Methods and system of managing concurrent access to multiple resources

• US 7,257,815 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2001
• Issued: 08/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Thaler, David G., Gbadegesin, Abolade
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao; Chun
• Assistant Examiner(s): WANG, ALBERT C
• Application Number:
  US09/946,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20030065676A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,169 Days
• Field of Search: 718104-106, 718/1, 718/107, 709223-229, 713200-202, 713/152, 713/155, 713/169, 713/182, 726/15, 726 27- 29
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0254 Stateful filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method and system for managing concurrent access to multiple resources. Resources are assigned to sets in such a way that it is safe to concurrently access any combination of resources in a resource set. For each resource set, a virtual machine is defined and associated with the resource set. An application is assigned to a virtual machine. When an application requests access to a resource not in the application'"'"'s virtual machine, access control lists are consulted to determine whether the access should be allowed, given the other resources already accessed by the application.

Claims

1. A method for managing concurrent access by an application instance to two or more resource sets each of which comprises one or more resources, the method comprising:

assigning the application instance to a first resource set;

receiving a request from the application instance to access a resource in a second resource set;

determining whether the application instance has permission to access the second resource set;

if the application instance has permission to access the second resource set, determining whether the application instance has permission to access the second resource set while concurrently accessing the first resource set; and

enabling concurrent access to the first resource set and the second resource set if it is determined that the application instance has permission to maintain such concurrent access.

2. The method claim 1, further comprising:

if it is determined that the application instance does not have permission to access the second resource set while concurrently accessing the first resource set, continuing access by the application instance to the first resource set and denying access by the application instance to the second resource set.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first resource set is associated with a first virtual machine and the second resource set is associated with a second virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if access is permitted between the instance of the application and the second resource set but concurrent access is denied, generating a second instance of the application for accessing the requested resource in the second resource set.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the application instance has permission to access the second resource set while concurrently accessing the first resource set further comprises comparing permissions associated with the application instance from a first access control list associated with the first resource set to a second access control list associated with the second resource set.

6. A method for managing creation of a resource in a resource set by an instance of an application, the method comprising:

assigning the instance of the application to a first resource set in a first virtual machine;

receiving a request from the instance of the application to create a new resource in a second resource set associated with a second virtual machine;

determining whether the instance of the application has permission to create the new resource in the second resource set;

determining if the instance of the application has permission to concurrently access the first resource set and the second resource set; and

creating the new resource in the second resource set if the instance of the application has permission to create the new resource in the second resource set and to concurrently access the first resource set and the second resource set.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising creating the second virtual machine if the second virtual machine does not already exist.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

if the instance of the application does not have permission to concurrently access the first resource set and the second resource set, creating a new instance of the application, associating the new instance of the application with the second virtual machine and creating the new resource in the second virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

if the instance of the application does not have permission to concurrently access the first resource set and the second resource set, reassigning the instance of the application to the second virtual machine and creating the new resource in the second resource set.