Remote dynamic configuration of a web server to provide capacity demand

------־־־:־ REMOTE DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION OF A WEB SERVER TO

FACILITATE CAPACITY ON DEMAND

Field of the Invention

The inventionrelates to the field of network services and in particular to the remote and dynamic configuration of a server to facilitate capacity on demand.

Background of the Invention

Many companies offer hosting services to provide customers with: a secure,’ robust and flexible infrastructure in which, to host a variety of applications for example web applications such as on-line banking, on-line 15 shopping, information services and hosting, service such as 'pay for used, capacity׳ which,. enable a customer to only .pay for the processing power , that they use and allows the customer to deploy the most up-to-date equipment in a cost effective maimer. Hosting services provide many . businesses with an alternative solution to building and running their 20 . . technology infrastructure in-house by tapping into computer systems. in other company's data centers to provide the management of software applications and hardware resources . such as servers. The management and administration of these servers and services provide a tremendous challenge to many hosting companies, as a key problem with the management 25 and administration of the servers within an environment such as a server farm is the rigid infrastructure and architecture of the servers due to the definition of roles the servers play in relation to the data the . servers are publishing'.

The rigid allocation of a resource to.for example,. a web server which., supports a particular customer's product can.result in an under utilized .yet expensive web server resource not being used to it'sfull capability, while other web servers supporting other, products are stretched to the point of breaking. Further today's current state of the art web server.

.;., software is '.complex and flexible and can be configured and extended through Application Protocol Interfaces (API) to facilitate powerful .

/. processing beyond the’standard serving of basic Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) .pages'. However current deployment practices and technologies require that the. web servers'are configured manually using either _; configuration files or binary registries.and thus remain static during : their operation, handling requests for a specific website or websites.׳ . When an׳ additional or a different resource for a particular HTML page, or'.a.

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' ' : 2 ; . , .. ל different web siteURL needs publishing or a need arises for a new server to be added to, or removed from a server pool, the. servers must; be restarted for any change to take effect. This requires a tremendous .

.. administration effort. on the part of the server, farm administrator because 5 it takes a considerable amount of time to manually configure a server and it is not always convenient to shut down a server and' restart the server to allow for; any changes to take effect .as. this can cause loss of־ service for a period of time.

US patent application publication US 2002/0002602 . (2602) describes a system for serving web pages to a client.in response to a client request specifying a resource that, aims to., serve a web page in a coordinated fashion from multiple cooperating web servers and maintaining a reliable connection so that the server and clients remain synchronized and . .

information is not lost.׳ In order for the above to take place such that a web.server processes a URL and associates the URL with a data source,, the .-. web server will require manual intervention and the web server will have to be shut down and; restarted for the changes to take effect.

Disclosure of the Invention

In accordance with the present invention there is now provided a method for the remote and dynamic configuration of a server to facilitate capacity on demand comprising the steps of: (a) a client device requesting 25 ^s a resource from a first server in a communications network; (b)the first server receiving the request for the'resource from the. client device; (c) the first server routing the client request for the.resource to a dynamic content module, the dynamic content module identifying an available third server from which the requested resource can be served and routing the 30 requested resource to the client device; (d) collating performance data from the first and third server and the first server reporting the performance data to a second'server; (e). ׳ a second server analysing the. .. performance data collated in.step (d) to determine performance capabilities of the first andthe third server and identifying if the;.

. . .first or. the. third .'server has reached a predetermined threshold; and (f) the second server adjusting the allocation of the first server or the . . third server in.response to; step ,.(e) and issuing a configuration, update instruction for the. first server or. the third server to a dynamic configuration moduleof the first server and determining if a resource 40 ;update is successful. .

The present invention advantageously allows for the optimisation of a . .. , servers performance such that a server can be allocated or deallocated.

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from a server pool depending onthe server's performance for example if a server is .stretched to capacity or equally if a server is Under utilised.

Further using modular autonomic, computing components the system is able to configure, and'reconfigure itself under varying and unpredictable ׳ .5 conditions. Further the method allows for making ׳a change to a hardware resource or a data'resource without the need for the server to be. restarted as with other prior art systems. . ׳.

Preferably the invention provides.for. the dynamic content module

10. requesting a connection configuration.file for the third server from the .dynamic configuration module. This allows for the first server to. . .

.determine which data source server has the resource requested by the \ client.. . . .''/י.'..׳ . . ' , , . ' ' ' ' ' ' ' . , .

Preferably the invention provides for the adjusting of the allocation or deallocation .of one or both the first server and the third server from a : .free server pool or to a free server resource pool.. The present invention can therefore monitor a servers, performance and either add an additional ' ' ., resource or de-allocate a resource depending on the work.load of the.

server..

Preferably the invention provides for the requested resource being decoupled from the first server allowing the introduction of a new service. ״

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Viewed from another aspect the present invention provides a .system for the remote and dynamic configuration of a server to facilitate capacity on demand, the system comprising׳ a client device for requesting and receiving a resource in.a communications, network, the. system further comprising.:.

.:.'. . ' י י .'.'' . '..' . . ׳ ׳ , a first, server, the first server comprising a'dynamic content module, a .

dynamic configuration module and a reporting module; means for routing׳ the .!

. client request' for the resource to the.dynamic, content module; meansfor' the dynamic content module identifying a third.server- from which the . ׳,

35. . .requested resource .can be served and means ,.for retrieving a connection׳' configuration file associated with the third server stored in the-dynamic ' .’ configuration module; means for the reporting module collating performance data from the first server and the third server and means for routing the performance data to a second server;: /..׳:׳.'' . .’׳ ^:. . , .40 .a second server comprising an analyser module,' a resource׳allocation module and a.resource update .module, the second server sending the . performance data to the analyser module; means for the analyser module . GB020049 י.'¹

; י' . ... / .: - ר׳ .'. 4. ' , י. . . י. י' ' י י ' determining the .performance capabilities: of'the first server and'the” third server and means for identifying if the first server and third server has reached a predetermined threshold; means for the resource allocation , moduleadjusting the. allocation of one or both the first server and the . third server in response to the identifying means; means for the resource update module issuing an.configuration update instructionfor one or both the first server and the third .server to the dynamic configuration module of the first server and means for determining if a resource update is; successful; and a third server comprising one or more resources and means ׳ for the third server to serve a requested resource to the first server. '

A another advantage is that.an HTTP.URL can be processed by a server and associated with a remote'data source, without the need for the server to be restarted or requiring manual intervention. A further advantage of.the .

. present invention is. the secure and centralised administration for the dynamic plug and play of data sources and hardware׳ resources such- that a web sitecan be served 'on the fly׳. Another advantage of the present invention is for the provision of multiple protocol support for other mechanisms such as FTP, XML, SOAP and file sharing.,

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Brief description of the drawings .The invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference • to the .accompanying drawings, in which:

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Figure 1 illustrates a server farm in which the present invention may be ׳ implemented in accordance with a preferred embodiment of׳ the.present invention;.

Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram detailing an overview of the .

components of the system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the., present‘ invention; . ;

Figure 3 illustrates..a flowchart detailing the function of the'dynamic, ;< 35 content module of the web server of Figure .2' in׳ accordance with'a- . preferred embodiment’of the present invention; :

Figure 4 illustrates a flowchart detailing the function .Of the reporting module of the web server of. Figure 2 in accordance with :a preferred . embodiment of the present invention; . . . .

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Figure 5 illustrates a flowchart detailing the function of.the analyser ' • module of the management server of Figure 2 in accordance with a preferred' embodiment.of the present invention;

Figure 6 illustrates a flowchart detailing the function of. the resource allocation module of the management server of Figure 2 in accordance with a preferred.: embodiment of the present invention;.','and . ; / :

Figure 7 illustrates a flowchart detailing the function of resource update 10 . module of themanagement server of Figure 2 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. . /

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the Invention .

. Figure 1 illustrates a server farm.in.which the.present invention may.be. ...

implemented. The server farm'includes a plurality of client.devices 100 . and 105 which are connected to. a network such as the Internet 110. The client devices 100. and 105 perform׳ transactions:by sending and receiving requests for a resource over the network 110. Routers 115 and 120 provide a connection between the network 110 and the local area network (LAN) 125 .

•'which could be a high speed Ethernet network or any other suitable' transmission medium or topology. The- routers115 and 120.receive an// : incoming request and forward the request, over a network 135 to a יי router/firewall 130 which, filters' the request to a', server 145 to 155 . The / 25/ present invention.embodies a management server 140 for the central control point for-servers. 145 to 155/The servers 140 to 155 may implement one.or ' more server technologies including,׳ for example UNIX which is a registered . trademark of The Open Group in.the United States .and other’ countries,.. Novell which is a registered trademark of Novell Inc in the United States' and other countries,, or Windows NT which is a registered trademark, of Microsoft Corporation in .the.United׳States and other, countries or.both, and/or a peer to peer networking., arrangement ; Although the present . invention has'been described.with, reference to a server farm, the'present / invention could equally be applicable to pervasive'computing environments .-/ as well as ether server networking arrangements:. '/ן'/γ־׳///'׳,I//. '.'';'?.;./'/

Application data is stored.in a data store in one or more data source. ';׳/ / servers. 175 and. 180. which are׳ separate from the servers 140 to 155. A .. .request is sent from' any one of the servers 145 to 155 across a network .

160.' The request is received by a ' router/firewall 165 and routed over..a ..

. further network .170 to the appropriate, data source, server 17.5 and 180

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. . . ., ... . . :., , _; . . _g .. י .:y. . .: ׳ ;ך ::. _: . . . . . ' storing the resource that was requested by one or more client devices 100 and 105.׳ . : Ref erring to Figure '2 ,. a schematic view of the system is shown, The system - 5 . comprises modular autonomic computing components ‘to provide self .

diagnostic capabilities to detect, performance issues with servers 145׳ to 155. Further by using modular components the system is able to provide the 'plug.and play׳ of data sources for. the easy introduction of new services.

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The system comprises a server 145 with a reporting module 205 for . ; collating performance and request data from each server 145 to 15.5 in an. allocated server pool; a dynamic content module 215 which routes the . request for a resource through the most appropriate interface to access a 15 requested resource either using,the native data access .capability of the server 145 to 155 or by establishing and managing the connection to a remoteserver itself; a dynamic configuration module 216. for׳the update, processing and storing of. a configuration, file for each server in the allocated server .pool and a client device. 100 for requesting a resource .

. 20 from-the. server. The configuration file is used to. hold the configuration' ׳ settings for a particular server.'145 to 155 for example a registration key,׳ port settings, .an installation path, authentication settings, user' . settings, SMPT settings, connection settings, web browser settings and log .: in settings. . ' ' ' '²⁵. ׳'.'. Λ י-. י.''.׳' י''.. יי- '. יי. ’ י: י..'. . ’ : .. ' ׳

The. system ;further comprises a management server 1.40 for providing a . ׳ ’ central control point for all servers in an available server ׳.pool; an analyser module 230' for analysing'the performance and;.request data .from ’. thereporting module 205; a resource allocation׳module 235 to determine .־ 30 .whether.there is״a.free resource in the free server resource pool to be . added to the pool, of allocated servers, or 'if necessary to deallocate a: .

. server. arid place, it back in .the free server resource pool.; a resource . : update.module'240 for״ determining׳.whether a resource has been successfully . , I;׳ allocated׳ or deallocated to. or. from the available resource pool and a . .

.'.•35. . --. management, client; 245 for the entry of manual configuration casks into the .

. system., .The management client .245 can .receive administration requests from . . . ׳,.a server administrator.. The management',client functions as a graphical ׳.:. user interface and provides'greater ,flexibility in terms.of .providing connectivity to the management’.'server, for , example providing connectivity .:. . / remotely. in ׳another site via the' Internet using a standard HTTP.connection ׳','., .' between the . servers 145; to 155 .and the management server 140., To. enable . .׳only authorised administrators to make.,configuration changes, an interface; , .—. . . . -. ------:—־־----. .- .. —־־——:-----־“—־־—. . ; ------ך־—., . ..— ...

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7 ' the management server 140 using’an. Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the transport׳ mechanism 220 and 225 over an HTTP session. XML is the.universal' . format, for structured documents and data on the Web. XML uses tags similar . to HTML, and allows data to. be structured.in:a manner that is understood . hy many people. Further information on XML can be.found at the World Wide

Web Consortium׳.׳׳. .־ / / / ;' ' The. client device 100 sends a request for a specific resource to the . // .. . '

- ' . server 145. One such request that may be recieved by a server 145 tc 150 .. is a HTTP URL for example http://www.ibm.com requesting an'HTML page.'To

15.7- ' - allow, the server to translate the HTTP URL, the. server will use a Domain .

. Name Service (DNS) which translates Internet domain names to network ...' addresses .such as .129.42;19.99..The resource could.be a standard HTML page or an .exe file,.' The server 145 receives the request for .the resource from _; .: the client device 100 and’105 and the request.'is. .sent׳ to the dynamic ' content, module; 215. .'..,/

Although Figure 2. illustrates a management server 140 and a server:145, it . should .be appreciated that the system, may comprise .'a plurality of . servers

145 to 155 as shown ir. Figure 1,' each server containing the modules as shown in. Figure 2.

The operation of the dynamic content, module 215 will nowbe explained with . reference, to Figure 3. It should .be noted, that, the ;dotted line in Figure 3 . . ., represents data flow, and the solid single line represents control flow../

The dynamic content module 215 receives the request. for a resource from , .

the client device' at step 300 and compares the content stored, on the .' ׳'.':. .. server 145 with the requested resource at step 305. For example if a.

/'//'./// ,client requested a resource from www.ibm.com/news/today.html, the, dynamic ;

., . content module compares the today.html page stored on .the server with ;the ...\־ .: / :/ . ./-,today.html page: stored on a ^,'source; server to determine if the today.html. . ׳/-: ־ .

• page has been updated.therefore, sending the client device the most .up to • ;’ / ׳:;. date..today.html page. At- step 310 the server determines .whether, the . ־ ; ׳ '־ ׳ .'.

content has been cached, and if the cached content.is current, and:upto • . date at', step 360'. /if: the.cache is. current control flows' to step 355 and. . ־ ' י ' 40 . the requested resource is retrieved, from the content cache store 350,. '. . .

'. . ' equally if the content is not cached,' the_: server which contains the . .

..׳.'.;-, requested resource is identified at. step 3.15 . Further, at step 355 . . /';

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.'J׳'. ..' 'information concerning, the server's ’145 activities is sent to. the .

;’.׳ reporting module 205. The information can include data such as the.number of requests for each resource such as a product, the time it takes the ׳ 1:.'.'־ server to respond or the type of service requested .such as HTTP, or File . . ..

. Transfer Protocol .(FTP) .

,. . .^, To enable’the. server. 145 to identify the; data source server 175 the.server . retrieves the connection configuration, file for the source server at step

325 from a connection, configuration store 320,. Preprocessing is performed ; 10 on the content request at step 330. At step 335 a request is issued to the .

.' -data'source: server ,175 and.'at step-340 the'server. 145. receives, the content ^; ־ • ;. as requested by the client device 300. from the source server. The retrieved content is'.either stored in the^: content cache data store. 350 or . :

. the existing,content is refreshed with-the retrieved content at'step ;345. ; ׳ 15 י.,־ ;..' .. . and stored in the ;content' cache data store 350. '.

Referring back to step 355, information regarding the resource requested

׳.׳ - . . from the client device 100 at step 3C0 along with performance information .

is sent to the reporting module 210'. With reference to Figure 4 the 20 reporting module 205 receives the content information.from, the dynamic /- ' content module' 215 and records .the. information at step. 400. '.These details / are stored in a server statistics, data' store at step 405'and-the server/׳, statistics :response times, number of pages requested, how many times, λ/.’.־.':;’',. what pages, which .server;' server config details and performance data) . . ,25 . associated with׳ each server 145 to 155 .are sent to. the'management server ' . 14C at step 410 via an XML data streams 220. , /.

Referring to Figure 5,. the analyser :module 230 of ;the management server ,.

:. 140 ׳: '־. receives the server, statistics:in the XML. data streams 220 and at step .:. .

7..:.',. ' 30 500 the analyser module 230. analyses the .server .'statistics to determine ., ^;:

׳//: .'. whether .the server 145 to 155.:has reached a predetermined threshold, at /./'׳:/ :׳ ־'. ..' ;.step. 505, if .the; server's, performance has hot reached the predetermined .

/.:.' .://,: threshold; control flows back to step 500, else control flows to step 510 . ;.' ::/,., .; . and the analyser module 230 analyses the server's current configuration .

. . 35 settings and the server/s׳ .׳configuration settings are.;sent־to the .resource. ־״;-:

' '7 י';'''^,.' י : allocation 'module 235 . &lt;;':״ .:;'. : :j ׳i ‘'._; i;'. ,'.&lt;־&lt;'/ : ;'.’'^: &lt;' ; ' : . .' .,. . , Referring to Figure 6 at ,step 50.0, - the,resource -allocation module 2 35 ', יי - ' determines whether a new server should be added to a-current;'pool. οί,7'.'.;״,: ^: , .‘4,0 י. allocated severs 145 'to,155-if the performance threshold.has been exceeded.

F.'.'״- ; ^or i’f::'^a server should be removed from the current pool of allocated _; .׳ servers and returned to the free .resource pool. ־.If^; the:analyser .module 2301׳-״ * . GB020049 .. ,.'י‘ י .<./ ' י ' Τ' . ^: . - .' .' ־ ' . .י '/l. ' V'.'/ /' \ .-'.< '.י'.;; ’ י' ,>'׳ Ν': 'J ⁹?י ' . '-//'.'Υ.

י determines that’ an׳additional server is to. be added, control flows to step. 605 and the resource .allocation module identifies whether there exists a spare resource׳ at step 610/ A.spare resource could be for example an additional server, or equally'some other hardware resource. If a spare ' 5 . . ׳resource can not.be located control flows to step 630 and at step'635 an .exception error is created, and displayed in the management console 245 to alert a technician that the resource update'has failedat step. 635 . Referring, back to,step 610 .if a spare.resource has been located control . flows to step 615 and anew. server is selected and information.regarding 10 . the server's configuration settings, file is requested from the .configuration database 615 of theparticular server 140 to. 155. At step . ' 620 once the configuration setting file has been received, the ' configuration'setting.file. is.updated with.the. current instruction for the selected server and sent to the resource update module'2.40 and the dynamic 15 .configuration module 216 via. XML data streams 225. . .

. -Referring, to Figure 7, at step 700 the configuration update information is. . issued to the dynamic configuration.module 216 of the server 145 via XML .

data streams 225.'׳ The resource update, module 240. waits for.’acknowledgment 20 . from the server 145 at step 710., If a configuration update is successful,' atstep 715 control flows to step 720 .and the configuration .database 730 [is updated. Referring back to step 720. if the acknowledgment from the. . .

server 1.45 is successful control also passes to step 735 and a . . .’ configuration update request for a .load balancing .infrastructure is 25 requested. Equally if at step .720 the update is not. successful control flows to step 745 and an exception handling alert is generated and the resource, update is deemed to have failed at step 750.