Sticky routing

• US 8,868,756 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2014
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Young, Douglas A., Lim, Swee B., Venkatasubramanian, Ganesan
• Primary Examiner(s): DAILEY, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US14/226,383
• Time in Patent Office: 209 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1006 with static server selection, e.g. the same server being selected for a specific client
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30

Abstract

A system and method are provided for sticky routing of a user'"'"'s service requests and connections to a distributed service hosted by multiple data centers. Sticky routing data are generated when a user first connects, to include member ID, preferred data center, a user bucket associated with one data center, a generation of the bucket, a generation of the user'"'"'s sticky routing data, and timing information identifying a time of issue and/or a time of expiration of the routing data. A user bucket is either online (accepts new users; their requests are routed to the associated data center), offline (not accepting new users; existing users are expelled and must join a different bucket), or closed (not accepting new users; existing users'"'"' requests continue to be routed to the associated data center). All of a user'"'"'s requests, from all devices, are thus routed to one data center, based on member ID.

Claims

1. A method of sticky routing of user connections to a distributed service comprising multiple data centers, the method comprising:

receiving a first service request from a first device operated by a first user to initiate a first session with the distributed service;

assigning the first user to a first user bucket that is online, wherein the first user bucket;

is associated with a first data center;

persists across multiple sessions of the first user with the distributed service;

can have one of the following states;

online, wherein an online bucket is available to receive new users;

offline, wherein users assigned to an offline bucket are expelled from the bucket; and

closed, wherein a closed bucket is not available to receive new users; and

includes multiple users other than the first user;

storing first sticky routing data for the first user, wherein the first sticky routing data comprises;

a member ID;

an identifier of the first user bucket; and

a generation of the first user bucket; and

routing the first service request to the first data center.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second service request from a second device operated by the first user;

retrieving the first sticky routing data; and

routing the second service request to the first data center.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

routing the first service request comprises delivering a cookie comprising the sticky routing data to the first device; and

routing the second service request comprises delivering the cookie to the second device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

from the multiple data centers, determining a preferred data center for the first user;

wherein the first sticky routing data further comprises the preferred data center.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the multiple data centers, establishing multiple associated user buckets, wherein all service requests from all users in a given bucket are routed to the associated data center.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a user expelled from an offline bucket is assigned to an online bucket when a next service request is received from a device operated by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generation of the first user bucket changes every time a status of the first data center changes.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of method of sticky routing of user connections to a distributed service comprising multiple data centers, the method comprising:

receiving a first service request from a first device operated by a first user to initiate a first session with the distributed service;

assigning the first user to a first user bucket that is online, wherein the first user bucket;

is associated with a first data center;

persists across multiple sessions of the first user with the distributed service;

can have one of the following states;

online, wherein an online bucket is available to receive new users;

offline, wherein users assigned to an offline bucket are expelled from the bucket; and

closed, wherein a closed bucket is not available to receive new users; and

includes multiple users other than the first user;

storing first sticky routing data for the first user, wherein the first sticky routing data comprises;

a member ID;

an identifier of the first user bucket; and

a generation of the first user bucket; and

routing the first service request to the first data center.

9. An apparatus for sticky routing of requests to a distributed service comprising multiple data centers, the apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

sticky routing data for each of multiple users of the distributed service, wherein first sticky routing data of a first user comprises;

a member ID of the first user;

an identifier of a bucket the first user is assigned to, wherein the bucket;

is one of a plurality of buckets associated with a first data center;

persists across multiple sessions of the first user with the distributed service;

can have one of the following states;

online, wherein an online bucket is available to receive new users;

offline, wherein users assigned to an offline bucket are expelled from the bucket; and

closed, wherein a closed bucket is not available to receive new users; and

includes multiple users other than the first user;

a generation of the bucket; and

a generation of the first sticky routing data; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to;

in response to a first service request from a first device of the first user, generate the first sticky routing data for the first user;

store the first sticky routing data; and

cause service requests from a plurality of devices operated by the first user to be routed to the first data center and not any other data center of the multiple data centers.

10. The apparatus of claim 9,

wherein a given user for whom new sticky routing data is generated can only be assigned to an online bucket.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein generating the first sticky routing data comprises:

based on an identity of the first user, identifying a preferred data center;

determining whether the preferred data center of the first user is online; and

assigning the first user to a bucket that is online.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein causing service requests from a plurality of devices operated by the first user to be routed to the first data center and not any other data center of the multiple data centers comprises:

serving a common cookie to each of the plurality of devices, wherein the common cookie comprises at least a portion of the first sticky routing data.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the generation of the bucket changes every time a status of the first data center changes.

14. A system, comprising:

multiple data centers, each data center including multiple computers, each computer comprising a processor and memory and hosting a common application;

multiple points of presence operated to route application requests to the multiple data centers; and

at each data center, at least one sticky routing server operated to;

generate sticky routing data for users of the application; and

maintain one or more logical buckets associated with the data center;

wherein each logical bucket comprises multiple users of the application and each user of the application is assigned to one logical bucket at one of the multiple data centers, and wherein each logical bucket has one of the following states;

online, wherein an online bucket is available to receive new users;

offline, wherein users assigned to an offline bucket are expelled from the bucket; and

closed, wherein a closed bucket is not available to receive new users; and

wherein all application requests received from devices operated by one user, across multiple application sessions, are routed to the one data center associated with the one user'"'"'s assigned logical bucket.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising, for each user of the application, a cookie configured to identify:

the logical bucket to which the user is assigned;

a generation of the logical bucket; and

a generation of the cookie.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the generation of the logical bucket is modified when a status of the associated data center changes.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein each sticky routing server further maintains:

a data store that stores, for each user of the common application, sticky routing data comprising;

a member ID of the user;

an identifier of a current logical bucket to which the user is assigned;

a generation of the current logical bucket;

a generation of the user'"'"'s sticky routing data; and

a time of issue of the user'"'"'s sticky routing data.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the common application is a professional social networking service.