Configuration manager in enterprise computing system

• US 20050144610A1
• Filed: 12/30/2003
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Zenz, Ingo
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,479 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/505 Clust
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A system and method are described for managing a plurality of application servers. In one embodiment, the application servers are organized into groups referred to as “instances.” Each instance includes a group of redundant application servers and a dispatcher for distributing service requests to each of the application servers. A group of instances may be organized as a “cluster.” Each server includes a configuration manager to facilitate changes to configuration information within the cluster. The configuration manager may include a configuration cache and monitor its consistency with respect to other instances within the cluster.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing a configuration for a distributed environment in a central storage of the distributed environment; and

updating a portion of the configuration in the distributed environment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein updating comprises:

acquiring a lock for the portion of the configuration in a first node in the distributed environment;

modifying the portion of the configuration;

invalidating a representation of the portion of the configuration in the distributed environment; and

releasing the lock.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein updating further comprises:

updating a database to reflect modifications of a portion of the configuration; and

blocking reads of the configuration during the updating.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein updating further comprises:

notifying nodes in the distributed environment of the updated configuration data.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the lock is cluster wide.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein updating further comprises:

writing changes to a shared database.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein modifying comprises:

changing a configuration object in a branch of a tree structure.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein invalidating comprises:

sending a cache invalidation event to another node in the cluster.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein invalidating comprises:

sending a message to a plurality of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) nodes.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein updating further comprises:

notifying registered listeners that the configuration has been changed.

11. A system comprising:

a plurality of nodes each having a instance of a configuration manager to maintain consistent storage of a configuration across the nodes without passing configuration modifications between the nodes;

a locking server shared by the plurality of nodes to coordinate access to the configuration; and

a database management system to provide an interface with a shared relational database, the database to store the configuration.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the configuring manager comprises:

a configuration cache; and

a configuration handler.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the configuration manager further comprises:

a persistency handler.

14. The system of claim 11 further comprising:

a configuration handler to permit access to and modification of the configuration.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the configuration comprises:

a plurality of persistent objects holding information about a Java 2 enterprise edition cluster.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein some of the persistent objects are cacheable.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the configuration manager comprises:

a change event listener to notify registered components of configuration change events.

18. A computer readable storage media containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method comprising:

storing a configuration for a distributed environment in a central storage of the distributed environment; and

updating a portion of the configuration in the distributed environment.

19. The computer readable storage media of claim 18 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating comprises:

acquiring a lock for the portion of the configuration in a first node in the distributed environment;

modifying the portion of the configuration;

invalidating a representation of the portion of the configuration in the distributed environment; and

releasing the lock.

20. The computer readable storage media of claim 19 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating comprises:

updating a database to reflect modifications of a portion of the configuration; and

blocking reads of the configuration during the updating.

21. The computer readable storage media of claim 19 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating comprises:

notifying node in the distributed environment of the current configuration data.

22. The computer readable storage media of claim 19 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating further comprises:

changing the configuration locally;

writing the changes to a shared database; and

committing the changes.

23. The computer readable storage media of claim 19 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein invalidating comprises:

sending a cache invalidation event to another node in the cluster.

24. The computer readable storage media of claim 19 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating comprises:

notifying registered listeners that the configuration has been changed.

25. A system comprising:

means for maintaining consistent storage of configuration information in a distributed environment;

means for controlling access to the configuration information; and

means for interfacing with a relational database system to provide persistent storage of the configuration information.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the configuration information comprises:

a plurality of persistent objects holding information about a Java 2 Enterprise Edition cluster.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein the means for maintaining comprises:

a configuration cache resident in each node of the distributed environment; and

a configuration handler resident in each node of the distributed environment.