HIGHLY AVAILABLE CENTRAL CONTROLLER TO STORE AND ENFORCE VALID STATE TRANSITIONS OF DISTRIBUTED COMPONENTS

• US 20080288637A1
• Filed: 05/17/2007
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nichols, David A., Ko, Supin, Mishra, Vishal, Nagaraja, Girish
• Granted Patent: US 8,219,654 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

A highly available central controller to store and enforce valid state transitions of distributed components is provided for centrally controlling access to a service. Central control is provided by a database with an API according to a set of stored procedures, which provides a virtual view to requesters that seek to read or manipulate service entities.

Claims

1. A method for centrally controlling access to a service, comprising:

storing one or more entity state(s) of the service in a central database;

providing a virtual view of one or more entity state(s) of the service to handle requests to read or manipulate said one or more entity state(s) of the service; and

enforcing one or more valid entity state transition(s) in response to receiving said request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating said one or more entity state(s) in said virtual view in response to handling said request for one or more valid entity state transition(s).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising disallowing one or more invalid entity state transition(s).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said request is an external client request that is routed according to service entity state information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said request is an internal service entity management tool request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said virtual view is provided by an application program interface of the service.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said application program interface contains logic for said enforcing of said one or more valid entity state transition(s).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said application program interface is a set of database stored procedures that routes requests and updates the respective entity state(s) in the central database.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating a database schema for storing a status enumeration of the one or more entity state(s) of the service in the central database.

10. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

11. A computing device comprising means for performing the method of claim 1.

12. A user interface for use in connection with centrally controlling access to a service, comprising:

a request receiving component that receives one or more request(s) to read or manipulate one or more entity state(s) of the service; and

an enforcing component that enforces one or more valid entity state transition(s) in response to receiving said one or more request(s);

wherein said one or more request(s) are formed according to a virtual view of said one or more entity state(s) of the service provided to one or more requestor(s) of said service.

13. The user interface of claim 12, further comprising an entity state updating component for updating said one or more entity state(s) in said virtual view in response to receiving said one or more request.

14. The user interface of claim 12, wherein the receiving and enforcing component is provided by at least a set of database stored procedures of a central database configured to control access to the service.

15. The user interface of claim 14, wherein said virtual view is provided to a requester according to a status enumeration of the one or more entity state(s) of the service stored in the central database.

16. A data packet transmitted between two or more computer components that facilitates the centrally-controlled access of a service, the data packet comprising:

information associated with a request to read or manipulate one or more entity state(s) of the service according to a virtual view of one or more entity state(s) provided to a requester for enforcing one or more valid service entity state transition(s).

17. A system for centrally controlling access to a service, comprising:

a database for centrally storing at least one entity state of the service;

a request receiving component that receives at least one request to read or manipulate at least one of entity state of the service;

an enforcing component that enforces at least one valid entity state transition in response to receiving said at least one request;

at least one account entity associated with the provision of said service;

at least one repository entity for storing said at least one account entity; and

wherein said at least one request is formed according to a virtual view of the at least one account entity state and the at least one repository entity state.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising an entity state updating component for updating said at least one entity state in said virtual view in response to handling said at least one request.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the receiving and enforcing component is provided by at least a set of database stored procedures of the database.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said virtual view is provided to a requester according to a status enumeration of the at least one entity state of the service.