Network traffic routing

• US 8,504,676 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2012
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ongoing Operations LLC
• Original Assignee: Ongoing Operations LLC
• Inventors: Ocko, Matt, Tuma, George, Sukhija, Sandeep, Purrier, John, Gupta, Rajesh, Khajuria, Deepak, Das, Saumitra, Kalia, Manish
• Primary Examiner(s): DONAGHUE, LARRY D
• Application Number:
  US13/530,986
• Publication Number:
  US 20120266234A1
• Time in Patent Office: 410 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• 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

A service appliance is installed between production servers running service applications and service users. The production servers and their service applications provide services to the service users. In the event that a production server is unable to provide its service to users, the service appliance can transparently intervene to maintain service availability. To maintain transparency to service users and service applications, service users are located on a first network and production servers are located on a second network. The service appliance assumes the addresses of the service users on the second network and the addresses of the production servers on the first network. Thus, the service appliance obtains all network traffic sent between the production server and service users. While the service application is operating correctly, the service appliance forwards network traffic between the two networks using various network layers.

Claims

1. A service appliance for causing transparent intervention to maintain availability of a first service on a first production server to plural client systems via a network, the service appliance comprising:

a network interface adapted to

connect with the network,

receive network communications from the production server addressed to the client systems which have been redirected to the service appliance, and

receive network communications from the client systems addressed to the production server which have been redirected to the service appliance;

at least one information processing device adapted to execute software applications;

a memory storing software including a service application having instructions for;

causing the redirected network communications from the client systems to be sent via the network to the production server,

causing the redirected network communications from the production server to be sent via the network to the client systems.

2. The service appliance of claim 1, the memory having instructions for identifying network communications directed to the production server and to determine if the service appliance can respond to certain network communications without transferring the network communication to the production server.

3. The service appliance of claim 2, the memory having instructions for, in response to the service appliance determining that it can respond to certain network communications directed to the production server without forwarding the communication to the production server, selectively generating responses to the network communications and sending the responses to the client system without transferring the network communications to the production server.

4. The service appliance of claim 1 wherein the service appliance is configured to have a locked state that limits user administration of and operational control of the service appliance.

5. The service appliance of claim 4 wherein the locked state prevents running of additional applications other than those provided for prior to entering the locked state.

6. The service appliance of claim 1, wherein the service appliance is configured without connectivity for a local keyboard and without connectivity for a display.

7. The service appliance of claim 1, further comprising software in the memory adapted to monitor applications and components executing on the service appliance, and to terminate a given application or component if absent from a list of valid applications and components.

8. Apparatus comprising a storage medium storing a program for causing a service appliance to transparently intervene to maintain availability of a first service on a first production server to plural client systems via a network, the service appliance comprising a network interface adapted to connect with the network, receive network communications from the first production server addressed to the client systems which have been redirected to the apparatus, and receive network communications from the client systems addressed to the production server which have been redirected to the apparatus, wherein the service appliance has a second service;

the instructions of the program for;

synchronizing the second service provided by the service appliance with the first service provided by the first production server;

monitoring availability of the first service;

if the first service is unavailable, causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service and monitoring the network for a third service;

if the third service is available and capable of handling access by the client systems, causing the third service to synchronize with the second service;

monitoring synchronization of the third service with the second service;

if the third service is synchronized with the second service, causing the third service to be substituted in place of the second service, such that the third service is responsive to communications from the client systems directed to the first service.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising the service appliance having a processor and a memory, wherein the processor and the memory comprise circuits and software for performing the instructions on the storage medium.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the service appliance is configured without connectivity for a local keyboard and without connectivity for a display.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the third service is provided by the first production server following an interruption of the first service.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, the instructions of the program further for:

monitoring synchronization of the second service with the first service;

wherein monitoring availability of the first service comprises determining whether the first service is unresponsive to communications from the client systems.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instructions for causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service further comprise instructions for:

receiving network traffic directed to the first production server;

determining if the network traffic includes a service access;

if the network traffic includes the service access, causing the network traffic to be selectively provided to the second service, such that the second service responds to the service access.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the third service is provided by a second production server, and wherein the instructions for synchronizing the third service with the second service further comprise instructions for:

(a) causing initiation of a first data transfer of service data from the service appliance to the second production server at a first time, wherein the first data transfer comprises service data stored by the service appliance prior to the first time;

(b) upon completion of the first data transfer, causing initiation of an additional data transfer of service data from the service appliance to the second production server at a subsequent time, wherein the second data transfer comprises service data created by the service appliance between the first time and the subsequent time;

(c) determining if the service appliance has created additional service data following a previous data transfer;

(d) in response to a determination that the service appliance has created additional service data following a previous data transfer, repeating (b), (c) and (d) for at least one additional data transfer.

15. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instructions for synchronizing the second service with the first service comprise instructions for:

determining a configuration of the first service;

configuring the second service to be compatible with the configuration;

replicating service data of the first service for the second service.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions for replicating service data comprise instructions for:

(a) causing initiation of a first data transfer of the service data from the first production server to the service appliance at a first time, the first data transfer comprising the service data created by the first production server prior to the first time;

(b) upon completion of the first data transfer, causing initiation of an additional data transfer of the service data from the first production server at a subsequent time, the second data transfer comprising the service data created by the first production server between the first time and the subsequent time;

(c) repeating (b) a number of times.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, the instructions of the program further for:

(d) upon completion of (a), (b), and (c), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

(e) during the wait state of the service appliance, causing initiation of a further data transfer of the service data from the first production server to the service appliance following a time interval, wherein the further data transfers comprise the service data created by the first production server during the time interval.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, the instructions of the program further for:

continually receiving network traffic directed to the first production server;

caching at least a portion of the network traffic directed to the first production server;

upon completion of (a), (b), and (c), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

during the wait state of the service appliance, causing the cached network traffic to be provided to the second service.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions for repeating (b) a number of times comprises instructions for detecting whether new service data is available and repeating (b) for the new service data.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions for replicating service data comprise instructions for:

(a) causing initiation of a first data transfer of the service data from the first production server to the service appliance at a first time, wherein the first data comprises the service data created by the production server prior to the first time;

(b) upon completion of the first data transfer, causing initiation of an additional data transfer of the service data from the first production server at a subsequent time, wherein the second data comprises the service data created by the first production server between the first time and the subsequent time;

(c) determining if the first production server created additional service data following a previous data transfer;

(d) in response to a determination that the first production server has created additional service data following a previous data transfer, repeating (b), (c) and (d) for at least one additional data transfer.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, the instructions of the program further for:

(e) upon completion of (a), (b), (c), and (d), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

(f) during the wait state of the service appliance, causing initiation of a further data transfer of the service data from the first production server to the service appliance following a time interval, wherein the further data transfers comprise the service data created by the first production server during the time interval.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, the instructions of the program further for:

continually receiving network traffic directed to the first production server;

caching at least a portion of the network traffic directed to the first production server;

upon completion of (a), (b), and (c), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

during the wait state of the service appliance, causing the cached network traffic to be provided to the second service.

23. The apparatus of claim 8, the instructions of the program further for causing the service appliance to enter a locked state which limits user administration of and operational control of the service appliance.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the locked state prevents running of additional applications other than those provided for prior to entering the locked state.

25. The apparatus of claim 8, the instructions of the program further for monitoring applications and components executing on the service appliance, and for terminating running applications and components if absent from a list of valid applications and components.

26. The apparatus of claim 8 the instructions of the program further for configuring the first data to be compatible with the second service data.

27. Apparatus comprising a storage medium storing a program for causing a service appliance to transparently intervene to maintain availability of a first service on a first production server to plural client systems via a network, the service appliance comprising a network interface adapted to connect with the network, receive network communications from the first production server addressed to the client systems which have been redirected to the apparatus, and receive network communications from the client systems addressed to the production server which have been redirected to the apparatus, wherein the service appliance has a second service;

the instructions of the program for;

synchronizing the second service provided by the service appliance with the first service provided by the first production server;

monitoring at least one of the first production server and availability of the first service;

if monitoring indicates that the first production server is in a failure condition or the first service is unavailable, causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 further comprising the service appliance having a processor and a memory, wherein the processor and the memory comprise circuits and software for performing the instructions on the storage medium.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, the instructions of the program further for:

monitoring synchronization of the second service with the first service;

wherein monitoring availability of the first service comprises determining whether the first service is unresponsive to communications from the client systems.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the instructions for causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service further comprise instructions for:

receiving network traffic directed to the production server;

determining if the network traffic includes a service access;

if the network traffic includes the service access, causing the network traffic to be selectively provided to the second service, such that the second service responds to the service access.

31. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the instructions for synchronizing the second service with the first service comprise instructions for:

determining a configuration of the first service;

configuring the second service to be compatible with the configuration;

replicating service data of the first service.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the instructions for replicating service data comprise instructions for:

(a) causing initiation of a first data transfer of the service data from the production server to the service appliance at a first time, the first data transfer comprising the service data created by the production server prior to the first time;

(b) upon completion of the first data transfer, causing initiation of an additional data transfer of the service data from the production server at a subsequent time, the second data transfer comprising the service data created by the production server between the first time and the subsequent time;

(c) repeating (b) a number of times.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, the instructions of the program further for:

(d) upon completion of (a), (b), and (c), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

(e) during the wait state of the service appliance, causing initiation of a further data transfer of the service data from the production server to the service appliance following a time interval, wherein the further data transfers comprise the service data created by the production server during the time interval.

34. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the instructions for repeating (b) a number of times comprises instructions for detecting whether new service data is available and repeating (b) for the new service data.

35. The apparatus of claim 32, the instructions of the program further for:

continually receiving network traffic directed to the production server;

caching at least a portion of the network traffic directed to the production server; and

upon completion of (a), (b), and (c), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

during the wait state of the service appliance, causing the cached network traffic to be provided to the second service.

36. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the instructions for replicating service data comprise instructions for:

(a) causing initiation of a first data transfer of the service data from the production server to the service appliance at a first time, wherein the first data comprises the service data created by the production server prior to the first time;

(b) upon completion of the first data transfer, causing initiation of an additional data transfer of the service data from the production server at a subsequent time, wherein the second data comprises the service data created by the production server between the first time and the subsequent time;

(c) determining if the production server created additional service data following a previous data transfer;

(d) in response to a determination that the production server has created additional service data following a previous data transfer, repeating (b), (c) and (d) for at least one additional data transfer.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, the instructions of the program further for:

(e) upon completion of (a), (b), (c), and (d), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

(f) during the wait state of the service appliance, causing initiation of a further data transfer of the service data from the production server to the service appliance following a time interval, wherein the further data transfers comprise the service data created by the production server during the time interval.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, the instructions of the program further for:

continually receiving network traffic directed to the production server;

caching at least a portion of the network traffic directed to the production server;

upon completion of (a), (b), and (c), initiating a wait state of the service appliance;

during the wait state of the service appliance, causing the cached network traffic to be provided to the second service;

during the wait state of the service appliance, causing at least a portion of the cached network traffic to be provided to the production server to enable the first service to respond to the network traffic.

39. The apparatus of claim 27, the instructions of the program further for, after causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service:

monitoring at least one of the production server and availability of the first service;

if monitoring indicates that the production server is available in an operational condition or the first service is available, causing the first service of the production server to be synchronized with the second service of the service appliance;

after completion of synchronization of the first service with the second service, causing the first service to be substituted in place of the second service.

40. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the instructions for causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service further comprise instructions for:

receiving network traffic directed to the production server;

determining if the received network traffic includes a service access;

if the network traffic includes the service access, providing the network traffic to the second service, such that the second service responds to the service access.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the instructions for causing the second service to be substituted in place of the first service further comprise instructions for, if the network traffic includes the service access, blocking at least a portion of the network traffic from the production server.

42. Apparatus comprising a storage medium storing a program for causing a service appliance to transparently intervene to maintain availability of a first service on a first production server to plural client systems via a network, the service appliance comprising a network interface adapted to connect with the network, receive network communications from the first production server addressed to the client systems which have been redirected to the apparatus, and receive network communications from the client systems addressed to the production server which have been redirected to the apparatus, wherein the service appliance has a second service;

the instructions of the program for moving the service appliance between states comprising;

an initialization state, wherein following the installation of the service appliance, the service appliance is configured and automatically replicates e-mail, calendaring and relevant configuration information from the production server onto itself;

a transparent wait state, wherein the service appliance passively stays in sync with the production server and is ready to take over servicing of e-mail and calendaring requests in case the production server fails;

a failover state, wherein the service appliance detects the production server failure and takes over the servicing of e-mail and calendaring requests from systems and users connected to the production server;

a prepare to failback state, wherein the service appliance determines that the production server is capable of providing the service, and the service appliance auto-replicates the e-mail and calendar data back to the production server so that the production server can get e-mails received and handled by service appliance while the production server was down;

a failback state, wherein the service appliance has completed replication of e-mail and calendaring data to the production server, and the service appliance hands over servicing e-mail and calendaring requests back to the production server.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein replication includes data from databases internal and external to the production server.

44. The apparatus of claim 42 wherein the failback state comprises the service appliance returning control of the service to the production server for specific users as associated service data becomes synchronized on the service appliance and the production server, while the service appliance continues to control the service for users with unsynchronized data.

45. The apparatus of claim 42 wherein the program comprises a service application executed in one or more virtual machines running on one or more CPUs of the service appliances.