ORGANIZING RESOURCES INTO COLLECTIONS TO FACILITATE MORE EFFICIENT AND RELIABLE RESOURCE ACCESS

• US 20120331122A1
• Filed: 08/30/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kakivaya, Gopala Krishna R., Hasha, Richard L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,626 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3015 Name registration, generation or assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Resources are organized into collections to facilitate more efficient and reliable resource access. Namespace managers communicate with one another to form a federation namespace infrastructure. The infrastructure efficiently routes, migrates, and processes namespace requests, such as, for example, namespace registration requests from providers requesting to manage portions of namespaces and lookup requests from consumers requesting access to managed resources. Resources are registered in and made accessible from multiple different namespaces. Resources are identified using nested queries that filter results at multiple levels of a hierarchical namespace.

Claims

1. In a namespace federation infrastructure, a computer-implemented method for migrating a namespace registration request, the method comprising:

an act of determining that a namespace manager has satisfied a policy constraint;

an act of identifying a namespace branch that can be migrated to meet a policy action associated with the policy constraint; and

an act of an act of migrating existing registrations for the namespace branch to a partner namespace manager in response to the policy action.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of determining that a namespace manager has satisfied a policy constraint comprises determining that the amount of namespace information being processed at the namespace manager has exceeded a configured threshold.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the configured threshold comprises a total number of registrations maintained at the namespace manager.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the namespace branch is migrated to reduce the namespace information processed at the namespace manager below a configured threshold.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the namespace manager identifies a more heavily-populated or heavily-serviced namespace branch for migration.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising an act of receiving a namespace request corresponding to the namespace branch represented by a namespace URI string that identifies the namespace branch and a unique identifier for a provider requesting registration in the namespace branch.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising an act of redirecting the namespace request to a partner namespace manager.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

an act of forwarding at least a portion of namespace registrations encountered along the spine of the migrated namespace branch to the partner namespace manager hosting the branch such that the partner namespace manager branch is configured to service the lookup requests that specify the namespace branch without the requests having to go through the migrating namespace manager, either directly or indirectly.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the namespace manager leaves behind a stub indicating that the namespace manager has migrated registration information under the specified namespace branch.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the namespace manager revokes one or more subscriptions for liveness notifications, tracking, provider information, subscriber information or other information specified in the migrated registrations.

11. One or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, implement a method for migrating a namespace registration request, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a namespace registration request to register a namespace branch, wherein the namespace registration request includes a namespace URI string that identifies the namespace branch and a unique identifier for a provider requesting registration in the namespace branch;

an act of determining that a namespace manager has satisfied a policy constraint;

an act of identifying a namespace branch that can be migrated to meet a policy action associated with the policy constraint; and

an act of an act of migrating existing registrations, including the received namespace registration request, for the namespace branch to a partner namespace manager in response to the policy action.

12. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 11, wherein the one or more computer storage devices comprise the computer system and the one or more processors.

13. In a namespace federation infrastructure, a computer-implemented method for migrating a namespace registration request, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a namespace registration request to register a namespace branch, wherein the namespace registration request includes a namespace URI string that identifies the namespace branch and a unique identifier for a provider requesting registration in the namespace branch;

an act of determining that a namespace manager is interested in the namespace branch;

an act of saving the namespace identifier in an appropriately indexed namespace registration database.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the act of determining that a namespace manager is interested in the namespace branch comprises determining if the namespace manager is responsible for the namespace branch represented by the unique identifier.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

when the namespace manager is determined not to be responsible, an act of forwarding the namespace registration request to a responsible namespace manager for the specified namespace branch.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

when the namespace manager is determined not to be responsible, an act of sending a referral message to the namespace manager that initiated the registration request indicating that the namespace manger is to contact a responsible namespace manager.

17. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

when the namespace manager is determined to be responsible, an act of retaining the namespace registration request.

18. One or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, implement a method for migrating a namespace registration request, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a namespace registration request to register a namespace branch, wherein the namespace registration request includes a namespace URI string that identifies the namespace branch and a unique identifier for a provider requesting registration in the namespace branch;

an act of determining that a namespace manager is interested in the namespace branch; and

an act of saving the namespace identifier in an appropriately indexed namespace registration database.

20. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 18, wherein the one or more computer storage devices comprise the computer system and the one or more processors.

19. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 19, wherein the method further includes:

when the namespace manager is determined not to be responsible, an act of sending a referral message to the namespace manager that initiated the registration request indicating that the namespace manger is to contact a responsible namespace manager, or

when the namespace manager is determined not to be responsible, an act of forwarding the namespace registration request to a responsible namespace manager for the specified namespace branch.