Session management within a multi-tiered enterprise network

• US 20060143217A1
• Filed: 12/28/2004
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Stanev, Georgi, Galchev, Galin
• Granted Patent: US 8,204,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A system and method are described in which session objects are organized and managed within a structured hierarchy of session object storage units, referred to herein as “session domains.” The session domains store session objects sharing one or more related characteristics. In one embodiment, a separate hierarchy of session domains is implemented within each layer of an enterprise application server. For example, in a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (“J2EE”) environment, a separate set of hierarchically-arranged session domains are generated for the EJB container, the Web container and the portal container. In addition, in one embodiment of the invention, the lifecycles of each of the session objects are managed based on the relationships between each of the session objects. The relationships may either be explicit or implicit. In the latter case, one embodiment of the invention detects the relationship, automatically declares the relationship, and uses the relationship to manage the lifecycle of the related sessions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating a plurality of session objects in response to client requests, the session objects storing session data defining a state of interaction with each of a respective plurality of clients

defining a hierarchy of session object storage units, the session object storage units configured to store session objects having one or more related characteristics; and

grouping the session objects within the session object storage units based on the one or more related characteristics of each of the session objects.

2. The method as in claim 1 wherein defining further comprises:

generating a separate hierarchy of session object storage units for each of a plurality of layers within an enterprise application server.

3. The method as in claim 2 wherein the layers include an enterprise java bean (“

EJB”

) container.

4. The method as in claim 3 wherein defining further comprises:

generating a separate session object storage unit for each session bean within the EJB container.

5. The method as in claim 1 wherein defining further comprises:

generating a separate set of hierarchies of session object storage units for each of a plurality of applications executed by an application server.

6. The method as in claim 5 wherein generating the separate set of hierarchies of session object storage units further comprises:

generating a separate hierarchical tree of session object storage units for each of a plurality of layers within an enterprise application server.

7. The method as in claim 1 wherein the session object storage units comprise session domains.

8. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

defining a configuration policy for each of the session object storage units, the configuration policy including parameters for managing session objects within each session object storage unit.

9. The method as in claim 8 wherein the configuration policy includes an indication as to how long each of the session objects will remain in an active state following a client interaction.

10. The method as in claim 8 further comprising:

defining a set of local storage attributes for each of the session object storage units, the local storage attributes defining storage parameters for storing the session objects within a virtual machine on which the session objects are originally created and executed in response to a session request; and

defining a set of global storage attributes for each of the session object storage units, the global storage attributes defining storage parameters for storing the session objects within a shared memory accessible by multiple local virtual machine.

11. The method as in claim 1 wherein one of the characteristics used to group the session objects comprises the fact tat each of the session objects exist in the same application server layer for the same application.

12. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

subdividing each of the session objects into a user part and a system part, the user part to store user data associated with each session and the system part to store session management data.

13. The method as in claim 12 further comprising:

receiving session requests from applications and a container, the requests associated with a particular session object;

providing only the user part of the session object in response to session requests from applications; and

providing only the system part of the session objects in response to session requests from the container.

14. The method as in claim 12 further comprising:

storing the user part in a first storage location within an application server; and

storing the system part in a second storage location within the application server.

15. The method as in claim 14 further comprising:

optimizing the second storage location for read access relative to the first storage location.

16. A system comprising:

a plurality of worker nodes communicatively coupled on a network to serve applications over the network to a plurality of clients, the worker nodes generating a plurality of session objects in response to client requests, the session objects storing session data defining a state of interaction with each of a respective plurality of clients; and

a session manager to generate a hierarchy of session object storage units, the session object storage units configured to store session objects having one or more related characteristics, the session manager to group the session objects within the session object storage units based on the one or more related characteristics of each of the session objects.

17. The system as in claim 16 wherein the session manager generates a separate hierarchy of session object storage units for each of a plurality of layers within an enterprise application server.

18. The system as in claim 17 wherein the layers include an enterprise java bean (“

EJB”

) container.

19. The system as in claim 18 wherein generating further comprises:

generating a separate session object storage unit for each session bean within the EJB container.

20. The system as in claim 16 wherein generating further comprises:

generating a separate set of hierarchies of session object storage units for each of a plurality of applications executed by an application server.

21. The system as in claim 20 wherein generating the separate set of hierarchies of session object storage units further comprises:

generating a separate hierarchical tree of session object storage units for each of a plurality of layers within an enterprise application server.

22. The system as in claim 16 wherein the session object storage units comprise session domains.

23. The system as in claim 16 further comprising a configuration policy object associated with each of the session object storage units, the configuration policy object including parameters for managing session objects within each session object storage unit.

24. The system as in claim 23 wherein the configuration policy object includes an indication as to how long each of the session objects will remain in an active state following a client interaction.

25. The system as in claim 23 further comprising:

defining a set of local storage attributes for each of the session object storage units, the local storage attributes defining storage parameters for storing the session objects within a virtual machine on which the session objects are originally created and executed in response to a session request; and

defining a set of global storage attributes for each of the session object storage units, the global storage attributes defining storage parameters for storing the session objects within a shared memory accessible by multiple local virtual machine.

26. The system as in claim 16 wherein one of the characteristics used to group the session objects comprises the fact tat each of the session objects exist in the same application server layer for the same application.

27. The system as in claim 16 further comprising:

subdividing each of the session objects into a user part and a system part, the user part to store user data associated with each session and the system part to store session management data.

28. The system as in claim 27 wherein the session manager receives session requests from applications and a container, the requests associated with a particular session object;

provides only the user part of the session object in response to session requests from applications; and

provides only the system part of the session objects in response to session requests from the container.

29. The system as in claim 27 wherein the session manager stores the user part in a first storage location within an application server;

and stores the system part in a second storage location within the application server.

30. The system as in claim 29 wherein the second storage location is optimized for read access relative to the first storage location.

31. The system as in claim 29 wherein the first storage location comprises persistent storage and wherein the second storage location comprises random access memory.

32. A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the operations of:

generating a plurality of session objects in response to client requests, the session objects storing session data defining a state of interaction with each of a respective plurality of clients

defining a hierarchy of session object storage units, the session object storage units configured to store session objects having one or more related characteristics; and

grouping the session objects within the session object storage units based on the one or more related characteristics of each of the session objects.

33. The machine-readable medium as in claim 32 wherein defining further comprises:

generating a separate hierarchy of session object storage units for each of a plurality of layers within an enterprise application server.

34. The machine-readable medium as in claim 33 wherein the layers include an enterprise java bean (“

EJB”

) container.

35. The machine-readable medium as in claim 34 wherein defining further comprises:

generating a separate session object storage unit for each session bean within the EJB container.

36. The machine-readable medium as in claim 32 wherein defining further comprises:

generating a separate set of hierarchies of session object storage units for each of a plurality of applications executed by an application server.

37. The machine-readable medium as in claim 36 wherein generating the separate set of hierarchies of session object storage units further comprises:

generating a separate hierarchical tree of session object storage units for each of a plurality of layers within an enterprise application server.

38. The machine-readable medium as in claim 32 wherein the session object storage units comprise session domains.

39. The machine-readable medium as in claim 32 including additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

defining a configuration policy for each of the session object storage units, the configuration policy including parameters for managing session objects within each session object storage unit.

40. The machine-readable medium as in claim 39 wherein the configuration policy includes an indication as to how long each of the session objects will remain in an active state following a client interaction.

41. The machine-readable medium as in claim 39 including additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

defining a set of local storage attributes for each of the session object storage units, the local storage attributes defining storage parameters for storing the session objects within a virtual machine on which the session objects are originally created and executed in response to a session request; and

defining a set of global storage attributes for each of the session object storage units, the global storage attributes defining storage parameters for storing the session objects within a shared memory accessible by multiple local virtual machine.

42. The machine-readable medium as in claim 32 wherein one of the characteristics used to group the session objects comprises the fact tat each of the session objects exist in the same application server layer for the same application.

43. The machine-readable medium as in claim 32 including additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

subdividing each of the session objects into a user part and a system part, the user part to store user data associated with each session and the system part to store session management data.

44. The machine-readable medium as in claim 43 including additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

receiving session requests from applications and a container, the requests associated with a particular session object;

providing only the user part of the session object in response to session requests from applications; and

providing only the system part of the session objects in response to session requests from the container.

45. The machine-readable medium as in claim 43 including additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

storing the user part in a first storage location within an application server; and

storing the system part in a second storage location within the application server.

46. The machine-readable medium as in claim 45 including additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

optimizing the second storage location for read access relative to the first storage location.