AUTOMATICALLY MANAGING SYSTEM DOWNTIME IN A COMPUTER NETWORK

• US 20090006884A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Antonoff, Lauren N., Livingston, Sean L., Cahill, Jason M., Miron, Titus C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,181,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to automatically managing system downtime in a computer network. In one embodiment, an event is created in an application server to schedule a system downtime period for a web server. When the scheduled downtime occurs, the web server is automatically removed from the network and a downtime notification message is automatically communicated indicating that the web server is offline. In another embodiment, events may be created to schedule downtime for web-based applications, including websites. Prior to the scheduled downtime, requests to a web-based application may be automatically stopped and redirected to a specified location. In another embodiment, the operation of web servers is automatically monitored to detect the presence of a fault condition and, if a fault condition is present, then a determination may be made that the affected web servers are down and requests to the down web servers are automatically redirected to an alternate server.

Claims

1. A method of automatically managing system downtime in a computer network comprising a plurality of servers supporting a distributed operating system for web-based applications, comprising:

creating, in an application server, an event for scheduling downtime with respect to at least one web server in the computer network;

automatically removing the at least one web server from a network load balancer associated with the plurality of servers at the scheduled downtime; and

automatically communicating a downtime notification message indicating that the at least one web server is down.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically redirecting requests to the at least one web server scheduled for downtime to a Universal Resource Locator (URL) specified in the event for handling the requests to the at least one web server during the scheduled downtime.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically redirecting requests to the at least one web server scheduled for downtime to at least one redundant web server in advance of the scheduled downtime.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically updating web pages hosted by the at least one web server with a downtime notification message in advance of the scheduled downtime.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein creating an event for scheduling downtime with respect to at least one web server in the computer network comprises receiving data comprising at least one of the following:

first data comprising a date and time the downtime is scheduled to begin, second data comprising the length of an outage window associated with the downtime, third data comprising a reason for the downtime, fourth data comprising a contact for further information associated with the downtime, or fifth data comprising a location for redirecting requests to the at least one web server during the downtime.

6. A system for automatically managing system downtime in a computer network comprising a plurality of servers supporting a distributed operating system for web-based applications, comprising:

a memory for storing executable program code; and

a processor, functionally coupled to the memory, the processor being responsive to computer-executable instructions contained in the program code and operative

to create, in an application server, an event for scheduling downtime with respect to at least one web-based application in the computer network;

to automatically stop requests to the at least one web-based application on a web server prior to the scheduled downtime; and

to automatically redirect requests to the at least one web-based application.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor in automatically stopping requests to the at least one web-based application on a web server prior to the scheduled downtime is operative to stop serving incoming requests to a URL associated with the at least one web-based application.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor in automatically redirecting requests to a URL associated with the at least one web-based application is operative to redirect requests from the URL to an alternate URL, wherein the alternate URL is associated with a web page indicating the at least one web-based application is currently unavailable during the scheduled downtime.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor in automatically redirecting requests to the at least one web-based application is operative to switch between a first version of the at least one web-based application and a second version of the at least one web-based application on the web server, wherein the first and second versions of the at least one web-based application are associated with a single URL.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the second version of the at least one web-based application is a read-only version.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor in creating an event for scheduling downtime with respect to at least one web-based application in the computer network is operative to receive priority data specifying a priority level for the event, wherein the priority level determines how users of the web-based application are notified of the scheduled downtime.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is further operative to automatically communicate a downtime notification message to users of the at least one web-based application prior to the scheduled downtime.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the downtime notification message comprises a calendar item in a personal information manager.

14. The system of 12, wherein the downtime notification message comprises an electronic mail (e-mail) message.

15. The system of 6, wherein the processor in creating an event for scheduling downtime with respect to at least one web-based application in the computer network is operative to perform at least one of the following:

receive first data comprising a date and time the downtime is scheduled to begin, receive second data comprising the length of an outage window associated with the downtime, receive third data comprising a reason for the downtime, receive fourth data comprising a contact for further information associated with the downtime, or receiving fifth data comprising an alternate URL for redirecting requests to the at least one web-based application during the downtime.

16. The system of 6, wherein the at least one web-based application is an application for updating a user account password.

17. A computer-readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions which, when executed on a computer, will cause the computer to perform a method of automatically managing system downtime in a computer network, the method, comprising:

automatically monitoring the operation of a plurality of web servers in the network to detect the presence of a fault condition in at least one of the plurality of web servers;

if a fault condition is present, then determining that the at least one web server is down; and

automatically redirecting requests to the down web server to an alternate server in the network.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 further comprising displaying a downtime notification message on a web page hosted by the alternate server.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein automatically monitoring the operation of a plurality of web servers in the network to detect the presence of a fault condition in at least one of the plurality of web servers comprises periodically monitoring the operation of the plurality of web servers.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 further comprising automatically communicating a downtime notification message to users sending the requests to the down web server.