SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BATCHABLE HIERARCHICAL CONFIGURATION

• US 20100131620A1
• Filed: 11/25/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Raja, Murali, Kondamuru, Ravi
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

The present solution provides a centralized configuration of a Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) site hierarchy that may be batched across a plurality of appliances in a multi-site deployment. A single GSLB site hierarchy configuration may be distributed and operated on each appliance at each site. This reduces the configuration maintained for the multi-site deployment. Furthermore, in this manner, each appliance across multiple sites has an understanding of the entire topology of the multi-site deployment. Responsive to this configuration and understanding, each appliance may perform and optimize operations according to the site topology. For example, the appliances may selectively determine which sites to establish connections with in order to share metrics. In another example, appliances may select which remote sites to monitor services according to the topology.

Claims

1. A method for configuring one or more global server load balancing (GSLB) appliances and one or more load balancing appliances via a single configuration to represent a GSLB site hierarchy, the method comprising:

a) receiving, by each of a plurality of appliances, a configuration representing a GSLB site hierarchy;

b) identifying, by a first appliance of the plurality of appliances, from the configuration that the first appliance is a first GSLB site providing GSLB in the GSLB site hierarchy;

c) identifying, by a second appliance of the plurality of appliances, from the configuration that the second appliance is providing load balancing for a plurality of servers at a second site in the GSLB site hierarchy; and

d) identifying, by the second appliance, from the configuration that the first GSLB site is a parent node in the GSLB site hierarchy to the second appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving, by each of the plurality of appliances, the configuration identifying peer GSLB nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving, by each of the plurality of appliances, the configuration identifying one or more child nodes of one or more sites of the plurality of sites and a parent node of a GSLB site for each of the one or more sites.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) further comprises identifying, by the first appliance, from the configuration one or more peer GSLB sites.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises identifying, by the second appliance, from the configuration one or more parent nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are peer GSLB sites to the parent node of the second site of the second appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises identifying, by the second appliance, from the configuration one or more child nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are child nodes to a third site.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises identifying, by the second appliance, from the configuration a second child node to the parent node of the second appliance.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing, responsive to the configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and the second appliance.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising not accepting, by the second appliance responsive to the configuration, a request for a metric exchange connection from a child node in a second site in the plurality of sites.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises establishing, responsive to the configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and one or more applications that are peer nodes of the first GSLB site.

11. A system for configuring one or more global server load balancing (GSLB) appliances and one or more load balancing appliances via a single configuration to represent a GSLB site hierarchy, the system comprising:

a plurality of appliances of one or more networks, each of the plurality of appliances having a configuration interface for receiving a configuration representing a GSLB site hierarchy;

a first appliance of the plurality of appliances identifying from the received configuration that the first appliance comprises a first GSLB site providing GSLB for a plurality of sites in the GSLB site hierarchy;

a second appliance of the plurality of appliances identifying from the received configuration that the second appliance comprises a second site in the GSLB site hierarchy that provides load balancing for a plurality of servers at the second and identifying from the received configuration that the first GSLB site of the first appliance is a parent node in the GSLB site hierarchy to the second site of the second appliance.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the configuration interface of each of the plurality of appliances receives the configuration identifying peer GSLB nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the configuration interface of each of the plurality of appliances receives the configuration identifying one or more child nodes of one or more sites of the plurality of sites and a parent node of a GSLB site for each of the one or more sites.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first appliance identifies from the received configuration one or more peer GSLB sites.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance identifies from the received configuration one or more parent nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are peer GSLB sites to the parent node of the second site of the second appliance.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance identifies from the received configuration one or more child nodes in the GSLB site hierarchy that are child nodes to a third site.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance identifies from the received configuration a second child node to the parent node of the second appliance.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first appliance and the second appliance establish responsive to the configuration, a metric exchange connection between the first appliance and the second appliance.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the second appliance responsive to the configuration does not accept a request for a metric exchange connection from a child node in a second site in the plurality of sites.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the first appliance establishes responsive to the configuration a metric exchange connection with one or more appliance that are peer nodes of the first GSLB site.