Scalable software blade architecture

• US 20070100975A1
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Venkatachary, Schulz, Torsten, Meyer, Markus, Boerries, Marco
• Granted Patent: US 7,873,696 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1027 Persistence of sessions during load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A system and method for servicing user accounts are disclosed. The system includes one or more blades for servicing the user accounts, where each blade includes software components and hardware components, and each blade serves a group of user accounts, a blade manager for managing states of the one or more blades, and logic for incrementally adding one or more new blades in response to increase in the number of new user accounts.

Claims

1. A system for servicing user accounts, comprising:

one or more blades for servicing the user accounts, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, and wherein each blade serves a group of user accounts;

a blade manager for managing states of the one or more blades; and

logic for incrementally adding one or more new blades in response to an increase in the number of new user accounts.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software components comprise:

one or more versions of operating systems and software applications.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the hardware components comprise:

one or more versions of hardware platforms and configurations.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the blade manager comprises:

logic for maintaining user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups; and

logic for providing the user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups to the one or more blades.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the blade manager further comprises:

logic for assigning new user accounts to a blade according to a set of requirements.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for incrementally adding comprises:

logic for registering a blade; and

logic for enabling connected-data service.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the logic for registering a blade comprises:

logic for providing an internal address for the blade;

logic for providing an external address for the blade;

logic for setting a number of user accounts to be hosted by the blade; and

logic for registering the blade at a partition manager of the blade manager.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the logic for enabling connected-data service comprises:

logic for providing a connected-data service sign-in URL to a user;

logic for receiving a signal to register for the connected-data service from the user;

logic for receiving registration information from the user;

logic for creating a default user account according to the registration information; and

logic for displaying a connected-data service welcome page to the user.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

logic for revoking a blade; and

logic for disabling connected-data service.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the logic for revoking a blade comprises:

logic for stopping assignment of new user accounts to the blade;

logic for repartitioning user accounts on the blade to new locations; and

logic for notifying other blades about the new locations of the user accounts.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the logic for disabling connected-data service comprises:

logic for receiving a signal to disable the connected-data service of a user account;

logic for removing the user account at a blade hosting the connected-data service; and

logic for informing the blade manager the user account is removed.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a blade manager proxy for protecting the blade manager from unauthorized accesses.

13. A method for servicing user accounts, comprising:

partitioning tasks of servicing the user accounts into one or more blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, and wherein each blade serves a group of user accounts;

managing states of the one or more blades by a blade manager; and

incrementally adding one or more new blades in response to increase in the number of new user accounts.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the software components comprise:

one or more versions of operating systems and software applications.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the hardware components comprise:

one or more versions of hardware platforms and configurations.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein managing states of the one or more blades comprises:

maintaining user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups; and

providing the user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups to the one or more blades.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein managing the blades further comprises:

assigning new user accounts to a blade according a set of requirements.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein incrementally adding comprises:

registering a blade; and

enabling connected-data service.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein registering a blade comprises:

providing an internal address for the blade;

providing an external address for the blade;

setting a number of user accounts to be hosted by the blade; and

registering the blade at a partition manager of the blade manager.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein enabling connected-data service comprises:

providing a connected-data service sign-in URL to a user;

receiving a signal to register for the connected-data service from the user;

receiving registration information from the user;

creating a default user account according to the registration information; and

displaying a connected-data service welcome page to the user.

21. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

revoking a blade; and

disabling connected-data service.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein revoking a blade comprises:

stopping assignment of new user accounts to the blade;

repartitioning user accounts on the blade to new locations; and

notifying other blades about the new locations of the user accounts.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein disabling connected-data service comprises:

receiving a signal to disable the connected-data service of a user account;

removing the user account at a blade hosting the connected-data service; and

informing the blade manager the user account is removed.

24. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

protecting the blade manager from unauthorized accesses by a blade manager proxy.

25. A computer program product for servicing user accounts, comprising a medium storing computer programs for execution by one or more computer systems having at least a processing unit, a user interface and a memory, the computer program product comprising:

code for partitioning tasks of servicing the user accounts into one or more blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, and wherein each blade serves a group of user accounts;

code for managing states of the one or more blades by a blade manager; and

code for incrementally adding one or more new blades in response to increase in the number of new user accounts.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the software components comprise:

one or more versions of operating systems and software applications.

27. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the hardware components comprise:

one or more versions of hardware platforms and configurations.

28. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the code for managing states of the one or more blades comprises:

code for maintaining user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups; and

code for providing the user settings, global configurations and preferences, device descriptions, and account groups to the one or more blades.

29. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the code for managing states of the one or more blades further comprises:

code for assigning new user accounts to a blade according a set of requirements.

30. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the code for incrementally adding comprises:

code for registering a blade; and

code for enabling connected-data service.

31. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the code for registering a blade comprises:

code for providing an internal address for the blade;

code for providing an external address for the blade;

code for setting a number of user accounts to be hosted by the blade; and

code for registering the blade at a partition manager of the blade manager.

32. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the code for enabling connected-data service comprises:

code for providing a connected-data service sign-in URL to a user;

code for receiving a signal to register for the connected-data service from the user;

code for receiving registration information from the user;

code for creating a default user account according to the registration information; and

code for displaying a connected-data service welcome page to the user.

33. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:

code for revoking a blade; and

code for disabling connected-data service.

34. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the code for revoking a blade comprises:

code for stopping assignment of new user accounts to the blade;

code for repartitioning user accounts on the blade to new locations; and

code for notifying other blades about the new locations of the user accounts.

35. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the code for disabling connected-data service comprises:

code for receiving a signal to disable the connected-data service of a user account;

code for removing the user account at a blade hosting the connected-data service; and

code for informing the blade manager the user account is removed.

36. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:

code for protecting the blade manager from unauthorized accesses by a blade manager proxy.