Off-Peak Patching for Enterprise Stability

• US 20170222910A1
• Filed: 01/28/2016
• Published: 08/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Dauz, Dexter, Cai, Jianfeng, Smith, Brad, Tuluri, Neetha, Alfeo, Nick, Silva, Roshane, Raz, Zohar
• Granted Patent: US 10,374,930 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

In one example, a server farm patching system may wait until fewer users are accessing a server farm to apply a patch code set to a server application executed by a server at the server farm. The server farm patching system may identify an off-peak usage time range for a server farm describing when the server farm has an activity level below an activity threshold. The server farm patching system may apply a patch code set at an off-peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating an off-peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when within the off-peak usage time range. The server farm patching system may apply the patch code set at a peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating a peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when outside the off-peak usage time range.

Claims

1. A server farm patching system, comprising:

a memory configured to identify an off-peak usage time range for a server farm describing when the server farm has an activity level below an activity threshold; and

a data interface configured to apply a patch code set at an off-peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating an off-peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when within the off-peak usage time range and to apply the patch code set at a peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating a peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when outside the off-peak usage time range.

2. The server farm patching system of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing core having at least one processor is configured to determine a geographic location for the server farm to identify the off-peak usage time range.

3. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to declaratively define the off-peak usage time range in a network container object describing the server farm.

4. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to designate the server farm as a single tenant server farm dedicated to a single client.

5. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to declaratively define a tenant mandated off-peak usage time range in a network container object describing a single tenant server farm.

6. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the data interface is further configured to apply the patch code set at a pre-set shoulder patching aggressiveness level to the server farm proximate to an off-peak usage time range bound.

7. The server farm patching system of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing core having at least one processor is configured to override the off-peak usage aggressiveness level upon receiving an administrator override.

8. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to associate a geographic region for the server farm with the patch code set for the server farm.

9. The server farm patching system of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing core having at least one processor is configured to validate the patch code set based on an execution of the patch code set in an execution environment for a server application incorporating the patch code set.

10. The server farm patching system of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing core having at least one processor is configured to rate the patch code set based on at least one of a build age and a regression history for the patch code set.

11. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the data interface is further configured to place a patching bid for the patch code set for the server farm requesting to apply the patch code set.

12. The server farm patching system of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing core having at least one processor is configured to assign a farm temperature to the server farm describing a server characteristic used to determine when to deploy the patch code set to the server farm.

13. The server farm patching system of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing core having at least one processor is configured to schedule a deployment of the patch code set based on a farm temperature for the server farm.

14. The server farm patching system of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to mark the patch code set upon a regression occurrence indicating that the patch code set had to be removed to revert a server application to an earlier version.

15. A computing device, having a memory configured to store a series of instructions to apply a patch code set to a server farm, the computing device configured to analyze a request-per-second history for the server farm to identify the off-peak usage time range for the server farm describing when the server farm has an activity level below an activity threshold, the computing device further configured to apply the patch code set at an off-peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating an off-peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when within the off-peak usage time range, and the computing device also configured to apply the patch code set at a peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating a peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when outside the off-peak usage time range.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the computing device is further configured to adjust the off-peak usage time range based on a current request-per-second report for the server farm.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the computing device is further configured to adjust a patching aggressiveness level based on a proximity to an off-peak usage time range bound.

18. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the computing device is further configured to adjust a patching aggressiveness level based on a current request-per-second report.

19. A machine-implemented method, comprising:

determining a geographic location for a server farm to identify an off-peak usage time range for the server farm describing when the server farm has an activity level below an activity threshold;

applying a patch code set at an off-peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating an off-peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when within the off-peak usage time range; and

applying the patch code set at a peak usage patching aggressiveness level indicating a peak upper bound percentage of servers in the server farm receiving the patch code set when outside the off-peak usage time range.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

placing a patching bid for the patch code set for the server farm requesting to apply the patch code set.