Connection manager having a common dispatcher for heterogeneous software suites

• US 20060155867A1
• Filed: 12/28/2004
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Kilian, Frank, Luik, Oliver
• Granted Patent: US 7,672,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols

Abstract

A connection manager includes a dispatcher that dispatches requests to two or more heterogeneous software suites. The connection manager receives client requests and dispatches the request to either of the software suites coupled by a request/response shared memory to the connection manager.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a connection manager to receive a request from a client, the connection manager including a dispatcher to select which one of at least two heterogeneous application server software suites to process the request and dispatch the request to the selected software suite;

a first software suite capable to receive and process the request from the client;

a second software suite, different from the first software suite, capable to receive and process the request from the client; and

a request/response shared memory coupled to the connection manager, the first software suite and the second software suite, the dispatcher to transfer the request to a memory location in the request/response shared memory associated with one of the first or the second software suite, and from which the associated software suite can receive the request, depending on the software suite the dispatcher selected to process the request.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the connection manager is capable of receiving the request from the client formatted in according with one of a plurality of protocols.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of protocols comprises one of a group of protocols including hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), secure HTTP (HTTPS), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and network news transfer protocol (NNTP).

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first software suite comprises an ABAP application instance and the second software suite comprises a J2EE application instance, and wherein the dispatcher to select which of at least two heterogeneous software suites to process the request comprises the dispatcher to select one of the ABAP application instance and the J2EE application instance to process the request.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the ABAP application instance comprises a plurality of worker nodes, and the J2EE application instance comprises a plurality of worker nodes, and wherein the dispatcher to select which of the ABAP application instance and the J2EE application instance to process the request comprises the dispatcher to select one of the plurality of ABAP worker nodes or J2EE worker nodes to process the request.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the dispatcher to transfer the request to a memory location in the request/response shared memory associated with one of the first or the second software suite comprises the dispatcher to transfer the request to a request/response shared memory location associated with a worker node the dispatcher selected to process the request.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the dispatcher to select one of the plurality of ABAP worker nodes or J2EE worker nodes to process the request comprises the dispatcher to identify a session to which the request relates and select a worker node on the basis of a state of the session.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the dispatcher to select a worker node on the basis of the state of the session comprises the dispatcher to select a same worker node or work process as selected to process a previous request related to the same session if the state of the session is sticky.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a client at a connection manager;

selecting at the connection manager which one of at least two heterogeneous software suites to process the request;

transferring the request from the connection manager to a location in a request/response shared memory coupling the connection manager and the heterogeneous software suites, the location associated with the selected software suite; and

receiving the request from the location at the software suite selected to process the request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least two heterogeneous software suites comprise an ABAP application instance and a J2EE application instance, and wherein selecting which one of the at least two heterogeneous software suites to process the request comprises selecting one of the ABAP application instance and the J2EE application instance to process the request.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the ABAP application instance comprises a plurality of worker nodes, and the J2EE application instance comprises a plurality of worker nodes, and wherein selecting one of the ABAP application instance and the J2EE application instance to process the request comprises selecting one of the plurality of ABAP worker nodes or J2EE worker nodes to process the request.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting one of the plurality of ABAP worker nodes or J2EE worker nodes to process the request further comprises identifying a session to which the request relates and selecting a worker node on the basis of a state of the session.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting the worker node on the basis of the state of the session comprises selecting a same worker node as selected to process a previous request related to the same session if the state of the session is sticky.

14. An article of manufacturer comprising:

a machine readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to;

receive a request from a client at a connection manager;

select at the connection manager which one of at least two heterogeneous software suites to process the request;

transfer the request from the connection manager to a location in a request/response shared memory shared by the connection manager and the heterogeneous software suites, the location associated with the selected software suite; and

receive the request from the location at the software suite selected to process the request.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the at least two heterogeneous software suites comprise an ABAP application instance and a J2EE application instance, and wherein the machine readable medium comprises further instructions that when executed by a machine cause the machine to select one of the ABAP application instance and the J2EE application instance to process the request.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the ABAP application instance comprises a plurality of worker nodes, and the J2EE application instance comprises a plurality of worker nodes, and wherein the machine readable medium comprises further instructions that when executed by a machine cause the machine to select one of the plurality of ABAP worker nodes or J2EE worker nodes to process the request.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the machine readable medium comprises further instructions that when executed by a machine cause the machine to identify a session to which the request relates and select a worker node on the basis of a state of the session.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the machine readable medium comprises further instructions that when executed by a machine cause the machine to select a same worker node as selected to process a previous request related to the same session if the state of the session is sticky.