Partitioning data across servers

• US 20070073829A1
• Filed: 09/13/2005
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Volodarsky, Michael, Ng, Patrick
• Application Number:
  US11/225,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20070073829A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24542 Plan optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1017 based on a round robin mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer

Abstract

A partitioning mechanism is executed on a server that receives a request to determine the connection information that is then used by the server to connect to a back-end data server from which to access the data relating to the request. The partitioning mechanism is directed to horizontally scaling the back-end data storage for web servers by enabling a deterministic partitioning resolution to take place on each web server rather than using a single server to provide the connection information to each of the web servers. The partitioning policy may also be individually developed for each application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a data store server, comprising:

receiving a request for data that includes an identifier;

wherein the request is received at a server;

dynamically determining a data store server from which to retrieve the data;

wherein the determination occurs on the server and wherein the identifier is used in the determination; and

connecting the server to the data store server based on the determination.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a connection string that identifies a location of the data store server that is used by the server to connect to the data store server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the connection string comprises generating the connection string on the server for each received request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the data store server comprises determining the data store server from one of many data store servers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the data store server comprises mapping the identifier to the data store server using a deterministic partition resolving algorithm.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the deterministic partition resolving algorithm may be created by a user.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising using the partition resolving algorithm to implement at least one of:

load balancing, affinity, and failover.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising utilizing a partition resolving object to access the partition resolving algorithm.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the partition resolving object is configured to maintain a configured list of available data storage servers;

and upon on each request that is obtained, resolve the identifier to one of the available data storage servers by hashing it into a partition table; and

returning the connection information for the selected data storage server.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for session state partitioning, comprising:

receiving a request for data;

wherein the request includes a session identifier and wherein the request is received by a first computing device;

applying a deterministic partition resolving algorithm at the first computing device;

wherein applying the algorithm generates a connection string that provides a location of a second computing device from which to retrieve the data; and

connecting the first computing device to the second computing device using the connection string.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein generating the connection string comprises generating the connection string on the first computing device each time a request is received and wherein the connection string is dynamically generated.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first computing device is a web server that is part of a web farm and wherein the second computing device is a back-end data store that is one of many back-end data stores.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the deterministic partition resolving algorithm comprises hashing the session identifier to determine the location of the second computing device.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the session identifier identifies a session that relates to a user'"'"'s interaction with an e-commerce web site.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the partition resolving algorithm is configured to maintain a configured list of available second computing devices;

resolve the session identifier to one of the available second computing devices; and

return the connection information for the selected second computing device.

16. A system for determining a connection string to access a back-end data storage server, comprising:

web servers that are coupled to a network and comprise;

an application that is configured to receive a request from a client computing device that includes an identifier that identifies a client session; and

a

a partition resolver that is configured to create the connection string that is used to access the back-end data storage server by using a deterministic partition resolving algorithm to the identifier;

wherein the partition resolver may be included on web servers that do not initially provide data partitioning services; and

back-end data storage servers that are coupled to the web servers that are configured to provide data in response to receiving a request from one of the web servers.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the partition resolver may implement any deterministic partition resolving algorithm to provide at least one of:

load balancing, affinity, and failover.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the deterministic partition resolving algorithm comprises hashing the identifier to determine the location of the second computing device.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the web servers are configured to support an e-commerce web site.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the partition resolving algorithm is configured to maintain a configured list of available back-end data storage servers and resolve the identifier to one of the available back-end data storage servers.