Reliable, secure and scalable infrastructure for event registration and propagation in a distributed enterprise

• US 7,657,450 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2000
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Amit, Neta J., Frank, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sheikh; Asfand M
• Application Number:
  US09/733,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20020116248A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,343 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 707/4, 707/5, 709/101, 709/102, 709/203, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 719/318
• US Class Current: 705/7.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/546 Xcast
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A trigger engine and infrastructure for event registration and handling that is reliable, secure and scalable. Transactional authenticated and/or encrypted messages (e.g., via MSMQ) are used to transport events across each server. A stable recovery mechanism is provided wherein the recovery path is nearly identical to the normal path. A trigger engine may concentrate multiple similar requests into a single base request for event notification, and upon receipt of the base event, access tables maintained in the trigger engine to track which client registered for which type of notification. In this manner, only the base event request is registered remotely, reducing the number of events that need to be communicated to remote servers. Identical event requests from clients may also be concentrated into a base event request, and events distributed to those clients when appropriate. Duplicate base event requests are blocked locally and thus only the first such one ever reaches the remote server. The trigger engines are capable of combining events in a complex manner, such as to notify a client only when a combination of time events, job events and/or other events have occurred, thus being suitable for use in a batch system.

Claims

1. A system for notifying clients of job-related event instances, comprising:

a first trigger engine, implemented in a first computing device of the system, configured to register event requests, including a first event request from a first client and a second event request from a second client, and to combine the first event request and the second event request into a single base event request;

a second trigger engine, implemented in the first computing device or a second computing device of the system, configured to communicate with the first trigger engine to receive a registration of the single base event request at the second trigger engine, the first trigger engine being configured to not communicate the first event request and the second event request to the second trigger engine in order to reduce a number of events to be remotely communicated, and the second trigger engine being further configured to receive notification of an event instance corresponding to a base event occurring at an event source; and

upon receipt of the notification of the event instance, the second trigger engine communicating data indicative of the event instance to the first trigger engine, the first trigger engine being configured to determine to which of the first event request and the second event request the event instance corresponds,

wherein if the event instance corresponds to the first event request, then the first trigger engine notifies the first client of the event instance, and

wherein if the event instance corresponds to the second event request, then the first trigger engine notifies the second client of the event instance.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the data indicative of the event instance is provided in an event object.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine and the second trigger engine are each a proxy of a switchbox component.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine and the second trigger engine communicate over a network connection.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine has a least one data structure for determining which ones of the event requests correspond to particular base event requests.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine is a client of the second trigger engine, and wherein the second trigger engine has a least one data structure for determining which ones of the event requests correspond to particular event instances.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first event request or the second event request corresponds to a job.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the first trigger engine is associated with a job scheduler component.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the second trigger engine is associated with a job dispatcher component.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine is associated with a job scheduler component, and wherein the job scheduler component includes at least one data structure for maintaining information corresponding to event-triggered criteria for a pending job.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the event-triggered criteria include a time event.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the event-triggered criteria include a job event corresponding to a completion status of at least one other job.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the event-triggered criteria are arranged as clauses of atoms, each of the atoms corresponding to a request.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine communicates with the second trigger engine via a reliable protocol.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the first trigger engine communicates with the second trigger engine via a message queuing service.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first trigger engine or the second trigger engine includes a recovery process.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first event request or the second event request corresponds to a job, and wherein the first trigger engine is hosted by a job scheduler component.

18. The system of claim 1 further comprising an access checking mechanism.

19. In a computer network, a method for notifying clients of events, comprising:

receiving, at a first trigger engine, of a first computing device, a first event request from a first client, the first event request corresponding to a first event on a remote server, the first event request including information specific to the first event request;

receiving, at the first trigger engine, a second event request from a second client, the second event request corresponding to a second event on the remote server, the second request including information specific to the second event request;

maintaining, at the first trigger engine, information specific to each of the first event request and the second event request;

combining, at the first trigger engine, the first event request and the second event request into a single base event request;

registering, by the first trigger engine, the single base event request and not the first event request and the second event request at a second trigger engine of the remote server in order to reduce a number of events remotely communicated;

receiving, by the first trigger engine from the second trigger engine, notification of an instance of a base event, the notification including event-specific information about the instance of the base event;

analyzing, by the first trigger engine, the event-specific information to determine to which of the first event request and the second event request the instance of the base event corresponds;

notifying, by the first trigger engine, the first client if the event-specific information corresponds to the information specific to the first event request; and

notifying, by the first trigger engine, the second client if the event-specific information corresponds to the information specific to the second event request.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising running a job in response to receiving a notification at the first client.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising, maintaining criteria for running a job, determining if a notification received by the first client satisfies the criteria, and if so, running the job.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein running the job includes providing job information to a job dispatcher.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the job dispatcher causes the job to be run on an agent.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising, receiving event information corresponding to completion of the job.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising running another job upon receipt of the event information corresponding to the completion of the job.

26. The method of claim 19 further comprising running a recovery process.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the recovery process comprises a series of operations.

28. The method of claim 19 further comprising performing at least one access check.