System and method for clustered tunneling of requests in application servers and transaction-based systems

• US 7,603,454 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2005
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Piper, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacobs; Lashonda T
• Application Number:
  US11/129,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20060047831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 709/238, 718/105, 707/E17.01
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1019 Random or heuristic server selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1027 Persistence of sessions during load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

A system and method for clustered tunneling of requests in application servers and other systems is provided. The system includes a client, a cluster having a plurality of members, and a proxy. The cluster does not advertise the internal addresses of its members since clients might attempt to directly connect to that member. Instead, the client is configured to include a tunneling layer within which the proxy address is set. The advertised address of the cluster member is then set in a header at the client. During runtime, the client connects to the proxy as before, but then uses its internal information to connect or communicate with the appropriate cluster member. In accordance with an embodiment the client sets a cookie which is then sent to the proxy. The proxy re-writes the cookie with the appropriate cluster member information and uses this information to tunnel the request to the appropriate server.

Claims

1. A system for clustered tunneling of requests with a proxy, comprising:

a cluster, including a plurality of cluster members;

a proxy for receiving requests from clients and routing the requests to members in the cluster;

a client which sends a request to the cluster via the proxy and receives an initial response from the cluster including address information about the cluster members, including a destination cluster member, and wherein the client

uses the address information it initially receives to create a cookie that specifies information about the destination cluster member to be used with the client,

stores the cookie, including the information about the destination cluster member, at the proxy through an out-of-band communication; and

wherein the proxy then routes subsequent requests from the client according to the information in the cookie at the proxy.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said cluster members advertise distinct IOR'"'"'s identifying each cluster member.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the address information about the cluster members includes said IOR information about the cluster members.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the client comprises:

a tunneling layer which receives IOR information about a cluster member and uses the IOR information to create the cookie; and

wherein the tunneling layer communicates requests to the cluster member via the proxy.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein if the destination cluster members fails then the proxy forwards the request to another cluster member, the client detects the changed cluster member, and a failover code connects the client to a new cluster member.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the proxy uses the information in the cookie to rewrite the requests and route the requests to the destination cluster member.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the cluster does not advertise the internal addresses of the cluster members.

4. A method for clustered tunneling of requests with a proxy, comprising the steps of:

sending a request from a client through a proxy to a cluster including a plurality of cluster members;

receiving at the client an initial response from the cluster including address information about the cluster members, including a destination cluster member;

creating a cookie by the client based on the address information it initially receives wherein the cookie specifies information about the destination cluster member to be used with the client;

storing the cookie, including the information about the destination cluster member, by the client at the proxy, through an out-of-band communication; and

receiving subsequent requests at the proxy from the client and routing those requests to the member in said cluster specified by said information in the cookie at the proxy.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said cluster members advertise distinct IOR'"'"'s identifying each cluster member.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the information about the cluster includes said IOR information about the cluster member.

15. The method of claim 4 wherein the client comprises:

a tunneling layer which receives IOR information about a cluster member and uses the IOR information to create the cookie; and

wherein the tunneling layer communicates requests to the cluster member via the proxy.

16. The method of claim 4 wherein the proxy uses the information in the cookie to rewrite the requests and route the requests to the destination cluster member.

17. The method of claim 4 wherein the cluster does not advertise the internal addresses of the cluster members.

7. A system for clustered tunneling of requests between a client and a cluster, comprising:

a proxy for receiving requests from a client and routing requests to members in a cluster;

wherein said client stores a cookie at the proxy through an out-of-band communication, said cookie is created by the client and specifies information about the destination cluster member to be used with said client, and wherein the proxy then routes subsequent requests from said client according to said information.

8. The proxy of claim 7 wherein said cluster members advertise distinct IOR'"'"'s identifying each cluster member.

9. The proxy of claim 8 wherein the proxy uses the cookie to map client requests to said IOR information.

18. The proxy of claim 7 wherein the client comprises:

a tunneling layer which receives IOR information about a cluster member and uses the IOR information to create the cookie; and

wherein the tunneling layer communicates requests to the cluster member via the proxy.

19. The proxy of claim 7 wherein the cluster does not advertise the internal addresses of the cluster members.

10. A client for use in clustered tunneling of requests between the client and a cluster, comprising:

a tunneling layer which receives IOR information about a cluster member, in an initial response from a cluster, and uses this information to create a cookie, wherein the client stores the cookie to a proxy through an out-of-band communication; and

wherein the tunneling layer communicates requests to the proxy which routes the requests to the cluster member using the information in the cookie at the proxy.

20. The client of claim 10 wherein the cluster does not advertise the internal addresses of the cluster members.