JP2008310687A - Information processing system, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a processing entity to be changed even after starting processing of a business process. <P>SOLUTION: An information processing system is provided with an execution state management part storing information which represents a processing unit last executed in a first information processing device operating a series of processing units constituting the business process, a relay policy management part receiving policy information designating one of the processing units, and a control part making a second information processing device execute an unexecuted processing unit among a series of processes when a processing unit shown by the information stored in a last executed processing unit storage part corresponds to the processing unit designated by the policy information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program.

  In recent years, in order to cope with a shortening of the business cycle and a rapid change in the business environment, an information system that can flexibly and quickly respond to the change is demanded. With respect to this requirement, an information system design technique called Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been attracting attention.

  SOA is a concept of building a new information system by calling software components that perform business processing called services in an appropriate order from business flows called business processes. By designing an information system based on the SOA, it becomes easy to reuse existing services, and it becomes possible to develop an information system quickly and at low cost. In addition, since a new information system is constructed by combining a plurality of services, it is easy to change the implementation of services and change the order of calls, and to ensure the flexibility of the information system. The service is realized by, for example, a web service accessible by SOAP.

  The business process is described by a flow description language called BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). A business process described by BPEL is called a business process definition. When the business process definition is deployed on an execution platform such as an application server, the execution platform receives a request from the user, calls a service according to the business process definition, and executes the business process.

In such an information system, load distribution is performed in order to perform a business process more efficiently. For example, a technique is known in which load distribution is performed by controlling the number of requests distributed to a server in accordance with the load on the server (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2005-92862 A

  In the execution base of the information system based on the SOA, a business process is executed in response to a request, so that a plurality of business processes are executed simultaneously. Therefore, the same service may be invoked simultaneously from multiple business processes. When a failure occurs in a service that is simultaneously called from a plurality of business processes, exception handling occurs simultaneously in the plurality of business processes that are calling the service. Exception processing consumes more resources than normal processing, so when exception processing occurs at the same time, a large amount of resources are consumed for exception processing, and other business processes that perform normal processing run out of resources. There is a possibility of falling.

  In addition, when there is a business process definition that determines the number of processing loops according to the parameters included in the request from the user, depending on the parameters, a large number of loops are performed in the business process, and the business process Since processing requires more resources than usual, processing of other business processes may be delayed.

  As described above, the server may be heavily loaded after the processing of the business process according to the request is started.

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, although it is possible to prevent a further increase in load by not allocating a request to a high-load server, processing according to the request is started in the server. After that, the server load cannot be reduced until the process is completed.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a background, and provides an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program capable of changing a subject of processing even after processing of a business process is started. With the goal.

  The main invention of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is an information processing system, which is the processing unit executed most recently in a first information processing apparatus that executes a series of processing units constituting a business process. The latest execution processing unit storage unit that stores information indicating the above, the takeover policy management unit that receives policy information in which one of the processing units is designated, and the information stored in the latest execution processing unit storage unit are A control unit that causes the second information processing apparatus to execute the unexecuted processing unit of the series of processes when the processing unit to be displayed matches the processing unit specified in the policy information; It shall be provided with.

  According to the present invention, the subject of processing can be changed even after processing of a business process is started.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The information processing system of this embodiment executes a business process designed by the SOA method.

  In the present embodiment, as an example of a business process, a business process 300 as shown in FIG. 1 for selling a product is executed. As shown in FIG. 1, the business process 300 extracts an order data of a product from an execution request and performs an order receiving process 330, an inventory search step 331 for searching for stock of the ordered product, and an allocation for a product in stock. Allocation step 332 for performing the allocation, dispatching step 333 for arranging the dispatch of the allocated goods, and allocation exception processing step 334 for performing exception processing when an exception occurs during the execution of the allocation step 332 (step ). Each step from the order receiving step 330 to the shipping step 333 is realized by using a service provided as a Web service. The allocation exception processing step 334 is realized by performing general exception processing such as retry processing and log generation processing. However, the business process 300 described above is an example, and any processing flow may be defined as long as it can be described by BPEL.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the information processing system according to the present embodiment. The information processing system of this embodiment includes a client 100, a management server 110, a plurality of BP execution servers (150 and 170), and a Web service providing server 190. Three or more BP execution servers may exist. A plurality of clients 100 and Web service providing servers 190 may also exist.

  The client 100, the management server 110, the BP execution servers 150 and 170, and the Web service providing server 190 are connected to each other via a communication network 1000 so as to communicate with each other. The communication network 1000 is, for example, the Internet, a LAN (Local Area Network), or a WAN (Wide Area Network) constructed by Ethernet (registered trademark), a public telephone line network, a frame relay network, or the like.

  The client 100 is a computer operated by a user. As the client 100, for example, a personal computer, a workstation, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone, or the like can be used. The client 100 transmits an execution request to the BP execution server 150 in response to an operation from the user, and causes the business process 300 to be executed.

  The BP execution servers 150 and 170 are information processing apparatuses that execute a business process according to a file (hereinafter referred to as a business process definition) in which a procedure (algorithm) of the business process 300 is described according to BPEL. For the BP execution servers 150 and 170, for example, a personal computer, a workstation, a general-purpose computer, or the like is used.

  The BP execution server 150 executes a business process in response to a business process execution request (request) transmitted from the client 100, and the BP execution server 170 responds to an instruction from the management server 110, as will be described later. By taking over the processing of the BP execution server 150, some steps of the business process 300 are executed, and the processing load of the BP execution server 150 is reduced.

  The Web service providing server 190 is an information processing apparatus that provides a service for performing business processing. For the Web service providing server 190, for example, a personal computer, a workstation, a general-purpose computer, or the like is used. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the Web service providing server 190 provides a service using a Web service. That is, the Web service providing server 190 performs information processing in response to the SOAP request, and responds to the information processing result according to SOAP.

  The management server 110 is an information processing apparatus that manages the BP execution servers 150 and 170. For the management server 110, for example, a personal computer or a workstation is used.

  In this embodiment, when the processing load of the BP execution server 150 increases, load distribution is performed by taking over part of the processing of the BP execution server 150 to the BP execution server 170. Details will be described below.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the client 100. The client 100 includes a network interface 301, a CPU 302, a secondary storage device 303, a main storage device 304, a system bus 306, an input device 307, and an output device 308.

  The network interface 301 communicates with other communication devices connected to the communication network 1000 via the communication network 1000 in accordance with instructions from the CPU 302. The network interface 301 is, for example, an adapter for connecting to Ethernet (registered trademark) or a modem for connecting to a telephone line network.

  The main storage device 304 stores various programs such as the client program 11 and data. Various functions to be described later are realized by the CPU 302 executing a program stored in the main storage device 304. The secondary storage device 303 is, for example, a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, or a flash memory.

  3 is an example, and for example, the client program 11 may be stored in the secondary storage device 303 or may be stored in an external storage device.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the client 100. The client 100 includes an execution request transmission unit 101 and an execution result reception unit 102.

  The execution request transmission unit 101 transmits an execution request for the business process 300 to the BP execution server 150. The execution result receiving unit 102 receives the execution result of the business process 300 from the BP execution server 150 and outputs the received execution result to the output device 308.

  The execution request transmission unit 101 and the execution result reception unit 102 included in the client 100 are realized by the CPU 302 included in the client 100 executing the client program 11 stored in the main storage device 304. Each functional unit described above may be realized as hardware.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the BP execution server 150. The BP execution server 150 includes a network interface 301, a CPU 302, a secondary storage device 303, a main storage device 304, and a system bus 306 for connecting them.

  The network interface 301 communicates with other communication devices connected to the communication network 1000 via the communication network 1000 in accordance with instructions from the CPU 302. The network interface 301 is, for example, an adapter for connecting to Ethernet (registered trademark) or a modem for connecting to a telephone line network.

  The main storage device 304 stores various programs and data such as the business process execution program 21 and the operation management agent program 22. Various functions to be described later are realized by the CPU 302 executing a program stored in the main storage device 304.

The main storage device 304 stores a business process definition 153 in which the processing flow of the business process 300 is described. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the business process definition 153. As shown in the figure, the business process definition stored in the business process definition 153 includes the definition 1531 of the order receiving step 330, the definition 1532 of the inventory search step 331, the definition 1533 of the allocation step 332, the definition 1534 of the shipping step 333, the allocation It includes a definition 1535 for exception handling step 334.
The secondary storage device 303 is, for example, a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, or a flash memory.

  The configuration in FIG. 5 is an example, and for example, each of the above programs and business process definition 153 may be stored in the secondary storage device 303 or may be stored in an external storage device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the BP execution server 150. The BP execution server 150 includes an execution base 151 and an operation management agent 160.
The execution platform 151 is realized by the CPU 302 included in the BP execution server 150 executing the business process execution program 21 stored in the main storage device 304, and the operation management agent 160 is stored in the main storage device 304 by the CPU 302. It is assumed that the operation management agent program 22 is executed. The execution base 151 and the operation management agent 160 may be realized as hardware.
The execution platform 151 includes a business process control unit 152 and a takeover execution unit 158.

  In response to the business process execution request transmitted from the client 100, the business process control unit 152 executes the business process 300 according to the processing flow described in the business process definition 153. The business process control unit 152 includes a business process definition reading unit 154, a business process execution unit 155, and an execution status management unit 156.

  The business process definition reading unit 154 reads the business process definition 153 from the main storage device 304, and the business process execution unit 155 performs processing such as calling a Web service according to the read business process definition. The business process execution unit 155 generates a storage area for storing various data necessary for executing the business process as an instance. The instance is realized as, for example, a Java (registered trademark) object.

  The execution status management unit 156 monitors the execution status of the business process, registers information indicating the execution status (hereinafter referred to as execution status information) in the execution status management table 157, and the execution status information is already registered. The execution status information is updated according to the execution status of the business process. In the present embodiment, the execution status management unit 156 is secured in the instance for each execution request.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the execution status information stored in the execution status management table 157. As shown in the figure, the execution status information includes an execution base identifier 401, a business process definition name 402, an instance ID 403, a step name 404, an execution status 405, and step execution information 406. However, the configuration of FIG. 8 is an example, and the configuration of the execution status management table 157 may be any configuration.

  The execution platform identifier 401 is identification information of the execution platform 151 on which the business process is being executed. The business process definition name 402 is a name that identifies the business process definition being executed by the business process execution unit 155. The instance ID 403 is instance identification information. The step name 404 is a name indicating the step executed most recently by the instance. The execution status 405 is information indicating the progress status of the step most recently executed by the instance, and is set to “start”, “running”, or “completed”. In the step execution information 406, a variable name and its value secured at the time of execution of the step indicated by the step name 404 are set.

  The above configuration is an example, and the configuration of the business process control unit 152 may be any configuration. The execution platform 151 including the business process control unit 152 can be realized by commercially available middleware.

  The takeover execution unit 158 controls to take over instance processing between BP execution servers by a method known as process migration or thread migration, for example. Migration refers to all data used by processes stored in a server's main storage, memory, CPU registers, etc. for a process or thread that is running on a server. Is a technology that takes over to a different server and continues process execution on the takeover destination server. The migration is detailed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3754393. Further, for example, a failover mechanism in a cluster system may be used for taking over processing between servers.

  Note that any method can be used as a process takeover method, but in this embodiment, the takeover execution unit 158 performs the following process. When taking over the processing from the BP execution server 150 to the BP execution server 170, first, the takeover execution unit 158 of the BP execution server 150 stops the execution of the business process by the business process execution unit 155, and the instance related to the stopped business process is Transmit to the BP execution server 170. The business process execution unit 175 of the BP execution server 170 generates an instance, and sets the content of the instance received from the BP execution server 150 in the generated instance. As a result, the instance of the BP execution server 170 has the same content as the instance of the BP execution server 150. Therefore, when the business process execution unit 175 of the BP execution server 170 starts execution of the business process, the processing executed in the BP execution server 150 is continued in the BP execution server 170. As described above, the processing is taken over from the BP execution server 150 to the BP execution server 170. The BP execution server 150 may transmit the instance via the communication network 1000, or store the instance in a secondary storage device accessible via the communication network 1000, and store the instance in the stored instance. Only the pointer may be transmitted.

  The operation management agent 160 performs operation management of the execution base 151 in cooperation with the management server 110. The operation management agent 160 periodically measures the usage rate of the CPU 302 and the usage amount of the main storage device 304 by the execution platform 151, the usage rate of the CPU 302 and the usage amount of the main storage device 304 for each business process, and the like. Such measurement values and execution status information for each business process are transmitted to the management server 110.

  The configuration of the BP execution server 170 is the same as the configuration of the BP execution server 150, and is a business process definition reading unit 174, a business process execution unit 175, an instance execution status management unit 176, an execution status management table 177, and a takeover execution unit. 178, and an operation management agent 160. Since each of these functional units is the same as the function of the BP execution server 150, description thereof is omitted.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the Web service providing server 190. The Web service providing server 190 includes a network interface 301, a CPU 302, a secondary storage device 303, a main storage device 304, and a system bus 306 for connecting them. The network interface 301 communicates with other communication devices connected to the communication network 1000 via the communication network 1000 in accordance with instructions from the CPU 302. The main storage device 304 stores various programs such as the Web service providing program 31 and the operation management agent program 22 and data. The CPU 302 realizes various functions to be described later by executing a program stored in the main storage device 304. The secondary storage device 303 is, for example, a hard disk drive or a flash memory that provides a storage area.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the Web service providing server 190. The web service providing server 190 includes a web service execution unit 191 and an operation management agent 160. The Web service execution unit 191 is realized by the CPU 302 included in the Web service providing server 190 executing the Web service providing program 31 stored in the main storage device 304.

The operation management agent 160 has the same function as the operation management agent 160 included in the BP execution server 150 described above, and is realized by the CPU 302 executing the operation management agent program 22 stored in the main storage device 304.
Note that the Web service execution unit 191 and the operation management agent 160 may be realized as hardware.

  The Web service execution unit 191 includes an order receiving service providing unit 192, an inventory search service providing unit 193, an allocation service providing unit 194, and a shipping service providing unit 195, each performing processing related to a business in response to a SOAP request, This is a general Web service that responds to the result, and can be realized by commercially available middleware. The functions of the Web service execution unit 191 and each service providing unit are information processing functions based on general Web services, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  In the present embodiment, the Web service providing server 190 provides all services necessary for the business process 300. However, for example, a different Web service providing server 190 may be installed for each service.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the management server 110. The management server 110 includes a network interface 301, a CPU 302, a secondary storage device 303, a main storage device 304, and a system bus 306 that connects them. The network interface 301 communicates with other communication devices connected to the communication network 1000 via the communication network 1000 in accordance with instructions from the CPU 302. The main storage device 304 stores a business process management program 41, a resource information management table 122, takeover policy information 141, and a takeover relationship management table 147. The CPU 302 implements various functions by executing programs stored in the main storage device 304. Note that the configuration in FIG. 11 is an example. For example, the program or data stored in the main storage device 304 may be stored in the secondary storage device 303 or may be stored in an external storage device. May be.

  The resource information management table 122 stores information about resources used in the BP execution servers 150 and 170 and the Web service providing server 190 (hereinafter referred to as resource information). FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of resource information stored in the resource information management table 122. The resource information includes a resource name 602 and a value 603 in association with the server ID 601 that is identification information of the BP execution server 150, the BP execution server 170, or the Web service providing server 190. The configuration of FIG. 12 is an example, and the configuration of the resource information management table 122 is any configuration as long as the resource usage in the BP execution servers 150 and 170 and the Web service providing server 190 is stored. May be.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration of the takeover policy information 141. The takeover policy information 141 includes a takeover range determination table 700 and a takeover destination determination table 720.

  The takeover range determination table 700 stores information (hereinafter referred to as takeover range conditions) for determining whether or not to take over, and which range of the business process 300 to take over when taking over. As shown in FIG. 13, the takeover range condition includes an execution base identifier 701, a business process definition name 702, an execution status condition 703, a resource condition 704, and a takeover end step name 705.

  The execution base identifier 701 is an identifier of the execution base 151 executing the business process 300. The business process definition name 702 is a name of a business process definition (hereinafter referred to as a business process definition name) in which a processing flow of the business process 300 being executed is described.

  The execution status condition 703 is a first condition for determining whether or not to take over, and is a condition for the execution status information. In the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that an identifier of a step included in the business process 300 (hereinafter referred to as a step name) is set in the execution state condition 703, and the step name included in the execution state information. The first condition is determined based on whether or not the character string obtained by concatenating 404 and the execution status 405 matches the execution status condition 703.

  The resource condition 704 is a second condition for determining whether or not to take over, and is a condition for resource information. The takeover end step name 705 is a step name that is an end point of the range to be taken over (hereinafter referred to as takeover end step name).

  For example, in the example of FIG. 13, two takeover range conditions are set in the takeover range determination table 700. In this embodiment, the condition registered in the upper row is used, and the condition registered in the lower row is used in the second embodiment described later. If the average CPU usage rate of the execution base 151 is 70% or more when the order receiving step 330 is completed for the business process definition 153 deployed in the execution base 151, the takeover range condition registered in the upper row is: It shows that the business process is taken over with the range from the order receiving step 330 to the completion of the allocation step 332 as the takeover range.

  The takeover destination determination table 720 stores conditions (hereinafter referred to as takeover destination conditions) for determining a service execution processing unit as a takeover destination. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the takeover destination condition includes a business process definition name 721, a takeover destination candidate 722, and a takeover destination determination condition 723. The takeover destination candidate 722 is a list of identifiers of the execution base 171 that takes over the business process from the execution base 151. In the takeover destination candidate 722, when there are a plurality of execution bases 171, candidates for the execution base 171 that becomes the takeover destination are set. The takeover destination determination condition 723 is a condition for the resource information. When a plurality of candidates are registered in the takeover destination candidate 722, the business process is taken over to the resource information corresponding to the candidate execution base 171 that satisfies the takeover destination determination condition 723.

  In the example of FIG. 13, in the takeover destination determination table 720, the execution base 151 and the execution base 171 are registered as candidates for the takeover destination for the business process definition 153, and each execution base is used as a condition for determining the takeover destination from these. The average CPU usage rate is set to be used. In addition to this, for example, resource information other than the average CPU usage rate registered in the resource information management table 122 may be used, or an algorithm such as round robin may be used.

  When registering the takeover policy information 141 in the takeover policy management unit 140, the system administrator may directly write the takeover policy information 141 into the main storage device 304 or the secondary storage device 303, or the takeover policy management unit 140. A means for registering the takeover policy information 141 provided by may be used. Further, the takeover policy information 141 may be registered in advance when the system is constructed, or new information may be registered or existing information may be changed while the system is operating.

  The takeover relationship management table 147 stores information (hereinafter referred to as takeover relationship information) for associating a takeover source and a takeover destination related to business process takeover. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the configuration of the takeover relationship management table 147. As shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the takeover relation information stored in the takeover relation management table 147 includes a business process definition name 801, a takeover source execution base identifier 802, a takeover source instance ID 803, a takeover destination execution base identifier 804, and a takeover destination instance ID 805. , And a takeover end step name 806. The business process definition name 801 is an identifier of the business process definition in which the business process 300 that is the target of takeover is defined. The takeover source execution base identifier 802 and the takeover source instance ID 803 are information indicating the takeover source of the business process 300, and the takeover destination execution base identifier 804 and the takeover destination instance ID 805 are information indicating the takeover destination of the business process 300. The takeover end step name 806 is information indicating a step that is an end point of the range of the business process 300 to be taken over.

  The takeover relationship information is used when a response of the business process 300 needs to be returned from the execution base 151 when the business process 300 is taken over from the execution base 151 to the execution base 171, for example.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the management server 110. As shown in the figure, the management server 110 includes an agent management unit 121, an execution status monitoring unit 130, a takeover policy management unit 140, a takeover determination unit 145, and a takeover relationship management unit 146. Each functional unit provided in the management server 110 is realized by the CPU 302 provided in the management server 110 executing the business process management program 41 stored in the main storage device 304. In addition, you may make it implement | achieve each said function part as hardware.

  The agent management unit 121 instructs the operation management agent 160 included in the BP execution servers 150 and 170 and the web service providing server 190 to deploy the business process 300 and the web service, start and stop the execution base, and the like. The resource information transmitted by the agent 160 is received and registered in the resource information management table 122.

  Note that the agent management unit 121 and the operation management agent 160 can be realized by commercially available operation management software, and a detailed description of the implementation method will be omitted.

  In the present embodiment, the takeover determining unit 145 refers to the average CPU usage rate for each execution platform stored in the resource information management table 122 as resource information. General information about resources such as usage amount and response time can be used.

  The execution status monitoring unit 130 monitors the execution status of the business process 300 executed on the execution platforms 151 and 171 and notifies the takeover determination unit 145 of the execution status. The execution status monitoring unit 130 may receive execution status information from the operation management agent 160, or may monitor an instance generated on the execution base.

  The takeover policy management unit 140 manages the takeover policy information 141. The takeover policy management unit 140 accepts input of each item from the system administrator and registers the accepted item in the takeover policy information 141.

  Whether the takeover determining unit 145 takes over the business process 300 based on the execution status information acquired by the execution status monitoring unit 130, the resource information registered in the resource information management table 122, and the takeover policy information 141. Determine whether or not. Further, when it is determined that the takeover is performed, the takeover determination unit 145 determines which step of the business process 300 can be taken over. Details of the processing by the takeover determining unit 145 will be described later.

  The takeover relationship management unit 146 registers the takeover relationship information and the takeover relationship management table 147 for associating the takeover source instance and the takeover destination instance of the business process 300 with each other.

Hereinafter, processing in the information processing system of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the flow of processing of the information processing system of this embodiment.
(Step 201) The takeover policy management unit 140 performs a takeover policy information 141 registration process. Details of the registration process of the takeover policy information 141 are shown in FIG.

  (Step 1001) The takeover policy management unit 140 receives from the system administrator the identifier of the execution base 151 that is the takeover source, the identifier of the business process definition, the conditions for the execution status information for determining whether to take over, and Accepts input of conditions for resource information and step names. The takeover policy management unit 140 generates the takeover range condition set in the execution base identifier 701, the business process definition name 702, the execution status condition 703, the resource condition 704, and the takeover end step name 705 for each received information, and takes over Register in the range determination table 700.

  (Step 1002) The takeover policy management unit 140 accepts input of an identifier of a business process definition, an identifier of an execution base 151 or 171 that is a takeover destination candidate, and conditions for resource information from a system administrator. The takeover policy management unit 140 generates the takeover destination conditions set in the business process definition name 721, the takeover destination candidate 722, and the takeover destination determination condition 723 for each received information, and registers them in the takeover destination determination table 720.

(Step 202) When the execution platform 151 receives an execution request from the client 100, the business process definition reading unit 154 reads the business process definition 153, and the business process execution unit 155 generates an instance. It is assumed that the instance ID of the generated instance is “151-0001”.
(Step 203) The business process execution unit 155 executes the business process 300 in accordance with the business process definition 153.
(Step 204) The execution status management unit 156 generates execution status information indicating the execution status of the business process, stores the generated execution status information in the execution status management table 157 included in the instance, and transmits it to the management server 110. To do. In the management server 110, the execution status monitoring unit 130 receives the execution status information transmitted from the BP execution server 150.
(Step 205) The takeover determining unit 145 of the management server 110 determines whether to take over the business process from the BP execution server 150 to the BP execution server 170 based on the received execution status information and the takeover policy information 141. Make a decision. Details of the determination process will be described later.

If the business process is to be taken over, the process proceeds to step 206; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 212.
(Step 206) The takeover determining unit 145 transmits the identification information of the execution base 171 to be the takeover destination to the takeover executing part 158 of the execution base 151 to instruct to take over the business process 300.
(Step 207) Business process takeover processing is performed. Details of the business process takeover process will be described later.
(Step 208) The business process execution unit 175 resumes the execution of the business process 300 taken over. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the instance ID of the takeover destination instance generated in the BP execution server 170 is “171-0002”.
(Step 209) The execution status monitoring unit 130 monitors the execution status of the business process in the BP execution server 170, and the execution status information is notified to the takeover determination unit 145 as needed.

  (Step 210) The takeover determining unit 145 determines whether to take over the business process from the BP execution server 170 to the BP execution server 150 based on the execution status information and the takeover policy information 141. Details of the determination process will be described later.

When taking over the business process 300, the process proceeds to step 211, and when not taking over, the process proceeds to step 213.
(Step 211) The business process 300 is taken over from the execution base 171 to the execution base 151. The takeover process of the business process 300 is the same as the process of step 207.
(Step 212) If processing relating to each step described in the business process definition 153 has been completed, the processing ends. If not, processing returns to Step 203.
(Step 213) If the process related to each step described in the business process definition 153 is completed, the process is terminated. If not completed, the process returns to Step 208.

  FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining the details of the processing for determining whether or not to take over the business process in step 205 of FIG. 16 described above.

(Step 1101) The takeover determining unit 145 receives execution status information from the execution status monitoring unit 130.
(Step 1102) The takeover determining unit 145 determines whether or not the takeover source instance ID 803 that matches the instance ID 403 of the execution status information is registered in the takeover relationship management table 147. If not registered, the process proceeds to step 1104.
(Step 1103) The takeover determining unit 145 determines that the takeover determining unit 145 does not take over the business process 300.
(Step 1104) The takeover determining unit 145 takes over from the takeover range determination table 700 the takeover range condition in which the execution base identifier 401 and the business process definition name 402 of the execution status information match the execution base identifier 701 and the business process definition name 702. Search for. However, when the execution base identifier 701 of the takeover range condition is empty, it matches any execution base identifier 401.
(Step 1105) The takeover determining unit 145 determines whether there is a search result in Step 1103 that matches the execution status condition 703 with a character string obtained by concatenating the step name 404 and the execution status 405 of the execution status information. To do. If it exists, the process proceeds to step 1106. If it does not exist, the process proceeds to step 1103, and it is determined not to take over.

(Step 1106) The takeover determining unit 145 reads the resource information corresponding to the execution base identifier 401 of the execution status information from the resource information management table 122, and determines the step name 404 and the execution status 405 of the execution status information determined in Step 1104 above. It is determined whether there is a resource name 602 and a value 603 that satisfy the resource condition 704 among the inheritance range conditions in which the character string obtained by concatenating and the execution status condition 703 match. If the above handover range condition exists, the process proceeds to step 1107. If not, the process proceeds to step 1103, and it is determined that the handover is not performed.
When the resource condition 704 is empty, the process proceeds to step 1107 without making a determination.
(Step 1107) The takeover determining unit 145 decides to take over the business process 300, and performs takeover destination determination processing described later.

  As described above, whether or not to take over the business process 300 is determined. For example, the instance ID of the instance related to the business process 300 executed according to the business process definition 153 arranged in the execution base 151 is “151-0001”, and the execution status monitoring unit 130 indicates the step name indicating the order receiving step 330. When the execution status information including 404 is received, there is no corresponding data in the takeover relationship management table 147 for the instance “151-0001”.

  Here, the execution status information matches the execution status condition 703 “completion of the order receiving step 330” registered in the takeover range determination table 700. In the resource information management table 122, resource information indicating that the average CPU usage rate of the execution base 151 is 75% is registered, and the resource condition 704 “average CPU usage rate of 70% or more” is satisfied.

  Therefore, the takeover determining unit 145 takes over the range up to the allocation step 332 indicated by the takeover end step name 705 in the step subsequent to the order receiving step 330 for the business process 300 related to the instance whose instance ID is “151-0001”. Decide that.

  Next, details of step 1107 for determining the takeover destination will be described. FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating the flow of the takeover destination determination process.

(Step 1201) The takeover determining unit 145 searches for a takeover destination business process definition name 721 in the takeover destination determination table 720 that matches the business process definition name 402 of the execution status information.
(Step 1202) If the corresponding business process definition name 721 to be inherited exists, the process proceeds to step 1203. If not, the process proceeds to step 1205.
(Step 1203) The takeover determining unit 145 acquires an execution base identifier registered in the takeover destination candidate 722.
(Step 1204) The takeover determining unit 145 acquires corresponding resource information from the resource information management table 122 for each of the acquired execution base identifiers. The takeover determining unit 145 selects an execution base identifier whose resource information satisfies the takeover destination determination condition 723.
(Step 1205) Since the takeover destination cannot be determined, the takeover of the instance is stopped and the processing is completed.

  In the example of FIG. 13, regarding the business process definition 153, the takeover destination candidates are the execution base 151 and the execution base 171. From the takeover destination determination condition 723, the service execution processing unit having a lower average CPU usage rate becomes the takeover destination. In the example of FIG. 12, the average CPU usage rate of the execution base 151 is 75%, and the average CPU usage rate of the execution base 171 is 40%. Therefore, the execution base 171 is selected as the takeover destination.

  From the above, in this embodiment, the business process definition name to be taken over is “business process definition 153”, the execution base identifier to be taken over is “execution base 151”, and the instance of the instance to be taken over The ID is “151-0001”, the execution base identifier that is the takeover destination is “execution base 171”, and the takeover end step name is “allocation step 332”.

  Next, details of step 207 in FIG. 16 for performing the handover process of the business process 300 will be described. FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the flow of processing in step 207.

(Step 1301) The takeover determining unit 145 includes the business process definition name to be taken over, the execution base identifier to be taken over, the instance ID of the instance at the takeover source, the execution base identifier to be taken over, and the takeover end step name. Information (hereinafter referred to as takeover information) is transmitted to the takeover execution unit 158 of the execution base 151 that is the takeover source and the takeover execution unit 178 of the execution base 171 that is the takeover destination.
(Step 1302) The takeover executing unit 158 acquires execution status information from the execution status management table 157 included in the instance indicated by the takeover source instance ID included in the received takeover information.
(Step 1303) The takeover execution unit 158 of the execution base 151 transmits the takeover information and execution status information to the takeover execution unit 178 of the execution base 171 that becomes the takeover destination.
(Step 1304) The takeover execution unit 178 of the execution base 171 generates an instance for the business process 300 to be taken over, and sets an execution status management table 177 in which the received execution status information is registered in the generated instance.
(Step 1305) The takeover relationship management unit 146 takes over the takeover target business process definition name, takeover source execution base identifier, takeover target instance ID, takeover destination execution base identifier, and takeover end step name, respectively. The definition name 801, takeover source execution base identifier 802, takeover source instance ID 803, takeover destination execution base identifier 804, and takeover end step name 806 are set, and the set takeover relation information is registered in the takeover relation management table 147.

  For the takeover processing of the business process 300, a known method similar to failover or process migration can be used. It is only necessary that the takeover destination instance ID and takeover source instance ID are finally registered in the takeover relationship management table 147.

  In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the business process 300 corresponding to the instance whose instance ID of the execution base 151 is “151-0001” is taken over to the execution base 171. In this case, if the instance ID of the takeover destination is “171-0002”, the takeover relationship management table 147 has a business process definition name 801 “business process definition 153” as shown in FIG. The original execution base identifier 802 is “execution base 151”, the takeover source instance ID 803 is “151-0001”, the takeover destination execution base identifier 804 is “execution base 171”, and the takeover destination instance ID 805 is “171-”. "2000" and the takeover end step name 806 is "reserve step 332".

  When the business process 300 is taken over from the execution base 151 to the execution base 171, the business process is executed in the execution base 171 according to the business process definition 173.

  Note that, in response to the determination of the takeover determination unit 145, the process 211 from FIG. 16 for returning the processing from the takeover destination execution base 171 to the takeover source execution base 151 also takes over the business process 300 by the same processing as in FIG. be able to.

  Next, details of the process in step 210 of FIG. 16, which is a process of determining to take over the process of the business process from the takeover destination to the takeover source again, will be described. FIG. 21 is a diagram showing the flow of processing in step 210.

(Step 1110) The takeover determining unit 145 determines whether or not the takeover source instance ID 803 that matches the instance ID 403 of the execution status information is registered in the takeover relationship management table 147. If not, the process proceeds to Step 1111. If it is registered, the process proceeds to Step 1112.
(Step 1111) The takeover determining unit 145 determines not to take over.
(Step 1112) The takeover determining unit 145 reads from the takeover relationship management table 147 the takeover relationship information whose takeover destination instance ID 803 matches the instance ID 403 of the execution status information, and takes over the business process definition name 801 of the takeover relationship information, the takeover destination execution. It is determined whether the base identifier 804 and the takeover end step name 806 match the business process definition name 402, the execution base identifier 401, and the step name 404 in the execution status information.
If the takeover end step name 806 matches the step name 404 of the execution status information, the process proceeds to step 1113, and if not, the process proceeds to step 1111 to decide not to take over.
(Step 1113) The takeover determining unit 145 determines to take over.

  As described above, in step 210 of FIG. 16, it is determined whether or not the business process 300 is to be taken over.

  For example, when the execution status monitoring unit 130 of the management server 110 receives execution status information indicating that the execution of the allocation step 332 of the business process 300 related to the instance ID “171-0002” is completed from the execution platform 171, FIG. In the example, since “reserve step 332” is set as the takeover end step name 806, it is determined to take over the business process from the execution base 171 to the execution base 151.

  As described above, in the information processing system of this embodiment, based on the takeover policy information 141 registered by the system administrator, whether the takeover determining unit 145 takes over, the range of steps to take over, and the takeover destination. The execution base 171 can be determined and the business process 300 can be taken over. Therefore, when the load on the execution base 151 is high, by executing some steps on the different execution bases 171, load distribution can be realized and the load on the entire information processing system can be smoothed.

  Conventionally, load distribution is performed by distributing execution requests from the client 100 to a plurality of BP execution servers, and after the processing of the business process 300 according to the execution request is started, the processing is the same until the end of the processing. However, according to the information processing system of the present embodiment, the business process 300 is executed without changing the business process definition 153 or redeploying the business process execution unit 155. The subject can be freely defined. Therefore, for example, when a failure occurs in the order receiving service providing unit 192 of the Web service providing server 190, an exception process occurs in the business process 300 that is executing the order receiving step 330, and the resource consumption is higher than the normal process. Even in a situation where normal processing is affected by a large processing load of exception processing, the BP execution server 150 is set to perform only normal processing by passing only exception processing to the BP execution server 170. can do. As a result, an increase in processing load for normal processing can be prevented and efficient information processing can be performed. That is, the operator of the information processing system can optimize the processing subject of the business process 300 by updating the takeover policy information 141 according to the processing load of the BP execution server 150 or 170.

  In this embodiment, the two servers that execute the business process are the BP execution servers 150 and 170. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and three or more BP execution servers may be provided. . In this case, the BP execution server to be the business process takeover destination is determined according to the conditions.

  In this embodiment, the system administrator inputs all items of the takeover policy information 141. However, the definition information analysis for identifying a step in which the management server 110 analyzes the business process definition 153 and performs exception processing. And a policy information generation unit that generates the takeover policy information 141 so as to take over the execution of the step of performing the exception processing. In general, exception processing consumes more resources than normal processing, so by taking over exception processing to another execution base 171, resources are consumed by exception processing and normal processing is affected. Can be prevented.

  Also, in order for the business process definition to be long and complicated, it takes time for the system administrator to analyze the business process definition and extract the exception processing part. However, the management server 110 analyzes the business process definition 153 and analyzes it. By generating the takeover policy information 141, it is possible to reduce the trouble for the system administrator and improve the convenience for the user.

  The management server 110 in this case is assumed to newly include a business process definition analysis unit 148. The business process definition analysis unit 148 analyzes the business process definition, extracts only the steps for performing exception processing, and registers the execution status condition 703 and the takeover end step name 705 in the takeover range determination table 700 of the takeover policy information 141. To do.

  FIG. 22 shows the processing in step 201 in FIG. 16 when the business process definition analysis unit 148 registers the takeover policy information 141.

(Step 1401) The business process definition analyzing unit 148 receives an input of the business process definition 153 from the system administrator. At this time, the business process definition analyzing unit 148 may accept an input of the business process definition 153 itself, or may accept an input of a pointer to a storage medium in which the business process definition 153 is stored. The business process definition 153 shown may be read out.
(Step 1402) The business process definition analyzing unit 148 analyzes the business process definition 153 and extracts a range in which exception processing is performed.
(Step 1403) The business process definition analyzing unit 148 sets a character string obtained by combining the step name indicating the first step included in the extracted range and “start” as the execution status condition 703.
(Step 1404) The business process definition analyzing unit 148 sets the step name indicating the last step included in the extracted range as the takeover end step name 705.
(Step 1405) The business process definition analysis unit 148 generates a takeover range condition including the execution status condition 703 and the takeover end step name 705 and registers it in the takeover range determination table 700.

  The next step 1002 is the same as that in FIG. 16, and the takeover relationship management unit 146 registers the takeover destination condition received from the system administrator in the takeover destination determination table 720.

  As described above, the business process definition analyzing unit 148 registers the takeover range condition based on the business process definition 153.

  When the business process definition 153 shown in FIG. 6 is given to the business process definition analysis unit 148, the business process definition analysis unit 148 analyzes the business process definition 153 and extracts the provision exception processing step 334 which is an exception process. The business process definition analysis unit 148 sets the name of the business process definition 153 being analyzed in the business process definition name 702 in the takeover range determination table 700 of the takeover policy information 141, and starts the step extracted in the execution status condition. “Allocation exception processing step 334 start” is set, and the handover range condition in which “allocation exception processing step 334” is set is registered in the handover end step name 705.

  As described above, the business process definition analyzing unit 148 can automatically register the takeover range condition for exception processing. As a result, when exception processing occurs frequently, the exception processing is handed over to the execution base 171 and the execution base 151 can perform only normal processing, so that the performance of the execution base 151 can be protected.

  Although the present embodiment has been described above, the above embodiment is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. The present invention can be changed and improved without departing from the gist thereof, and the present invention includes equivalents thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a business process 300. It is a figure showing the whole information processing system composition concerning this embodiment. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a client 100. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a client 100. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a BP execution server 150. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the business process definition 153. 3 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a BP execution server 150. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structural example of execution status information. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a Web service providing server 190. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a Web service providing server 190. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a management server 110. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structural example of resource information. It is a figure which shows the structure of the takeover policy information 141. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the taking over relationship management table 147. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a management server 110. FIG. It is a figure which shows the flow of a process of the information processing system of this embodiment. 7 is a diagram illustrating details of registration processing of takeover policy information 141. FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining details of processing in step 205. It is a figure which shows the flow of the determination process of the takeover destination. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flow of processing in Step 207. It is a figure which shows the flow of a process in step. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing processing in step 201 of FIG. 16 when a business process definition analysis unit 148 registers takeover policy information 141.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Client 101 Execution request transmission part 102 Execution result receiving part 110 Management server 121 Agent management part 122 Resource information management table 130 Execution status monitoring part 140 Takeover policy management part 141 Takeover policy information 145 Takeover judgment part 146 Takeover relation management part 147 Takeover relation Management Table 150 BP Execution Server 151 Execution Platform 152 Business Process Control Unit 153 Business Process Definition 154 Business Process Definition Reading Unit 155 Business Process Execution Unit 156 Execution Status Management Unit 157 Execution Status Management Table 160 Operation Management Agent 170 BP Execution Server 171 Execution Platform 172 Business Process Control Unit 173 Business Process Definition 174 Business Process Definition Reading Unit 175 Business Process Execution Unit 17 Execution status management unit 177 Execution status management table 190 Web service providing server 191 Web service execution unit 192 Order receiving service providing unit 193 Inventory search service providing unit 194 Allocation service providing unit 195 Shipping service providing unit 300 Business process 330 Order receiving step 331 Inventory searching step 332 allocation step 333 dispatch step 334 allocation exception processing step 1000 communication network

Claims (10)

An execution status management unit that stores information indicating the processing unit executed last among the processing units that have been executed in the first information processing apparatus that executes a series of processing units constituting a business process When,
A takeover policy management unit for accepting policy information in which one of the processing units is designated;
When the processing unit indicated by the information stored in the execution status management unit matches the processing unit specified in the policy information, the unexecuted processing unit in the series of processes is determined. A control unit to be executed by the second information processing apparatus;
An information processing system comprising: The information processing system according to claim 1,
The policy information includes processing unit specifying information for specifying the unexecuted processing unit,
The control unit causes the second information processing apparatus to execute the processing unit specified by the processing unit specifying information;
An information processing system characterized by The information processing system according to claim 2,
A definition information storage unit that stores definition information in which an algorithm for executing the processing unit is described;
A definition information analysis unit that analyzes the definition information and identifies the processing unit that performs exception handling;
A policy information generating unit that generates the policy information including the processing unit specifying information indicating the specified processing unit;
An information processing system comprising: The information processing system according to claim 1,
A resource amount measuring unit for measuring a resource amount used in the first information processing apparatus;
A condition storage unit for storing a condition for the resource amount;
With
The control unit matches the processing unit indicated by the information stored in the latest execution processing unit storage unit with the processing unit specified in the policy information, and the resource amount satisfies the condition. If satisfied, causing the second information processing apparatus to execute the unexecuted processing unit;
An information processing system characterized by The information processing system according to claim 4,
The first information processing apparatus has a CPU and a memory;
The resource amount is at least one of a usage amount of the memory used by the first information processing device and a usage rate of the CPU in the first information processing device;
An information processing system characterized by The information processing system according to claim 1,
There are a plurality of the second information processing devices,
An execution status condition storage unit that stores conditions set for the execution result of the processing unit by the first information processing apparatus for each second information processing apparatus;
An execution result storage unit that stores an execution result of the processing unit executed most recently;
With
The control unit causes the second information processing apparatus to execute the unexecuted processing unit, the execution result satisfying the condition;
Information processing system featuring The information processing system according to claim 1,
There are a plurality of the second information processing devices,
For each of the plurality of second information processing devices, a resource amount measuring unit that measures the resource amount used by the second information processing device;
An execution condition storage unit that stores a condition for the resource amount for determining the second information processing apparatus that executes the unexecuted processing unit;
An execution destination identifying unit that identifies the measured amount of the resource that satisfies the condition among the second information processing apparatuses;
With
The control unit causes the second information processing apparatus specified by the execution destination specifying unit to execute the unexecuted processing unit;
Information processing system featuring The information processing system according to claim 1,
The latest execution processing unit storage unit includes first information indicating the processing unit executed most recently in the first information processing apparatus and the processing unit executed most recently in the second information processing apparatus. Second information to be stored,
The policy information specifies the first and second processing units,
When the processing unit indicated by the first information matches the first processing unit specified in the policy information, the control unit determines the processing unit subsequent to the first processing unit as the processing unit. Causing the second information processing device to execute,
When the processing unit indicated by the second information matches the second processing unit specified in the policy information, the control unit determines the processing unit subsequent to the second processing unit as the processing unit. Causing the first information processing apparatus to execute;
An information processing system characterized by An information processing apparatus connected to the first and second information processing apparatuses is
Storing information indicating the processing unit executed most recently in the first information processing apparatus that executes a series of processing units constituting the business process;
Accepts policy information in which one of the processing units is specified;
If the processing unit indicated by the stored information matches the processing unit specified in the policy information, the unexecuted processing unit in the series of processes is designated as a second information processing apparatus. To make it run,
An information processing method characterized by the above. In the information processing apparatus connected to the first and second information processing apparatuses,
Storing information indicating the processing unit most recently executed in the first information processing apparatus that executes a series of processing units constituting a business process;
Receiving policy information in which one of the processing units is designated;
If the processing unit indicated by the stored information matches the processing unit specified in the policy information, the unexecuted processing unit in the series of processes is designated as a second information processing apparatus. Step to be executed,
A program for running

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