SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING PATCHING IN A MULTITENANT APPLICATION SERVER ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160085543A1
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Published: 03/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: ISLAM, NAZRUL, KASSO, CHRISTOPHER, BALASUBRAMANYAM, YAMINI K., LIU, STEVEN, MORDANI, RAJIV, LINDHOLM, JACOB, DORR, JOSH, KUMAR, ABHIJIT
• Granted Patent: US 9,405,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/202 where processing functionality is redundant redundant communication control functionality G06F11/2005, redundant storage control functionality G06F11/2089
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

In accordance with an embodiment, described herein is a system and method for supporting patching in a multi-tenant application server environment. The system can associate one or more partitions with a tenant, for use by that tenant, wherein a partition is a runtime and administrative subdivision or slice of a domain. A patching process can take advantage of high-availability features provided by an application server clustering environment, to apply patches in a controlled, rolling restart, which maintains a domain'"'"'s ability to operate without interruption, or with zero downtime. The process can be used to automate complex or long running tasks, including preserving an unpatched or prior version of an application server, application, or other software component for possible rollback, or providing automatic reversion in the event of an unrecoverable error.

Claims

1. A system for supporting patching in a multitenant application server environment, comprising:

one or more computers, including an application server environment executing thereon, together with

a plurality of deployable resources which can be used within the application server environment,

one or more resource group templates, which define groupings of deployable resources within a domain, and

one or more partitions, wherein each partition provides an administrative and runtime subdivision of the domain, and wherein the system can associate one or more partitions and resource group templates with a tenant, for use by the tenant; and

wherein the system includes a patching feature that takes advantage of high availability features built into an application server environment to apply patches in a controlled manner that maintains a domain'"'"'s ability to operate without interruption.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an orchestration framework that provides monitoring and error handling of the patching process.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the application server environment includes a Java EE application server, and wherein each resource group template includes one or more related applications together with resources upon which those applications depend.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a node manager which supports patching within the multitenant application server environment.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is used to apply patches to nodes in a clustered environment.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is provided within a cloud environment, to support multiple tenants operating within the cloud environment.

7. A method for supporting patching in a multitenant application server environment, comprising:

providing, at one or more computers, including an application server environment executing thereon,

a plurality of deployable resources which can be used within the application server environment,

one or more resource group templates, which define groupings of deployable resources within a domain, and

one or more partitions, wherein each partition provides an administrative and runtime subdivision of the domain;

associating one or more partitions and resource group templates with a tenant, for use by the tenant; and

wherein the system includes a patching feature that takes advantage of high availability features built into an application server environment to apply patches in a controlled manner that maintains a domain'"'"'s ability to operate without interruption.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising using an orchestration framework that provides monitoring and error handling of the patching process.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the application server environment includes a Java EE application server, and wherein each resource group template includes one or more related applications together with resources upon which those applications depend.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising using a node manager to support patching within the multitenant application server environment.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the method is used to apply patches to nodes in a clustered environment.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the method is performed within a cloud environment, to support multiple tenants operating within the cloud environment.

19. A computer program comprising instructions for execution on one or more computer systems, wherein the program instructions when executed causes the one or more computer systems to perform the method of claim 7.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon which when read and executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform the steps comprising:

providing an application server environment, together with

a plurality of deployable resources which can be used within the application server environment,

one or more resource group templates, which define groupings of deployable resources within a domain, and

one or more partitions, wherein each partition provides an administrative and runtime subdivision of the domain;

associating one or more partitions and resource group templates with a tenant, for use by the tenant; and

wherein the system includes a patching feature that takes advantage of high availability features built into an application server environment to apply patches in a controlled manner that maintains a domain'"'"'s ability to operate without interruption.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising using an orchestration framework that provides monitoring and error handling of the patching process.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the application server environment includes a Java EE application server, and wherein each resource group template includes one or more related applications together with resources upon which those applications depend.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising using a node manager to support patching within the multitenant application server environment.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the steps are used to apply patches to nodes in a clustered environment.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the steps being performed within a cloud environment, to support multiple tenants operating within the cloud environment.

20. A computer program product comprising the computer program of claim 16, stored in a non-transitory machine readable data storage medium.