Reliable, secure and scalable infrastructure for event registration and propagation in a distributed enterprise

• US 20020116248A1
• Filed: 12/08/2000
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Amit, Neta J., Frank, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,450 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/546 Xcast
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A trigger engine and infrastructure for event registration and handling that is reliable, secure and scalable. Transactional authenticated and/or encrypted messages (e.g., via MSMQ) are used to transport events across each server. A stable recovery mechanism is provided wherein the recovery path is nearly identical to the normal path. A trigger engine may concentrate multiple similar requests into a single base request for event notification, and upon receipt of the base event, access tables maintained in the trigger engine to track which client registered for which type of notification. In this manner, only the base event request is registered remotely, reducing the number of events that need to be communicated to remote servers. Identical event requests from clients may also be concentrated into a base event request, and events distributed to those clients when appropriate. Duplicate base event requests are blocked locally and thus only the first such one ever reaches the remote server. The trigger engines are capable of combining events in a complex manner, such as to notify a client only when a combination of time events, job events and/or other events have occurred, thus being suitable for use in a batch system.

Claims

1. A system for notifying clients of events of an event source, comprising:

a first trigger engine configured to register event requests, including a first event request from a first client and a second event request from a second client, and to concentrate the first and second event requests into a base event request;

a second trigger engine configured to communicate with the first trigger engine for receiving a registration of the base event request at the second trigger engine, and further configured to receive notification of an event of the event source corresponding to the base event; and

upon receipt of an event instance corresponding to the base event from the event source, the second trigger engine providing data indicative of the event instance to the first trigger engine, the first trigger engine configured to determine whether the event instance corresponds to the first event request, and if so, to notify the first client of the event instance, and the first trigger engine configured to determine whether the event instance corresponds the second event request, and if so, to notify the second client of the event instance.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the data indicative of the event instance is provided in an event object.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second trigger engines are each a proxy of a switchbox component.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second trigger engines communicate over a network connection.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine has a least one data structure associated therewith for determining which client event requests correspond to which base event requests.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine is a client of the second trigger engine, and wherein the second trigger engine has a least one data structure associated therewith for determining which client event requests correspond to event instances.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the event requests corresponds to a job.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the first trigger engine is associated with a job scheduler component.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the second trigger engine is associated with a job dispatcher component.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine is associated with a job scheduler component, and wherein the job scheduler component includes at least one data structure for maintaining information corresponding to event-triggered criteria for a pending job.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the event-triggered criteria include a time event.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the event-triggered criteria include a job event corresponding to the completion status of at least one other job.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the event-triggered criteria are arranged as clauses of atoms, each atom corresponding to a request.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine communicates with the second trigger engine via a reliable protocol.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine communicates with the second trigger engine via MSMQ messages.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the trigger engines includes a recovery process.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the event requests corresponds to a job, and wherein the first trigger engine is hosted by a job scheduler component.

18. The system of claim 1 further comprising an access checking mechanism.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising running a job in response to receiving a notification at the first client.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising, maintaining criteria for running a job, determining if a notification received by the first client satisfies the criteria, and if so, running the job.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein running the job includes providing job information to a job dispatcher.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the job dispatcher causes the job to be run on an agent.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising, receiving at the first trigger engine event information corresponding to completion of the job.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising running another job upon receipt of the event information corresponding to completion of the job.

26. The method of claim 19 wherein at least one of the trigger engines runs a recovery process.

27. The method of claim 19 wherein the recovery process comprises a series of operations.

28. The method of claim 19 further comprising performing at least one access check.

30. The system of claim 29 further comprising an access checking mechanism.

19. In a computer network, a method for notifying clients of events, comprising:

receiving from a first client a first request corresponding to a first event on a remote server, the first request including information specific thereto;

receiving from a second client a second request corresponding to a second event on the remote server, the second request including information specific thereto;

maintaining information specific to each event request in association with each client;

concentrating the first and second event requests into a base event request;

registering the base event request at the remote server;

receiving notification of the base event, the notification including event-specific information about the base event;

analyzing the event-specific information;

notifying the first client if the event-specific information corresponds to the information specific to the first event request associated with the first client; and

notifying the second client if the event-specific information corresponds to the information specific to the second event request associated with the second client.

29. A system for running jobs in a network, comprising:

a job scheduler component configured to request running of a job in response to at least one event;

a job dispatcher component configured to control the running of the job;

a switchbox configured to register event requests from the job scheduler component and to notify the job scheduler upon occurrence of each event corresponding to an event request therefrom, the switchbox further configured to register event requests from the job dispatcher component and to notify the job dispatcher upon occurrence of each event corresponding to an event request therefrom; and

the job scheduler being notified of an event, and requesting running of a job by triggering an event in the switchbox, the switchbox providing the event to the job dispatcher to cause execution of the job.