Method and apparatus for proxying initial client requests to support asynchronous resource initialization

• US 7,685,289 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2005
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cammarata, John Paul, Morton, Michael John, Burckart, Erik John
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huq; Farzana
• Application Number:
  US10/906,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212532A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,834 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205, 709217-219, 709/225, 709/227, 709/230, 709/238, 709/244, 709/239
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/145 avoiding end of session, e.g. keep-alive, heartbeats, resumption message or wake-up for inactive or interrupted session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable

Abstract

A set of programs allows a server computer that does not have an application installed to temporarily hand off a client request for the application to a peer server until the application is installed on the first server. The hand off is transparent to the client and temporary to the peer server. The server asynchronously starts the application, and when the application is ready for use, the first server stops sending requests to the peer server, and begins serving the requests. Since the first server has full session knowledge, it will be transparent to the client that the server servicing those requests temporarily changed.

Claims

1. A method for proxying requests for access to an application within a plurality of servers comprising:

at a first peer server connected to a plurality of peer servers by a network, receiving a request to run an application at the first server, the request coming from a client computer connected to the network, wherein the plurality of peer servers are application servers which operate as a single logical server;

responsive to determining that the application is not ready for use on the first peer server, asynchronously starting the application at the first peer server;

querying a registry to identify a second peer server of the plurality of peer servers;

asynchronously proxying the request to the second peer server, wherein the second peer server has the application installed and ready for use, and wherein a session is established in response to the request, the session defined by session information;

servicing the session at the second peer server while the first peer server is starting the application on the first peer server;

responsive to receiving a response to the request and the session information from the second peer server at the first peer server, modifying an affinity portion of the request so that subsequent client requests will continue to be routed to the first peer server;

at the second peer server, responsive to receiving the request from the first peer server, responding to the request and passing back the session information for the request to the first peer server; and

servicing the session at the first peer server with the application running on the first peer server subsequent to receiving the session information at the first peer server from the second peer server.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

a synchronously setting up session replication for that specific session between the second peer server and the first peer server.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

continuing to receive subsequent requests for the application from the client and to route them to the second peer server until the first peer server has the application prepared for use.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

routing the request from the client computer to the network through an intelligent workload router.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein, responsive to having the application ready for use, the first peer server stops sending requests to the second peer server, and begins servicing the requests itself.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first peer server has full session knowledge so that it will be transparent to the client computer that the server servicing those requests temporarily changed.