Suspension and resuming of sessions

• US 20060184535A1
• Filed: 02/11/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Gollapudi, Sreenivas, Kaluskar, Sanjay
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence

Abstract

A session established for an application is suspended from an instance and later resumed on the server or a different server. When a session is suspended, its state is captured and persistently stored as a session image in a data repository, and the session is terminated. When the session is resumed, a new session is established on an instance, the session image of the session to resume is retrieved from the repository and restored to the newly established session. The suspension and resumption of a session may be initiated by an application, which may request the suspension and resumption of a session.

Claims

1. A method, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

generating a session image of the session state of a first session on a first server;

storing the session image of the first session;

terminating the first session;

after terminating the first session;

establishing a second session on a computer system;

retrieving the session image; and

using the session image to restore the session state of the first session to the second session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of storing the session image includes persistently storing the session image in a session repository; and

the step of retrieving includes retrieving the session image from the session repository.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing a second session on a computer system includes establishing a second session on the first server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing a second session on a computer system includes establishing a second session on a second server that resides on a different computer than a computer that hosts the first server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of generating a session image, storing the session image, and terminating the first session are performed in response to determining that one or more collection criteria are satisfied, wherein said one or more collection criteria indicate whether the first session may be terminated and the session state of the first session restored later on a server.

14. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

15. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

16. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

17. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

18. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

6. A method, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

an application establishing a first session on a first server;

said application transmitting a suspend request to said server identifying said first session;

in response to receiving said suspend request, determining that one or more collection criteria are satisfied, wherein said one or more collection criteria indicate whether the first session may be terminated and the first session state of the first session restored later on a server;

in response to determining that one or more collection criteria are satisfied;

generating a session image of the session state of a first session on a first server,

generating a session key that identifies said session image,

storing the session image of the first session in association with the session image, and

terminating the first session;

after terminating the first session, receiving a resume request to resume said first session, said resume requesting including said session key; and

in response to receiving said resume request;

establishing a second session on a computer system;

retrieving the session image using the session key; and

using the session image to restore the session state of the first session within the second session.

7. The method of claim 6, further including the steps of

the application receiving the session key;

and

the application subsequently transmitting the resume request.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the step of storing the session image includes persistently storing the session image in a session repository; and

the step of retrieving includes retrieving the session image from the session repository using the session key.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein establishing a second session on a computer system includes establishing a second session on a second server that resides on a different computer than a computer that hosts the first server.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein said first server is a database server and said first session and said second session are database sessions.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of said application transmitting a suspend request is performed in response to end-user input indicating that said first session may be suspended.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of said application transmitting a suspend request is performed in response to the application determining to suspend the first session based on usage of the first session by the application.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein said resume request is transmitted by said application.

19. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

20. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

21. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

22. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

23. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

24. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

25. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

26. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.