to:
• participate in replicating a data structure across the plurality of peer nodes;
• update the replica of the data structure on the peer node;
• determine whether the peer node is an owner node of the data structure based on information included in the data structure;
• if the peer node is not the owner node, transmit, by the peer node, a present request to modify the data structure to all other peer nodes in the network;
• if the peer node is the owner node, determine whether the peer node has processed each prior request that was created before the present request;
• and
• when the peer node that is the owner node processes each prior request that was created before the present request, create a record maintained by the owner node with:
• a monotonically increasing transaction number that is owned by the peer node,
• a schema revision modified by changes to the data structure, and
• the changes that were made to the data structure associated with the peer node to log the processing of each prior request, and
• process a response to the present request to modify the data structure, wherein the owner node has exclusive rights to update the data structure, and the present request and response are also data structures replicated across the peer nodes;
• and
• create a new record of the modification associated with the present request.