Diagnostic heartbeating in a distributed data processing environment

#The present invention relates generally to a method, system, and computer program product for a reliable data communication system. Particularly, the present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for diagnostic heartbeating in a distributed data processing environment.

#A reliable peer-to-peer communication system is a communication system in a distributed data processing environment that provides reliable data communication services. Distributed applications, such as instances of a distributable application executing on different nodes or machines of a data processing environment, utilize these data communication services for providing their functionality. Client systems, such as an application that is a client of a distributed application instance, also inherently depend on these data communication services to accomplish their desired functions with the distributed applications.

#For example, reliable data communication services include functions commonly required by distributed applications, such as reliable message delivery to all members of a domain, global in-order delivery of messages or sequences of messages, and synchronization barriers. Such services are used by currently available distributed applications.

#The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 depicts a pictorial representation of a network of data processing systems in which illustrative embodiments may be implemented;

#FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of a data processing system in which illustrative embodiments may be implemented;

#Many distributed applications include a proprietary built-in reliable communication layer, which provides reliable peer-to-peer communication services to the distributed instances of the application. Other distributed applications use reliable peer-to-peer communication services provided by standalone peer-to-peer communication systems via an application programming interface (API). Examples of the latter are Reliable Scalable Clustering Technology (RSCT) in conjunction with Cluster Aware AIX (CAA) by IBM Corporation; Oracle Coherence by Oracle Corporation; JGroups, which is an open-source product; and Windows Clustering by Microsoft Corporation (each manufacturer may have one or more trademarks and other rights in the United States and other countries in the product-names and marks associated with their respective products).

#In presently available cloud computing environments, implementations of distributed databases are abound. Generally, distributed databases in cloud computing environments require a core set of above described functions of a peer-to-peer communication system. Some such distributed databases have a proprietary built-in reliable communication layer whereas others depend on services of a standalone peer-to-peer communication system.

#In this disclosure, the proprietary built-in reliable communication layer and the standalone peer-to-peer communication system are collectively referred to as “messaging infrastructure.” The messaging infrastructure of an embodiment provides the reliable peer-to-peer communication services to the client applications and distributed applications that communicate with the messaging infrastructure. An embodiment described with respect to a messaging infrastructure can be practiced to improve a proprietary built-in reliable communication layer or a standalone peer-to-peer communication system in the manner described, or a combination thereof.