US 12,585,544 B2Granted

Using a durable future to resume execution of an operation after a process that includes the operation crashes

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorReuben Wade Bond

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Techniques are described herein that are capable of using a durable future to resume execution of an operation after a process that includes the operation crashes. A durable future, which is a proxy for a state of a workflow, is generated. An identifier that identifies the durable future is assigned, and a state of the durable future is stored in a store. The state of the durable future specifies a portion of the state of the workflow that is known. It is detected that the execution of the operation in the process, which implements at least a portion of the workflow, is discontinued as a result of a crash of the process. After the crash of the process, the state of the durable future is retrieved from the store using the identifier, and the execution of the operation is resumed using the state of the durable future.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a processor system;
and
a memory that stores computer-executable instructions that are executable by the processor system to at least:
generate a future that is a proxy for a state of a workflow, wherein the state of the workflow is at least partially unknown at a time instance at which the future is generated;
assign an identifier to the future to provide a durable future, which enables resumption of execution of an operation after the execution of the operation is discontinued, wherein the identifier identifies the durable future;
store a state of the durable future in the memory, the state of the durable future specifying a portion of the state of the workflow that is known, the state of the durable future specifying a plurality of states of a plurality of hierarchical tasks;
detect that the execution of the operation in a process that implements at least a portion of the workflow is discontinued as a result of a crash of the process;
after the crash of the process, perform the following actions:
retrieve the state of the durable future from the memory using the identifier;
and
resume the execution of the operation using the plurality of states of the plurality of hierarchical tasks that are specified by the state of the durable future, resumption of the execution of the operation comprising:
ask a target of a first hierarchical task, which is included in the plurality of hierarchical tasks, whether the first hierarchical task has been performed;
and
receive confirmation that the first hierarchical task has been performed from the target;
and
trigger the target to delete a state of the target, which includes a result of the first hierarchical task that was stored by the target, by acknowledging receipt of the confirmation from the target.

13 more elements

A method implemented by a computing system, the method comprising:

generating a future that is a proxy for a state of a workflow, wherein the state of the workflow is at least partially unknown at a time instance at which the future is generated;
assigning an identifier to the future to provide a durable future, which enables resumption of execution of an operation after the execution of the operation is discontinued, wherein the identifier identifies the durable future;
storing a state of the durable future in a store, the state of the durable future specifying a portion of the state of the workflow that is known, the state of the durable future specifying a plurality of states of a plurality of hierarchical tasks;
detecting that the execution of the operation in a process that implements at least a portion of the workflow is discontinued as a result of a crash of the process;
and
after the crash of the process, performing the following actions:
retrieving the state of the durable future from the store using the identifier;
and
resuming the execution of the operation using the plurality of states of the plurality of hierarchical tasks that are specified by the state of the durable future, wherein resuming the execution of the operation comprises:
asking a target of a first hierarchical task, which is included in the plurality of hierarchical tasks, whether the first hierarchical task has been performed;
and
receiving an answer from the target of the first hierarchical task, the answer indicating that the first hierarchical task has not been performed.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.