Server-Side Connection Resource Pooling

• US 20080228923A1
• Filed: 03/12/2008
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Itikarlapalli, Krishna Mohan, Krishnaswamy, Srinath, Chidambaran, Lakshminarayanan, Neel, Kevin, Seshadri, Sreekumar K., Giloni, Jonathan, McKinley, Scot, Thammaiah, Ravi
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,186 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services

Abstract

A server side connection pool provides pooling of server connections. Thus, client side processes do not create groups of dedicated resources. Clients are provided the capability to communicate to a server side connection broker process to GET a pooled server connection comprising connection state plus a thread of execution for doing some work, whereby requesting the work can bypass the connection broker process and go directly to the assigned pooled connection. Once the client issues a RELEASE to release the pooled connection back to the pool, a completely different client process on potentially a different client middle tier machine can reuse the same pooled connection. The server-side connection pool can be logically partitioned into sub-pools that correspond to connection classes that typically correspond to respective applications. A client process can request a pooled connection having a particular state, where a stored procedure can be executed to generate such state.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a connection broker for a server from a client process, a request for a server connection to said server, via a network transport connection between the client process and the connection broker;

in response to said request, said connection broker selecting a server connection from a pool of server connections, wherein said server connection comprises a thread of execution;

associating said server connection with said client process, wherein associating said server connection includes handing-off the network transport connection from the client to the connection broker to the server connection;

receiving, at said server connection and from said client process via said network transport connection, a request for one or more server operations, wherein said request for one or more server operations does not pass through said connection broker; and

said server connection performing said one or more server operations and returning a corresponding result to said client process via said network transport connection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after said result is returned, said client process releasing said server connection to said pool and causing said connection broker to listen for further requests via said network transport connection.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said pool is logically partitioned into a plurality of sub-pools, and wherein each sub-pool is associated with a respective connection class.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said request for a server connection is a first request for a server connection and is received from a first client process associated with a particular application, said method further comprising:

receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with said particular application, a second request for a server connection to said server, wherein said second request identifies a particular connection class;

in response to said second request and based on said particular connection class, said connection broker selecting a server connection from a particular sub-pool associated with said particular connection class; and

associating said server connection from said particular sub-pool with said second client process.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said request for a server connection is a first request for a server connection and is received from a first client process associated with a particular application, said method further comprising:

associating with said server connection a particular connection class that corresponds to said particular application;

after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with said particular application, a second request for a server connection to said server, wherein said second request identifies said particular connection class; and

in response to said second request and based on said particular connection class, associating said server connection with said second client process.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said requests for a server connection and for one or more server operations are received from a first client process associated with a first application, said method further comprising:

said connection broker receiving, via said network transport connection, a second request for one or more server operations;

determining that said second request is from the said first client process associated with said first application based on said second request arriving via said network transport connection;

associating said server connection with said first client process without receiving from said first client process an explicit request for a server connection to said server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said server connection is associated with a corresponding server connection state data structure with which server connection state is maintained for said server connection.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said request for a server connection is a first request for a server connection and is received from a first client process associated with a particular application, and wherein after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, said server connection state data structure represents a first server connection state of said server connection, said method further comprising:

receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with said particular application, a second request for a server connection to said server; and

in response to said second request, associating said server connection with said second client process, wherein said server connection state data structure represents said first server connection state of said server connection.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said request for a server connection is a first request for a server connection and is received from a first client process associated with a particular application, and wherein after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, said server connection state data structure represents a first server connection state of said server connection, said method further comprising:

receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with said particular application, a second request for a server connection to said server, wherein said second request comprises a request for a server connection having an initialization server connection state;

in response to said second request, said server connection modifying said server connection state data structure to represent an initialization server connection state; and

associating said server connection with said second client process, wherein said server connection is associated with said server connection state data structure that represents said initialization server connection state and said server connection still comprises said thread of execution.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said request for a server connection is a first request for a server connection and is received from a first client process associated with a particular application, and wherein after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, said server connection state data structure represents a first server connection state of said server connection, said method further comprising:

receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with said particular application, a second request for a connection to said server, wherein said second request comprises a request for a server connection having a second server connection state that is different from said first server connection state;

in response to said second request, said server connection modifying said server connection state data structure to represent said second server connection state by executing a stored machine-executable procedure associated with said particular application; and

associating said server connection with said second client process.

11. The method of claim 1,

via said network transport connection, said connection broker receiving a certain message from said client process for a server operation;

and

wherein a second message is piggybacked to said certain message, said second message requesting a server connection for said client process.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

said connection broker associating a network connection state with said network transport connection;

said server connection handing-off said network transport connection to said connection broker;

said connection broker receiving via said network transport connection a certain request from said client process for a server operation; and

said connection broker selecting a certain server connection for said client process based on said network connection state.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein said pool is logically partitioned into a plurality of sub-pools;

and

wherein the steps further include selecting, based on said network connection state, a sub-pool from which to select a server connection to associate with the said client process.

14. The method of claim 1, further including:

via said network transport connection, said connection broker receiving a certain message from said client process for a server operation; and

wherein a second message is piggybacked to said certain message, said second message requesting to release a server connection for said client process.

15. The method of claim 1, further including in response to a period of time elapsing without receiving a request for a certain operation from said client, reclaiming said server connection for said client process.

16. The method of claim 1, further including receiving from said client process a certain message via a one way remote procedure call, said message requesting to release said server connection.

17. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving a release message from said client process to release said server connection,

in response to receiving said certain message, retaining;

said association between said client process and said server connection.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of retaining includes retaining cached state that corresponds to the tight coupling between said client and said server connection.

19. The method of claim 16, further including:

reclaiming said server connection that was retained; and

subsequent to reclaiming, receiving a certain message from said client process to perform a server operation; and

in response to receiving said certain message, returning another message indicating that said server connection is not associated with said client process.

20. A method comprising:

receiving, at a server connection broker and from a first client process associated with a first machine, a first request for a server connection to a server on a first network transport connection;

in response to said first request, said connection broker selecting a server connection from a pool of server connection, wherein said server connection comprises a thread of execution;

associating said server connection with said first client process;

after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with a second machine, a second request for a server connection to said server on a second network transport connection, wherein said second machine is a different machine from said first machine;

in response to said second request, said connection broker associating said server connection with said second client process;

receiving, at said server and from said second client process via said network transport connection, a request for one or more server operations; and

said server performing said one or more server operations using said server connection and returning a corresponding result to said second client process via said network transport connection.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said request for one or more server operations does not pass through said connection broker.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein said pool is logically partitioned into a plurality of sub-pools, and wherein each sub-pool is associated with a respective connection class that corresponds to a respective application.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said request for a server connection is a first request for a connection and is received from a first client process associated with a particular application, said method further comprising:

receiving, at said connection broker and from a second client process associated with said particular application, a second request for a server connection to said server, wherein said second request identifies a particular connection class that corresponds to said particular application;

in response to said second request and based on said particular connection class, said connection broker selecting a server connection from a particular sub-pool associated with said particular connection class; and

associating said server connection from said particular sub-pool with said second client process.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein said requests for a connection and for one or more server operations are received from a first client process associated with a first application, said method further comprising:

said connection broker receiving, via said network transport connection, a second request for one or more server operations;

determining that said second request is from a second client process associated with said first application based on said second request arriving via said network transport connection;

associating said server connection with said second client process without receiving from said second client process an explicit request for a server connection to said server.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein said server connection is associated with a corresponding server connection state data structure with which server connection state is maintained for said server connection.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said first client process and said second client process are associated with a particular application, and wherein after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, said server connection state data structure represents a first server connection state of said server connection, and

wherein said associating said server connection with said second client process comprises associating said server connection, having said server connection state data structure representing said first connection state, with said second client process.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein said first client process and said second client process are associated with a particular application, and wherein after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, said server connection state data structure represents a first server connection state of said server connection, and wherein said second request comprises a request for a server connection having an initialization server connection state, said certain step further comprising:

in response to said second request, said server connection modifying said server connection state data structure to represent an initialization connection state; and

wherein said associating said server connection with said second client process comprises associating said server connection, having said server connection state data structure representing said initialization server connection state, with said second client process; and

wherein said server connection still comprises said thread of execution.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein said first client process and said second client process are associated with a particular application, and wherein after said first client process releases said server connection back to said pool, said server connection state data structure represents a first server connection state of said server connection, and wherein said second request comprises a request for a server connection having a second server connection state that is different from said first server connection state;

in response to said second request, said server connection modifying said server connection state data structure to represent said second server connection state by executing a stored machine-executable procedure associated with said particular application; and

wherein said associating said server connection with said second client process comprises associating said server connection, having said server connection state data structure representing said second server connection state, with said second client process.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said machine executable procedure is provided by said particular application.