Server communication in a multi-tier server architecture

• US 7,991,883 B1
• Filed: 12/15/2008
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Streeter, Kevin, Cheng, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo; Joshua
• Application Number:
  US12/335,491
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/232 Content retrieval operation locally within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand

Abstract

A computer-implemented method including receiving, at a server, a first request for content; determining whether the content is available locally at the server; when the content is available locally at the server, retrieving the content locally at the server; and transmitting the content to at least one downstream server; and when the content is not available locally at the server, transmitting, to the at least one downstream server, a notification that the content is not available locally and that a second request for the content is being transmitted; and transmitting the second request for the content to at least one upstream server.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at hardware including one or more processors and one or more memory devices effecting a server, a first request for content;

determining whether the content is available locally at the server;

when the content is available locally at the server,

retrieving the content locally at the server; and

transmitting the content to at least one downstream server; and

when the content is not available locally at the server,

transmitting, to the at least one downstream server, a notification that the content is not available locally and that a second request for the content is being transmitted; and

transmitting the second request for the content to at least one upstream server;

transmitting a third request for the content to another server when neither the content nor a notification that the content is not available locally is transmitted by the at least one upstream server within a time out failure limit of the server receiving the first request for content; and

transmitting a notification identifying the at least one upstream server that failed to transmit within the time out failure limit of the server receiving the first request for content.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, when the content is not available locally at the server:

transmitting, periodically, additional notifications to the at least one downstream server until the content is retrieved.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein transmitting the additional notifications occurs to prevent a time out failure at the at least one downstream server.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one upstream server is more proximal to an origin server than the server receiving the first request for content.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the at least one upstream server includes the origin server.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the at least one downstream server is more distal from the origin server than the server receiving the first request for content.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally includes transmitting the notification to each downstream server requesting the content from the server.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally includes broadcasting the notification to downstream servers.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally comprises:

broadcasting the notification that the content is not available locally to downstream servers if a number of downstream servers requesting the content from the server exceeds a threshold value; and

transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally to each requesting downstream server individually if the threshold value is not exceeded.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting a notification identifying the at least one upstream server that failed to transmit comprises transmitting to a multi-tier server architecture overview computer system configured to alert a system administrator and re-route network traffic.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the threshold value is a configurable value.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoding a computer program product operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a server, a first request for content;

determining whether the content is available locally at the server;

when the content is available locally at the server,

retrieving the content locally at the server; and

transmitting the content to at least one downstream server; and

when the content is not available locally at the server,

transmitting, to the at least one downstream server, a notification that the content is not available locally and that a second request for the content is being transmitted; and

transmitting the second request for the content to at least one upstream server;

transmitting a third request for the content to another server when neither the content nor a notification that the content is not available locally is transmitted by the at least one upstream server within a time out failure limit of the server receiving the first request for content; and

transmitting a notification identifying the at least one upstream server that failed to transmit within the time out failure limit of the server receiving the first request for content.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising, when the content is not available locally at the server:

transmitting, periodically, additional notifications to the at least one downstream server until the content is retrieved.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein transmitting the additional notifications occurs to prevent a time out failure at the at least one downstream server.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the at least one upstream server is more proximal to an origin server than the server receiving the first request for content.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one upstream server includes the origin server.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one downstream server is more distal from the origin server than the server receiving the first request for content.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally includes transmitting the notification to each downstream server requesting the content from the server.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally includes broadcasting the notification to downstream servers.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

broadcasting the notification that the content is not available locally to downstream servers if a number of downstream servers requesting the content from the server exceeds a threshold value; and

transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally to each requesting downstream server individually if the threshold value is not exceeded.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein transmitting a notification identifying the at least one upstream server that failed to transmit comprises transmitting to a multi-tier server architecture overview computer system configured to alert a system administrator and re-route network traffic.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the threshold value is a configurable value.

23. A system comprising:

one or more nodes in a network; and

hardware including one or more processors and one or more memory devices effecting at least one server configured to perform operations, comprising;

receiving, at the server, a first request for content;

determining whether the content is available locally at the server;

when the content is available locally at the server,

retrieving the content locally at the server; and

transmitting the content to at least one downstream server; and

when the content is not available locally at the server,

transmitting, to the at least one downstream server, a notification that the content is not available locally and that a second request for the content is being transmitted; and

transmitting the second request for the content to at least one upstream server;

transmitting a third request for the content to another server when neither the content nor a notification that the content is not available locally is transmitted by the at least one upstream server within a time out failure limit of the server receiving the first request for content; and

transmitting a notification identifying the at least one upstream server that failed to transmit within the time out failure limit of the server receiving the first request for content.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise, when the content is not available locally at the server:

transmitting, periodically, additional notifications to the at least one downstream server until the content is retrieved.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein transmitting the additional notifications occurs to prevent a time out failure at the at least one downstream server.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one upstream server is more proximal to an origin server than the server receiving the first request for content.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one upstream server includes the origin server.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one downstream server is more distal from the origin server than the server receiving the first request for content.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally includes transmitting the notification to each downstream server requesting the content from the server.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally includes broadcasting the notification to downstream servers.

31. The system of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

broadcasting the notification that the content is not available locally to downstream servers if a number of downstream servers requesting the content from the server exceeds a threshold value; and

transmitting the notification that the content is not available locally to each requesting downstream server individually if the threshold value is not exceeded.

32. The system of claim 23, wherein transmitting a notification identifying the at least one upstream server that failed to transmit comprises transmitting to a multi-tier server architecture overview computer system configured to alert a system administrator and re-route network traffic.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the threshold value is a configurable value.