Recovering a pool of connections

• US 7,702,796 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2006
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitter Inc (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Hao, Shen, Jinmei
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne; Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): RUBIN, BLAKE J
• Application Number:
  US11/419,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20070268910A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,433 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

In an embodiment, in response to a request, a connection is selected from a pool of connections to a server. If the connection is stale and the number of stale connections encountered is greater than an adaptive threshold, then recovery is performed on all of the connections in the pool. If the number of stale connections is not greater than the adaptive threshold, then recovery is performed on the stale connection. A decision is made whether the connection is stale by sending the request to the server via the connection and detecting whether the sending encountered an error and by receiving a response from the server via the current connection and detecting whether the response indicates that the request encountered an error at the server.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in response to a request, selecting a current connection from a pool, wherein the pool comprises a plurality of connections to a server, wherein a plurality of applications share the pool of the plurality of connections;

deciding whether the current connection is;

if the current connection is stale, determining whether a number of stale connections encountered during a time period is greater than an adaptive threshold;

if the determining is true, performing recovery on all of the plurality of connections in the pool, wherein the performing the recovery on all of the plurality of connections in the pool further comprises sending a ping message to the server on each of the plurality of connections and removing the connections from the pool for which the ping message is unsuccessful;

if the determining is false, performing recovery on the current connection; and

changing the adaptive threshold by an amount specified by a rule if a ration to the number of stale connections to a number of good connections encountered during the time period satisfies a ration comparison statement specified by the rule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the deciding further comprises:

sending the request to the server via the current connection; and

detecting whether the sending encountered an error.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the deciding further comprises:

receiving a response from the server via the current connection; and

detecting whether the response indicates that the request encountered an error at the server.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the determining is true, finding an associated pool, wherein the associated pool has a second plurality of connections that connect to the server, and performing recovery on all of the second plurality of connections in the associated pool.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the performing the recovery on the current connection further comprises:

removing the current connection from the pool;

selecting a different connection from the pool; and

resending the request to the server on the different connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the changing the adaptive threshold further comprises:

Changing the adaptive threshold by the amount specified in the rule if the adaptive threshold satisfies a threshold comparison statement specified by the rule.

7. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions when executed comprise:

in response to receiving a request, selecting a current connection from a pool, wherein the pool comprises a plurality of connections to a server, wherein a plurality of applications share the pool of the plurality of connections;

deciding whether the current connection is stale;

if the current connection is stale, determining whether a number of stale connections encountered during a time period is greater than an adaptive threshold;

if the determining is true, performing recovery on all of the plurality of connections in the pool, wherein the performing the recovery on all of the plurality of connections in the pool further comprises sending a ping message to the server on each of the plurality of connections and removing the connections from the pool for which the ping message is unsuccessful;

if the determining is false, performing recovery on only the current connection; and

changing the adaptive threshold by an amount specified by a rule if a ratio of the number of stale connections to a number of good connections encountered during the time period satisfies a ratio comparison statement specified by the rule.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the deciding further comprises:

sending the request to the server via the current connection; and

detecting whether the sending encountered an error.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the deciding further comprises:

receiving a response from the server via the current connection; and

detecting whether the response indicates that the request encountered an error at the server.

10. The signal computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising:

if the determining is true, finding an associated pool, wherein the associated pool has a second plurality of connections that connect to the server, and performing recovery on all of the second plurality of connections in the associated pool.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the performing the recovery on only the current connection further comprises:

removing the current connection from the pool;

selecting a different connection from the pool; and

resending the request to the server on the different connection.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the changing the adaptive threshold further comprises:

changing the adaptive threshold by the amount specified in the rule if the adaptive threshold satisfies a threshold comparison statement specified by the rule.

13. A method for configuring a computer, comprising:

configuring the computer to, in response to receiving a request, select a current connection from a pool, wherein the pool comprises a plurality of connections to a server, wherein a plurality of applications share the pool of the plurality of connections;

configuring the computer to decide whether the current connection is stale;

configuring the computer to, if the current connection is stale, determine whether a number of stale connections encountered during a time period is greater than an adaptive threshold;

configuring the computer to, if the determining is true, perform recovery on all of the plurality of connections in the pool, wherein the configuring the computer to perform the recovery on all of the plurality of connections in the pool further comprises configuring the computer to send a ping message to the server on each of the plurality of connections and configuring the computer to remove the connections from the pool for which the ping message is unsuccessful;

configuring the computer to, if the determining is false, perform recovery on only the current connection; and

configuring the computer to change the adaptive threshold by an amount specified by a rule if a ratio of the number of stale connections to a number of good connections encountered during the time period satisfies a ratio comparison statement specified by the rule and to change the adaptive threshold by the amount specified in the rule if the adaptive threshold satisfies a threshold comparison statement specified by the rule.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the configuring the computer to decide further comprises:

configuring the computer to send the request to the server via the current connection;

configuring the computer to detect whether the send of the request encountered an error;

configuring the computer to receive a response from the server via the current connection; and

configuring the computer to detect whether the response indicates that the request encountered an error at the server.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

configuring the computer to, if the determining is true, find an associated pool, wherein the associated pool has a second plurality of connections that connect to the server, and perform recovery on all of the second plurality of connections in the associated pool.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the configuring the computer to perform the recovery on only the current connection further comprises:

configuring the computer to remove the current connection from the pool;

configuring the computer to select a different connection from the pool; and

configuring the computer to resend the request to the server on the different connection.