Fault Tolerant External Application Server

• US 20130080603A1
• Filed: 10/28/2011
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kapoor, Sugandha SudeshKumar, Ruhlen, Matthew James, Kraft, Tara, Ming, Dong, Shaw, Corey David, Simons, Nicholas Michael, Mareno, Richard Alan, Broussard, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US13/284,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20130080603A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A fault tolerant external application server. The external application server is a web based system that allows a user of a client computing device to work with a file over a network via a general client application communicating with a host. The host brokers the functionality and provides a platform for interacting with the external application server. The external application server is implemented as a server farm. A fault tolerant farm system combines latent configuration replication between farm members, interchangeable farm members, and optional health monitoring to allow the external application server farm to provide on-the-fly configuration while maintaining full functionality without requiring a real time state management database.

Claims

1. An external application server comprising

a farm configuration;

one or more computing devices, each computing device being a member of a server farm, each said member having a local configuration storage location for storing a copy of said farm configuration;

a management agent for each said member, each said member running one instance of said management agent, one said management agent designated as a master management agent, said local configuration storage location on said member running said master management agent designated as a central configuration storage location for holding a master copy of said farm configuration, said master management agent maintaining said master copy of said farm configuration;

a replication agent for each said member, each said member running one instance of said replication agent, said replication agent periodically requesting a copy of said farm configuration from said master management agent and storing said copy said farm configuration in said local configuration storage location on said member; and

a document handling agent for each said member, each said member running one instance of said document handling agent, said document handling agent providing functionality to interact with a document of a selected file type.

2. The external application server of claim 1 characterized in that said farm configuration comprises a plurality of files, each said file being human readable and machine readable.

3. The external application server of claim 2 characterized in that said plurality of files are formatted using a structured markup language.

4. The external application server of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of watchdog agents, each said member running one instance of each watchdog agent, said plurality of watchdog agents comprising a watchdog agent for a watched agent, said watched agent comprising another agent running on said member.

5. The external application server of claim 4 characterized in that said plurality of watchdog agents comprises a document handling watchdog agent, a replication watchdog agent, and a management watchdog agent.

6. The external application server of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of health assessment agents, each said member running one instance of said health assessment agent.

7. The external application server of claim 6 characterized in that each said watchdog agent reports a watched agent status of the corresponding said watched agent to said health assessment agent, said health assessment agent generating a member health report based on said watched agent status.

8. The external application server of claim 6 characterized in that each said health assessment agent reports said member health report to said master management agent.

9. The external application server of claim 7 characterized in that said master management agent stores said member health report in said farm configuration.

10. The external application server of claim 1 characterized in that each said member is assigned an intended role.

11. The external application server of claim 10 characterized in that each said member responds to any request made to said member regardless of said intended role assigned to said member.

12. A method of providing fault tolerance in an external application server farm, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a one or more computing devices, each said computing device being a member of a server farm;

running a management agent on each said member;

designating said management agent on one said member as a master management agent;

storing an official farm configuration in a central farm configuration store using said master management agent;

running a replication agent on each said member;

requesting a copy of said official farm configuration from said master management agent using said replication agent;

storing said copy of said official farm configuration in a local configuration store on said member; and

running a document handling agent on each said member, said document handling agent providing functionality to interact with a document of a selected file type.

13. The method of claim 12 characterized in that each said management agent, each said replication agent, and each said document handling agent are watched agents, said method further comprising the step of running a watchdog agent for each watched agent on each said member.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of running a health assessment agent on each said member.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of reporting an agent status of the corresponding said watched agent to said health assessment agent using each said watchdog agent.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of sending a member health report based on each said agent status to said master management agent using said health assessment agent.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of storing said member health status in said farm configuration using said master management agent.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step assigning an intended role to each said member.

19. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of allowing each said member to respond to all requests made to said member regardless of said intended role of said member.

20. An external application server comprising:

a farm configuration;

one or more computing devices, each computing device being a member of a server farm, each said member having a local configuration storage location for storing a copy of said farm configuration;

a plurality of watched agents comprising;

(i) a management agent running on each said member, one said management agent designated as a master management agent, said local configuration storage location on said member running said master management agent designated as a central configuration storage location for holding a master copy of said farm configuration, said master management agent maintaining said master copy of said farm configuration;

(ii) a replication agent running on each said member, each said replication agent periodically requesting a copy of said farm configuration from said master management agent and storing said copy said farm configuration in said local configuration storage location on said member; and

(iii) a document handling agent running on each said member, each said document handling agent providing functionality to interact with a document of a selected file type;

a plurality of watchdog agents running on each member, each said watchdog agent uniquely associated with one said watched agent, each said watchdog agent reporting a watched agent status of the associated said watched agent; and

a health assessment agent running on each member, each said health assessment agent receiving said watched agent status and producing a member health report, said health assessment agent sending said member health report to said master management agent for inclusion in said farm configuration.