SCALING NETWORK SERVICES USING DNS

• US 20080320003A1
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kim, Jacob, Jeyaseelan, Thomas, Phipps, Greg, McDonald, Amy, Heinson, Bill, Antonelli, Jason A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,219,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1036 Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers

Abstract

Lookup requests received by a domain name service (DNS) are processed based on the actual location of data associated with a requested content page rather than a domain mapping of IP addresses. A DNS server which receives a request initiates a query for the location of user data associated with the request based on an object handle contained in a domain name of the request. The location data is used to construct an IP address which is provided in response to the IP lookup request received by the DNS server. The DNS system may be used to provide IP addresses for a scaled web-based networking service, alternate versions of a service and a service implementing rolling upgrades.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a DNS lookup request from a client, the DNS lookup request including a domain name in the form of a URL;

identifying an object handle as a host domain of the URL, the object handle associated with a user having an account with a web-based networking service;

retrieving data center identification information linked to the object handle, the data center identification information identifying the location of data associated with the user'"'"'s account for the web-based networking service;

selecting a server cluster within the data center able to access the user'"'"'s data;

determining an one or more IP address for the server cluster; and

sending the IP address to the client in response to the DNS lookup request.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of identifying an object handle includes:

extracting a host domain from the domain name by an object handle extraction module, the host domain comprising the object handle.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the host domain is an alias for a user having an account with a web-based networking service.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of retrieving data center identification information includes:

transmitting a location data request to a data store; and

receiving data center identification information from the data store, the location data including an identifier for one or more servers from which user data associated with the object handle may be accessed.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the data center identification information includes an identifier for a data center which includes the user data associated with the object handle.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the location data request is sent to a remote data store in SOAP format.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of retrieving data center identification information includes:

sending a location data request with the object handle to a data store;

receiving the data center identification information request by the data store;

accessing a table containing object handle data linked to data center location data;

selecting the data center location data linked to the object handle in the location data request; and

transmitting the data center location data in response to the location data request.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining an IP address includes:

accessing a table containing location data linked to IP addresses;

selecting an IP address which is linked to the retrieved location data; and

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein said step of selecting an IP address

determining the IP address is linked to the data center and two or more server clusters within the data center;

and

selecting a server cluster within the data center and the IP address corresponding to the selected server cluster.

10. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving a DNS lookup request having a domain name from a remote computer;

determining an object handle from the domain name, the object handle associated a user of a web-based networking service;

retrieving location and version data linked to object handle, the version data associated with a version of a web-based networking service used by the user;

determining an IP address associated with a server cluster based on the retrieved location and version data; and

sending the IP address to the remote computer in response to the DNS lookup request.

11. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, the object handle associated with a user content page provided by a web-based networking service.

12. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein said step of determining an object handle includes

retrieving a portion of the domain name associated with an identifier for a user of the web-based networking service, the object handle comprising the user identifier.

13. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 12, wherein the step of determining an object handle is performed by plug-in code installed on a DNS server.

14. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein said step of retrieving location and version data includes:

constructing a location data request, the location data request including the object handle;

transmitting the location data request to a data store containing location data linked to one or more object handles; and

receiving a response from the data store, the response including location data and version data linked to the object handle in the location data request.

15. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein said step of determining an IP address includes:

retrieving an IP address associated with the retrieved location and version data from an IP address lookup table within a DNS server.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein said step of determining an IP address includes:

determining whether a parameter has been set to indicate that version data should be ignored; and

retrieving an IP address associated with the retrieved location and version data based on the parameter setting.

17. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a DNS lookup request having a domain name in the form of a URL from a client;

identifying an object handle as the host domain of the URL, the object handle associated with a content page for a user of web-based service;

retrieving a code for a data center linked to the object handle;

determining an IP address associated with a server cluster within the data center, wherein said step of determining includes satisfying a load balance requirement for one or more server clusters associated with the data center; and

sending the IP address to the client in response to the DNS lookup request.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 17, wherein said step of determining an IP address:

determining one or more server clusters within a data center that may access user data associated with the object handle;

accessing a load balance requirement for the data center with respect to one or more server clusters; and

selecting a first server cluster of the one more server clusters based on the load balance requirement.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 18, wherein said step of determining an IP address includes:

performing a hash on the object handle; and

selecting an IP address based on the hash value of the object handle and the load balancing requirement associated with the data center.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 18, wherein said step of determining an IP address includes:

identifying two or more network servers provided by the data center; and

selecting one of the two or more network servers provided by the data center based on a history of requests sent to the network servers and the load balancing requirement associated with the data center.