Selective User Notification Based on IP Flow Information

• US 20090055501A1
• Filed: 08/23/2007
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhou, Xiaohui, Bainbridge, David, Adams, Beecher, Wang, Alex
• Granted Patent: US 8,112,516 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/507 Filtering out customers affected by service problems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

An example embodiment of the present invention provides a process that uses IP flow information to selectively notify users of an application server of the server'"'"'s unavailability. In the example embodiment, the process, which might run on a system comprising a router, monitors IP flow records as to dropped packets and learns that an application server has become unavailable. The process then uses the IP flow records to identify active users of the application server, for example, by passing a source IP address to a presence service. Once the process has identified an active user, the process determines a means of notification for the user, which might be through the presence service, and transmits a notification to the user as to the unavailability of the application server. In the example embodiment, the process transmits a later notification as to the availability of the application server, using reverse camp-on functionality.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an indication of unavailability of an application server;

responsive to the indication of unavailability, accessing flow state information to identify one or more active users of the application server, wherein the flow state information includes data relating to one or more data flows between the application server and one or more clients;

determining a notification channel for one or more of the active users; and

transmitting a notification of unavailability of the application server to the one or more active users over the respective determined notification channels.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining a notification channel comprises obtaining one or more client IP addresses corresponding to one or more respective clients of the application server.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the determining a notification channel further comprises mapping the one or more client IP addresses to respective user identifiers.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the determining a notification channel further comprises providing one or more client IP addresses to a presence service to retrieve one or more respective user identifiers.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the determining a notification channel further comprises

providing one or more client IP addresses to a DHCP server to retrieve one respective hosts names;

and

accessing, using the respective host names, a directory service to retrieve one or more user identifiers.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the determining a notification channel further comprises accessing a presence service using the one or more respective user identifiers.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining a notification channel further comprises accessing a presence service using the one or more respective user identifiers.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting the notification comprises selecting notification information based on one or more attributes of the application server.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting the notification comprises selecting notification information based on one or more attributes of the notification channel.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising

receiving an indication of availability of the application server;

and

transmitting a notification of availability of the application server to the one or more active users using the respective determined notification channels.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication of unavailability of an application server is obtained by monitoring IP flow records for indications of dropped packets destined for the application server.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication of unavailability of an application server is obtained from a routing system reporting one or more dropped packets destined for the application server.

13. Logic encoded in one or more computer-readable media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive an indication of unavailability of an application server;

responsive to the indication of unavailability, access flow state information to identify one or more active users of the application server, wherein the flow state information includes data relating to one or more data flows between the application server and one or more clients;

determine a notification channel for one or more of the active users; and

transmit a notification of unavailability of the application server to the one or more active users over the respective determined notification channels.

14. The logic of claim 13 wherein the logic is further operable to:

obtain one or more client IP addresses corresponding to one or more respective clients of the application server.

15. The logic of claim 14 wherein the logic is further operable to:

map the one or more client IP addresses to respective user identifiers.

16. The logic of claim 14 wherein the logic is further operable to:

provide one or more client IP addresses to a presence service to retrieve one or more respective user identifiers.

17. The logic of claim 14 wherein the logic is further operable to:

provide one or more client IP addresses to a DHCP server to retrieve one respective hosts names; and

access, using the respective host names, a directory service to retrieve one or more user identifiers.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the logic is further operable to:

access a presence service using the one or more respective user identifiers.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the logic is further operable to:

access a presence service using the one or more respective user identifiers.

20. The logic of claim 13 wherein the logic is further operable to:

select notification information based on one or more attributes of the application server.

21. The logic of claim 13 wherein the logic is further operable to:

select notification information based on one or more attributes of the notification channel.

22. The logic of claim 13 wherein the logic is further operable to:

receive an indication of availability of the application server; and

transmit a notification of availability of the application server to the one or more active users using the respective determined notification channels.

23. The logic of claim 13 wherein the indication of unavailability of an application server is obtained by monitoring IP flow records for indications of dropped packets destined for the application server.

24. The logic of claim 13 wherein the indication of unavailability of an application server is obtained from a routing system reporting one or more dropped packets destined for the application server.

25. An apparatus comprising:

one or more network interfaces;

a memory;

one or more processors; and

a notification process module comprising computer readable instructions operative to cause the one or more processors to;

receive an indication of unavailability of an application server;

responsive to the indication of unavailability, access flow state information to identify one or more active users of the application server, wherein the flow state information includes data relating to one or more data flows between the application server and one or more clients;

determine a notification channel for one or more of the active users; and

transmit a notification of unavailability of the application server to the one or more active users over the respective determined notification channels.