Dynamic cloning and reservation of detached idle connections

• US 9,083,760 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2011
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hughes, John R., Hammerle, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHUOC H
• Application Number:
  US13/206,474
• Time in Patent Office: 1,435 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/238
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A system and method for optimizing use of idle server connections comprises receiving, at a first network traffic management device of a cluster, a request from a client device to access a server. The first network traffic management device reserve an idle flow connection from an idle connection pool previously established between at least a second network traffic management device and the server. A flow cookie is retrieved from the second network traffic management device. The flow cookie comprises routing information associated with the retrieved idle flow connection, whereby the flow cookie is modified to represent the connection between the server and the first network traffic management device. The updated flow cookie is incorporated into the received request and forwarded to the server, wherein a server response contains the updated flow cookie such that the response is received by the first network traffic management device.

Claims

1. A method for optimizing use of idle server connections, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first network traffic management device of a plurality of network traffic management devices in a cluster, a request from a client device to access a server;

reserving, by the first network traffic management device, an idle flow connection from an idle connection pool that was previously established between at least a second network traffic management device and the server;

retrieving, by the first network traffic management device, a flow cookie from the second network traffic management device, wherein the flow cookie comprises routing information associated with the retrieved idle flow connection;

modifying, by the first network traffic management device, the flow cookie, wherein the routing information in the flow cookie for the retrieved idle flow connection is updated to be between the server and the first network traffic management device;

incorporating, by the first network traffic management device, the updated flow cookie into the received request to modify the request and forwarding the modified request to the server, wherein a response from the server contains the updated flow cookie such that the response is to be received by the first network traffic management device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network traffic management device receives the response based on the updated flow cookie.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first network traffic management device receives the request and the response routed from a disaggregator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow cookie is updated, by the first network traffic management device, by changing one or more values in the retrieved flow cookie.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow cookie is incorporated in an IPv6 header of the request and the response or an HTTP header of the request and the response.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

registering, by the first network traffic management device, a forwarding entry at the second network traffic management device, wherein the forwarding entry automatically causes packets sent to the second network traffic management device to be sent to the first network traffic management device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow cookie is incorporated in a body of the request and the response.

8. A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon instructions for optimizing use of idle server connections, comprising machine executable code which when executed by at least one processor, causes the processor to perform step comprising:

receiving a request at a first traffic management device of a plurality of network traffic management devices in a cluster from a client device to access a server;

reserving an idle flow connection from an idle connection pool that was previously established between at least a second network traffic management device and the server;

retrieving a flow cookie from the second network traffic management device at the first network traffic management device, wherein the flow cookie comprises routing information associated with the retrieved idle flow connection;

modifying the flow cookie at the first network traffic management device, wherein the routing information in the flow cookie for the retrieved idle flow connection is updated to be between the server and a first network traffic management device;

incorporating the updated flow cookie into the received request to modify the request and forwarding the modified request to the server, wherein a response from the server contains the updated flow cookie such that the response is to be received by the first network traffic management device.

9. The medium of claim 8 wherein the first network traffic management device receives the response based on the updated flow cookie.

10. The medium of claim 9 the first network traffic management device receives the request and the response from a disaggregator module.

11. The medium of claim 8 wherein the flow cookie is updated by changing one or more values in the retrieved flow cookie.

12. The medium of claim 8 wherein the flow cookie is incorporated in an IPv6 header of the request and the response or an HTTP header of the request and the response.

13. The medium of claim 8 further having stored thereon instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform steps further comprising:

registering a forwarding entry at the second network traffic management device, wherein the forwarding entry automatically causes packets sent to the second network traffic management device to be sent to the first network traffic management device.

14. The medium of claim 8 wherein the flow cookie is incorporated in a body of the request and the response.

15. A first network traffic management device comprising:

at least one of configurable hardware logic configured to implement or one or more processors configured to be capable of executing programmed instructions comprising and stored in the memory to;

receive a request from a client device to access a server;

reserve an idle flow connection from an idle connection pool that was previously established between at least a second network traffic management device and the server;

retrieve a flow cookie from the second network traffic management device, wherein the flow cookie comprises routing information associated with the retrieved idle flow connection;

modify the flow cookie, wherein the routing information in the flow cookie for the retrieved idle flow connection is updated to be between the server and the first network traffic management device;

incorporate the updated flow cookie into the received request to modify the request and forwarding the modified request to the server, wherein a response from the server contains the updated flow cookie such that the response is to be received by the first network traffic management device.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the first network traffic management device receives the request and the response from a disaggregator module.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the flow cookie is updated by changing one or more values in the retrieved flow cookie.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the flow cookie is incorporated in an IPv6 header of the request and the response or an HTTP header of the request and the response.

19. The device of claim 15 wherein the at least one of the configurable hardware logic is further configured to implement or the one or more processors are further configured to be capable of executing programmed instructions comprising and stored in the memory to:

register a forwarding entry at the second network traffic management device, wherein the forwarding entry automatically causes packets sent to the second network traffic management device to be sent to the first network traffic management device.

20. The device of claim 15, wherein the flow cookie is incorporated in a body of the request and the response.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one of the configurable hardware logic is further configured to implement or the one or more processors is further configured to be capable of executing programmed instructions comprising and stored in the memory to:

receive the response based on the updated flow cookie.