Dynamic monitor and controller of availability of a load-balancing cluster

• US 20020078263A1
• Filed: 12/18/2000
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gernaey, Michael E., Darling, Christopher L., Aikins, Howard A., Kaldestad, Hallvard S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,296,268 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/331
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/505 Clust
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources

Abstract

An implementation of a technology, described herein, for remotely and dynamically monitoring the availability of the members of a load-balancing cluster. An implementation of the claimed invention includes a dynamic, exocluster application-layer monitor for dynamically monitoring and dynamically controlling the members of a load-balancing cluster. It may actively control the members that it monitors. The exocluster monitor is protocol agnostic. It dynamically adjusts so that it can monitor all of the members of the cluster as members are added and removed. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

dynamically determining present members of a load-balancing cluster;

monitoring application-layer availability of one or more members of the cluster as such availability is observed from a client-perspective.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising exoclusterly controlling activity state of the members of the cluster.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising exoclusterly and selectively deactivating one or more active members of the cluster.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising, based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer;

exoclusterly deactivating one or more members identified by the identifying.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising exoclusterly and selectively activating one or more inactive members of the cluster.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising, based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

8. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer;

exoclusterly activating one or more members identified by the identifying.

9. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer and identifying one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer;

exoclusterly deactivating one or more active members identified by the identifying;

exoclusterly activating one or more inactive members identified by the identifying.

10. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising determining a present activity state of members of the cluster.

11. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

determining a present activity state of members of the cluster;

tracking and persisting the activity states of the members of the cluster.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the activity states include cluster states.

13. A method as recited in claim 11 further comprising reporting a present activity state of one or more members of the cluster.

14. A method as recited in claim 11 further comprising reporting historical record of the activity states of one or more members of the cluster.

15. A method as recited in claim 11 further comprising reporting a present application-layer state of one or more members of the cluster.

16. A method as recited in claim 11 further comprising reporting historical record of the application-layer states of one or more members of the cluster.

17. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring in one or more different application-layer protocols.

18. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprises, based upon the monitoring, determining the application-layer availability of one or more members based upon a indicator of such availability, the indicator sent from a member being monitored.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprises:

based upon the monitoring, determining the application-layer availability of one or more members based upon a indicator of such availability, the indicator sent from a member being monitored;

the member being monitored determining such availability and generating such indicator.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform the method as recited in claim 1.

21. A method comprising:

monitoring application-layer availability of members of a load-balancing cluster as such availability is observed from a client-perspective;

exoclusterly controlling activity state of the members of the cluster.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises selectively deactivating one or more active members of the cluster.

23. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises, based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

24. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises:

based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer;

exoclusterly deactivating one or more members identified by the identifying.

25. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises selectively activating one or more inactive members of the load-balancing cluster.

26. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises, based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

27. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises:

based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer;

exoclusterly activating one or more members identified by the identifying.

28. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the controlling comprises:

based upon the monitoring, identifying one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer and identifying one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer;

exoclusterly deactivating one or more active members identified by the identifying;

exoclusterly activating one or more inactive members identified by the identifying.

29. A method as recited in claim 21 further comprising determining a present activity state of the members of the cluster.

30. A method as recited in claim 21 further comprising:

determining a present activity state of the members of the cluster;

tracking and persisting the activity states of the members of the cluster.

31. A method as recited in claim 30, wherein the activity state includes a cluster state.

32. A method as recited in claim 30 further comprising reporting a present activity state of one or more members of the cluster.

33. A method as recited in claim 30 further comprising reporting historical record of the activity states of one or more members of the cluster.

34. A method as recited in claim 30 further comprising reporting a present application-layer state of one or more members of the cluster.

35. A method as recited in claim 30 further comprising reporting historical record of the application-layer states of one or more members of the cluster.

36. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring in one or more different application-layer protocols.

37. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs the method as recited in claim 21.

40. A system as recited in claim 39 further comprising an exocluster controller configured to control an activity state of the members of the cluster.

41. A system as recited in claim 39 further comprising an overload-identifier configured to identify, based upon the monitored availability, one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

42. A system as recited in claim 39 further comprising an overload-identifier configured to identify, based upon the monitored availability, one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

43. A system as recited in claim 39 further comprising a state-determiner configured to determine a present activity state of members of the cluster.

44. A system as recited in claim 39 further comprising:

a state-determiner configured to determine a present activity state of members of the cluster;

a database configured to store the activity states of the members of the cluster.

45. A system as recited in claim 39, wherein the monitor is protocol agnostic.

47. A system as recited in claim 46, wherein the exocluster controller is further configured to exoclusterly and selectively deactivate one or more active members of the cluster.

48. A system as recited in claim 46 further comprising an overload-identifier configured to identify, based upon the monitored availability, one or more active members of the cluster that are presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

49. A system as recited in claim 46, wherein the exocluster controller is further configured to exoclusterly and selectively activate one or more inactive members of the cluster.

50. A system as recited in claim 46 further comprising an overload-identifier configured to identify, based upon the monitored availability, one or more inactive members of the cluster that are not presently overwhelmed at the application-layer.

51. A system as recited in claim 46 further comprising a state-determiner configured to determine a present activity state of the members of the cluster.

52. A system as recited in claim 46 further comprising:

a state-determiner configured to determine a present activity state of the members of the cluster;

a database configured to store the activity states of the members of the cluster.

53. A system as recited in claim 46, wherein the monitor is protocol agnostic.

38. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:

dynamically determining present members of a load-balancing cluster and an activity state of each member;

monitoring application-layer availability of the one or more members of the cluster as such availability is observed from a client-perspective;

exoclusterly controlling the activity state of the members of the cluster.

39. A system comprising:

a dynamic cluster-membership determiner configured to exoclusterly and dynamically determine present members of a load-balancing cluster;

an exocluster monitor configured to monitor application-layer availability of the present members of the cluster.

46. A system comprising:

an exocluster monitor configured to monitor application-layer availability of members of a load-balancing cluster from a client-perspective;

an exocluster controller configured to control an activity state of members of the cluster.

54. A dynamic, active, exocluster monitoring system for monitoring application-layer availability of members of a load-balancing cluster and controlling an activity state of such members, the monitoring system comprising:

an app-monitor configured to exoclusterly monitor the members of the cluster from a client-perspective;

a cluster-control configured to exoclusterly determine the activity state of the members of the cluster and to exoclusterly control the activity state of the members of the cluster;

a central controller configured to coordinate and control the app-monitor and the cluster-control.

55. A system as recited in claim 54 further comprising a database configured to store state change information, including cluster state and application-layer state.

56. A system as recited in claim 54 further comprising multiple app-monitors.

57. A system as recited in claim 54 further comprising multiple cluster-controls.