KR100819032B1 - Apparatus and method for automatic recovery for web services-based business process - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recovering a web service based business process that has been suspended due to a system error during execution. The present invention relates to an automatic process for automatically recovering a business process based on an execution characteristic of the business process. An attribute setting unit, a storage unit for sequentially recording the execution progress of the process, and a business process automatic recovery unit for retrieving the execution of the process based on the execution progress of the business process by retrieving the predetermined automatic recovery policy; It is configured by. Minimize human involvement in the restoration of web services based business processes and prevent errors that can occur during manual recovery due to process manager's misunderstanding.

System Failure, Web Service, Business Process, Auto Recovery Policy

Description

Apparatus and method for automatic recovery for web services-based business process}

1 is a block diagram of an automatic recovery device for a business process that has been suspended after a recovery policy setting and a system error in a business process composed of a web service according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic recovery method of a business process that has been suspended after setting a recovery policy and a system error in a business process composed of a web service according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method composed of a web service when the recovery policy is set to "continue execution" according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method composed of a web service when the recovery policy is set to "restart" according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method composed of a web service when the recovery policy is set to "reverse recovery" according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method composed of a web service when the recovery policy is set to "restart after reverse recovery" according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method configured as a web service when the recovery policy is set to "manual recovery notification" according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recovering a business process composed of a web service. Specifically, an apparatus for automatically recovering a business process composed of a web service according to a preset recovery policy when execution is stopped due to a system error during execution. And to a method.

Web Services are modular applications that accept requests in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format from other systems on the network through vendor-neutral, ultra-lightweight communication protocols. By definition, web services are a new distributed computing technology because the subjects requesting them are other systems on the network. To make the protocols lightweight, security, transaction management, etc. are handled by other extension specifications.

And a system that implements a Web services stack using vendor-neutral open protocols will be interoperable regardless of operating system. The current standard for web services includes the Web Service Description Language (WSDL), an XML-based messaging protocol that describes what services a web service provides, how to access the web service, and what type of response is expected. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), a directory service for registering and retrieving Web services.

Any application that is network-accessible and XML-aware can use these standards to invoke Web services regardless of programming language or operating system.

Therefore, legacy applications can be called and used by other applications through the network after being registered as web services. These characteristics make Web services an innovative solution for integration in distributed environments. In particular, it is expected to be effectively used for component reuse of enterprise application integration (EAI), business to business (B2B) applications, and intranets.

Only basic web services are available through WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI. However, the service you want to provide using a real web service is much more complicated.

A business process is a choreography sequence of a plurality of business activities. For example, in order to implement a business process of purchasing goods on the Internet as a web service, a web service requesting a consumer to purchase the product, a web service that examines the stock of the requested product, and a willingness to sell if there is stock Several web services need to be connected and organized according to business logic, such as web services that do not run out of stock, web services that notify you of out-of-stocks, web services that confirm consumer deposits, and web services that require parcel delivery.

W3C's Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI) to represent these business processes as Web service compositions, and BPML (Business Process Management Language for Web Services) and Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) from IBM and Microsoft. Business Process Modeling Language). Among these, Web service composition standards describing executable internal processes are BPEL4WS and BPML.

Following each specification, an executable business process described as an XML document runs in a business process execution system based on a specific specification. For example, a BPEL-compliant business process runs on the BPEL execution engine. Therefore, Web services technology is emerging as a new application development method for developing applications without generating code based on a specific programming language through a business process following the web services composition specification.

While web services technology is fast and low cost, it is suggested to develop the software gradually by using existing components. However, in order to use web service technology stably in the field, the problem of guaranteeing the reliability of web services should be solved first. The web service composition specification provides a fault processing unit for fault occurrence to ensure the reliability of a specific activity and a compensation processing unit that returns the execution result of a zone to transact a specific area. In order to properly execute the compensation processing unit, the web service based transaction specification is also linked.

However, fault handling and compensation provided by the web service composition specification can only handle logical errors that occur during execution, but cannot recover the execution of business processes that were interrupted due to system errors. Because when you try to recover a process after a system recovery, you know which activities are finished running and where you left off while you were doing it, but they do not contain information about what recovery actions you need to take, such as starting from scratch or starting from where you left off. Because it does not. Therefore, there is a need for a technology that automatically recovers a business process that has been stopped due to a system error and then automatically recovers the system through appropriate recovery measures.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is to recover a web service based business process by automatically restoring a web service based business process by setting an automatic recovery policy for a case where it is interrupted by a system error during execution in the design process in advance. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a web service-based business process automatic recovery method and system that can minimize human intervention and minimize the recovery error that can occur during manual recovery due to the error of process manager.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the business process automatic recovery apparatus composed of the web service is the error after the interruption time according to the execution characteristics of the business process when the execution of the business process composed of the web service is interrupted by an error of the execution system itself. A business process automatic recovery property setting unit which sets an automatic recovery policy for the progress of a business process in the process design process, a storage unit that sequentially records the progress of execution of the business process until a system error occurs, and a system error occurrence. And a business process automatic recovery unit for retrieving the execution of the process on the basis of the execution progress of the business process recorded in the storage unit according to the automatic recovery policy by drawing out the preset automatic recovery policy. It is made.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a method for automatically recovering a business process composed of a web service may include the business after the point of interruption according to an execution characteristic of the business process when the execution of the business process consisting of the web service is interrupted due to an error of the execution system itself. Presetting an automatic recovery policy for the progress of the process in the process designing process; if the execution of the business process is interrupted due to an error of the execution system, fetching the preset automatic recovery policy, and writing to a storage device Restoring execution of the process according to the retrieved automatic recovery policy based on the execution progress of the business process.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. There will be. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the known technology related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

1 is a block diagram of an automatic recovery apparatus for a business process that is suspended after execution of a recovery policy setting and a system error in a business process composed of a web service according to the present invention.

First, in order for a business process described as an XML document to be executed in the execution engine in relation to the execution of a business process, a business process execution model with additional information such as the status of each activity is required. Therefore, the business process composed of the XML-based web service has a process of generating and restoring the execution model. Hereinafter, a business process composed of web services is expressed as a web service based business process.

Referring to FIG. 1, the web service based business process automatic recovery system sets a business process auto recovery property setting to extend 103 the business process by setting recovery related properties such as an auto recovery policy in the web service based business process 101. Part 102, a business process execution model generation unit 105 for converting a web service based business process into an execution model, a business process execution model execution unit 106 that actually executes the execution model, a process suspended due to a system error, etc. The business process execution model automatic recovery unit 107 for restoring the execution model of the storage unit for storing the performance record until just before the recovery for automatic recovery.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatically recovering a business process that has been suspended after setting a recovery policy and a system error in a business process composed of a web service according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the web service based business process 200 is extended to the web service based extended business process 207 by the business process recovery attribute setting 201, and this expanded business process is the recoverable execution system 104. Is run on In relation to the execution, the business process is converted from the business process execution model generation unit to the execution model 202 performed in the execution system, and then executed by the business process execution unit until completion of execution 209 (203). If the execution is interrupted due to the system error 204, the system process 205 recovers the suspended business process execution model according to the auto recovery policy set through the business process execution model recovery unit after the system recovery 205 (206). Redo after model recovery Whether or not execution resumes through the system depends on the recovery policy set.

The business process auto-recovery configuration unit receives a web service-based business process and adds an extension element to this XML document to set a recovery policy for this process. An extended business process with a result recovery policy is created.

The recovery policy takes one of four things: continue execution, restart, reverse recovery, restart after reverse recovery, and manual recovery notification. Execution of execution is to resume execution from the point where execution was interrupted. Restarting is a new run from the beginning, as if this process had never been done, and reverse recovery reverses the effect of running the activity in the reverse order of activities that terminated normally before stopping. Restart after reverse recovery is to execute the execution model from the beginning after reverse recovery. Recovery measures according to each recovery policy will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 to 7.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method configured as a web service when the recovery policy is set to "continue execution" according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, it shows a web service based business process recovery method when the recovery policy is set to "continue execution." First, the recovery model set in the web service based extended business process is queried. If the recovery policy is "Continue running", restore the business process execution model up to the point of interruption through the storage that records the progress of the execution of the process model. The restored execution model is then passed to the execution system to resume execution from where it left off.

In one embodiment where the recovery policy is " continue execution ", a web service-based business process (TemperatureControlOfRoom) for controlling room temperature during home automation at home is represented as a necessary element in the BPEL-based XML.

<process name = "TemperatureControlOfRoom" ..>

   <variables>

      <variable name = "RegulationTemperature" type = "xsd: integer" />

      <variable name = "CurrentTemperature" type = "xsd: integer" />

      ...

   <variables>

   <sequence>

      <receive name = "ReceivingRequestForTemperatureControl" ... />

      <copy>

         <from> 25 </ from>

         <to variable = "RegulationTemeprature" />

      </ copy>

      <while name = "loop" condition = "...">

       <sequence>

       <invoke = "RequestCurrentTemperature" Variable = "temperature" ... />

       <switch name = "ComparisonBetweenCurrentandRegulation">

         <case condition = "CurrentTemperature-RegulationTemperature> 2">

         <invoke name = "RequestCoolingOperation" />

         </ case>

         <case condition = "CurrentTemperature-RegulationTemperature <-2">

         <invoke name = "RequestHeatingOperation" />

         </ case>

      </ switch>

      <wait for = "10M" />

      </ sequence>

     </ while>

    <reply name = "StoppingTemperatureControl" ... />

  </ sequence>

</ process>

The process sets the RegulationTemperature to 25 degrees (copy element) every 10 minutes (while element) and measures the CurrentTemperature (invoke element) so that the current temperature is higher than 2 degrees above the desired temperature. Call the cooling system, and call the heating system if the current temperature is lower than 2 degrees below the desired temperature.

If the recovery policy of this process is set to "Continue running", it is not unreasonable to keep the current temperature at the desired control temperature even if it is performed again wherever it was running. Because resetting the desired temperature, measuring the current temperature, cooling or heating depending on the current temperature, restarting at any stage does not affect the overall process. If you do not have a recovery policy set up, process managers should identify the current process's capabilities and semantic information to see if they should or should not recover the current process, and then manually redeploy and then where to start again. Inconvenience follows. In this regard, the recovery policy of this process may be set to "restart", but in this case, "continue execution" is more appropriate because it requires an additional procedure for resetting the desired control temperature.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method configured as a web service when the recovery policy is set to "restart" according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, it shows a web service based business process recovery method when the recovery policy is set to "restart". First, the recovery model set in the web service based extended business process is queried. If the recovery policy is "Restart", initialize the business process execution model. It then passes the initialized business process execution model to the execution system. The execution system then executes this execution model as if it were the first time.

In one embodiment, where the recovery policy is "restart", the process of receiving a brief briefing (Morning Briefing) every morning through a specific device in the home (e.g., home robot or home audio, home TV, etc.) is described in BPEL-based XML. The necessary elements are as follows.

<process name = Morning Briefing ... />

   <sequence>

      <receive name = "ReceivingRequestForMorningBriefing" ... />

      <sequence name = "briefing">

         <invoke name = "Today'sAppointment" ... />

         <invoke name = "Today'sWeatherForecast" ... />

         <invoke name = "Today'sTODOList" ... />

      </ sequence>

     <reply name = "EndOfMorningBriefing" ... />

   </ sequence>

</ process>

The process is a briefing briefing in the morning through a device in your home (for example, a home robot or home audio, home TV, etc.). When a request for a morning briefing comes in, today's Appointment ), Weather information (WeatherForcast), todo list (TODOList). If the recovery policy of this process is set to "Restart", it will notify you of today's appointments, and if it is shut down, it will automatically notify you again about the appointments, weather information, and things to do from the beginning.

The recovery policy of this process is set to "Restart," because it is important to inform all three of the tasks before the start of work in the morning, the weather information, and the to-do list at the same time. This is because it is more useful to users. And if you recover manually because you do not set an automatic recovery policy for this process, in order to relocate this process every morning, the process manager must take the hassle of grasping and manually redeploying the purpose and semantic information of the process.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method composed of a web service when the recovery policy is set to "reverse recovery" according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, a web service based business process recovery method when the automatic recovery policy is set to "reverse recovery" is shown. First, the recovery model set in the web service based extended business process is queried. If the recovery policy is "reverse recovery", restore the business process execution model up to the point of interruption through the storage that records the progress of the process's model execution. Then, each activity that makes up the restored business process execution model is restored in the reverse order of execution completion. Execution results up until the interruption to reverse recovery are returned, which is the same as when this execution model was not performed.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method configured as a web service when the recovery policy is set to "restart after reverse recovery" according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, a web service based business process recovery method when the automatic recovery policy is set to "restart after reverse recovery" is shown. First, the recovery model set in the web service based extended business process is queried. If the recovery policy is "reverse recovery", restore the business process execution model up to the point of interruption through the storage that records the progress of the process's model execution. Then, each activity that makes up the restored business process execution model is restored in the reverse order of execution completion. It then initializes the business process execution model and passes the initialized business process execution model to the execution system. Execution results up to the interruption are reverted and execution resumes automatically from the beginning.

In an embodiment in which the recovery policy is “restart after reverse recovery,” a business process of first booking a train ticket to prepare for a business trip, and then a hotel room is represented as a necessary element in the BPEL-based XML.

<process name = "PreparingBusinessTrip" ...>

<variables>

  ...

</ variables>

 <sequence>

   <receive name = "ReceivingRequestForPreparingBusinessTrip" ... />

   <invoke name = "ReserveTrainTicket" inputVariable = "getResponse" ...>

   <compensationHandler>

     <invoke name = "CancelReserve" inputVariable = "getResponse"

                     outputVariable = "getConfirmation" />

   </ compensationHandler>

 </ invoke>

    <invoke name = "ReserveHotelRoom" outputVariable = "getResponse" ...>

  <compensationHandler>

        <invoke name = "CancelReservation" inputVariable = "getResponse" outputVariable = "getConfirmation" ... />

  </ compensationHandler>

</ invoke>

...

 <reply name = "StoppingPreparingBusinessTrip" ... />

</ sequence>

</ process>

The process of preparing a business trip first reserves a train ticket (ReserveTrainTicket) and then reserves a hotel room (ReserveHotelRoom). However, since both the train ticket reservation web service and the hotel room reservation web service have a compensation handler (ConpensationHandler element), calling the compensation web service inside the compensation handler can reverse the result. Web services, however, can be canceled by calling the reward web service defined inside the reward handler for each reservation if the system is shut down while booking a train ticket or while booking a room. The "reverse recovery" or "restart after reverse recovery" policy can be used only when the result of invoking an external web service through the compensation handler can be reversed. Is a requirement for setting the "reverse recovery" or "restart after reverse recovery" recovery policy). In the reverse recovery, the reservation cancellation order should be the reverse of the execution result. In other words, if you recover after completing both train and hotel reservations, cancel the hotel reservation first and then cancel the train reservation. The recovery policy can be set according to the purpose and meaning of the "reverse recovery" or "restart after reverse recovery" process.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a business process recovery method configured as a web service when the recovery policy is set to "manual recovery notification" according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, a web service based business process recovery method when the automatic recovery policy is set to "manual recovery notification" is shown. First, the recovery model set in the web service based extended business process is queried. If the recovery policy is "manual recovery notification," restore the business process execution model up to the point of interruption through the storage that records the progress of the process's model execution. Informs the process manager that the execution model is down and notifies the request for manual recovery. It is a recovery method for cases where manual recovery is required due to the nature of the process, and automatic recovery is difficult.

In an embodiment in which the recovery policy is the "manual recovery notification", a process of purchasing a train ticket for preparing for a trip (PurchaseTrainTicket) as a necessary element in the BPEL-based XML is as follows.

<process name = "PreparingBusinessTrip" ...>

<variables>

...

</ variables>

   <sequence>

     <receive name = "ReceivingRequestForPurchasingBusinessTrip" ... />

     <invoke name = "PurchaseTrainTicket" inputVariable = "getResponse" ...>

      <compensationHandler>

         <invoke name = "CancelReserve" inputVariable = "getResponse" outputVariable = "getConfirmation" />

      </ compensationHandler>

     </ invoke>

     ...

    <reply name = "StppingPreparingBusinessTrip" ... />

   </ sequence>

</ process>

In the case of most payments, it is necessary to analyze in detail how far the payment-related part actually went to the system, whether the request was made to the external payment system or whether the payment was already completed. In the case of payment-related processes, most process managers prepare a list of processes in question, contact the external payment system operator to check the status, and then go through manual recovery procedures.

If the system is shut down during the payment process in an important payment system, it is necessary to carefully analyze how the payment is made and how the payment is not made. Therefore, for such a process, it would be reasonable to set the automatic recovery policy to "manual recovery notification" to allow the administrator to recover.

Which of the above automatic recovery policies is selected may be determined based on the execution purpose of each process identified by each process designer and semantic information of individual process components.

The web service based business process recovery method and the system interrupted by a system error during the execution of the present invention as described above may be stored in a computer-readable recording medium. Such recording media include all kinds of recording media on which programs and data are stored so that they can be read by a computer system. Examples of the recording media include read only memory, random access memory and compact disk. ROM, Digital Video Disk (DVD) -Rom, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device.

In addition, such recording media may be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Since this process can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art will not be described in more detail.

The best embodiments have been disclosed in the drawings and specification above. Although specific terms have been used herein, they are used only for the purpose of describing the present invention and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention as defined in the meaning or claims. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible from this. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

The present invention presets a recovery policy of a web service based business process interrupted by a system error during execution, thereby automatically recovering most of cases where recovery is required without human intervention, thereby contributing to the stability and automation of the system. And by setting the recovery policy that is most appropriate for the business process in advance at process design or deployment time, recovery errors caused by random recovery by the process manager during the recovery process can be minimized.

Claims (14)

When the execution of a business process consisting of a web service is interrupted due to an error in the execution system itself, a business process for setting an automatic recovery policy for the progress of the business process after the interruption point in advance in the process designing process according to the execution characteristics of the business process. An automatic recovery property setting unit; A storage unit which sequentially records the execution progress of the business process until the system error occurs; And And a business process automatic recovery unit for retrieving the execution of the process based on the execution progress of the business process recorded in the storage unit according to the automatic recovery policy by drawing the preset automatic recovery policy when a system error occurs. Business process automatic recovery device consisting of a web service, characterized in that. The method of claim 1, Business process automatic recovery device composed of a web service, characterized in that the business process consisting of the web service is described in an XML document. The method of claim 1, wherein the execution of the business process A business process execution model generation unit for converting the business process into an execution model of the business process performed in an execution system; And And a business process execution model execution unit that executes the execution model of the business process in the execution system. The method of claim 1, The automatic recovery policy Automatic recovery of business processes consisting of web services, characterized by continuing, restarting from the point of interruption, restoring the execution process from the point of interruption to the reverse direction, restarting after the recovery process from the reverse direction, and notifying the administrator of the need for manual recovery. Device. Setting an automatic recovery policy for the progress of the business process after the interruption point in the process designing process according to an execution characteristic of the business process when the execution of the business process consisting of the web service is interrupted due to an error in the execution system itself; If the execution of the business process is suspended due to an error of the execution system, fetching the preset automatic recovery policy; And Restoring execution of the process according to the retrieved automatic recovery policy based on the execution progress of the business process recorded in a storage device. The method of claim 5, The business process consisting of the web service is automatically described as a business process consisting of a web service, characterized in that described in the XML document. The method of claim 5, wherein the execution of the business process Converting the business process into an execution model of the business process performed on the execution system; And And automatically executing the execution model of the business process in the execution system. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatic recovery policy Automatic recovery of business processes consisting of web services, characterized by continuing, restarting from the point of interruption, restoring the execution process from the point of interruption to the reverse direction, restarting after the recovery process from the reverse direction, and notifying the administrator of the need for manual recovery. Way. The method of claim 5, Restoring the execution of the process if the withdrawn automatic recovery policy is set to " continue execution " Retrieving the execution model interruption time of the business process and the execution progress until the execution interruption from a storage unit which records the execution model execution progress of the business process; Restoring an execution model of the business process immediately before the interruption point based on the retrieved information; And And executing the restored execution model again from the interrupted part in the execution system. The method of claim 5, Restoring execution of the process if the withdrawn automatic recovery policy is set to " restart " Initializing an execution model of the business process to an initial state; And And re-running the execution model of the business process from the beginning in the execution system. The method of claim 5, Restoring the execution of the process if the withdrawn automatic recovery policy is set to "reverse recovery" Retrieving the execution timing of the execution model of the business process and the execution progress until the execution suspension from the storage unit which records the execution model execution progress of the business process; Restoring an execution model of the business process immediately before the interruption point based on the retrieved information; And Restoring activities constituting the restored execution model in the reverse order of execution completion; and automatically recovering a business process consisting of a web service. The method of claim 5, Restoring the execution of the process if the withdrawn automatic recovery policy is set to " restart after reverse recovery " Retrieving the execution timing of the execution model of the business process and the execution progress until the execution suspension from the storage unit which records the execution model execution progress of the business process; Restoring an execution model of the business process immediately before the interruption point based on the retrieved information; And Restoring activities constituting the restored execution model in the reverse order of execution completion; Initializing the restored execution model to an initial state; And And re-running the execution model of the business process from the beginning in the execution system. The method of claim 5, Restoring the execution of the process if the withdrawn automatic recovery policy is set to "manual recovery notification " Retrieving the execution timing of the execution model of the business process and the execution progress until the execution suspension from the storage unit which records the execution model execution progress of the business process; Restoring an execution model of the business process immediately before the interrupted time point based on the retrieved information; And And informing the process manager that the execution model has been interrupted and requesting manual recovery. delete

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