J2EE connector architecture

• US 7,698,434 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2003
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chesebro, Brian, June, Deborah C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao; Diem K
• Application Number:
  US10/248,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20040045008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,616 Days
• Field of Search: 718/105, 718/104, 709/223, 709/224, 709/227, 709/228, 707/1, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0253 Garbage collection, i.e. reclamation of unreferenced memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A connector architecture implementation that is J2EE compliant and provides improved connection management capabilities. The connector architecture implementation provides a connector leak detection mechanism that detects connection leaks both automatically and manually. The connector architecture implementation pre-configures and manages the growth and reduction of a connection pool. The connector architecture implementation may be pre-configured by pre-populating the connection pool. Connection pool growth may be managed by generating connections in response to connection requests. A connection pool may also be configured to reduce the number of connections in the pool. The number of connections may be reduced if the connection demand decreases. Password credentials allowing access to services are used to provide additional connection management.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

providing a connection in a pool of connections to enable an application component to connect to an Enterprise Information System (EIS), wherein the application component executes on a web application server that complies with the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA);

measuring, with a timer, a last time that the connection was active;

determining whether the connection has reached a maximum idle time, wherein the maximum idle time is configured in a maximum idle time parameter;

if a value measured by the timer has reached the maximum idle time, considering the connection an expired connection;

receiving a connection request from an application component deployed on the web application server for a new connection;

determining that there are no free connections in the pool of connections and that the pool of connections has reached a maximum capacity;

subsequent to receiving the request for the new connection and determining that there are no free connections and that the pool has reached the maximum capacity, recycling the expired connection to free the expired connection;

assigning the connection that was freed to the application component that requested the new connection;

terminating the application component that was associated with the connection, wherein the connection is de-referenced and a finalize method associated with the connection is called;

if the application component does not close the connection, determining whether another entity has a reference to the connection;

if the application server determines that no other entities have references to the connection, closing the connection and designating the connection as a leaked connection; and

profiling the leaked connection by rendering a call stack, wherein the call stack of the leaked connection provides information for determining which application failed to close the connection, wherein a connection profiling enabled element located in an XML formatted descriptor file indicates whether the pool of connections stores call stacks of where each connection is allocated.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

terminating the application component that was associated with the connection, wherein the connection is de-referenced and a garbage collector calls a finalize method associated with the connection;

if the application component does not close the connection, determining whether it is safe for the application server to close the connection; and

if the application server determines that it is safe to close the connection, closing the connection.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a call stack of the connection, wherein the call stack of the connection can be used to debug the application component if the application component fails to close the connection.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein displaying the call stack includes dates from call stacks of the connection.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring stacks for active, leaked, and idle connections.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein recycling the expired connection includes terminating the expired connection after the expired connection is determined to be inactive.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a connection that is not closed after an application component has completed using the connection is considered a leaked connection.

8. A computer-implemented system for detecting connection leaks, comprising:

a processor;

an application server that complies with the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA);

an application component, executable by the processor;

a resource adapter to enable communication from the application server to an enterprise information server (EIS);

a pool of connections, managed by the application server, to enable the application component to connect to the EIS;

a garbage collector to recycle connection leaks, wherein after the application component terminates and a connection associated with the application component becomes de-referenced, the garbage collector calls a finalize method associated with the connection, wherein after the garbage collector calls the finalize method, if the application component has not closed the connection, determining whether another entity has a reference to the connection, and if the application server determines that no other entities have references to the connection, closing the connection and designating the connection as a leaked connection;

a call stack that profiles the leaked connection, wherein the call stack of the leaked connection provides information for determining which application failed to close the connection, wherein a connection profiling enabled element located in an XML formatted descriptor file indicates whether the pool of connections stores call stacks of where each connection is allocated; and

an idle timer that allows the application server to measure a last time each connection was active, wherein if a value measured by the timer has reached the maximum idle time, considering the connection an expired connection, if an application component makes a request for a new connection, and it is determined that there are no available allocated connections and the pool of connections is at maximum size, the application server frees the expired connection and assigns the connection that was freed to the application component.

9. The computer-implemented system of claim 8, wherein the application server closes the connection by calling a method associated with the resource adapter.

10. The computer-implemented system of claim 8, wherein the connection is active if the application component is currently using the connection by calling methods on the connection or the application component is calling a request for a new connection.

11. The computer-implemented system of claim 8, wherein a connection that is not closed after an application component has completed using the connection is considered a leaked connection.

12. A computer-readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon which when read and executed by a computer cause the computer to perform steps comprising:

measuring, with a timer, a last time that a connection was active;

determining whether the connection has reached a maximum idle time, wherein the maximum idle time is configured in a maximum idle time parameter;

if a value measured by the timer has reached the maximum idle time, considering the connection an expired connection;

receiving a request, from an application component, for a new connection;

determining that there are no free connections in a pool of connections and that the pool of connections has reached a maximum capacity;

subsequent to receiving the request for the connection and determining that there are no free connections and that the pool has reached the maximum capacity, recycling the expired connection to free the connection;

assigning the connection that was freed to the application component that requested the new connection;

terminating the application component that was associated with the connection, wherein the connection is de-referenced and a finalize method associated with the connection is called;

if the application component does not close the connection, determining whether another entity has a reference to the connection;

if the application server determines that no other entities have references to the connection, closing the connection and designating the connection as a leaked connection; and

profiling the leaked connection by rendering a call stack, wherein the call stack of the leaked connection provides information for determining which application failed to close the connection, wherein a connection profiling enabled element located in an XML formatted descriptor file indicates whether the pool of connections stores call stacks of where each connection is allocated.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising:

terminating the application component that was associated with the connection, wherein the connection becomes de-referenced and a garbage collector calls a finalize method associated with the connection;

if the application does not close the connection, determining whether it is safe for the application server to close the connection; and

if the application server determines that it is safe to close the connection, closing the connection.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein recycling the expired connection includes terminating the expired connection after the expired connection is determined to be inactive.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the application server closes the connection by calling a method associated with a resource adapter.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the connection is active if the application component is currently using the connection by calling methods on the connection or the application component is calling a request for a new connection.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein a connection that is not closed after an application component has completed using the connection is considered a leaked connection.