DYNAMICALLY AFFINITIZING USERS TO A VERSION OF A WEBSITE

• US 20140317289A1
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shahpurwala, Shabbir, Dharmarajan, Baskaran, Shroff, Amar, Vikram, Shardul, Tsuchida, Derek, Ligregni, Sergio, Scaria, Joel, Richey, Kyle, Shelton, Parker, Gadkari, Archana Manoj
• Granted Patent: US 9,729,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing user'"'"'s access to a particular version of an electronic resource (e.g., a website, web resource or the like) where versions of such electronic resources are stored across a set of servers are disclosed. In one embodiment, user'"'"'s requests may be received—either requesting a particular version or as an unversioned request. A version control module (for example, a load balancer) may receive these requests and assign the user'"'"'s request to a first server according to different metrics, e.g., regarding version control rules and/or effective load balancing considerations. If the initial server assigned is not able to handle the user'"'"'s request, the user'"'"'s request may be proxied to another server, according to different metrics. If there is no server that may handle the user'"'"'s request (after a certain number of proxied requests), the request may be returned to the user as not handled.

Claims

1. A method for managing access to versions of an electronic resource accessible to users via a network, said method comprising:

receiving electronic resource metadata, said electronic resource being stored in a plurality of versions across a network at one or more servers within said network;

receiving user metadata, said users authorized access to said electronic resource, said user metadata comprising metadata regarding which versions said user are allowed to have access;

receiving a user'"'"'s request for access to said electronic resource;

determining a first server to send said user'"'"'s request for access said electronic resource to respond to said user'"'"'s request, according to a set of first metrics; and

if said first server determines that it may not be able to handle said user'"'"'s request, redirecting said user'"'"'s request to a second server, according to a set of second metrics.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said electronic resources comprise one of a group, said group comprising:

a website, a webpage, a web service, an application and a database.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said network further comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

the Internet and another network configuration.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving a user'"'"'s request for access to said electronic resource further comprises:

receiving a user'"'"'s request for access to a particular version of said electronic resource.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein receiving a user'"'"'s request for access to a particular version of said electronic resource further comprises:

receiving a user'"'"'s request, said request further comprising metadata specifying access to a particular version of said electronic resource.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving a user'"'"'s request for access to said electronic resource further comprises:

receiving a user'"'"'s request for unversioned access to said electronic resource.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein said first metrics comprise one of a group, said group comprising:

version control rules, metrics regarding percentage of available current versions, metrics regarding load on particular servers hosting available current versions, metrics regarding upgrading of electronic resources and metrics regarding percentage load on such versions/servers.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein redirecting said user'"'"'s request to a second server, according to a set of second metrics further comprises:

proxying said user'"'"'s request to a second server, according to a set of second metrics.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said second metrics comprise one of a group, said group comprising:

version control rules, metrics regarding percentage of available current versions, metrics regarding load on particular servers hosting available current versions, metrics regarding upgrading of electronic resources and metrics regarding percentage load on such versions/servers.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein determining a first server to send said user'"'"'s request for access said electronic resource to respond to said user'"'"'s request further comprises:

mapping said user'"'"'s version affinitization and said user cluster to a version of said electronic resource.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein determining a first server to send said user'"'"'s request for access said electronic resource to respond to said user'"'"'s request further comprises:

assigning a first server to service said user'"'"'s request according to said mapping.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein mapping said user'"'"'s version affinitization and said user cluster to a version of said electronic resource further comprises:

dynamically changing the mapping of said user'"'"'s version affinitization and said user cluster to a version of said electronic resource, according to a first metric.

13. A system for managing access to versions of an electronic resource, comprising:

a load balancer, said load balancer in communication with a set of servers, said servers comprising versions of an electronic resource;

said load balancer further partitioned into a plurality of versioned Virtual IPs (VIPs);

said versioned VIP associated with a version of said electronic resource; and

further wherein said load balancer capable of receiving user'"'"'s request for access to said electronic resource, determining a version of said electronic resource for user to access, and assigning said user'"'"'s request to a first server hosting said version of said electronic resource.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein said system further comprises:

a mapping of said user'"'"'s version affinitization and said user cluster to a version of said electronic resource; and

further wherein said load balancer capable of assigning said first server to service said user'"'"'s request according to said mapping.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said load balancer capable of dynamically changing the mapping of said user'"'"'s version affinitization and said user cluster to a version of said electronic resource, according to a metric.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said metric further comprises one of a group, said group comprising:

version control rules, metrics regarding percentage of available current versions, metrics regarding load on particular servers hosting available current versions, metrics regarding upgrading of electronic resources and metrics regarding percentage load on such versions/servers.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein said system is capable of re-assigning said user'"'"'s request to a second server, if said first server may not be able to service said user'"'"'s request.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said system is capable of re-assigning said user'"'"'s request to a second server according to a metric, said metric comprising one of a group, said group comprising:

version control rules, metrics regarding percentage of available current versions, metrics regarding load on particular servers hosting available current versions, metrics regarding upgrading of electronic resources and metrics regarding percentage load on such versions/servers.

19. A computer-readable storage media storing instructions that when executed by a computing device, said computing device comprising a display screen, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving electronic resource metadata, said electronic resource being stored in a plurality of versions across a network at one or more servers within said network;

receiving user metadata, said users authorized access to said electronic resource, said user metadata comprising metadata regarding which versions said user are allowed to have access;

receiving a user'"'"'s request for access to said electronic resource;

determining a first server to send said user'"'"'s request for access said electronic resource to respond to said user'"'"'s request, according to a set of metrics; and

if said first server determines that it may not be able to handle said user'"'"'s request, redirecting said user'"'"'s request to a second server, according to a set of metrics.

20. The computer-readable storage media of claim 19 wherein said set of metrics comprises one of group, said group comprising:

version control rules, metrics regarding percentage of available current versions, metrics regarding load on particular servers hosting available current versions, metrics regarding upgrading of electronic resources and metrics regarding percentage load on such versions/servers.