Method, apparatus, and product for leasing of group membership in a distributed system

• US 6,421,704 B1
• Filed: 03/20/1998
• Issued: 07/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Waldo, James H., Wollrath, Ann M., Arnold, Kenneth C. R. C., Scheifler, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Courtenay, III, St. John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van Hoa
• Application Number:
  US09/044,834
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 709/100-108, 709/206-207
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0253 Garbage collection, i.e. reclamation of unreferenced memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0261 using reference counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/417 with deterministic access, e.g. token passing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99957 Garbage collection

Abstract

A system for leasing a group membership in a distributed processing system is provided. In accordance with this system, a remote object requests from an activation group a membership in the activation group for a period of time. Responsive to this request, the activation group determines an appropriate lease period during which time the remote object becomes a member of the activation group and runs in the same address space as other objects of the activation group.

Claims

1. A method in a processing system, comprising the steps of:

receiving a lease request from a remote object, the lease request specifying an activation group of objects and a requested lease period; and

determining a lease period during which the remote object becomes a member of the activation group.

2. A method for managing activation groups in a system, said method comprising the step of:

requesting by a first object a lease for a membership in an activation group; and

granting by the activation group the requested lease for a lease period during which the first object is a member of the activation group.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

notifying a program in the system as to the membership of the first object in the activation group.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the notifying step includes the step of:

the first object providing to the program a lease object provided by the activation group.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

activating the first object in the activation group when a program invokes a method on the first object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the activating step includes the step of:

running the first object in an address space of the activation group.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the activating step includes the step of:

running the first object in an address space of a Java virtual machine associated with the activation group.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the activating step includes the steps of:

invoking by the activation group a method on the first object after the first object is activated.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

deactivating by the activation group the membership of the first object in the activation group when the granted lease expires.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

deactivating by the activation group the membership of the first object in the activation group when the first object cancels the granted lease.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the granting step includes the step of:

the activation group providing to the first object a lease object for managing the granted lease.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the granting step includes the step of:

the activation group providing to the first object a lease object that includes a method for canceling the granted lease.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the granting step includes the step of:

the activation group providing to the first object a lease object that includes a method for renewing the granted lease.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the granting step includes the step of:

the activation group providing to the first object a lease object that includes a method for determining the lease period.

15. A data processing system, comprising:

a memory including;

a first object containing first code that leases a membership in an activation group; and

a first program containing second code that activates the first object in the activation group according to the leased membership; and

a processor for running the first program and the first object.

16. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the activation group contains third code that determines a lease period during which the first object is a member of the activation group.

17. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the activation group contains fourth code that provides the first object with a lease object when the first object leases the membership.

18. The data processing system of claim 17, wherein the lease object includes:

a method for determining by the first object duration of the leased membership.

19. The data processing system of claim 17, wherein the lease object includes:

a method for renewing by the first object the leased membership.

20. The data processing system of claim 17, wherein the lease object includes:

a method for canceling by the first object the lease membership.

21. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein the memory further includes:

a second program that invokes a method on the first object using a remote method invocation.

22. A system, comprising:

a first memory including;

a first object containing first code that leases a membership in an activation group; and

a first program containing second code that activates the first object in the activation group according to the leased membership;

a second memory including;

a second program containing third code that remotely invokes a method on the first object;

a first processor for running the first program and the first object; and

a second processor for running the second program.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the activation group contains fourth code that grants the leased membership to the first object.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the activation group contains fifth code that provides a lease object to the first object when the activation group grants the leased membership to the first object.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the first object contains sixth code that invokes a method on the lease object for determining duration of the leased membership.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the first object contains sixth code that invokes a method on the lease object for renewing the lease.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the first object contains sixth code that invokes a method on the lease object for canceling the lease.

28. An apparatus, comprising:

a requesting means for leasing a membership for an object in an activation group; and

an activation means for activating the object in the activation group according to the leased membership when a method is invoked on the object.

29. A computer-readable memory device encoded with a data structure for managing an activation group in a system, the data structure comprising:

a first object including;

a first method for determining duration of a lease during which a second object is a member of the activation group;

a second method for canceling the lease by the second object when the second object completes membership in the activation group; and

a third method for renewing the lease by the second object when the lease is near expiration.

30. A computer-readable memory device encoded with a data structure for joining an activation group in a system, the data structure comprising:

an indication of a period of time for which an object in the system requests a lease for membership in the activation group; and

an identifier identifying the activation group.

31. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a data processing system to perform a method, the data processing system including a first object, an activation group, and a program, said method comprising the steps of:

the first object requesting from the activation group a lease for membership in the activation group;

the activation group granting the lease for a lease period;

the program activating the first object in the activation group for the lease period.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises the step of:

the program deactivating the first object in the activation group when the lease period expires.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the granting step includes the step of:

determining by the activation group the lease period during which the first object is a member of the activation group.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the granting step includes the step of:

the activation group providing to the first object a lease object that includes code for managing the leased membership by the first object.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the activating step includes the step of:

running the first object in address space of the activation group such that other objects in the activation group directly access the first object.

36. A method for managing activation groups in a system, said method comprising the steps of:

an object requesting from an activation group a lease for a membership in the activation group;

the object receiving from the activation group code that grants the lease to the object; and

the object managing the granted lease by invoking the code.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising the step of:

activating the object in the activation group according to the granted lease when a method is remotely invoked on the object.

38. A method for managing activation groups in a system, said method comprising the steps of:

an activation group receiving from an object a request for a lease for a membership in the activation group;

the activation group granting the lease to the object for a lease period; and

the activation group activating the object in the activation group when a program invokes a method on the object.

39. A method for managing activation groups in a system, wherein each activation group includes a plurality of related objects sharing a unique address space of a Java virtual machine, said method comprising:

requesting by a first object a lease for a membership in a first activation group; and

granting by the first activation group, the lease for a lease period, during which the first object is a member of the first activation group, wherein in granting the lease, the activation group sends a lease object to the first object.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the first object is a member of a second activation group when requesting a lease from the first activation group.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein an activation daemon makes the first object a member of an daemon activation group when the first object cancels the lease and ends its membership in the first activation group.