Client load distribution

• US 20040215792A1
• Filed: 01/21/2004
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Equallogic Incorporated (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Long, Paula, Hayden, Peter C., Koning, G. Paul, Suman, Daniel E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,499,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing an efficient partitioned resource server. In one embodiment, the partitioned resource server comprises a plurality of individual servers, and the individual servers appear to be equivalent to a client. Each of the individual servers may include a routing table that includes a reference for each resource that is maintained on the partitioned resource server. Requests from a client are processed as a function of the routing table to route the request to the individual server that maintains or has control over the resource of interest.

Claims

1. A system for managing requests from a plurality of clients for access to a set of resources, comprising:

a plurality of servers having the set of resources partitioned thereon, each server having

a load monitor process capable of communicating with other load monitor processes for generating a measure of system load, and

a client load on each of the plurality of servers.

2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a client distribution process, responsive to

the system load, and capable of repartitioning

the set of client connections for distributing client load.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising

a load distribution process for determining resource loads when moving clients among servers.

4. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a client allocation process for causing a client to communicate with a selected one of said plurality of servers.

5. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a client allocation process for distributing incoming client requests across said plurality of servers.

6. A system according to claim 2, wherein the client distribution process includes a round robin distribution process.

7. A system according to claim 2, wherein the client distribution process includes a client redirection process.

8. A system according to claim 2, wherein the client distribution process includes a disconnect process for dynamically disconnecting a client from a first server and reconnecting to a second server.

9. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an application program executing on

at least one of the servers and being capable of transferring a client connection to a different server.

10. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an adaptive client distribution process for distributing clients across the plurality of servers as a function of dynamic variations is measured system load.

11. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage device for providing storage resources to the plurality of clients.

12. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage service process for providing at least one volume of storage partitioned across the plurality of servers.

13. A storage area network, comprising:

a plurality of servers each configured as a server of claim 1.