System and method for model-based configuration of a server cluster

• US 8,984,101 B1
• Filed: 02/26/2004
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Viswanath, Sridatta, Hulton, Michael C., Ebbs, Kenneth, Kumar, Abhijit, Islam, Akm N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US10/787,468
• Time in Patent Office: 4,037 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A system and method for configuring servers in a cluster. The method may include storing one or more base configuration files associated with an application in a domain administration server, deploying the base configuration files onto one or more servers in a cluster of servers, making one or more instance-specific modifications to the base configuration files, and executing the application in accordance with the one or more modified base configuration files. In various embodiments, the base configuration files may be XML files, and the modifications may be xpath expressions. An alternate embodiment of the method may include storing one or more configuration files based on a common template and representing a platform-specific configuration of a server in a domain administration server, deploying the configuration files onto one or more servers in a cluster of servers, and configuring the servers in accordance with the configuration files.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing, in a central domain repository of a domain administration server, one or more base configuration files, wherein the one or more base configuration files are deployable from the central domain repository to a plurality of servers to configure the plurality of servers as a server cluster such that each server of the plurality of servers executes a same application;

configuring each of the plurality of servers to operate collectively as a server cluster according to one or more of the base configuration files deployed from the domain administration server to each of the plurality of servers such that each server of the plurality of servers is configured to execute the same application, wherein client requests for the same application are distributed to different servers of the plurality of servers, and wherein said configuring of each server is performed in response to a configuration change made at the domain administration server or in response to a restart at a respective server of the plurality of servers;

executing the same application on the plurality of servers in accordance with the cluster configuration; and

making an instance-specific modification to one of the one or more base configuration files of the central domain repository for a specific server of the plurality of servers and subsequently propagating the instance-specific modification to the specific server in response to said making the instance-specific modification or in response to a restart, wherein the instance-specific modification overrides a configuration value in the one of the one or more base configuration files for the specific server of the plurality of servers, wherein the specific server of the plurality of servers operates according to the overridden configuration value, and wherein the overridden configuration value does not apply to others of the plurality of servers.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more base configuration files comprise a plurality of configuration files from a common template configuration file for the cluster.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the configuration files from a common template configuration file comprise configuration files for different hardware platforms to configure the different hardware platforms to operate within the same cluster.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising making one or more changes to the one or more base configuration files in the central domain repository and propagating the one or more changes to the plurality of servers to reconfigure the plurality of servers as a group.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing one or more operations on one of the base configuration files in the central domain repository for the cluster without targeting any of the plurality of servers for the one or more operations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said performing one or more operations comprises making one or more changes to one of the base configuration files in the central domain repository for the cluster without affecting the configuration of the plurality of servers.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein said performing one or more operations comprises testing one of the base configuration files to determine that it is a known good configuration.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said configuring a plurality of servers as a cluster according to one of the base configuration files from the central domain repository comprises re-using the known good configuration for the plurality of servers.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more base configuration files are extended markup language (XML) files.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the instance-specific modification is indicated by an xpath expression.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing the xpath expression in the central domain repository.

12. A system, comprising:

a domain administration server operable to;

deploy one or more base configuration files stored in a central domain repository from the central domain repository to each server of a plurality of servers to configure the plurality of servers as a server cluster such that each server of the plurality of servers executes a same application;

configure each server of the plurality of servers to operate collectively as a server cluster according to one or more of the base configuration files deployed by the domain administration server from the central domain repository to each of the plurality of servers such that each server of the plurality of servers is configured to execute the same application, wherein client requests for the same application are distributed to different servers of the plurality of servers, and wherein the configuring of each server is performed in response to a configuration change made at the domain administration server or in response to a restart at a respective server of the plurality of servers;

wherein the one or more base configuration files comprise a plurality of configuration files from a common template configuration file for the cluster;

wherein the configuration files from the common template configuration file comprise configuration files for different hardware platforms to configure the different hardware platforms to operate within the same cluster; and

wherein the plurality of servers include two or more servers having different hardware platforms, wherein the plurality of servers including the two or more servers having different hardware platforms are configured according to the configuration files from the central domain repository to execute the same application in accordance with the cluster configuration.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the domain administration server is further operable to make one or more changes to the one or more base configuration files in the central domain repository and propagate the one or more changes to the plurality of servers to reconfigure the plurality of servers as a group.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the domain administration server is further operable to perform one or more operations on one of the base configuration files in the central domain repository for the cluster without targeting any of the plurality of servers for the one or more operations.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the domain administration server is operable to perform said one or more operations by making one or more changes to one of the base configuration files in the central domain repository for the cluster without affecting the configuration of the plurality of servers.

16. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein said one or more operations comprise testing one of the base configuration files to determine that it is a known good configuration.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the domain administration server is operable to configure said plurality of servers as a cluster according to one of the base configuration files from the central domain repository by re-using the known good configuration for the plurality of servers.

18. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein one of the servers is configured to make one or more instance-specific modifications to the base configuration files.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more base configuration files are extended markup language (XML) files.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more instance-specific modifications are indicated by xpath expressions.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the domain administration server is operable to store the xpath expressions in the central domain repository.

22. A computer readable storage medium storing program instructions executable to implement a method comprising:

storing, in a central domain repository of a domain administration server, one or more base configuration files, wherein the one or more base configuration files are deployable from the central domain repository to a plurality of servers to configure the plurality of servers as a server cluster such that each server of the plurality of servers executes a same application;

configuring each of the plurality of servers to operate collectively as a server cluster according to one or more of the base configuration files deployed from the domain administration server to each of the plurality of servers such that each server of the plurality of servers is configured to execute the same application, wherein client requests for the same application are distributed to different servers of the plurality of servers, and wherein said configuring of each server is performed in response to a configuration change made at the domain administration server or in response to a restart at a respective server of the plurality of servers;

executing the same application on the plurality of servers in accordance with the cluster configuration; and

making an instance-specific modification to one of the one or more base configuration files of the central domain repository for a specific server of the plurality of servers and subsequently propagating the instance-specific modification to the specific server in response to said making the instance-specific modification or in response to restarting an application instance, wherein the instance-specific modification overrides a configuration value in the one of the one or more base configuration files for the specific server of the plurality of servers, wherein the specific server of the plurality of servers operates according to the overridden configuration value, and wherein the overridden configuration value does not apply to others of the plurality of servers.

23. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the one or more base configuration files comprise a plurality of configuration files from a common template configuration file for the cluster.

24. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the configuration files from a common template configuration file comprise configuration files for different hardware platforms to configure the different hardware platforms to operate within the same cluster.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises making one or more changes to the one or more base configuration files in the central domain repository and propagating the one or more changes to the plurality of servers to reconfigure the plurality of servers as a group.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises performing one or more operations on one of the base configuration files in the central domain repository for the cluster without targeting any of the plurality of servers for the one or more operations.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein said performing one or more operations comprises making one or more changes to one of the base configuration files in the central domain repository for the cluster without affecting the configuration of the plurality of servers.

28. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 26, wherein said performing one or more operations comprises testing one of the base configuration files to determine that it is a known good configuration.

29. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein said configuring a plurality of servers as a cluster according to one of the base configuration files from the central domain repository comprises re-using the known good configuration for the plurality of servers.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the one or more base configuration files are extended markup language (XML) files.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 30, wherein the instance-specific modification is indicated by an xpath expression.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 31, the method further comprising storing the xpath expression in the central domain repository.