CONTINUOUS FLOW CHECKPOINTING DATA PROCESSING

摘要

A data processing system and method that provides checkpointing and permits a continuous flow of data processing by allowing each process to return to operation after checkpointing, independently of the time required by other processes to check-point their state. Checkpointing in accordance with the invention make s use of a command message from a checkpoint processor (300) that sequentially propagates through a process stage from data sources (302) through processes (304, 305) to data sinks (308), triggering each process to checkpoint its state and then pass on a checkpointing message to connected "downstream" processes. This approach provides checkpointing and permits a continuous flow of data processing by allowing each process to return to normal operation after checkpointing, independently of the time required by other processes to checkpoint their state.