Okta, Inc.
CELL-BASED BACKUP FOR RECOVERING FROM SYSTEM FAILURES IN A MULTI-TENANT COMPUTING SYSTEM

Abstract:

A multi-tenant computing system provides services to a number of different tenant organizations. To address the problem of failure of portions of the system, the hardware infrastructure of the system is located at a number of different geographical locations. The various tenants are assigned to one of a set of "cells," each cell corresponding to one of the geographical locations. Additionally, each cell has another one of the cells assigned to it as a backup cell, and the data of each cell is replicated within its assigned backup cell. At system run time, if a failure is detected within one of the cells, the network redirection is used within the multi-tenant system to reflect that the backup cell for the failing cell is now handling requests for the failing cell. Upon determination that the failing cell has been repaired and is now again correctly functioning, the network redirection is no longer employed, such that the (formerly) failing cell again handles its own requests.