Method and structure for autonomic application differentiation/specialization

• US 9,298,513 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2004
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Goodman, Brian Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Tiv, Backhean
• Application Number:
  US10/959,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,191 Days
• Field of Search: 709209-211, 714/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/505 Clust
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A method (and structure) of at least one of implementing, for deploying, an enterprise application, includes, for the set of instructions defining the enterprise application, a mechanism that allows the enterprise application to autonomously exercise at least one of a node differentiation and a task specialization.

Claims

1. A method of deploying an enterprise application, said method comprising:

including, in a set of instructions that is tangibly embodied on a non-transitory memory medium and that defines an instance of said enterprise application as executable by a processor on a computer, a mechanism allowing said enterprise application to autonomously exercise, on each node receiving the enterprise application instance, a node differentiation/specialization function as related to the enterprise application,

each said instance comprising a look-alike software module as a single set of instructions having a plurality of modules that define an execution of a plurality of different tasks possible for execution by said enterprise application, including a task that each node receiving an instance of said enterprise application can selectively configure itself to execute a different task or combination of tasks of said plurality of different tasks,

said node differentiation referring to differences in nodes of a plurality of nodes, even though all the nodes are separately executing respective instances of said enterprise application,

said specialization referring to task specializations relative to the enterprise application, meaning that the look-alike software modules can be selectively configured to define a different task or combination of tasks of said enterprise application for execution by different nodes, to selectively perform different functions defined by the enterprise application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said enterprise application defines at least one primary function executable by a single node, each primary function potentially exposed to performing one or more tasks for other, secondary, functions of the enterprise application or for external applications,

each instance of said enterprise application equally could execute said at least one primary function of the enterprise application,

the enterprise application includes instructions for implementing a role of a master node of said network to serve as a leader, said master node receiving input requests for the enterprise application and controlling task assignments to all nodes currently implementing and executing said enterprise application for said input requests, including said primary task, and

said enterprise application additionally includes instructions to autonomously elect a master node from all nodes currently executing said enterprise application and to autonomously detect whether there is no master node currently operating.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

a monitoring function permitting said enterprise application to determine whether any of a currently-active node implementing said enterprise application is currently serving said master node role that supervises said autonomous exercise of said node differentiation/specialization.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

an election initiation function so that, if said enterprise application determines that no currently-active enterprise application node is currently serving said master role, then said enterprise application transmits a request to initiate an election process to determine which of said currently-active enterprise application nodes should serve said role as master.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

an election determination function so that, during an election process, each said enterprise application node is able to determine whether it should serve said role as master.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said election determination is based on at least one of:

an attribute associated with one of said enterprise application and a node upon which said enterprise application has been deployed;

a predetermined random event or simulated random event;

selecting a particular element out of a set;

a rule involving an environment of said enterprise application; and

a result of querying a second system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said attribute comprises at least one of:

a unique identifier associated with a node upon which said enterprise application has been deployed; and

an attribute describing a node upon which enterprise application has been deployed.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said attribute describing said node comprises at least one of:

a size of a random access memory (RAM);

a speed of a central processing unit (CPU);

a space in a disk;

a network bandwidth;

a model number; and

a geographic location.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein said election determination function comprises:

a presence transmission function, whereby each said enterprise application node transmits its presence to any other enterprise application node currently active.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein said monitoring function occurs continuously, including a time subsequent to a completion of said election determination function, thereby allowing said enterprise application to continuously monitor whether said master role is being provided.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

a master function, whereby one of said enterprise application nodes executes at least one task as a master for all currently-active enterprise application nodes.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said at least one task as a master comprises one or more of:

broadcasting a configuration of a current configuration to all currently-active enterprise application nodes;

for each task requested to be performed, allocating each said task specifically to at least one of said currently-active enterprise application nodes;

defining at least one specific function to be performed by each said currently-active enterprise application node; and

defining a change in said at least one specific function to be performed by each said currently-active enterprise application node.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said defining a change in said at least one specific function is based on at least one of:

being included in said mechanism; and

a request received by said enterprise application node.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

intermittently transmitting a heartbeat to announce a presence of said enterprise application as being a currently-active enterprise application node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

listening for a heartbeat from other currently-active enterprise nodes.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

determining, from said listening for a heartbeat from other currently-active enterprise application nodes, whether any of a currently-active enterprise application node is serving a role as a master.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said mechanism further comprises:

if it is determined that no said currently-active enterprise application node is serving said role as master, then requesting an election process to determine a new master.

18. The method accordingly to claim 1, further comprising transmitting an instance of said enterprise application to at least one node on a network.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

said plurality of tasks comprises one or more tasks related to an automatic selection of a master node from among those nodes receiving an instance of the enterprise application, the master node serving a leader role in the enterprise application to receive input requests for the enterprise application, and

in respect to an input request received by said master node, said master node assigns one of the nodes to autonomously configure itself to execute the enterprise application as applied to said received input request.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein a node executing an instance of the enterprise application initially sends a request to identify a current master node and a listing of nodes executing instances of the enterprise application and, if no listing of nodes is received, initiates an election process.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein said enterprise application is implemented in a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) runtime environment.

22. A non-transitory, computer-readable, storage medium tangibly embodying a sequence of computer executable instructions that implement the method of claim 1.

23. A method for differentiating, in an autonomic fashion, each node of a plurality of nodes makeup on an interconnected system, each said node storing an instance of a multiple-application module capable of communicating on a local bus, at least one application of said multiple-application module benefiting if executed by only a single node, said multiple-application module capable of having one or more applications disabled at each said node, said method comprising:

connecting to a common message bus;

transmitting a message on a common message bus to establish a presence and to determine a current environment;

conducting an election process to determine a primary node among said plurality of nodes; and

sending a configuration message, from said primary node, to all other said nodes currently connected to said common message bus so that each node autonomously disables applications in said same set of instructions to thereby autonomously configure said node to execute a specific application of said multiple-application module as based on said configuration message,

wherein each instance of said multiple-application module comprises a look-alike software module as a single set of instructions having a plurality of modules that define an execution of a plurality of different tasks possible for execution by said multiple-application module, including a task that each node receiving an instance of said multiple-application module can selectively configure itself to execute a different task or combination of tasks of said plurality of different tasks.

24. The method according to 23, wherein said common message bus comprises one of:

a message queuing server bus;

a publish/subscribe server bus;

a random access memory (RAM) bus;

a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) bus; and

a hardware bus.

25. The method according to 23, wherein said transmitted message is formatted in a self-describing markup language.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said self-describing markup language comprises Extensible Markup Language (XML).

27. The method according to 23, wherein the configuration sent to each of the nodes is identified as being for a specific node.

28. The method according to 23, wherein the configuration sent to each of the nodes comprise instructions to perform follow-on tasks.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the follow-on tasks include a task of transferring code from a second system to the node system for installation and configuration.

30. A computer, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU); and

a random access memory (RAM) storing a set of machine-readable instructions being executed by said CPU,

wherein said computer is connected to a network and said set of machine-readable instructions being executed by said CPU comprises an instance of an enterprise application, said enterprise application comprising a mechanism allowing said enterprise application to autonomously and selectively exercise a node differentiation/task specialization by enabling a specific role from a plurality of possible roles defined in said enterprise application, such that said computer can thereby selectively be configured for different tasks defined in said enterprise application,

wherein each said instance comprises a look-alike software module as a single set of instructions having a plurality of modules that define an execution of a plurality of different tasks possible for execution by said enterprise application, including a task that each node receiving an instance of said enterprise application can configure itself to execute a different task or combination of tasks of said plurality of different tasks,

wherein said node differentiation refers to differences in nodes of a plurality of nodes, even though all said nodes of said plurality of nodes are executing said essentially identical software modules, and

wherein said specialization refers to a task specialization, meaning that said essentially identical software modules selectively define different tasks for execution by different nodes.

31. The computer of claim 30, wherein said enterprise application further comprises instructions so that the selective configuration at each node on said network that currently implements said enterprise application is controlled by a single node on said network executing said enterprise application in a role as a currently-serving master node, said master node controlling task assignments of all nodes currently implementing said enterprise application, said role as currently-serving master node being one of the possible roles defined said enterprise application.