Control of communication ports of computing devices using policy-based decisions

• US 8,959,575 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Flewallen, Steven Adams, Johnson, David Nephi, Burch, Lloyd Leon, Fjeldsted, Benjamin Clark, Beus, David Kent, Sriram, Thiruvarangam Viswanathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughan, Michael R
• Application Number:
  US13/613,905
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 887 Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/19 at layers above the network layer network arrangements for networked applications for scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

In a computing system environment, an arrangement of computing devices includes multiple layers behind a content flow director, such as an L4 switch in a web service. In a computing device of an outermost layer directly communicating with the content flow director, a communications port is conditionally enabled upon policy being met or exceeded in the computing system environment behind the content flow director. If unmet, the communications port is disabled, if already enabled, or prevented from becoming enabled, if not otherwise already enabled. In this manner, policy establishes port enablement. In certain aspects, policy determinations include determining a time of response, a quality of service check or a pass/fail condition of the one of the computing devices. Policy is also easily implemented as remote or local computer executable instructions on the computing devices. Representative computing devices include switches, such as L4 switches, routers, servers, repeaters, adapters or the like.

Claims

1. In a computing system environment comprising a content flow director, a first computing device comprising a communications port, and a second computing device, wherein the first computing device is coupled between the content flow director and the second computing device, a method of controlling the communications port, the method comprising:

establishing a policy to be met or exceeded by the second computing device, the policy defining at least one condition that should be met or exceeded by the second computing device;

determining whether the policy is met or exceeded by interrogating the second computing device; and

when the policy is met or exceeded, enabling the communications port, thereby enabling communications between the content flow director and the first computing device via the enabled communications port.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the policy comprises installing executable code indicating predetermined acceptable criteria on the second computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the policy is not met, one of:

when the communications port was already enabled, disabling the communications port; and

when the communications port is not already enabled, preventing the communications port from being enabled.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

repeating, one or more times, the determining whether the policy is met or exceeded by interrogating the second computing device and the corresponding enabling or disabling.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the communications port configures the first computing device to accept communications from the content flow director via the communications port.

6. In a computing system environment comprising a content flow director, a first computing device comprising a communications port, and a second computing device, wherein the first computing device is coupled between the content flow director and the second computing device, a method of controlling the communications port, the method comprising:

establishing a policy for the second computing device;

testing an operability of the second computing device based on the established policy, the testing including interrogating the second computing device; and

when the operability of the second computing device is determined to be satisfactory, enabling the communications port, thereby allowing direct communications between the content flow director and the first computing device by way of the enabled communications port.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the testing the operability further includes determining a time of response, a quality of service check or a pass/fail condition of the second computing device.

8. The method of claim 6, further including iterating the testing the operability of the second computing device based on the established policy.

9. A computing system environment, comprising:

a content flow director;

a first computing device comprising a communications port;

a second computing device, wherein the first computing device is coupled between the content flow director and the second computing device; and

a fail over control coupled to the first computing device and the second computing device, wherein the fail over control is configured to perform operations for;

determining whether a policy for the second computing device is met or exceeded by interrogating the second computing device; and

when the policy is met or exceeded, enabling the communications port, thereby enabling communications between the content flow director and the first computing device via the enabled communications port.

10. The computing system environment of claim 9, wherein when the policy is not met, the fail over control is further configured to perform operations for one of:

when the communications port was already enabled, disabling the communications port; and

when the communications port is not already enabled, preventing the communications port from being enabled.

11. The computing system environment of claim 10, further comprising:

a computer readable storage medium coupled to the fail over control, the computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for enabling or disabling the communication port based on the policy being met or not met.

12. The computing system environment of claim 9, wherein the first computing device is an Apache web server.

13. The computing system environment of claim 9, wherein the content flow director is an L4 switch.

14. The computing system environment of claim 9, wherein the content flow director is one of a router, repeater, adapter, and switch.

15. A fail over control computing device in a computing system environment that comprises a content flow director, a first computing device comprising a communications port, and a second computing device, wherein the first computing device is coupled between the content flow director and the second computing device, the fail over control computing device coupled to:

at least one computer readable storage medium storing remote or local executable instructions for determining whether a policy is met or exceeded by the second computing device, wherein determining whether the policy is met or exceeded comprises interrogating the second computing device;

wherein the fail over control is configured to conditionally enable the communications port for the first computing device based on the determining whether the policy is met or exceeded.

16. The fail over control computing device of claim 15, wherein the content flow director is one of a router, repeater, adapter, and switch.

17. The fail over control computing device of claim 16, wherein the content flow director is an L4 switch.

18. The fail over control computing device of claim 15, wherein the conditionally enabled port is provided in an Apache web server in the first computing device that directly communicates with the content flow director.