Apparatus and method for autonomic adjustment of connection keep-alives

• US 20060182141A1
• Filed: 02/17/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wisniewski, Robert, Joglekar, Niharika Sudhir, Lokhande, Bhushan Kamlakar, Duggirala, Surya V., Goshgarian, Matthew Ara
• Granted Patent: US 7,460,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A server computer system includes a keep-alive autonomic adjustment mechanism that monitors current operating conditions and dynamically adjusts the keep-alive specification to optimize the keep-alives for the current operating conditions. The keep-alive autonomic adjustment mechanism monitors the total number of clients, and the average number of requests per client. The value of a keep-alive specification that determines how log to keep a connection open may be dynamically and autonomically adjusted by the keep-alive autonomic adjustment mechanism according to the monitored current operating conditions. The keep-alive autonomic adjustment mechanism may also include the ability to autonomically enable and disable the keep-alives. In this manner the performance of the server may be tuned to optimize the effect of using keep-alives according to current operating conditions.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a server application residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the server application comprising;

a keep-alive mechanism that keeps a connection to a client open according to a defined keep-alive specification; and

a keep-alive adjustment mechanism that monitors current operating conditions for the server application and automatically adjusts the keep-alive specification according to the current operating conditions.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism enables and disables the keep-alive mechanism.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism disables the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of clients below a first predetermined threshold and an average number of requests per client below a second predetermined threshold.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism enables the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of clients in excess of a first predetermined threshold.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism enables the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of requests per client in excess of a second predetermined threshold.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the current operating conditions comprise number of clients and average number of connections per client.

7. A computer-implemented method for a server application to manage connection keep-alives, the method comprising the steps of:

(A) enabling a keep-alive mechanism that keeps a connection to a client open according to a defined keep-alive specification;

(B) monitoring current operating conditions for the server application; and

(C) automatically adjusting the keep-alive specification according to the current operating conditions monitored in step (B).

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of automatically enabling and disabling the keep-alive mechanism.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of disabling the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of clients below a first predetermined threshold and an average number of requests per client below a second predetermined threshold.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of enabling the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of clients in excess of a first predetermined threshold.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of enabling the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of requests per client in excess of a second predetermined threshold.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the current operating conditions comprise number of clients and average number of connections per client.

13. A program product comprising:

(A) server application comprising;

a keep-alive mechanism that keeps a connection to a client open according to a defined keep-alive specification; and

a keep-alive adjustment mechanism that monitors current operating conditions for the server application and automatically adjusts the keep-alive specification according to the current operating conditions; and

(B) computer-readable signal bearing media bearing the server application.

14. The program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable signal bearing media comprises recordable media.

15. The program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable signal bearing media comprises transmission media.

16. The program product of claim 13 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism enables and disables the keep-alive mechanism.

17. The program product of claim 16 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism disables the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of clients below a first predetermined threshold and an average number of requests per client below a second predetermined threshold.

18. The program product of claim 16 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism enables the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate a number of clients in excess of a first predetermined threshold.

19. The program product of claim 16 wherein the keep-alive adjustment mechanism enables the keep-alive mechanism when the current operating conditions indicate an average number of requests per client in excess of a second predetermined threshold.

20. The program product of claim 13 wherein the current operating conditions comprise number of clients and number of connections per client.