Transaction Sticky Load Balance Policies

• US 20110066672A1
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Stansberry, Brian Edward, Zamarreño, Galder
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

A transaction sticky load balance policy allows a remote client to choose a target server node from a server cluster to provide a transaction service. The load balance policy directs invocations of business methods within a transaction to the same target server node. The remote client receives the load balance policy from a proxy, which is downloaded to the remote client from one of the server nodes in the server cluster. The remote client selects a target server node according to the load balance policy. The remote client then invokes the business methods within a transaction on the target server node via the proxy. The target server node can execute all of the business methods within the transaction on a Java virtual machine. The business methods can be implemented with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a server node in a server cluster, a configuration indicating a load balance policy for choosing a target server node in the server cluster to provide a transaction service, wherein the load balance policy directs invocations of business methods within a transaction to a same target server node;

downloading, from the server node, a proxy to a remote client, the proxy containing the load balance policy; and

receiving, at the server node, the invocations of the business methods within the transaction from the remote client via the proxy.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing all of the business methods within the transaction on a Java virtual machine on the server node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the business methods are implemented with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration includes a first configuration of a Management Bean (MBean) that manages the transaction service and a second configuration of EJBs that implement the business methods used in the transaction service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the load balance policy directs invocations of all business methods within a next transaction to a different server node in the server cluster.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the load balance policy includes one of the following:

transaction sticky round robin, transaction sticky first available, transaction sticky first available all proxies, or transaction sticky random robin.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, by a client machine, a target server node in a server cluster according to a load balance policy in response to a request to a transaction, the server cluster including a plurality of server nodes, each server node providing a transaction service; and

according to the load balance policy, invoking, by the client machine, business methods within the transaction on the target server node to cause the business methods within the transaction to be executed by a Java virtual machine on the target server node.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the business methods are implemented with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the load balance policy directs invocations of all business methods within a next transaction to a different server node in the server cluster.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, at the client machine, a proxy including the load balance policy from one of the server nodes in the server cluster; and

determining the target server node for each transaction using the proxy.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining whether an invocation of each business method is successful; and

in response to a determination that the invocation is unsuccessful, determining a different server node in the server cluster to re-send the invocation.

12. A system comprising:

data storage to store data to be accessed by a Java-based transaction service; and

a cluster of server nodes coupled to the data storage to provide the transaction service to a remote client, each server node to receive a configuration indicative of a load balance policy to be used by the remote client to choose a target server node in the cluster, wherein load balance policy directs invocations of business methods within a transaction to a same target server node, one of the server nodes to download a proxy to the remote client, the proxy to contain the load balance policy.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the business methods are implemented with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the proxy determines a different server node in the cluster for the remote client when a new transaction starts.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the proxy re-sends an invocation of a business method to a different server node in the cluster in response to a determination that a prior invocation was unsuccessful.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the configuration includes a first configuration of a Management Bean (MBean) that manages the transaction service and a second configuration of EJBs that implement the business methods used in the transaction service.

17. A computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a configuration indicating a load balance policy for choosing a target server node in a server cluster to provide a transaction service, wherein the load balance policy directs invocations of business methods within a transaction to a same target server node;

downloading a proxy to a remote client, the proxy containing the load balance policy; and

receiving the invocations of the business methods within the transaction from the remote client via the proxy.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

executing all of the business methods within the transaction on a Java virtual machine on the target server node.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the business methods are implemented with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs).

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the configuration includes a first configuration of a Management Bean (MBean) that manages the transaction service and a second configuration of EJBs that implement the business methods used in the transaction service.