Load balancer management

• US 20070011685A1
• Filed: 07/08/2005
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Meltzer, Adam, Yim, Wing
• Granted Patent: US 7,590,989 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

Load balancer management is described herein. In one implementation a load balancer system includes servers for hosting content on a network site, disparate load balancers that manage the servers to substantially balance data communications across the servers, and a load balancer management service which includes an application program interface (API) that provides for universal communication with the different interfaces of the disparate load balancers. Each of the disparate load balancers may be controlled via a different interface. The API is configured to receive an instruction set to manage the disparate load balancers, and to communicate the instruction set as translated instruction sets to each of the disparate load balancers via the respective different interfaces. The load balancer management service can be implemented as a Web-based service.

Claims

1. A load balancer system, comprising:

servers configured to host content for a network site;

disparate load balancers each configured to manage data communications for one or more of the servers such that data communications are substantially balanced across the servers, each of the disparate load balancers further configured to be controlled via a different interface;

a load balancer management service including an application program interface (API) that provides for universal communication with the different interfaces of the disparate load balancers, the API configured to receive an instruction set to manage the disparate load balancers, and further configured to communicate the instruction set as translated instruction sets to each of the disparate load balancers via the respective different interfaces.

2. A load balancer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the load balancer management service is implemented as a Web-based service.

3. A load balancer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the load balancer management service includes a graphical user interface via which a user can enter the instruction set to manage each of the disparate load balancers via the respective different interfaces.

4. A load balancer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the load balancer management service is implemented as a Web-based service, and wherein a user can utilize the Web-based service to develop a custom application configured to communicate with the different interfaces via the API to manage the disparate load balancers.

5. A load balancer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the load balancer management service is implemented as a Web-based service, and wherein a user can utilize the Web-based service to develop a custom graphical user interface to communicate with the different interfaces via the API to manage the disparate load balancers.

6. A load balancer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the load balancer management service includes translation modules configured to translate the instruction set received by the API into the translated instruction sets that are each recognized by a different interface of a respective disparate load balancer.

7. A load balancer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the servers are Web servers and the network site is a Web-site, wherein the load balancer management service is implemented as a Web-based service, and wherein the Web-based service includes a graphical user interface via which a user can manage the Web servers through the disparate load balancers via the API of the load balancer management service.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving a unified instruction set to manage disparate load balancers via an application program interface (API) of a load balancer management service, each of the disparate load balancers being controlled via a different interface;

translating the unified instruction set into translated instruction sets that each correspond to a different one of the different interfaces such that each different interface processes a different translated instruction set to control a respective disparate load balancer; and

communicating the translated instruction sets to each of the disparate load balancers via the respective different interfaces to collectively manage the disparate load balancers.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising managing Web servers via the disparate load balancers in accordance with the unified instruction set such that data processing and data communications are substantially balanced across the Web servers.

10. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising managing Web servers via the disparate load balancers in accordance with the unified instruction set by at least one of taking a Web server off-line or placing a Web server on-line.

11. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein translating the unified instruction set includes processing the unified instruction set with translation modules to generate the translated instruction sets which are formatted for communication to the different interfaces to collectively manage the respective disparate load balancers.

12. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising implementing the load balancer management service as a Web-based service which is accessible via an internet to collectively manage the disparate load balancers with the unified instruction set.

13. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising implementing a graphical user interface of the load balancer management service via which a user can enter the unified instruction set to manage the disparate load balancers via the API.

14. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising implementing a graphical user interface of the load balancer management service via which a user can develop-a custom automation script to manage the disparate load balancers via the API.

15. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising implementing a graphical user interface of the load balancer management service via which a user can develop a custom graphical user interface to manage the disparate load balancers via the API.

16. One or more computer readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a load balancer management service to:

receive instructions to manage a group of dissimilar model load balancers via an application program interface (API) that is implemented as a Web-based service, each of the dissimilar model load balancers implemented with a different interface configured to respond to a different set of interface commands;

process the instructions received via the API to translate the instructions into the different sets of interface commands apposite the different interfaces, each different set of interface commands translated for use by a dissimilar model load balancer;

communicate each of the different set of interface commands to the corresponding dissimilar model load balancer via the respective different interfaces to collectively manage and control the dissimilar model load balancers.

17. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct the load balancing management service to implement a graphical user interface via which a user can manage the dissimilar model load balancers to substantially balance data processing and data communications across servers that are controlled by the dissimilar model load balancers.

18. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct the load balancer management service to implement a graphical user interface via which a user can develop at least one of a custom automation script or a custom graphical user interface to manage the group of dissimilar model load balancers.

19. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct the load balancer management service to manage servers that are each controlled by one or more of the dissimilar model load balancers via the API of the load balancer management service.

20. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct the load balancer management service to translate the instructions into the different sets of interface commands with translation modules that each correspond to a different one of the different interfaces of the respective dissimilar model load balancers.