AFFINITY-BASED TRANSACTION PROCESSING

• US 20090296711A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kennedy, Michael Bruce, Magid, Robert Mark, Ziebarth, Mark Neal
• Granted Patent: US 8,131,872 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/121 by minimising delays

Abstract

A transaction message is received at a router. A determination is made whether the transaction message includes an affinity. The affinity indicates an administrator-specified preference regarding processing of the transaction message. When the transaction message includes the affinity, a server system to process the transaction message is identified based on the affinity and based on a system affinity of the server system. The system affinity specifies processing characteristics of the server system. The server system includes a set of servers. The transaction message is modified to identify the server system and routed to a message queue.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a transaction message at a router;

determining whether the transaction message includes an affinity indicating an administrator-specified preference regarding processing of the transaction message and, when the transaction message includes the affinity, selecting a server system among a plurality of server systems to process the transaction message based on the affinity and based on a system affinity of the server system, wherein the system affinity specifies processing characteristics of the server system, and wherein the server system comprises a set of servers;

modifying the transaction message to include an identification of the server system; and

routing the modified transaction message to a message queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the server system comprises determining whether the transaction message has a specific affinity to the server system by determining whether a transaction affinity of the transaction message matches the system affinity associated with the server system.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining whether the transaction message has a generic affinity to the server system by determining whether the transaction affinity of the transaction message matches a portion of the system affinity associated with the server system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the system affinity comprises a system identifier.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether the transaction message has a class affinity by determining whether a transaction class of the transaction message matches a class attribute associated with the server system.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

identifying a set of target servers of the server system;

determining whether the set of target servers includes at least one active server; and

selecting the set of target servers when the set of target servers includes at least one active server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message queue is located at a coupling facility, and wherein each server in the set of servers comprises a transaction management system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising initializing the router prior to receiving the transaction message, wherein a server associated with the router initializes the router.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein initializing the router comprises:

retrieving customer affinity definitions from a customer definitions library; and

determining whether a runtime definitions library of a coupling facility includes the customer affinity definitions.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating a routing table based on the customer affinity definitions wherein the routing table includes information associating at least one system affinity and at least one class affinity to each server in the set of servers.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether an affinity definition of the customer affinity definitions includes an identity of the server associated with the router; and

sending an affinity registration message to a coupling facility, wherein the affinity registration message identifies the server associated with the router with a server affinity based on the affinity definition.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving a transaction message at a coupling facility;

determining whether the transaction message includes an affinity indicating a preference regarding processing of the transaction message;

selecting a server system based on a selection algorithm and based on whether the transaction message includes the affinity; and

sending a notification message to each server of the selected server system, wherein the notification message requests each server of the selected server system to send a bid to process the transaction message.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising modifying the transaction message at a router before receiving the transaction message at the coupling facility.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving at least one bid to process the transaction message; and

selecting a server of the selected server system to process the transaction message based on the at least one bid.

15. A system, comprising:

a plurality of server systems, wherein each server system comprises a set of servers; and

a router adapted to;

determine an affinity of a transaction message to a particular server system of the plurality of server systems;

modify the transaction message based on the affinity to identify the particular server system; and

send the modified transaction message to a coupling facility.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the coupling facility is adapted to:

receive the modified transaction message from the router; and

send a notification message to the particular server system, wherein the notification message requests the particular server system to process the transaction message.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a server of the particular server system is adapted to:

receive the notification message from the coupling facility;

determine whether the server is capable of processing the transaction message; and

send a bid to the coupling facility to process the transaction message after determining that the server is capable of processing the transaction message.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the coupling facility is further adapted to:

receive the bid from the server; and

send the transaction message to the server.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is adapted to:

receive the transaction message from the coupling facility; and

process the transaction message.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the transaction message includes a transaction class and a transaction affinity.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the transaction affinity indicates a preference regarding processing of the transaction message.

22. A method for making a computer implemented process to enable routing of a transaction message based on an affinity of the transaction message, the method comprising:

installing first computer instructions onto a computer readable medium, the first computer instructions configured to receive a transaction message at a router;

installing second computer instructions onto the computer readable medium, the second computer instructions configured to determine whether the transaction message includes an affinity indicating an administrator-specified preference regarding processing of the transaction message and, when the transaction message includes the affinity, to select a server system among a plurality of server systems to process the transaction message based on the affinity and based on a system affinity of the server system, wherein the system affinity specifies processing characteristics of the server system, and wherein the server system comprises a set of servers;

installing third computer instructions onto the computer readable medium, the third computer instructions configured to modify the transaction message to include an identification of the server system; and

installing fourth computer instructions onto the computer readable medium, the fourth computer instructions configured to route the modified transaction message to a message queue.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising installing fifth computer instructions onto the computer readable medium, the fifth computer instructions configured to determine whether the transaction message has a specific affinity to the server system by determining whether the affinity of the transaction message matches the system affinity associated with the server system.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the fifth computer instructions are further configured to determine whether the transaction message has a generic affinity to the server system by determining whether the affinity of the transaction message matches a portion of the system affinity associated with the server system.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the fifth computer instructions are further configured to determine whether the transaction message has a class affinity by determining whether a transaction class of the transaction message matches a class attribute associated with the server system.