Configuration manager in enterprise computing system

• US 7,526,479 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2003
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Zenz, Ingo
• Primary Examiner(s): Pardo; Thuy N
• Application Number:
  US10/749,957
• Publication Number:
  US 20050144610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,946 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103.Y, 707/104.1, 707/8, 707/10, 707/201, 707/203, 707/204, 707/205, 707/103.X, 709/203, 709/227, 709/205, 709/223, 709/221, 709/220, 717/174, 713/2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/505 Clust
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A system and method are described for managing a plurality of application servers. In one embodiment, the application servers are organized into groups referred to as “instances.” Each instance includes a group of redundant application servers and a dispatcher for distributing service requests to each of the application servers. A group of instances may be organized as a “cluster.” Each server includes a configuration manager to facilitate changes to configuration information within the cluster. The configuration manager may include a configuration cache and monitor its consistency with respect to other instances within the cluster.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing a configuration for a distributed environment, which includes a first node, in a central storage of the distributed environment; and

updating a portion of the configuration by the first node in the distributed environment, the first node separate from the central storage, wherein updating comprises;

acquiring a lock for the portion of the configuration by the first node in the distributed environment;

modifying the portion of the configuration;

invalidating a representation of the portion of the configuration in the distributed environment;

releasing the lock;

updating a database at the central storage to reflect modifications of the portion of the configuration; and

blocking reads of the configuration from the database during the updating.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein updating further comprises:

notifying nodes in the distributed environment that the configuration has been updated.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the lock is cluster wide.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein updating further comprises:

writing changes to a shared database at the central storage.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying comprises:

changing a configuration object in a branch of a tree structure.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein invalidating comprises:

sending a cache invalidation event to another node in the cluster.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein invalidating comprises:

sending a message to a plurality of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) nodes.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein updating further comprises:

notifying a registered listener at a second node that the configuration has been changed, the second node separate from the first node and the central storage.

9. A system comprising:

a plurality of nodes each having an instance of a configuration manager to maintain consistent storage of a configuration across the nodes without passing configuration modifications between the nodes, a node in the plurality of nodes to update a portion of the configuration by;

acquiring a lock for the portion of the configuration by the node;

modifying the portion of the configuration;

invalidating a representation of the portion of the configuration;

releasing the lock;

updating a shared relational database to reflect modifications of the portion of the configuration; and

blocking reads of the configuration during update;

a locking server shared by the plurality of nodes to coordinate access to the configuration; and

a database management system to provide an interface with the shared relational database, the shared relational database to store the configuration.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the configuration manager comprises:

a configuration cache; and

a configuration handler.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the configuration manager further comprises:

a persistency handler.

12. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

a configuration handler to permit access to and modification of the configuration.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the configuration comprises:

a plurality of persistent objects holding information about a Java 2 enterprise edition cluster.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein some of the persistent objects are cacheable.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the configuration manager comprises:

a change event listener to notify registered components of configuration change events.

16. A computer readable storage media containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method comprising:

storing a configuration for a distributed environment, which includes a first node, in a central storage of the distributed environment; and

updating a portion of the configuration by the first node in the distributed environment, the first node separate from the central storage, wherein updating comprises;

acquiring a lock for the portion of the configuration by the first node in the distributed environment;

modifying the portion of the configuration;

invalidating a representation of the portion of the configuration in the distributed environment;

releasing the lock;

updating a database at the central storage to reflect modifications of the portion of the configuration; and

blocking reads of the configuration from the database during the updating.

17. The computer readable storage media of claim 16 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating comprises:

notifying nodes in the distributed environment that the configuration has been updated.

18. The computer readable storage media of claim 16 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating further comprises:

changing the configuration locally;

writing the changes to a shared database at the central storage; and

committing the changes.

19. The computer readable storage media of claim 16 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein invalidating comprises:

sending a cache invalidation event to another node in the cluster.

20. The computer readable storage media of claim 16 containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform the method wherein updating comprises:

notifying a registered listener at a second node that the configuration has been changed, the second node separate from the first node and the central storage.

21. A system comprising:

means for maintaining consistent storage of configuration information in a distributed environment;

means for controlling write access to the configuration information by nodes of the distributed environment;

means for interfacing with a relational database system to provide persistent storage of the configuration information; and

means for updating a portion of the configuration information by the nodes of the distributed environment, the nodes separate from the relational database system, wherein updating comprises;

acquiring a lock for the portion of the configuration information by the nodes of the distributed environment;

modifying the portion of the configuration information;

invalidating a representation of the portion of the configuration information in the distributed environment;

releasing the lock;

updating the relational database system to reflect modifications of the portion of the configuration information; and

blocking reads of the configuration information during the updating.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the configuration information comprises:

a plurality of persistent objects holding information about a Java 2 Enterprise Edition cluster.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the means for maintaining comprises:

a configuration cache resident in each node of the distributed environment; and

a configuration handler resident in each node of the distributed environment.