Method and Apparatus for Proxying Initial Client Requests to Support Asynchronous Resource Initialization

• US 20060212532A1
• Filed: 03/15/2005
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Morton, Michael John, Burckart, Erik John, Cammarata, John Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,685,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable

Abstract

A set of programs allows a server computer that does not have an application installed to temporarily hand off a client request for the application to a peer server until the application is installed on the first server. The hand off is transparent to the client and temporary to the peer server. The server asynchronously starts the application, and when the application is ready for use, the first server stops sending requests to the peer server, and begins serving the requests. Since the first server has full session knowledge, it will be transparent to the client that the server servicing those requests temporarily changed.

Claims

1. An apparatus for proxying requests for an application within a network comprising:

a plurality of peer servers connected by the network;

a first program and a second program installed on each of the peer servers;

a first server that has received a request from a web browser on a remote client computer;

wherein, responsive to the first program determining that a response to the request requires an application that is not installed on the first server, the first program causes the first server to asynchronously start the application, and to send the request to a second server that has the application installed; and

responsive to receiving the response from the second server, the first program modifies an affinity portion of a session information received with the response;

wherein the modification of the affinity portion of the session information allows the first server to respond to subsequent requests from the web browser after the application is installed on the first server.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a registry, connected to the plurality of servers, whereby the first server can identify the second server as a server that has the requested application installed.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the set of programs comprises:

a proxy request generator wherein the proxy request generator causes the first server to communicate with the registry to find the second server.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the set of programs comprises:

a proxy request generator wherein the proxy request generator, responsive to receiving the response to the request and the session information from the second server, causes the first server to asynchronously set up a session replication for the session between the first server and the second server; and

a proxy request processor wherein the proxy request processor causes the second server, responsive to receiving the request from the first server, to respond to the request and to pass back the session information for the request to the requesting server.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an intelligent workload router that routes the request to the network.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising a cache for storing the session information.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the cache is located in a centralized database.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the cache is located in each of the plurality of servers and each of the plurality of servers synchronizes its cache with each of the other servers.

9. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein sending the request to the second server will be transparent to the remote client computer.

10. A method for proxying requests for an application within a plurality of servers comprising:

at a first server connected to a plurality of peer servers by a network,

receiving a request for an application from a client computer connected to the network;

responsive to determining that the application is not ready for use, asynchronously starting the application at the first server;

asynchronously proxying the request to the second server;

responsive to receiving a response to the request and a session information from the second server, modifying an affinity portion of the request so that the client requests will continue to be routed to the first server; and

at the second server, responsive to receiving the request from the first server, responding to the request and passing back a session information for the request to the first server.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

querying a registry for identification of a peer server that has the application ready for use.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

asynchronously setting up session replication for that specific session between the second server and the first server.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

continuing to receive subsequent requests for the application from the client and to route them to the second server until the first server has the application prepared for use.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

routing the request from the client computer to the network through an intelligent workload router.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein, responsive to having the application ready for use, the first server stops sending requests to the second server, and begins serving the requests itself.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein it will be transparent to the client computer that the server servicing those requests temporarily changed.

17. A computer program product for proxying a client request for an application within a plurality of peer servers comprising:

means for receiving a request for an application;

means for, responsive to a determination that the application is not available, asynchronously starting the application;

means for communicating with a registry to identify a server that has the application available;

means for asynchronously proxying the request to an identified server having the application installed;

means for, responsive to receiving a response to the request and a session information from the identified server, modifying an affinity portion of the session identifier to have each of a plurality of further requests from the client continue to be routed to the requesting server;

means for asynchronously setting up session replication for the session between the requesting server and the identified server; and

means for causing the identified server, responsive to receiving the request from the requesting server, to respond to the request and to pass back a session information for the request to the requesting server;

so that the requesting server continues to receive a subsequent request for the application from the client and to route the subsequent request to the identified server only until the requesting server has the application installed.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein, responsive to having the application ready for use, the first server stops sending requests to the second server, and begins serving the requests itself.

19. The computer program product of claim 17 further comprising:

means for the first server to have full session knowledge so that it will be transparent to the client that the server servicing those requests temporarily changed.