Policy-driven management of application traffic for providing services to cloud-based applications

• US 10,268,467 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2015
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A10 Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: A10 Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Ramanathan, Ragavan, Deb, Alak, Raghavan, Sudarshan, Kamatgi, Anirudha, Srinivasan, Sridhar, Ramasamy, Girish Karthik, Chandrashekhar, Srinath, Mathur, Akshay
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Li B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Zengpu
• Application Number:
  US14/940,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20160139910A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 717170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Policy-driven management of application traffic is provided for services to cloud-based applications. A steering policy refers to a set of rules is generated for a deployment from a current code environment to one or more replicated code environment differing in some key respect. The steering policy can guide steering decisions between the current and updated code environments. A steering server uses the steering policy to make decisions about whether to send service requests to the current code environment or the updated code environment. Feedback concerning actual steering decisions made by the steering server is received (e.g., performance metrics). The steering policy is automatically adjusted in response to the feedback.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for incremental transition between a current cloud-based code environment and an updated cloud-based code environment comprising:

receiving, by a steering server, from an analytics server, a steering policy comprising a first set of rules for steering less than a first percentage of first requests from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment;

sending, by the steering server, the less than the first percentage of the first requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the steering policy, the less than the first percentage of the first requests being associated with first clients;

getting, by the steering server, from the updated cloud-based code environment and user devices of the first clients, metrics associated with the less than the first percentage of the first requests, the metrics including metrics associated with an operation of the updated cloud-based code environment and metrics communicated by the user devices of the first clients to the steering server, wherein the metrics associated with the operation of the updated cloud-based code environment include two or more of first updated cloud-based code environment response times, first updated cloud-based code environment errors, first updated cloud-based code environment processor usage, first updated cloud-based code environment memory usage, and first updated cloud-based code environment bandwidth usage, wherein the metrics communicated by the user devices of the first clients include at least dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the first clients, the dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the first clients including one or more of;

a memory usage of the user devices of the first clients when processing sessions associated with the less than the first percentage of the first requests and a processor usage of the user devices of the first clients when processing the sessions associated with the less than the first percentage of the first requests;

computing, by the analytics server, a first performance score using the metrics;

receiving, by the steering server, from the analytics server, an updated steering policy when the first performance score fulfills a first predetermined criteria, the updated steering policy comprising a second set of rules for steering greater than the first percentage and less than a second percentage of the second service requests from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment;

sending, by the steering server, the greater than the first percentage and the less than the second percentage of the second service requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the updated steering policy, the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests being associated with second clients;

getting, by the steering server, from the updated cloud-based code environment and user devices of the second clients, further metrics associated with the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests, the further metrics including metrics associated with a further operation of the updated cloud-based code environment and metrics communicated by the user devices of the second clients to the steering server, wherein the metrics associated with the further operation of the updated cloud-based code environment include two or more of;

second updated cloud-based code environment response times, second updated cloud-based code environment errors, second updated cloud-based code environment processor usage, second updated cloud-based code environment memory usage, and second updated cloud-based code environment bandwidth usage, wherein the metrics communicated by the user devices of the second clients to the steering server include at least dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the second clients, the dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the second clients including one or more of;

a memory usage of the user devices of the second clients when processing sessions associated with the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests and a processor usage of the user devices of the second clients when processing sessions associated with the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests;

computing, by the analytics server, a second performance score using the further metrics; and

receiving, by the steering server, a further updated steering policy when the second performance score fulfills a second predetermined criteria, the further updated steering policy comprising a third set of rules for steering subsequent service requests from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment;

sending, by the steering server, subsequent service requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the further updated steering policy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second metrics comprises performance metrics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second metrics comprises the duration of time between service requests and responses to service requests.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second metrics comprises application delay time experienced by an end user device, as reported by a daemon executing on the end user device to the steering server.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input of preferences as a basis for at least one of the first and second set of rules.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically adjusting at least one of the first and second steering policies in response to input from a network administrator.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a fourth steering policy when the first performance score does not fulfill the first predetermined criteria, the fourth steering policy comprising a fourth set of rules for steering fourth service requests to the current cloud-based code environment;

sending fourth service requests to the current cloud-based code environment using the fourth steering policy.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending less than the first percentage of fifth service requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the further updated steering policy.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving specifications for a deployment from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving specifications for a deployment from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment; and

automatically generating rules that implement the specifications for the deployment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the current cloud-based code environment implements a current version of a remotely hosted application and the updated cloud-based code environment implements an updated version of the remotely hosted application.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the service requests are from end user devices and pertain to a plurality of different remotely hosted applications including the remotely hosted application.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the service requests comprise variables submitted to the remotely hosted application, and sending responses to the service requests.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second steering policies comprises a type of device to send to the current cloud-based code environment and a type of device to send to the updated cloud-based code environment.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second steering policies comprises a characteristic of a user of the end user device to forward a service request to the current cloud-based code environment and a second characteristic of a user of the end user device to forward a second service request to the updated cloud-based code environment.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for incremental transition between a current cloud based code environment and an updated cloud-based code environment comprising:

receiving, by a steering server, from an analytics server, a first steering policy comprising a first set of rules for steering less than a first percentage of first requests from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment;

sending, by the steering server, the less than the first percentage of the first requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the first steering policy, the less than the first percentage of the first requests being associated with first clients;

getting, by the steering server, from the updated cloud-based code environment and user devices of the first clients, metrics associated with the less than the first percentage of the first requests, the metrics including metrics associated with an operation of the updated cloud-based code environment and metrics communicated by the user devices of the first clients to the steering server, wherein the metrics associated with the operation of the updated cloud-based code environment include two or more of first updated cloud-based code environment response times, first updated cloud-based code environment errors, first updated cloud-based code environment processor usage, first updated cloud-based code environment memory usage, and first updated cloud-based code environment bandwidth usage, wherein the metrics communicated by the user devices of the first clients include at least dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the first clients, the dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the first clients including one or more of;

a memory usage of the user devices of the first clients when processing sessions associated with the less than the first percentage of the first requests and a processor usage of the user devices of the first clients when processing the sessions associated with the less than the first percentage of the first requests;

computing, by the analytics server, a first performance score using the metrics;

receiving, by the steering server, from the analytics server, an updated steering policy when the first performance score fulfills a first predetermined criteria, the updated steering policy comprising a second set of rules for steering greater than the first percentage and less than a second percentage of the second service requests from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment;

sending, by the steering server, the greater than the first percentage and the less than the second percentage of the second service requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the updated steering policy, the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests being associated with second clients;

getting, by the steering server, from the updated cloud-based code environment and user devices of the second clients, further metrics associated with the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests, the further metrics including metrics associated with a further operation of the updated cloud-based code environment and metrics communicated by the user devices of the second clients to the steering server, wherein the metrics associated with the further operation of the updated cloud-based code environment include two or more of;

second updated cloud-based code environment response times, second updated cloud-based code environment errors, second updated cloud-based code environment processor usage, second updated cloud-based code environment memory usage, and second updated cloud-based code environment bandwidth usage, wherein the metrics communicated by the user devices of the second clients to the steering server include at least dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the second clients, the dynamic computing resources associated with the user devices of the second clients including one or more of;

a memory usage of the user devices of the second clients when processing sessions associated with the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests and a processor usage of the user devices of the second clients when processing sessions associated with the greater than the first percentage and less than the second percentage of the second service requests;

computing, by the analytics server, a second performance score using the further; and

receiving, by the steering server, a further updated steering policy when the second performance score fulfills a second predetermined criteria, the further updated steering policy comprising a third set of rules for steering subsequent service requests from the current cloud-based code environment to the updated cloud-based code environment;

sending, by the steering server, subsequent service requests to the updated cloud-based code environment using the further updated steering policy.