JP2016527623A - Distribution of creator systems among lease agent systems - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a process and system for distributing multiple author systems among multiple lease agents. The lease agent can identify a set of available producer systems in the environment and distribute those publisher systems to each of a plurality of lease agents. Next, the lease agent can notify the other lease agents of the producer system assigned to each lease agent. When the number of available author systems changes, the distribution process can be repeated to rebalance the author system assignments among the lease agents. [Selection] Figure 2

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is filed in US application No. 13 / 927,892 entitled “PRODUCER” filed June 26, 2013; US Application No. 13 / 927,929, entitled “SYSTEM PARTIONING AMONG LEASING AGENT SYSTEMS”; US Application No. 13 / 927,933, entitled “PRODUCER SYSTEM SELECTION”, filed June 26, 2013; US Application No. 13/9 entitled “PRODUCER SYSTEM PARTITIONING AMONG LEASING AGENT SYSTEMS” It relates each application No. 7,995, incorporated the entire disclosures herein by reference.

  In many cases, computing resources and services are provided by multiple computing systems. These computing resources and / or services may be consumed by multiple separate computing systems. Often, several computing systems provide access to the same resources or services. Each computing system that provides a resource or service typically limits the number of requests that the system can handle during a period of time.

US Patent Publication No. 2013/0073703

  In order to make it easier to provide services to requesting computer systems, some companies utilize a centralized system, thereby allowing the usage of each system that provides a service or resource to be tracked. By using a centralized system, the load on each providing system can be balanced among several computing systems that provide services or resources. One such centralized system is a hardware load balancer. A hardware load balancer is useful for distributing requests among computing systems that provide services or resources, thereby balancing the load across each provisioning system of an enterprise.

  Throughout the drawings, reference numbers are again used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. The drawings are provided to illustrate the embodiments of the invention described herein and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network environment that provides a consumer system with access to services hosted by a producer system. FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a network environment that provides consumer systems with access to services hosted by a producer system and provides health information for the producer system to one or more lease agents. FIG. 6 is an alternative diagram of an embodiment of a network environment that provides a consumer system with access to services hosted by the producer system. FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a process for accessing a service of a producer system. FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a process for providing a producer system lease to a consumer system. It is a figure which shows embodiment of a producer system update process. FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a distribution process for distributing a set of author systems. It is a figure which shows embodiment of the producer system registration process from a viewpoint of a producer system. FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a producer system registration process from the perspective of a lease agent. FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a lease agent redistribution process. FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a hysteresis based producer selection process. FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an overlay network environment that provides a consumer system with access to services hosted by a producer system. FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a process for accessing a creator virtual machine service. FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a process for processing a request for access to a service of a producer virtual machine. FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a process for leasing access to a producer virtual machine. FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a state management table that can be used to facilitate communication in an overlay network environment.

Introduction Requesting access to a service or resource from a computing system that provides access to the service or resource by using a hardware load balancer (this system can be referred to as a producer system) While it is possible to help prevent overloading by demands from computing systems (which can be referred to as consumer systems), hardware load balancers create several drawbacks. There is a fear. For example, a hardware load balancer becomes a single point of failure. In other words, when a hardware load balancer fails, service requests can no longer be transferred to the producer system, and access from the associated enterprise system may become impossible. Furthermore, since the hardware load balancer is composed of a plurality of expensive and esoteric hardware, the hardware load balancer cannot be an attractive solution for balancing the load on the enterprise system.

  One solution to the problem with hardware load balancers is to use a decentralized load balancer. However, using a decentralized load balancer solves several problems associated with using a hardware load balancer, but decentralized load balancers tend to be suboptimal. Because decentralized load balancers do not have an overall view of enterprise systems and are usually limited to each load balancer serving a defined subset of consumer and producer systems. It is.

  The present disclosure describes embodiments of systems and processes that utilize a set of lease agents to allocate service requests from multiple consumer systems among multiple publisher systems. In many cases, the leasing agent can monitor and assign access to, or leases of, a subset of the publisher systems while keeping track of the entire plurality of publisher systems. Further, for each service request, one consumer system can interact with several lease agents and, in some cases, multiple producer systems. A set of lease agents can function as an integrated load balancer in some embodiments, because each lease agent balances the load for a subset of the author system and the process of balancing the load is a set. This is because it can be distributed among multiple distributed hardware-based systems.

  Advantageously, in one embodiment, by distributing at least part of the information about each producer system at each lease agent while distributing the producer system among the lease agents, without the disadvantages described above, The advantages of both a hardware load balancer and a decentralized load balancer can be obtained. Further, in some embodiments, by not assigning a consumer system to a particular lease agent and / or producer system, multiple producer systems can be compared to systems that divide the producer system into isolated subsystems. The load handled by each can be more balanced over time.

  In some cases, the systems and applications implemented in the producer system and / or the consumer system are modified to work with the lease agent. For example, as described further below, the consumer system may be modified to lease access to the producer system and maintain the producer system status information.

  In some embodiments, the systems and methods of the present disclosure may be used with one or more overlay networks implemented on a set of computing hosts capable of hosting consumer virtual machines and producer virtual machines. it can. Advantageously, in certain embodiments, the systems and methods of the present disclosure can be implemented on a consumer host and producer host network connectivity infrastructure, thereby enabling consumer virtual machines and / or producer virtual machines to The lease process can be generated without the need for involvement.

  When embodiments of the present disclosure are implemented in an overlay network, instead of distributing the publisher system among the lease agents, the publisher virtual machine associated with each overlay network can be individually distributed between the lease agents. In addition, when leasing a producer virtual machine to a consumer virtual machine, the lease agent may select a producer virtual machine assigned to the same overlay network as the consumer virtual machine requesting the lease. it can.

Network Environment Overview An embodiment of a network environment 100 that provides consumer systems 104A-C access to services hosted by the producer systems 106A-D is shown in FIG. 1A. In general, the network environment 100 represents one data center. However, in some cases, the system of the network environment 100 may be distributed among a plurality of data centers.

  The network environment 100 may include a plurality of producer systems 106A-D (herein these are singular “producer systems 106” or plurals “producer systems 106”). 106) ”, and a plurality of consumer systems 104A-C (herein these are referred to as“ a consumer system 104 ”in the singular form, or“ consumers in the plural form ”). System 104 (sometimes referred to as “the consumer systems 104”). Although four producer systems 106 and three consumer systems 104 are shown, the network environment 100 can include any number of producer systems 106 and consumer systems 104. Further, although the network environment 100 has been described above as representing one or more data centers, in some embodiments at least a portion of the consumer system 104 may be independent of the data center. . For example, in some embodiments, the network environment 100 may be associated with a particular entity or organization. In such an embodiment, at least a portion of the consumer system 104 may represent a user or customer computing system that can communicate with the network environment 100, which manages the remaining systems associated with the network environment 100. It may be under the control of a single or independent entity rather than under.

  In general, each producer system 106 can provide services and / or computer resources to the consumer system 104. In some cases, each producer system 106 may be able to provide the same services and / or resources to the consumer system 104, respectively. In other cases, at least a portion of the publisher system 106 may be able to provide different services and / or resources than other publisher systems 106. These services and / or resources provided by the publisher system 106 may include any type of service and / or computing resource. For example, these services and / or computer resources include data storage access; external network access (eg, access to the Internet); internal resource access (eg, access to a database managed by the same entity as the network environment 100). ); Access to catalog services; access to directory services; access to applications; access to processing services (eg, for distributed processing of commands or requests); routing services (eg, network routing services), etc. Can be mentioned. For the sake of simplicity, the remainder of this disclosure will be provided by or via a service, computer resource, or producer system 106 in addition to the term “service” having its normal meaning herein. The term “service” shall be used to refer to other resources that may be made.

  The producer system 106 can include any type of computing system. For example, the creator system 106 includes a client system, a server (eg, an application server, a web server, etc.), a laptop machine, a desktop machine, a database system, a backup system, a directory system, a deduplication system, a storage system, and the like. Can do. Similarly, consumer system 104 can include any type of computing system. For example, the consumer system 104 can include a client system, a server, a laptop machine, a desktop machine, a tablet, a mobile phone, a game machine, a television, and the like. In some embodiments, the consumer system 104 can function as a producer system, and conversely, the producer system can function as the consumer system 104. For example, a consumer system 104 may access a producer system 106 (eg, a producer system that functions as a database system or a storage system) to obtain data. The same consumer system 104 can also function as a producer system, for example, by providing application access to another consumer system 104. In some cases, consumer system 104 and producer system 106 can be considered a client system and a server system, respectively. However, as described above, the consumer system 104 and the producer system 106 are not so limited.

  Each time consumer system 104 desires or requests access to services provided by producer system 106, consumer system 104 may include one or more lease agents 102A-102D (herein these are singular). To the creator system 106 that can access the “lease agent 102” or the plural “the lease agents 102” and provide the service. You can request access. In general, the consumer system 104 accesses a subset of the lease agent 102 to obtain identification information of the creator system 106 to be accessed and execute a service request. The subset of lease agents 102 can be randomly selected from the available lease agents 102 and can include some of the available lease agents 102. For example, requests for access to the producer system 106 may be provided to three of the four available lease agents shown in FIG. 1A. However, in some cases, consumer system 104 may be assigned to a particular lease agent 102. Further, in some cases, consumer system 104 may provide a request for access to producer system 106 to one lease agent 102 in network environment 100 or to each existing lease agent 102.

  An example of communication between the lease agent 102, consumer system 104, and producer system 106 is shown in FIG. 1A. As can be seen from FIG. 1A, each consumer system 104 is in communication with three of the four available lease agents 102. As indicated by the dashed arrows, this communication includes control information such as, for example, a request for access to a service provided by the producer system 106 and / or control information relating to a request for access to the producer system 106. It may be included. Further, as indicated by the solid arrows connecting the consumer system 104 to a subset of the producer system 106, this communication includes data regarding the producer system 106 that provides services in response to a service request by the consumer 104. It may be. In addition, the lease agents 102 may provide status information regarding the lease agent 102 and / or the producer system 106, for example, by communicating between themselves. Note that the intercommunication between the various systems illustrated in the network environment 100 of FIG. 1A is only one example of communication between the consumer system 104, the producer system 106, and the lease agent 102 and is intended to be limiting. It should be noted that it is not a thing. Communication between various systems in the network environment 100 is described in further detail in connection with the processes described herein with respect to FIGS.

  An embodiment of a network environment 100 that provides access to services hosted by the producer system 106 to the consumer system 104 and provides producer system health information to one or more lease agents 102 is shown in FIG. 1B. Show. As shown in FIG. 1B, in some cases, data can be provided both from the producer system 106 to the consumer system 104 and from the consumer system 104 to the producer system 106. That is, in some cases, data communication can be bidirectional.

  Further, the producer system 106 can provide health information to the lease agent 102 so that the lease agent 102 can be used to assign which producer system 106 is functional and to the consumer system 104. It is possible to keep track of which producer system 106 is equipped with possible resources. In some cases, the producer system 106 may provide health information at a specified time. In other cases, the lease agent 102 can request or ping the producer system 106 for health information. In many cases, each producer system 106 is assigned to one lease agent 102, as shown by the producer systems 106A-106C. However, in some embodiments, the producer system 106 may be assigned to multiple lease agents 102 as in the case of the producer system 106D.

  1A and 1B illustrate various data and control channels, network environment 100 may implement some or all of the data and control channels shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. . Thus, FIG. 1B does not show the channel between the consumer system 104 and the lease agent 102, but typically there is a control channel as shown in FIG. 1A between the consumer system 104 and the lease agent 102. Exists. In addition, some or all of these channels may be unidirectional, where one system may request data or control information and the other system may provide data or control information. Alternatively or in addition, some or all of these channels may be bidirectional, in which two communicating systems may both request and provide data or control information.

  FIG. 2 is an alternative diagram of an embodiment of a network environment 100 that provides a consumer system 104 with access to services hosted by the producer system 106. As shown in FIG. 2, the systems in the network environment 100 can communicate with each other via a network 202. The network 202 can include any type of wired or wireless network and combinations thereof. For example, as the network 202, a local area network (Local Area Network: LAN), a wide area network (Wide Area Network: WAN), a cellular network, an Ethernet (registered trademark) -based network, a WiFi (registered trademark) network, a WiLAN ( Registered network). Further, in some cases, the network 202 can include the Internet.

  As shown in FIG. 2, each system described in FIG. 1A may include multiple subsystems. These subsystems can be implemented by hardware or software. For example, the consumer system 104 may include a lease requester 240, a status module 242, a connection module 244, and a resource requester 246. Lease requester 240 may be configured to request one or more lease agents 102 for a lease for one or more publisher systems 106. In some cases, lease requester 240 may specifically request access to producer system 106. In other cases, the lease requester 240 may request access to the service regardless of whether it explicitly requests access to the producer system 106.

  Once the lease requester 240 obtains identification information for one or more publisher systems 106, the connection module 244 may attempt to establish communication with some or all of the publisher systems 106 identified by the lease agent 102. it can. After the connection with the producer system 106 is established, the resource requester 246 can request a resource or service from the producer system 106 with which the consumer system 104 has successfully established a connection.

  The status module 242 can obtain status information regarding the producer system 106. This information is then provided to the lease agent 102 so that the lease agent 102 can easily select the producer system 106 in response to a request from the consumer system 104 seeking access to the producer system 106. To. This information may be provided to the corresponding status module 228 of the lease agent 102. In some cases, the status module 242 obtains status information based on the success or failure of establishing a connection with the producer system 106. In other cases, status information is obtained by sending a query to the producer system 106 and / or a corresponding status module 262 that is included as part of the publisher system 106. This status information may include any information related to the connection with the producer system 106 and / or the provision of services by the producer system 106. For example, the status information may include information regarding the success or failure of establishing communication between the consumer system 104 and the producer system 106. As another example, the status information may include the number of consumer systems 104 that access the producer system 106 during a predetermined period of time. Further examples may include information regarding the responsiveness of the publisher system 106, the capacity of the publisher system 106, the resources available in the publisher system, and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the author system 106 may include a registration module 260 and a status module 262. As described above, the status module 262 may provide status information about the producer system 106 to the consumer system 104 that requests status information about the producer system 106. Further, in some cases, status module 262 may provide status information to lease agent 102 either voluntarily or in response to a request from lease agent 102.

  The registration module 260 is configured to register the producer system 106 with the lease agent 102. In some embodiments, the registration module 260 may automatically register the producer system 106 as part of an initialization routine when the publisher system 106 is first started. In other embodiments, the registration module 260 may register the producer system 106 in response to commands from a user or application. In some cases, the registration module 260 may re-register the producer system 106 when the producer system 106 determines that the lease agent assigned to the producer system 106 is no longer available.

  As previously described, the lease agent 102 may include a status module 228. The status module 228 can receive status information regarding the status of the producer system 106 from one or both of the consumer system 104 and the producer system 106. In addition, the status module 228 may provide status information associated with the producer system 106 to another lease agent 102. Further, in some cases, status module 228 may perform a health check of other lease agents 102 by requesting status information from other lease agents 102. For example, status module 228 may determine whether lease agent 102 is no longer available based on whether a request for a sanity check has been answered by lease agent 102. In some cases, the status module 228 may perform a sanity check of the producer system 106 by requesting status information from the producer system 106.

  In addition to the status module 228, the lease agent 102 can include a producer repository 220, a distribution system 222, a lease system 224 and a registration module 226. The publisher repository 220 can include any type of database, repository, or storage for storing information about the publisher system 106. For example, the publisher repository 220 may include status information associated with the publisher system 106, producer system 106 identification information, and information regarding the assignment or distribution of the publisher system 106 among the lease agents 102. In some embodiments, some or all of the information stored in the publisher repository 220 may be stored in the agent repository 206 instead of or in addition to the publisher repository 220.

  Distribution system 222 may include any system that can distribute available producer system 106 among leasing agents 102 in network environment 100. In general, distribution system 222 divides available author system 106 into non-overlapping or non-overlapping subsets, and then assigns one subset to each lease agent 102. Thus, if there are four lease agents 102, the producer system 106 may be divided into four subsets and one subset associated with each lease agent 102. However, in some cases, these subsets may overlap. In such a case, the producer system 106 may be assigned to or associated with a plurality of lease agents 102. The process of distributing the producer system 106 among the lease agents 102 may occur when the network environment 100 is first initialized. In addition, this process can reoccur periodically. For example, the process of distributing the publisher system 106 may be performed each time the number of available publisher systems 106 changes, or the productions that can be used, whether by adding or removing available publisher systems 106. This can occur when there is a threshold change of the person system 106.

  Each time the consumer system 104 requests the lease agent 102 to access the producer system 106, the lease system 224 may, for example, status information associated with the producer system 106, the location of the producer system 106 (eg, geographical location). Location), data center, server rack, etc.) and identifying the producer system 106 based on several factors such as whether the producer system 106 has access to the resources that the consumer system 104 is seeking access to. Can be leased to the consumer system 104. Once the lease system 224 identifies the producer system, the lease system 224 can provide the producer system 106 identification information to the requesting consumer system 104. Further, in some cases, the lease system 224 may provide the consumer system 104 with a lease time that the consumer system 104 is authorized to access the producer system 106. Alternatively or in addition, the leasing system 224 may provide the consumer system 104 with other amounts or metrics of consumable resources. For example, consumable resources can be calculation cycles, money, disk storage capacity, connection requests, and the like.

  The registration module 226 may function as corresponding to the registration module 260 of the producer system 106. Upon receiving a request from the producer system 106 to register with the lease agent 102, the registration module 260 of the lease agent 102 may determine whether the producer system 106 is assigned to the lease agent 102. If assigned, the registration module 226 can register the publisher system 106, which provides the availability status of the publisher system 106 as well as status information associated with the publisher system 106, eg, the publisher repository 220. Remembering. On the other hand, if the registration module 226 determines that the producer system 106 is not assigned to the lease agent 102, the registration module 226 can identify another lease agent 102 assigned to the producer system 106; The identification information of the lease agent 102 assigned to the producer system 106 can be notified to the producer system 106.

  In certain embodiments, the network environment 100 may include an agent repository 206 and / or a distribution system 204. Agent repository 206 may include information regarding lease agent 102 and / or producer system 106 included in network environment 100. Information stored in agent repository 206 may be used by one or more of lease agent 102, consumer system 104, and producer system 106. For example, in some cases, the lease agent 102 may use the agent repository 206 to determine the number and / or identification information of the author system 106 in the network environment 100. Using this information, the lease agent 102 can determine how the producer system 106 is to be distributed. In some cases, the consumer system 104 uses the agent repository 206 so that after the producer system 106 is identified by the lease agent 102 and accessible by the consumer system 104, the producer system 106 You may determine where it is located. As another example of using the agent repository 206, in some cases, for example, when the producer system 106 is first started, the producer system 106 accesses the agent repository to identify the lease agent 102 to be accessed. May be determined.

  In some embodiments, the distribution system 204 may perform the process of distributing the producer system 106 between the lease agents 102. In such an embodiment, the lease agent 102 itself may not include the distribution system 222.

  In some embodiments, at least some of the modules included in the illustrated system of FIG. 2 may be integrated into applications and / or resources provided by these systems. For example, the status module 262 of the publisher system 106 may be integrated into the applications and / or resources provided by the publisher system 106. Similarly, status module 242 may be integrated into an application or service hosted by consumer system 104.

Example Process for Accessing Publisher System Services An embodiment of a process 300 for accessing the services of the publisher system 106 is shown in FIG. Process 300 may be implemented by any system that can access the services or computer resources of producer system 106 by obtaining a lease or temporary permission from lease agent 102 to access producer system 106. For example, the process 300 may be implemented in whole or in part by the consumer system 104, the lease requester 240, the connection module 244, the resource requester 246, and the status module 242 to name a few examples. Although any number of systems may be used to implement process 300, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, each part of process 300 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 300 begins at block 302. Here, for example, the lease requester 240 generates a lease request for access to the creator system 106. In some cases, the lease request may include identification information of a computer resource or service that a user of consumer system 104 or an application on consumer system 104 desires access. In other cases, the lease request comprises a request for access to the producer system 106 without specifying the services of the producer system 106 accessed by the consumer system 104.

  At block 304, the lease requester 240 provides a lease request to a subset of the lease agents 102 included in the network environment 100. In some cases, lease requester 240 may provide the lease request to some or all available lease agents 102. The lease requester 240 may identify available lease agents 102 by accessing an agent repository 206 that may include identification information for each lease agent 102 in the network environment 100. In other cases, the consumer system 104 may be set using the identification information of the lease agent 102 at initialization or startup, or at other times during operation of the consumer system 104, respectively. For example, a user (eg, an administrator) may provide the consumer system 104 with identification information for the lease agent 102. The identification information of the lease agent 102 identifies the name of the lease agent 102, the address of the lease agent 102 (eg, an Internet Protocol (IP) address or other network address), and / or the lease agent 102 in the network environment 100. Other information that may be used for the purpose may be included. In some embodiments, providing the lease request to the lease agent 102 provides the lease agent 102 with status information related to one or more producer systems 106 with which the consumer system 104 has previously interacted. Can be included.

  At block 306, the consumer system 104 receives the identification information of the producer system 106 from each subset of the lease agent 102 to which the lease request was provided at block 304. In some cases, the consumer system 104 receives identification information for the producer system 106 from a portion of the subset of lease agents 102. For example, consumer system 104 may receive producer system 106 identification information from one subset, two subsets, or all subsets of lease agent 102. If the consumer system 104 has not received any producer system 106 identification information, the process 300 may be terminated, the actions associated with blocks 302 and / or 304 may be repeated, and / or the user ( For example, a warning may be issued to the administrator. In some cases, receiving the identification information of the producer system 106 is the time that the consumer system 104 is allowed to access the producer system 106 or lease access to the producer system 106. Receiving. Each lease agent 102 included in the subset of lease agents 102 can provide identification information for one producer system 106. However, in some cases, each lease agent 102 included in a subset of lease agents may provide identification information for multiple producer systems 106. Similar to the identification information of the lease agent 102, the identification information of the producer system 106 is any information that identifies the producer system 106 according to the consumer system 104 or provides a method for accessing the producer system 106. Can be included. For example, the identification information of the producer system 106 can be used to search the producer system 106 within a name, address (eg, IP address), or a table or data structure stored in the agent repository 206, for example. Specific identifiers.

  In some cases, block 306 may include receiving producer system 106 status information identified by each subset of lease agents 102. This status information may be used to help the consumer system 104 determine which producer system 106 to access. In some cases, status information may be obtained by the lease agent 102 communicating with the producer system 106. Alternatively or in addition, status information may be obtained from a consumer system 104 that has previously communicated with the producer system 106. The received status information may include an independent set of status information available to the lease agent 102 or a portion of status information available to the lease agent 102. In some cases, the received status information may or may not overlap with status information available to the lease agent 102.

  The connection module 244 attempts to initiate a connection with each producer system 106 identified at block 306 at block 308. In some cases, connection module 244 may attempt to initiate a connection with a subset of author system 106 identified at block 306. Attempting to initiate a connection can include any process that attempts to open a communication channel with the producer system 106. For example, attempting to start a connection can include sending a connection request packet to the producer system 106. In general, the connection module 244 may attempt to establish a connection with the producer system 106 when the consumer system 104 receives the identification information of the producer system 106. For example, each lease agent 102 may be located at a different distance from the consumer system 104, or may have a different load, so that the consumer system 104 rarely receives responses from multiple lease agents 102 at the same time. I don't get it. Therefore, the connection module 244 can hardly attempt to start connection with a plurality of producer systems 106 at the same time. Rather, attempts to initiate a connection with the producer system 106 may be made at different times, even if the deviations are only marginal. However, in some embodiments, the connection module 244 may attempt to initiate connections with multiple publisher systems 106 simultaneously. For example, in some cases, the consumer module 104 may wait until each subset of lease agents 102 responds, or in some circumstances may receive responses from multiple lease agents 102 simultaneously.

  In block 310, the resource requester 246 requests or requests access to the service or computer resource from the first author system 106 for which the connection module 244 has successfully established a connection. In some cases, successfully establishing a connection with the producer system 106 can include receiving an acknowledgment (“ack”) packet or the like from the producer system 106. For reasons similar to those described above with respect to block 308, connections with each producer system 106 may be established at different times. However, if the connection module 244 actually or successfully establishes a connection with more than one publisher system 106 at the same time, the resource requester 246 may request the publisher system 106 to request access to the service. Can be selected at random. Alternatively, the resource requester 246 can use a selection algorithm to determine which publisher system 106 should request the service. Selection algorithms can include, but are not limited to, round robin, least frequently used (LRU), or other types of selection algorithms, for example. In some embodiments, the consumer system 104 may request access to the service from some or all of the producer systems 106 with which a communication connection or channel has been established. In some cases, the services may be of the same type. In other cases, the consumer system 104 may require each producer system 106 to access different services.

  Further, if more connections with more producer systems are established than requested by the consumer system 104 at a particular point in time, the consumer system 104 abandons the lease for one or more other producer systems 106. May be. Alternatively, the consumer system 104 may keep a lease for another producer system 106 in the lease pool and maintain a connection to another producer system 106. In such a case, if the consumer system 104 requests access to another service at some time during the lease period of another producer system 106, the consumer system 104 holds the lease in the lease pool. The service of one producer system 106 among other producer systems 106 can be used.

  At block 312, the status module 242 receives status metadata from the initially connected author system 106. In some cases, the status module 242 may receive status metadata from each producer system 106 for which the connection module 244 has successfully established a communication channel. Further, the status module 242 may obtain status metadata from the producer system 106 for which the connection module 244 has failed to establish a communication channel. For example, the fact that the connection module 244 failed to establish a communication channel with a particular publisher system 106 may be included as status metadata associated with that publisher system 106. The status metadata is not limited and can be used by the creator system 106, information regarding establishment of a connection with the creator system 106, information regarding maintaining a connection with the creator system 106, information regarding the responsiveness of the creator system 106, and the like. Information about various services can be included. For example, the status metadata includes the time when the connection with the creator system 106 has elapsed, the latency when connecting with the creator system 106, the processing resources available in the creator system 106 (for example, due to packet loss) There may be the number of times a request needs to be retransmitted to the publisher system 106 and other types of data that can be associated with the status of the publisher system 106.

  In some embodiments, block 312 may be performed before block 310. In such a case, the status module 242 may receive status information from each connected producer system 106. In such a case, the consumer system 104 can access the service by selecting the producer system 106 based on the received status information.

  At decision block 314, the consumer system 104 determines, for example, using a resource requester 246, whether access to another service is desired. Such other services may be different services or the same type of services. For example, in some cases, one service may relate to access to network applications, and another service may download network resources (eg, images or videos hosted by a network page such as a web page). It may be related. Alternatively, network resources may be downloaded using both services. For example, a user may download two network pages or two resources from two network pages. In such a case, the connection module 244 initiates a connection with the identified author system 106 at block 308. In some cases, the connection module 244 initiates a connection with the producer system 106 identified in the lease spool associated with the consumer system 244. The lease pool may include identification information for the producer system 106 that is currently leased to the consumer system 104 to provide access to the resource. In some cases, the lease pool includes a producer system 106 that is leased to the consumer system 104 but is not currently accessed by the consumer system 104. If the lease pool does not contain any leases, the consumer system 104 may perform the process 300 again using, for example, the lease requester 240. In some embodiments, the decision block 314 is optional. For example, if there is no producer system 106 leased to the consumer system 104, the process 300 may be repeated starting at block 302.

  In some embodiments, process 300 may be used to renew previous leases for publisher system 106. In such a case, the lease request generated at block 302 may include identification information of the producer system 106 that was previously accessed by the consumer system 104. In addition, the lease request can include an indication that the request is an update request. The renewal lease request can then be provided to the lease agent 102 that originally identified the producer system 106 corresponding to the consumer system 104. Assuming that the lease agent 102 determines that the producer system 106 is still available and / or has the ability to provide services to the consumer system 104, the lease agent 102 is a part of block 306. Can indicate that the renewal request has been approved, and provide the consumer system 104 with time for a renewal lease. The consumer system 104 holds a lease for one or more other producer systems 106 in the lease pool, and the other producer system 106 services are not used by the consumer system 104 and another producer If the lease period of the system 106 expires, the consumer system 104 can terminate the lease without sending a lease renewal request to the lease agent 102 corresponding to another producer system 106.

  In some cases, the process of requesting a lease renewal can occur when the current lease expires. In other cases, the consumer system 104 may use a resource requester 246, for example, before a current service request seeking access to the services of one or more publisher systems 106 expires the lease time. The probability of not completing may be determined. If the probability meets the renewal threshold, the consumer system 104 requests a renewal of the producer system 106 lease at some point before the current lease expires, thereby causing the service to expire upon lease expiration. You may make it suppress or avoid stopping.

  In certain embodiments, leasing access to publisher system 106 may include paying an organization or entity associated with one or more of publisher system 106 and / or lease agent 102. . For example, the creator system 106 may be used as part of a pay-for-access service. Alternatively, leasing access to the producer system 106 may not require any payment. In such embodiments, the lease relates to the temporary nature of access to the producer system 106 and is not a finance lease.

Example Process for Providing a Producer System Leasing to a Consumer System An embodiment of a process 400 for providing a maker system 106 lease to a consumer system 104 is shown in FIG. Process 400 may be implemented by any system that can provide the identification information of producer system 106 to consumer system 104. Further, process 400 may be implemented by any system that can lease access to producer system 106 to consumer system 104. For example, process 400 may be implemented in whole or in part by lease agent 102, lease system 224, and status module 228, to name a few examples. Although process 400 may be implemented using any number of systems, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, each part of process 400 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 400 begins at block 402. Here, for example, the lease system 224 of the lease agent 102 receives a request for a lease of access to the producer system 106 from the consumer system 104. In some cases, the request may include identification of a particular service or computing resource of the producer system 106 that the consumer system 104 is seeking access to. As explained in the previous section, in some cases, the lease request may include a request to renew the current lease by the consumer 104 of the producer system 106.

  At block 404, the status module 228 may receive status metadata for one or more publisher systems 106 from the consumer system 104. The status metadata received in this manner relates to a previous attempt by the consumer system 104 to communicate with one or more publisher systems 106 or to access one or more publisher system services. Data may be included. For example, the received status metadata may include latency information, data regarding the responsiveness of requests from the consumer system 104 to the producer system 106, or other information described above with respect to block 312. Further, the received status metadata includes data received by the consumer system 104 from the producer system 106 and / or data status metadata generated by the consumer system 104 based on interaction with the producer system 106. May be. In some embodiments, block 404 may be optional. For example, if the request is the first request received from consumer system 104, consumer system 104 may not have any status metadata to provide to lease agent 102.

  At block 406, the status module 228 updates the producer system status information based on the status metadata received at block 404. In some cases, updating the publisher system status information may include updating an entry associated with the publisher system 106 in the publisher repository 220. In some embodiments, block 406 may be optional.

  Further, at block 408, the status module 228 provides at least a portion of the status metadata received at block 404 to the second lease agent. For example, the lease agent 102 performing the process 400 may determine that some of the status metadata is for the producer system 106 assigned to a different lease agent 102. In such a case, the lease agent 102 may provide status information to the lease agent 102 assigned to the producer system 106. In other cases, the lease agent 102 may send status metadata to all lease agents 102 with which the lease agent 102 is communicating (these are some or all of the lease agents 102 belonging to the network environment 100). May be provided). Any type of data transfer process, data replication process, and / or data synchronization process may be implemented in the network environment 100 to share status metadata between the lease agents 102. For example, the data may be shared between the lease agents 102 using a flood fill algorithm or a prim's algorithm. Another system and method that can be used herein to share data between lease agents 102 is US application Ser. No. 12 / 980,133, filed Dec. 28, 2010, entitled “DATA REPLICATION FRAMEWORK”; US Application No. 12 / 980,153 entitled “DATA REPLICATION FRAMEWORK” filed on December 28, 2010; US Application No. 12 / 980,193 entitled “DATA REPLICATION FRAMEWORK” filed on December 28, 2010; And US application Ser. No. 12 / 980,258, entitled “DATA REPLICATION FRAMEWORK”, filed Dec. 28, 2010. Each of these above applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

  In some embodiments, block 408 is optional. For example, in some embodiments, the consumer system 104 only provides the lease agent 102 with status metadata of the producer system 106 assigned to the lease agent 102 that received the request at block 402.

  At block 410, the lease system 224 selects a producer system based on the producer status information associated with each producer system 106 assigned to or assigned to the lease agent 102. In some cases, producer status information is based on information provided by consumer system 104 (eg, status metadata received at block 404). In other cases, the producer status information may be based on information obtained by the lease agent 102 communicating with the producer system 106. For example, the lease agent 102 may perform a sanity check or status check of each producer system 106 assigned to the lease agent 102. These sanity checks include pinging the publisher system 106, requesting the publisher system 106 for updates regarding resource availability, or other processes that obtain information about the status of the publisher system 106. Can do. Further, the producer status information may be based on information received from another lease agent 102.

  In some embodiments, selecting the publisher system 106 may be based at least in part on the weight associated with each publisher system 106. These weights may be generated based on the producer status information. For example, when the producer status information indicates that the latency of the producer system 106 is low and the error rate is low when communicating with the consumer system 104, the weight is increased for the producer system 106. Thus, the block 410 may be easily selected. Conversely, a producer system 106 that often disconnects from the consumer system 104 may be less selected at block 410 by making the weights smaller.

  In some cases, the selection of the producer system 106 may be based on a number of other factors, such as the location of the producer system 106 relative to the consumer system 104. This location information can include, for example, whether the producer system 106 is located in the same data center or the same server rack as the consumer system 104. Selecting the producer system 106 may in some cases be based on the service requested by the consumer system 104. In yet other cases, the producer system 106 selection may be based in part on the length of lease time requested by the consumer system 104 and / or previously allocated to the consumer system 104. May be. In some cases, the lease system 224 may select the producer system 106 with the lowest load. In other cases, the leasing system 224 may select the producer system 106 from a set of producer systems 106 that have a load that does not meet the threshold. In some embodiments, regardless of whether the consumer system 104 has established communication with the selected producer system 106, it determines that the load on the selected producer system 106 has increased immediately after selection. . Advantageously, in one embodiment, the same publisher system 106 is recorded by recording an increase in load for the selected publisher system 106 regardless of the consumer establishing a connection with the publisher system. Is more likely to be selected than the threshold count within a certain period. This is because although the actual load of the producer system 106 may be low, the expected load in the future connection with the consumer system 104 is taken into consideration when selecting the producer system.

  In some cases, selecting the producer system 106 at block 410 selects the producer system 106 that has the lowest load for one or more load metrics (eg, connection, processor usage, etc.). May be included. Alternatively, selecting a publisher system 106 may include selecting a publisher system 106 included in a set of publisher systems 106 that has a load that is less than a threshold load. Selecting the author system 106 from a set of author systems 106 having a load that does not meet the load threshold may be random, pseudo-random, or a selection algorithm (e.g., at least It may be based on usage frequency, median load). Advantageously, in some embodiments, instead of always selecting the producer system 106 with the lowest load, by selecting the producer system 106 from a set of publisher systems 106, the probability of load variation and / or Or the occurrence is suppressed. Furthermore, a load bubble or a load hotspot that is transmitted through the network environment 100, such as a part of a system that is involved in a high load, is less likely to occur than other parts of the network environment 100.

  At block 412, the leasing system 224 provides the consumer system 104 with leasing information for the producer system 106 selected at block 410. This lease information may include identification information of the producer system 106 and, in some cases, the length of lease time that the consumer system 104 is allowed to access the producer system 106. As described above, the publisher system 106 identification information can include any information that can facilitate searching and access to the publisher system 106, such as a network address. In some embodiments, providing identification information of the publisher system 106 can include providing an authentication key or a public key to facilitate communication with the publisher system 106.

  As indicated above, in some cases, process 400 may be used for lease renewal requests. In such a case, block 410 may include determining whether the producer system 106 for which the consumer system 104 has requested a lease renewal is still available for lease. Determining whether the producer system 106 is still available for lease includes determining whether the producer system 106 has the resource capacity to continue serving the consumer system 104. be able to. Further, determining whether the publisher system 106 is still available for lease determines whether one or more metrics for the producer status information associated with the publisher system 106 meet an availability threshold. Determining. For example, this determination may include checking whether the error rate associated with the producer system 106 is below a threshold error rate. If the producer system 106 is available for lease renewal, the lease agent 102 can send the updated lease of the producer system 106 to the consumer system 104. If the lease agent 102 determines that the producer system 106 is not available for lease renewal, the lease agent 102 can report so and / or provide lease information for an alternative producer system 106. be able to.

Example of Producer System Update Process An embodiment of the producer system update process 500 is shown in FIG. Process 500 can be implemented by any system that can update the availability of producer system 106 and that can redistribute producer system 106 among lease agents 102. For example, process 500 may be implemented in whole or in part by lease agent 102, distribution system 222, distribution system 204, registration module 226, and status module 228, to name a few examples. Although any number of systems may be used to implement process 500, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, portions of process 500 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 500 begins at decision block 502. Here, for example, the status module 228 of the lease agent 102 determines whether a status update has been received from the producer system 106. Status updates may be predicted by the lease agent 102 in response to a request sent by the lease agent 102 to the producer system 106. Alternatively, the status module 228 may predict status updates according to an update schedule associated with each producer system 106. For example, in some cases, each producer system 106 is configured to automatically ping or provide status updates to assigned lease agents 102 on an hourly or daily basis. obtain. If a status update is received, process 500 returns to decision block 502 and waits for the next status update. Further, the status module 228 may update publisher status information associated with the publisher system 106 in the publisher repository 220 and / or the agent repository 206.

  In contrast, if a status update has not been received at decision block 502, the status module 228 updates the status of the producer system 106 at block 504 to indicate that the publisher system 106 is not usable. Updating the status of the publisher system 106 includes storing an indication in the publisher repository 220 and / or agent repository 206 that the publisher system 106 cannot be used to lease to the consumer system 104. Can do. In some cases, even if a status update is received at decision block 502, the status module 228 may update the status of the producer system at block 504 to indicate that the publisher system 106 is unavailable. For example, the received status information indicates that the producer system 106 is malfunctioning, is serving a request at a threshold rate, or is generating an error that exceeds a threshold error rate. If so, status module 228 may update publisher repository 220 and / or agent repository 206 to indicate that publisher system 106 is no longer available. In some embodiments, updating the publisher status information of the publisher system 106 to indicate its loss of availability may include alerting the administrator that the publisher system 106 is no longer available. Updating the status information of the producer system 106 will be described in more detail with respect to FIG.

  At decision block 506, the distribution system 222 determines whether the threshold number of the author system 106 has become unavailable. If the threshold number of the author system 106 is not disabled, the process 500 returns to decision block 502 to wait for the next status update. If the distribution system 222 determines at decision block 506 that the threshold number of the publisher system 106 has become unavailable, the distribution system 222 performs a publisher redistribution process at block 508. This producer system redistribution process is described in more detail below with respect to FIG. In some embodiments, one or both of decision block 506 and block 508 are performed by distribution system 204.

Example Distribution Process An embodiment of a distribution process 600 that distributes a set of publisher systems 106 is shown in FIG. Process 600 can track changes in the number of available publisher systems 106 and can be implemented by any system that can redistribute publisher systems 106 among lease agents 102. For example, process 600 may be implemented in whole or in part by lease agent 102, distribution system 222, distribution system 204, registration module 226, and status module 228, to name a few examples. The process 600 may be implemented using any number of systems, in whole or in part, but for ease of explanation, each part of the process 600 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 600 begins at block 602. Here, for example, the status module 228 tracks available producer system 106 differences. In some cases, the status module 228 tracks absolute changes in the number of available publisher systems 106. Alternatively or additionally, the status module 228 tracks the rate of change of the number of available publisher systems 106. The differences or changes in the available publisher system 106 may be based on the newly added publisher system 106 or the loss of availability of the publisher system 106. In some embodiments, process 500 may be used to determine that the availability of publisher system 106 has been lost. Further, determining which producer system 106 can be used may be based on user updates that direct the reduction or addition of the producer system 106. Further, the addition of the producer system 106 may be tracked based on the publisher system 106 attempting to register. In some cases, the availability of the producer system 106 may be determined based on information provided by the consumer system 104. Further, available publisher differences or changes may be tracked by actual numbers, or may be tracked by the rate of change in the availability of the publisher system 106.

  In some embodiments, differences between the producer system 106 and / or the available producer system 106 are tracked by each lease agent 102. Alternatively, each lease agent 102 tracks the available producer systems assigned to the lease agent 102. In addition or alternatively, the number and / or differences of available author systems 106 are tracked by an independent system, such as distribution system 204.

  At decision block 604, the distribution system 222 determines whether the available producer system 106 differences meet a threshold. This difference can be an absolute value. That is, adding or subtracting the producer system 106 can be tracked. In some embodiments, adjusting the author system 106 may be tracked independently of the individual thresholds associated with each. Thus, in some cases, one or both thresholds may be met even if the total change in available author system is zero or does not meet the combined threshold. In some cases, the difference can represent a rate of change and / or a rate of change. In such a case, the threshold may be a percentage threshold and / or a rate of change threshold.

  If the difference does not meet the threshold, or if no corresponding difference is met for the corresponding threshold, the status module 228, at block 602, changes the available publisher system 106 or available publisher system 106. Keep track of minutes. In contrast, if the difference meets the threshold, or if the difference meets the corresponding threshold, the distribution system 222, at block 606, determines that the lease agent 102 executing the process 600 is the producer system 106. Notify other lease agents 102 to start their distribution or redistribution process. Advantageously, in some embodiments, the process 600 may notify multiple lease agents 102 by notifying other lease agents 102 that the lease agent 102 executing the process 600 will begin the distribution process. Avoid running the distribution process at the same time. This is because, when executed simultaneously in this way, for example, there may be a race condition when counting and distributing the producer system 106, so that an optimum result may not be obtained. In some embodiments, block 606 may be optional. For example, in some embodiments, a distribution system 204 separate from the lease agent 102 may perform the distribution process or the redistribution process.

  At block 608, the distribution system 222 obtains identification information of the available producer system 106. Distribution system 222 may obtain identification information of available publisher system 106 by accessing publisher repository 220 and / or by accessing agent repository 206. In some cases, distribution system 222 may obtain identification information for available producer system 106 by communicating with other lease agents 102.

  At block 610, distribution system 222 distributes available producer system 106 among lease agents 102. The distribution system 222 can distribute the author system 106 using any type of distribution algorithm. In general, by distributing the producer systems 106 among the lease agents 102, multiple sets of non-overlapping or unequal publisher systems 106 can be generated and assigned to the lease agents 102. However, in some cases this distribution may overlap. Furthermore, in some cases, these subsets may not be balanced. That is, there may be a case where more producer systems 106 are assigned to a certain lease agent 102 than to other lease agents 102. If these subsets are not balanced, the number or percentage of producer systems 106 assigned to a particular lease agent 102 has been assigned, at least in part, to lease agent 102 and / or its lease agent 102. It may be based on the number of requests that the producer system 106 can handle. For example, if the first lease agent 102 is assigned to a producer system 106 that can handle more consumer system 104 requests than other producer systems 106, the first lease agent may include: You may assign fewer producer systems than another lease agent 102.

  Further, in an embodiment where one producer system 106 can provide a different service than other producer systems, the producer system 106 can be configured such that each lease agent is assigned to a producer system that can provide a particular service. You may distribute. Alternatively, producer systems 106 that can provide a particular service may be distributed among the selected subset of lease agents 102.

  At block 612, the distribution system 222 of the lease agent 102 that is executing the process 600 uses the identification information of the producer system 106 assigned to each lease agent 102 upon completion of the block 610 to transfer other information in the network environment 100. Each lease agent 102 is updated. In some embodiments, block 612 may include updating the lease agent 102 performing the process 600 with the identity of the producer system 106 assigned to it. Updating the lease agent 102 with the identification information of the producer system 106 may include updating a table or database in the producer repository 220. In some cases, since lease agent 102 is performing process 600, block 612 is optional for this lease agent 102 and is performed only for other lease agents 102 included in network environment 100. The

  In some embodiments, the process 600 may be used to initially distribute the producer system 106 among the lease agents 102. For example, when the network environment 100 is set for the first time, the usable producer system 106 is activated, so that the threshold value of the determination block 604 is easily satisfied by the difference of the usable producer system 106. Alternatively or in addition, the user may manually activate the distribution process when setting up the network environment 100 for the first time or otherwise.

  Process 600 has been described as distributing producer system 106 among lease agents 102. However, process 600 is not so limited. In some cases, process 600 may be used to distribute between each lease agent 102 each lease that can be provided to consumer system 104 to access producer system 106. For example, the lease agent 102 or the distribution system 222 identifies a set of available publisher systems and determines a plurality of leases that can be used for each publisher system that makes up the set of available publisher systems. To do. The lease agent 102 that performs the process 600 may be a first lease agent 102 that detects a changed threshold in available leases, or a lease agent 102 that is designated to perform lease distribution. Good. The lease agent 102 may identify a plurality of available leases based on status information received from each producer system 106 (eg, during registration of the producer system 106). Alternatively or additionally, the plurality of available leases may be determined based on the type of publisher system 106 or based on configuration information received from the producer system 106 or a user (eg, an administrator). .

  The lease agent 102 can be used for each producer system 106 by allocating a subset of leases included in a plurality of leases available to each producer system 106 to each lease agent 102 included in the plurality of lease agents 102. Multiple leases may be distributed among the plurality of lease agents 102. The plurality of leases may be distributed equally or nearly evenly among the lease agents 102. In some cases, since the number of leases is not a multiple of the number of lease agents 102, at least some of the lease agents 102 may be assigned with one more lease or one less. Further, in some cases, the lease may not be divided equally. This is because, for example, settings differ between a certain lease agent 102 and / or a certain producer system 106. In some cases, each lease agent 102 is assigned a set of non-overlapping leases. Alternatively, at least some of the leases may be assigned to a plurality of lease agents 102. In some embodiments, the plurality of lease agents 102 that are distributed to the leases of the producer system 106 may be a subset of the lease agents 102. For example, in some cases, a subset of lease agents 102 may be assigned to a subset of producer system 106.

  After or during the distribution of the plurality of leases, the lease agent 102 performing the process 600 gives each lease agent 102 of the plurality of lease agents 102 a subset of leases assigned to the lease agent 102. The lease agent 102 may be provided. Providing a lease to each lease agent 102 may include providing a plurality of leases to each lease agent 102 from each producer system 106 assigned to each lease agent 102. Alternatively or additionally, providing a lease to each lease agent 102 may include providing the lease agent 102 with identification information for each assigned lease. Further, providing a lease may include providing connection information for communicating with the producer system 106 and / or for utilizing the lease of the producer system 106.

  Advantageously, in some embodiments, balancing the workload among the plurality of lease agents 102 by distributing the multiple leases available to each producer system 106 among the plurality of lease agents 102. Is possible. In some cases, the lease agent 102 performing process 600 need not provide itself with a subset of leases assigned to lease agent 102 when performing process 600. However, in some cases, lease agent 102 may provide a lease to itself. For example, if the lease agent 102 subsystem that performs the distribution (eg, distribution system 222) and the subsystem that receives and / or tracks the lease assigned to the lease agent 102 are different, the lease that performs the process 600 Agent 102 may provide to itself the identification information of the lease assigned to lease agent 102.

  In some cases, process 600 may be used to distribute both producer system 106 and the lease associated with each producer system 106 among lease agents 102.

Example of Producer System Registration Process An embodiment of a producer system registration process 700 from the perspective of the producer system 106 is shown in FIG. Process 700 may be implemented by any system that can register producer system 106 with lease agent 102. For example, process 700 may be implemented in whole or in part by producer system 106, registration module 260, and status module 262, to name a few examples. Although process 700 may be implemented using any number of systems, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, portions of process 700 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 700 may occur each time author system 106 is first started or initialized, or whenever it is restarted or reinitialized, for example, after an inactivity period or after a system restart. In some cases, process 700 may occur or reoccur each time producer system 106 determines that lease agent 102 assigned to itself is no longer available. For example, determining that the assigned lease agent 102 is no longer available may be based on information received from the user or obtained from the agent repository 206, or such as status updates described with respect to FIG. It may be based on whether an ACK has been received from the assigned lease agent 102 after the producer system 106 has provided a status update.

  Process 700 begins at block 702. Here, for example, the registration module 260 accesses the identification information of the set of lease agents 102 included in the agent repository 206, for example. In some cases, producer system 106 may access identification information for a set of lease agents 102 included in the internal storage. For example, the producer system 106 may be set in advance using the identification information of the set of lease agents 102. In other cases, the user may specify the lease agent 102 to be accessed.

  At block 704, registration module 260 selects lease agent 102 from the set of lease agents 102 identified at block 702. The registration module 260 may select the lease agent 102 randomly or by using other selection methods such as a round robin method or a least recently used method. If the set of lease agents 102 has been sorted, the registration module 260 may select the first lease agent 102 from the sorted set. In some embodiments, block 704 may be optional. For example, block 704 is not necessary if the user specifies the lease agent 102.

  At block 706, registration module 260 initiates or attempts to initiate a connection with lease agent 102 selected at block 704. In some cases, attempting to initiate communication with lease agent 102 includes attempting to register with lease agent 102.

  At block 708, registration module 260 receives a connection response from lease agent 102. The registration module 260 determines at decision block 710 whether the connection response approves registration of the producer system 106 or indicates identification information of the second lease agent 102. If the registration module 260 determines at decision block 710 that the connection response has approved the registration of the producer system 106, the status module 262 provides status information regarding the producer system 106 to the lease agent 102 at block 712. To do. This state information may include any information relating to the state or status of one or more metrics associated with the author system 106. For example, status information may include the availability of one or more computing resources (eg, memory, processor, network bandwidth, applications, etc.), the number of consumer systems 104 where service requests are being processed by the producer system, and production Other information related to the state of the operator system 106 may be mentioned.

  The process associated with block 712 may occur when the registration module 260 determines that the connection response has approved the registration of the producer system 106. Alternatively, or in addition, the process associated with block 712 may occur at some later time. Further, in some embodiments, the process associated with block 712 may occur continuously, intermittently, or in response to a request from the lease agent 102 that seeks to update the status of the producer system 106. May occur. In other embodiments, the process associated with block 712 may occur whenever a threshold change occurs in the state or status of the author system 106. For example, the process associated with block 712 may occur when the availability of processing resources of the author system 106 has dropped to a threshold level.

  If the registration module 260 determines at decision block 710 that the connection response received at block 708 includes identification information for the second lease agent, the registration module 260 connects to the second lease agent at block 714. To start. As described with respect to process 800, the second lease agent includes a lease agent that the first lease agent (eg, the lease agent identified at block 704) has determined an association with the producer system 106. Also good.

  At block 716, the status module 262 provides state information to the second lease agent. In certain embodiments, block 716 may include one or more of the embodiments described above with respect to block 712. In some embodiments, the connection response received at block 708 indicates whether registration by the producer system 106 was successful without identifying additional lease agents. At that time, if the registration of the producer system 106 is not successful, the producer system 106 may register another lease agent included in the set of lease agents identified in block 702 or the lease agent. May attempt to initiate the connection, or alternatively, blocks 704, 706, 708 and 710 may be repeated until the lease agent 102 approves the registration of the producer system 106.

  In some embodiments, the second lease agent identified at decision block 710 is not randomly selected and / or necessarily associated with the producer system 106. In such a case, block 714 can include performing one or more embodiments described above with respect to blocks 708 and 710 without involving the second lease agent. That is, a loop can be formed from block 714 to block 708. At this time, if the connection response from the second lease agent identifies the third lease agent rather than authorizing the creator system 106, the decision block 710 identifies the third lease agent. May be. This loop may be repeated continuously until the producer system 106 is successfully registered with the lease agent 102. Alternatively, this loop may be executed a threshold number of times. If the producer system 106 is not registered normally and the threshold is satisfied, a warning may be generated. For example, the administrator may be notified (e.g., via email or pop-up alert) that the producer system 106 has failed to register with the lease agent 102. In the event of an unexpected system failure or the like, the producer system 106 may not be able to register with the set of lease agents 102 or renew their registration. In that case, the consumer system 104 may attempt to access the producer system 106 by accessing the connection information or lease cache. Advantageously, in some embodiments, by using cache information that can expire, downtime in accessing a resource can be reduced or eliminated in some cases.

Example Producer System Registration Process An embodiment of a producer system registration process 800 from the perspective of the lease agent 102 is shown in FIG. Process 800 may be implemented by any system that can register producer system 106 with lease agent 102. For example, process 800 may be implemented in whole or in part by lease agent 102, registration module 226, and status module 228, to name a few examples. Although any number of systems may be used to implement process 800, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, each part of process 800 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 800 begins at block 802. Here, for example, the registration module 226 receives a registration request from the producer system 106. In some embodiments, the registration request can include an authentication key or encryption key associated with the producer system 106. Registration module 226 determines at decision block 804 whether producer system 106 is assigned to lease agent 102. Determining whether the publisher system 106 is assigned to the lease agent 102 can access the producer repository 220 and / or the agent repository 206 to determine whether the publisher system 106 is assigned to the lease agent 102. Can be included. Further, in some cases, determining whether the producer system 106 is assigned to the lease agent 102 can be based on, for example, the received identifier, authentication key, or encryption key associated with the producer system 106. Changing the identification information of the operator system 106 may be included.

  If registration module 226 determines that producer system 106 is assigned to lease agent 102, registration module 226 approves registration of producer system 106 at block 806. Approving the registration of the producer system 106 can include notifying the producer system 106 that the producer system 106 is registered with the lease agent 102. Further, in some cases, block 806 indicates that the publisher system 106 is available and registered with the lease agent 102 by updating the publisher repository 220 and / or agent repository 206. Can be included. Further, in some embodiments, block 806 provides the producer system 106 with access to an authentication key and / or encryption key associated with the lease agent 102 and / or assigned to the producer system 106. Can be included. This authentication key and / or encryption key can be used to facilitate further communication between the producer system 106 and the lease agent 102. Further, the authentication key and / or the encryption key is consumed with the creator system 106 in order to verify the identification information of the producer system 106 or to guarantee data to be communicated between these two systems. It can be used for communication with an operator system 104.

  At block 808, the status module 228 receives status information from the author system 106. This state information may include some or all of the embodiments described above with respect to the state information of block 712. The status module 228 can update the author status information of the author system 106 at block 810 based at least in part on the status information received at block 808. Updating publisher status information may include updating entries in publisher repository 220 and / or agent repository 206, or one or more metrics to reflect the status of publisher system 106.

  If the registration module 226 determines at decision block 804 that the producer system 106 has not been assigned to the lease agent 102, the registration module 226 determines at block 812 that another lease agent to which the producer system 106 has been assigned. Is identified. At block 814, the registration module 226 can provide identification information of the lease agent 102 to which the producer system 106 is assigned to the producer system 106, whereby the producer system 106 is identified at block 812. It becomes possible to communicate with the lease agent 102. In some embodiments, block 812 and block 814 may be optional. For example, in some cases, the registration module 226 may inform the producer system 106 that the producer system 106 is not associated with the lease agent 102 and, therefore, an alternate lease agent 102 to which the producer system 106 is assigned. Without notification, the producer system 106 may be notified that the registration request received at block 802 has failed.

Lease Agent Redistribution Process An embodiment of the lease agent redistribution process 900 is shown in FIG. Process 900 may be implemented by any system that can reassign a set of producer systems 106 assigned to lease agent 102. For example, process 900 may be implemented in whole or in part by lease agent 102, distribution system 222, and distribution system 204, to name a few examples. Although any number of systems may be used to implement process 900, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, each part of process 900 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 900 begins at block 902. Here, for example, the distribution system 222 associated with the first lease agent 102 receives an indication that another or second lease agent 102 is no longer available. Indicating that the second lease agent 102 is no longer available may be determined based on, for example, a ping or status check. In other cases, the distribution system 222 may determine that the lease agent 102 is no longer available when the message is not approved by the second lease agent 102. In yet other embodiments, the user may specify that the second lease agent is no longer available. In certain instances, process 900 may be performed by distribution system 204.

  At block 904, the distribution system 222 identifies the producer system 106 that is assigned to the lease agent 102 that is no longer available. This publisher system 106 may be identified by accessing the publisher repository 220 and / or the agent repository 206. At block 906, the distribution system 222 distributes the producer system 106 identified at block 904 among the remaining lease agents 102. In some cases, block 906 may include notifying the remaining lease agents 102 that a distribution process is occurring so that, as described above with respect to block 610, multiple lease agents may be present. Avoid distributing the specified author system 106 simultaneously.

  In some embodiments, block 906 may include redistributing all available producer systems 106, not just those assigned to lease agents 102 that are no longer available. In such an embodiment, block 904 may include identifying all available publisher systems 106. As described above, the distribution of the producer system 106 may be duplicated, non-overlapping, equally, unequal, and / or based on the type of producer. Accordingly, in some embodiments, block 906 may include some or all of the embodiments described above with respect to block 610. Further, in some cases, distributing the producer system 106 that was assigned to the second lease agent 102 may be based at least in part on the type of the second lease agent 102. For example, when the producer system 106 that provides the storage service or storage resource is exclusively assigned to the second lease agent 102, the producer system 106 assigned to the second lease agent 102 is stored in the storage system. Redistribution may also be made among a subset of lease agents 102 that are also assigned exclusively to producer systems 106 that provide service or storage resources.

  At block 908, the distribution system 222 updates the remaining lease agents 102 with the producer system 106 identification information newly assigned to each lease agent 102 that is still available.

  In some embodiments, process 900 may be used to add lease agent 102 or replace lease agent 102. In such a case, block 904 may identify all available author systems 106 and distribute them at block 906. In some cases, the available author system 106 may be the same as the author system 106 that was available at the previous time. In other cases, the set of publisher systems 106 may have changed due to the reduction of the publisher system 106 or the addition of the publisher system 106. When replacing the lease agent 102 on a one-to-one basis, a new lease agent may be assigned to the producer system 106 of the lease agent that it replaces. In such a case, block 906 may be optional and block 908 may include notifying other lease agents that the new lease agent is currently assigned the former lease agent producer system 106. Good.

Example of a Hysteresis-Based Publisher Selection Process An embodiment of a hysteresis-based publisher selection process 1000 is shown in FIG. Process 1000 is implemented by any system that can change the selection weight associated with publisher system 106 to change the selection of the publisher system, such as the selection of publisher system 106 that is part of block 410. can do. For example, process 1000 may be implemented in whole or in part by lease agent 102, status module 228, and lease system 224, to name a few examples. Although any number of systems may be used to implement process 1000, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, each part of process 1000 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 1000 begins at block 1002. Here, for example, the status module 228 receives status metadata associated with the producer system 106 from the consumer system 104. This status metadata may include information provided by the producer system 106 to the consumer system 104 in addition to information determined by the consumer system 104 based on interaction with the producer system 106. For example, status metadata includes the response time of the producer system 106, the number of consumer systems 104 that the creator system 106 provides services at a predetermined time, and the creator system 106 that averages the service over a certain period of time. Information regarding the number of consumer systems 104 to be provided may be included. In some embodiments, block 1002 can include some or all of the embodiments described above with respect to block 404.

  Further, in some cases, status module 228 receives status metadata associated with a set of producer systems 106 with which consumer system 104 has communicated since consumer system 104 last communicated with lease agent 102. May be. Status metadata may be received as part of an update request from the consumer system 104 that seeks updated access to the producer system 106. In other cases, status metadata may be received as part of a new lease request from consumer system 104.

  At block 1004, the status module 228 updates the author status information of one or more publisher systems 106 based on the corresponding status metadata received at block 1002. Alternatively or additionally, status module 228 may determine that at least a portion of the received status metadata is for a producer system 106 associated with another leasing system 102, and thus This status information may be provided to the lease agent 102 assigned to the producer system 106. In some cases, the process associated with blocks 1002 and 1004 can function as a kind of “gossip algorithm”, which determines whether lease agent 102 is assigned to each of a plurality of producer systems 106. Regardless, the consumer system 104 provides the lease agent 102 with information about the interaction between the consumer system 104 and each of several producer systems 106. That is, the lease agent 102 may acquire a “gossip” for the producer system 106 assigned to another lease agent 102. The lease agent 102 can then extend the “gossip” to the lease agent 102 assigned to that producer system 106. Advantageously, in one embodiment, using this “gossip algorithm”, the lease agent 102 can obtain status metadata from the producer system 106 between specified status updates. By obtaining status metadata from the consumer system 104 in addition to the producer system 106, the selection of the producer system 106 to be leased can be further optimized compared to a system that does not use the “gossip algorithm”. . Another embodiment of a system and method that allows “gossip”, ie, obtaining a feedback information, to select a computing system to provide services is described in “DECENTRALIZED REQUEST ROUTING” filed Aug. 20, 2009. No. 12 / 544,517, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In some embodiments, block 1002 can include some or all of the embodiments described above with respect to block 406 and / or block 408.

  At decision block 1006, the status module 228 determines whether the updated producer status information indicates a change in load metrics associated with the producer system 106. The load metric can include any characteristic of the producer system 106 selected for monitoring. This load metric can relate to the load that can be handled by the producer system 106. In some cases, the load metric may include any metric regarding the health of the producer system. Some non-limiting examples of load metrics include error rate, memory utilization, number of connections with consumer systems, and the like. If at decision block 1006, the updated producer status information does not indicate a change in load metrics, process 1000 returns to block 1002 to await new status metadata from consumer system 104.

  In some embodiments, the decision block 1006 alternatively or additionally includes determining whether there is a change in a value associated with one or more other metrics associated with the author system 106. But you can. For example, the status module 228 may determine whether the updated publisher status information indicates a change in response time by the publisher system 106 or a change in available resources by the publisher system 106. In some cases, the decision block 1006 may use the updated load metric measurements of the producer system 106 for each publisher system 106 in the network environment 100 or each producer system assigned to the lease agent 102. Comparing with the measured value of the average load metric may also be included.

  If the updated author status information indicates that the load metric of the author system 106 has changed, the status module 228 may change the measured value of the changed load metric at block 1008. Based at least in part, the selection weight associated with the publisher system 106 is changed. Changing the selection weight can include increasing or decreasing the selection weight based on whether the change in error rate indicates an increase in the error rate or a decrease in the error rate. In some embodiments, publisher system 106 is not associated with selection weights. In such an embodiment, if the load metric detected at decision block 1006, or other metric changes to be tracked, meet or exceed a corresponding threshold, the status module 228 may indicate that the author It may be determined that the system is malfunctioning or unusable. At that time, if the load metric reaches a threshold related to determining that the producer system 106 is no longer malfunctioning or unusable, a warning may be issued to a user, such as an administrator. Further, in some cases, a warning may be issued to the user if the threshold changes due to load metrics or selection weights, regardless of the availability of the producer system 106.

  In one embodiment, the available producer system 106 that should be leased to the consumer system as part of block 410 associated with the process 400 described above by using selection weights associated with the producer system 106. Can be easily selected. The selection weight and / or availability status of the publisher system 106 may be stored in the publisher repository 220 and / or the agent repository 206.

Overview of Overlay Network Environment An embodiment of an overlay network environment 1100 that provides consumer systems with access to services hosted by the producer system is shown in FIG. Overlay network environment 1100 can include one or more overlay networks, or any type of system that can provide a virtual network to one or more organizations or entities. These overlay networks may be implemented on computing hardware that may form a physical network or a non-virtual network. For some examples of overlay or virtual networks that can be used with this disclosure, see US application Ser. No. 12 / 827,268, filed Jun. 30, 2010 (currently US Pat. No. 8,296,459). No.), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

  Overlay network environment 1100 includes lease agent 102, consumer host 1104, and producer host 1106, each of which can communicate with each other via network 202. Each lease agent 102 may include some or all of the subsystems shown and described with respect to FIG. Thus, for example, the lease agent 102 may include a producer repository 220, a distribution system 222, a lease system 224, a registration module 226, and a status module 228. Each of these subsystems comprising the lease agent 102 may have the same functionality as described above with respect to FIG. 2, but in some cases, modifications or additions to the functionality of these subsystems may be made. You may go. For example, in addition to or instead of receiving status information regarding the consumer system 104 and the producer system 106, the status module 228 may include a consumer host 1104, a producer host 1106, a consumer virtual machine 1142, and a producer. Status information regarding one or more of the virtual machines 1162 can be received. Similarly, the producer repository 220 may include information regarding one or more of the consumer host 1104, the producer host 1106, the consumer virtual machine 1142, and the producer virtual machine 1162.

  In some cases, the distribution system 222 can be used to distribute the producer virtual machine 1162 between the lease agents 102 of the overlay network environment 1100. Further, publisher virtual machines 1162 associated with a particular overlay network can be distributed independently of publisher virtual machines 1162 associated with other overlay networks. Thus, for example, the producer virtual machine B ′ may be distributed to the lease agents 102 independently of the producer virtual machine B ″. In some cases, a subset of the available lease agents 102 may be assigned a particular overlay In such a case, the producer virtual machine 1162 and consumer virtual machine 1142 associated with this particular overlay network may restrict communication to a subset of available lease agents 102. Good.

  Further, the leasing system 224 may select the producer virtual machine 1162 to lease to the consumer virtual machine 1142 based on the overlay network with which the producer virtual machine 1162 and the consumer virtual machine 1142 are associated. In some cases, selecting the producer virtual machine 1162 based on the overlay network may be in addition to the factors described above with respect to selecting the producer system 106 to lease to the consumer system 104. Furthermore, the creator virtual machine 1162 can be registered with the lease agent 102 using the registration module 226.

  Although only one consumer host 1104 is shown in FIG. 11, the overlay network environment can include multiple consumer hosts 1104. Each consumer host 1104 may include a plurality of consumer virtual machines 1142. A portion of the consumer virtual machine 1142 may be associated with a different overlay network than other consumer virtual machines 1142 hosted by the consumer host 1104. For example, consumer host 1104 includes two consumer virtual machines 1142, each associated with a different overlay network. Consumer virtual machine A ′ may be associated with a first overlay network that may also include a producer virtual machine B ′, and consumer virtual machine A ″ may also include a producer virtual machine B ″. You may associate with.

  In addition to the consumer virtual machine 1142, the consumer host 1104 may include an overlay network proxy 1114, a lease requester 1130, a virtual machine mapping repository 1150, and a status module 1132. The overlay network proxy 1114 can process service requests from the consumer virtual machine 1142 and can provide service requests to be processed to the producer host 1106 hosting the producer virtual machine 1162. Any system can be included. In some embodiments, the service request received from the consumer virtual machine 1142 is a virtual address associated with the producer virtual machine 1162 or a non-existent system that can process the service request with the trust of the consumer virtual machine 1142. May be included. Upon receiving a service request with a virtual address, the overlay network proxy 1114 may identify a producer virtual machine 1162 that processes the service request in the same overlay network as the consumer virtual machine 1142 that provided the service request. it can. The overlay network proxy 1114 can then replace the virtual address with the address of the identified producer virtual machine 1162. As described in more detail below, the producer virtual machine 1162 may be identified from a pool of lease producer virtual machines 1162 associated with the consumer virtual machine 1142 that provided the service request. Further, the overlay network proxy 1114 may wrap or encapsulate the service request with a header or external header that identifies the producer host 1106 and the consumer host 1104 that host the identified publisher virtual machine 1162. it can.

  The virtual machine mapping repository 1150 can store a pool of producer virtual machines 1162 to be leased instead of consumer virtual machines 1142. Further, the virtual machine mapping repository 1150 can store identification information of the corresponding producer host 1106 that hosts the producer virtual machine 1162. Storing the identification information of the producer virtual machine 1162 and the producer host 1106 can include storing addressing information for accessing the producer virtual machine 1162 and the producer host 1106.

  To obtain a lease on behalf of the consumer virtual machine 1142, the consumer host 1104 can include a lease requester 1118 that can generate a lease request on behalf of the consumer virtual machine 1142 hosted by the consumer host 1104. it can. The lease requester 1118 may identify a particular overlay virtual machine and / or a particular consumer virtual machine 1142 that is requesting a lease for the producer virtual machine 1162.

  The status module 1132 can include some or all of the embodiments described above with respect to the status module 242. Further, the status module 1132 can provide status information of the producer virtual machine 1162 and / or the producer host 1106 based on communication between the producer virtual machine 1162 and the producer host 1106.

  Similar to the consumer host 1104, the overlay network environment 1100 can include any number of publisher hosts 1106, each of which has one or more publisher virtuals associated with one or more overlay networks. A machine 1162 can be included. In addition, each publisher host 1106 can include an overlay network proxy 1116, a virtual machine mapping repository 1152, and a status module 1134.

  Similar to overlay network proxy 1114, overlay network proxy 1116 can include any system that processes service requests received from consumer host 1104 and processes to respond to received service requests. Upon receiving the service request, the overlay network proxy 1116 can determine the creator virtual machine 1162 that will process the service request based on the information included in the header of the service request. Further, in some cases, a specific overlay network may be identified by the service request, and this overlay network may be used to easily identify the producer virtual machine 1162 that will process the service request.

  The virtual machine mapping repository 1152 can store information identifying which author virtual machine 1162 is associated with which overlay network. Further, the virtual machine mapping repository 1152 can store information for easily identifying which consumer host 1104 is hosting a particular consumer virtual machine 1142. This information can be used to determine the consumer host 1104 that provides the response to the service request.

  Similar to status module 1132, status module 1134 can include one or more of the embodiments described above with respect to status module 262. Further, the status module 1134 can provide status information regarding the creator virtual machine 1162 to the lease agent 102.

  As indicated by the dotted lines in consumer host 1104 and producer host 1106, the underlying system that enables the processes disclosed herein is from consumers (eg, clients) and producers (eg, servers or service providers). Can be separated from the virtual machines forming one or more overlay networks. In some cases, underlying systems (eg, overlay network proxies 1114 and 1116) may be implemented as part of the consumer host 1104 and producer host 1106 network connectivity infrastructure. Advantageously, in some embodiments, the underlying system can be separated from the virtual machine so that the lease structure can be implemented, maintained and modified without affecting the overlay network.

  In some embodiments, the consumer host 104 can host both a consumer virtual machine 1142 and a producer virtual machine 1162. Further, in some embodiments, producer host 1106 can host both consumer virtual machine 1142 and producer virtual machine 1162. Furthermore, although consumer virtual machine 1142 and producer virtual machine 1162 have been described as virtual machines, they are not so limited. In some embodiments, the overlay network may be part of the consumer host 1104 and the producer host 1106, or may be allocated hardware and / or software resources executed by them. Using these resources instead of virtual machines, producer systems and consumer systems may be implemented as part of an overlay network.

  In some cases, one or more of the processes described above with respect to network environment 100 may be performed or modified to be performed on overlay network environment 1100. Thus, for example, process 900 may be performed to redistribute lease agents within overlay network environment 1100. As a second example, processes 700 and 800 may be performed to register producer virtual machine 1162 with lease agent 102 in overlay network environment 1100.

Example Process for Accessing a Publisher Virtual Machine Service An embodiment of a process 1200 for accessing a publisher virtual machine service is shown in FIG. Process 1200 may be performed by any system capable of processing a request from a consumer virtual machine that accesses a service provided by the producer virtual machine. For example, process 1200 may be implemented in whole or in part by consumer host 1104, lease agent 102, overlay network proxy 1114, and lease requester 1118, to name a few. Although process 1200 may be implemented using any number of systems, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, each part of process 1200 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  In some cases, process 1200 may be used to allow a consumer virtual machine to access services provided by the producer system. Similarly, in some embodiments, process 1200 may be used to allow a consumer system to access services provided by a producer virtual machine. However, for ease of explanation, the process 1200 will be described with respect to a consumer virtual machine attempting to access the services of the producer virtual machine.

  Process 1200 begins at block 1202. Here, for example, the overlay network proxy 1114 of the consumer host 1104 (eg, consumer host A) seeks access to the producer's service from the consumer virtual machine 1142 (eg, consumer virtual machine A ′). Receive a request. Alternatively or in addition, the request received at block 1202 may be a data packet provided to the producer. For example, the data packet may be data used in combination with a service or to make it easier for a consumer virtual machine to use the services of a producer that has already established access. In some embodiments, the request includes a packet with a header that indicates that the request or packet is from address A associated with consumer virtual machine 1142 to virtual address X. You may make it show. For example, the received packet may be {A ', X, data}, which indicates that data is being transmitted from A' to X. The data field of the packet may include a request and / or data for facilitating the request or operation at the producer virtual machine 1162. In one embodiment, consumer virtual machine 1142 may not be aware that address X is a virtual address, but instead trusts that address X refers to a physical producer system. May be. Further, as mentioned above, in some embodiments, the overlay network may include consumer systems other than or in addition to consumer virtual machines. In such an embodiment, block 1202 may include receiving a request for access to the producer's service from a consumer system implemented on or hosted by consumer host 1104. Similarly, a producer host may include a producer system in addition to or in addition to a producer virtual machine that may be configured to provide services to a consumer system.

  At decision block 1204, overlay network proxy 1114 determines whether there is an unused producer virtual machine lease associated with consumer virtual machine 1142. Determining whether there is an unused producer virtual machine lease associated with the consumer virtual machine 1142 is to access the virtual machine mapping repository 1150 so that the lease pool associated with the consumer virtual machine 1142 is It may include determining whether there is. Further, in some cases, decision block 1204 may include determining whether an unused producer virtual machine lease associated with consumer virtual machine 1142 is included in the lease pool.

  If overlay network proxy 1114 determines at decision block 1204 that there are no unused producer virtual machine leases associated with consumer virtual machine 1142, lease requester 1130 accesses the producer virtual machine. A plurality of leases are obtained at block 1206. An example of a process for obtaining one or more leases for accessing one or more producer virtual machines is described in more detail below with respect to FIG.

  At block 1208, the overlay network proxy 1114 attempts to establish a connection with the lease producer virtual machine 1162 obtained at block 1206. In some cases, block 1208 can include storing lease information associated with each lease producer virtual machine with which overlay network proxy 1114 has successfully established a connection.

  Overlay network proxy 1114 indicates that there is an unused producer virtual machine lease associated with consumer virtual machine 1142 after overlay network proxy 1114 establishes a connection with lease producer virtual machine at block 1208. If the determination is at decision block 1204, process 1200 proceeds to block 1210. At block 1210, overlay network proxy 1114 selects lease producer virtual machine 1162 for access to the service requested by consumer virtual machine 1142. The publisher virtual machine 1162 may be selected using any type of selection algorithm, such as round robin or least frequently used. In other cases, the publisher virtual machine 1162 may be selected based on the order in which the publisher virtual machine 1162 has established a connection. In yet other cases, the producer virtual machine 1162 may be selected randomly and / or based on the service request received at block 1202. Alternatively, in some cases, overlay network proxy 1114 may access virtual machine mapping repository 1150 to facilitate selection of producer virtual machine 1142. For example, the overlay network proxy 1114 may access the lease pool. This lease pool can be stored as a table for identifying the available producer virtual machine 1162, and is stored in the virtual machine mapping repository 1150.

  In some cases, the overlay network proxy 1114 may select the lease producer virtual machine 1162 whose load is below the threshold. At that time, the overlay network proxy 1114 may select at random from the creator virtual machine 1162 whose load is below the threshold. This load may represent any measurable metric regarding the usage status of the creator virtual machine 1162. For example, the load may represent a processor load, a network connection load, the number of consumer connections with the creator virtual machine 1162, the minimum latency at the time of connection, the degree of efficiency of the creator virtual machine 1162, and the like.

  Further, in some cases, each lease may be associated with a cost. For example, a consumer, or an entity associated with the consumer, may be charged in seconds used, in megabytes of data communicated or processed, or in the calculation cycle of the producer virtual machine 1162. In doing so, the overlay network proxy 1114 may select the lease producer virtual machine 1162 based on the cost of the available lease producer virtual machine 1162.

  At block 1212, overlay network proxy 1114 replaces the producer's address (eg, virtual address X) included in the request header (eg, internal header) with the address of the lease producer virtual machine 1162 selected at block 1210. replace. Thus, for example, the packet received at block 1202 can now be {A ', B', data}. In some embodiments, block 1212 may be optional. For example, in some embodiments, each lease producer virtual machine 1162 may be associated with a port. Therefore, instead of replacing the virtual address X with the address of the lease creator virtual machine 1162, the packet may be transmitted to the producer in the host via the port associated with the lease creator virtual machine 1162. . As a second embodiment, the packet may be transmitted to the producer host, and the producer host may determine the lease producer virtual machine 1162 that receives the packet based on the virtual address X, for example.

  At block 1214, the overlay network proxy 1114 identifies the producer host 1106 associated with the lease producer virtual machine. The publisher host 1106 may be identified by accessing a state table stored in the virtual machine mapping repository 1150.

  Overlay network proxy 1114 encapsulates the request with an outer header at block 1216. In this outer header, the producer host 1106 identified in block 1214 and the consumer host 1104 associated with the consumer virtual machine 1142 are identified. Thus, for example, a packet could be {A, B {A ', B', data}} here. This indicates that the packet is transmitted from the consumer host A to the producer host B. Alternatively, in some cases, the identification information of producer host 1106 and consumer host 1104 may be included in or added to the request header of the request received at block 1202, whereby the packet is {A, B, A ′, B ′, data}. This indicates that the packet is transmitted from the consumer host A to the producer host B. In such a case, after the process associated with block 1216 is complete, the request includes one header instead of two headers consisting of an inner header and an outer header. In some embodiments, block 1216 may include identification information for the overlay network associated with the consumer virtual machine 1142 that provided the request at block 1202 and the producer virtual machine 1162 identified at block 1210. Thus, for example, a packet is requested from the 'overlay network or the first overlay network rather than the' overlay network or the second overlay network, such as {A, B, ', A', B ', data}. May indicate that the packet is being sent from consumer host A to producer host B, and the service request is Indicating that it is for the producer virtual machine included in the overlay network, advantageously, in some embodiments, the overlay network identification information is included in the service request and the response to the service request to provide a different overlay network. Between addresses can be used again, but , If each virtual machine and each system is associated with a unique address, to provide the identity of the overlay network may be arbitrary.

  In some embodiments, the overlay network proxy 1114 can determine address information for accessing the producer virtual machine from a state management table stored in the virtual machine mapping repository 1150. This state management table may include connection information for accessing the lease producer virtual machine 1162 selected at block 1210. Further, the state management table can include a mapping from virtual addresses to addresses of the producer virtual machine. Further, the state management table may include a mapping from the producer virtual machine 1162 to each producer host. FIG. 15 shows an example of such a state management table that performs mapping from a virtual address to a creator virtual machine.

  At block 1218, overlay network proxy 1114 provides the request to the publisher host identified at block 1214. This request may be provided to the producer host 1106 via the network 202.

Example Process for Processing a Request for Access to a Publisher Virtual Machine Service An embodiment of a process 1300 for processing a request for access to a service of a producer virtual machine is shown in FIG. Process 1300 may be implemented by any system capable of processing a request received from a consumer host for access to a service of a producer virtual machine. For example, process 1300 may be implemented in whole or in part by publisher host 1106, overlay network proxy 1116, and publisher virtual machine 1162, to name a few examples. Although any number of systems, in whole or in part, may be used to implement process 1300, for ease of explanation, each part of process 1300 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  In some cases, the process 1300 may be used to allow the producer virtual machine to provide the service requested by the consumer system. Similarly, in some embodiments, the process 1300 may be used to allow the producer system to provide the services requested by the consumer virtual machine. However, for ease of explanation, the process 1300 will be described with respect to a producer virtual machine that provides access to the services requested by the consumer virtual machine.

  Process 1300 begins at block 1302. Here, for example, the overlay network proxy 1116 of the producer host 1106 (eg, producer host B) receives the request from the consumer host 1104. This request may take the form of {A, B, ', A', B ', data}, for example, because the packet has been received from consumer host A and the producer Indicates that the request is for Host B and that the service request is from the consumer virtual machine to the producer virtual machine included in the overlay network. In many cases, the received request is a request for access to a service hosted by the producer virtual machine 1162 hosted by the producer host 1106. However, in some cases, the received request is instead established by the consumer virtual machine 1142 hosted by the consumer host 1104 by providing data to the producer virtual machine 1162 instead. It may be a data packet configured to easily perform a service.

  At block 1304, the overlay network proxy 1116 determines a producer virtual machine 1162 (eg, producer virtual machine B ') that receives the request. In some embodiments, block 1304 may include decapsulating the outer header from the request received at block 1302. In such a case, the packet may look like {A ′, B ′, data}, because the packet has been received from consumer virtual machine A ′ and producer virtual machine B ′. Indicates that it was directed to. In such a case, the overlay network proxy 1116 may access the inner header to identify the producer virtual machine 1162. Alternatively or in addition, overlay network proxy 1116 may identify the producer virtual machine 1162 that receives the request by accessing the outer header.

  In some cases, the overlay network proxy 1116 provides a request without an outer header to the producer virtual machine 1162 identified at block 1304. Thus, the packet can be {A ', B', data}. However, in other cases, the request may be sent as received from the consumer host 1104, including the external header if it is included in the received request. Thus, the packet may be as received at block 1302 (eg, {A, B, ', A', B ', data}).

  At block 1308, overlay network proxy 1116 receives a response from producer virtual machine 1162 that is directed to consumer virtual machine 1142 that generated the request received at block 1302. In some embodiments, this response may be directed to a different consumer virtual machine. For example, a request from a consumer virtual machine may be a request to transfer a file from a producer virtual machine to another consumer virtual machine. This packet may be similar to the packet received at block 1202, and may be {B ', A', data}. This indicates that the producer virtual machine B 'is transmitting data (for example, a response to the service request) to the consumer virtual machine A'. At block 1310, overlay network proxy 1116 identifies the consumer host 1104 associated with consumer virtual machine 1142. Consumer host 1104 may be identified by accessing a mapping table in virtual machine mapping repository 1152. In this mapping table, the consumer virtual machine 1142 may be mapped to the consumer host 1104 that hosts the consumer virtual machine 1142. Typically, each consumer host 1104 may host a plurality of consumer virtual machines 1142. However, in some cases, one or more consumer hosts 1104 may host one consumer virtual machine 1142.

  Overlay network proxy 1116 encapsulates the response at block 1312 with an external header that identifies consumer host 1104 and publisher host 1106 associated with publisher virtual machine 1162. Thus, the packet can be {B, A {B ', A', data}}. As described with respect to block 1216, in some cases, identification information of the consumer host 1104 and producer host 1106 may be included in or added to the existing header of the response received at block 1308. Thus, the packet may be {B, A, B ', A', data}. Similarly, as described with respect to block 1216, if only one header is present, the outer header, ie, the response header, identifies the overlay network associated with the producer virtual machine 1162 and the consumer virtual machine 1142. Information may be included. Thus, the packet can be {B, A, ', B', A ', data}.

  The producer host 1106 provides the response to the consumer host 1104 at block 1314. In some embodiments, publisher host 1106 may provide the response over network 202.

  In some embodiments, consumer host 1104 may execute process 1300 or a similar process to provide the response received at block 1308 to the corresponding consumer virtual machine 1142. Further, in some cases, the overlay network proxy 1114 of the consumer host 1104 identifies the virtual address (eg, virtual address X) that was used to create the initial request provided by the consumer virtual machine 1142. May be. Using the virtual address thus identified, the overlay network proxy 1114 uses the address in the incoming response that identifies the producer virtual machine 1162 to create the initial request provided by the consumer virtual machine 1142. It may be replaced with the used virtual address. Thus, for example, before sending a packet to the consumer virtual machine A ′, the packet can be reconstructed as {X, A ′, data}, which actually generated the data contained in the packet. Indicates that a response has been received from system X, not from the potential producer virtual machine B ′.

Example Process for Leasing Access to a Publisher Virtual Machine An embodiment of a process 1400 for leasing access to a publisher virtual machine is shown in FIG. Process 1400 may be implemented by any system that can obtain a lease to access producer virtual machine 1162 (eg, producer virtual machine B ′). For example, process 1400 may be implemented in whole or in part by consumer host 1104, lease requester 1130, lease agent 102, overlay network proxy 1114, and lease system 224, to name a few examples. Although process 1400 may be implemented using any number of systems, in whole or in part, for ease of explanation, portions of process 1400 will be described with reference to a particular system.

  Process 1400 begins at block 1402. Here, for example, the lease requester 1130 generates a request to obtain a lease for the producer virtual machine 1162 on behalf of the consumer virtual machine 1142 associated with the overlay network. The process associated with block 1402 may occur when the consumer virtual machine 1142 is initialized. Alternatively, or in addition, block 1402 determines that there is no unused producer virtual machine lease associated with consumer virtual machine 1142 (eg, as determined at decision block 1204 associated with process 1200). It may occur in response to that.

  At block 1404, the lease requester 1130 provides requests to the plurality of lease agents 102. In some embodiments, the plurality of lease agents 102 may include a subset of lease agents 102 included in the overlay network environment 1100. Further, in some cases, a request may be provided to one lease agent 102.

  At block 1406, the lease requester 1130 receives from each of the plurality of lease agents 102 identification information of the producer virtual machine 1162 associated with the same overlay network as the consumer virtual machine 1142 for which the request was generated at block 1402. . Normally, each of the plurality of lease agents 102 provides identification information of one creator virtual machine 1162. However, in some cases, one or more of the lease agents 102 may provide identification information for multiple producer virtual machines 1162. Further, the lease agent 102 may not provide identification information of the creator virtual machine 1162 at all. For example, if each producer virtual machine 1162 associated with a specific lease agent 102 is used in excess of a threshold utilization rate, the lease agent 102 may not provide the identification information of the producer virtual machine 1162. . In such a case, the lease agent 102 may issue a warning to a user such as an administrator that each producer virtual machine 1162 associated with the lease agent 102 is being used above the threshold usage rate. .

  In some embodiments, in addition to receiving the identification information of the producer virtual machine 1162, lease information related to the lease of the producer virtual machine 1162 may be received at block 1406. The lease information includes an address for accessing the creator virtual machine 1162, identification information and / or address of the producer host 1106 that hosts the creator virtual machine 1162, and / or lease for the creator virtual machine 1162. Consumable resource identification information for the consumable resource amount allocated to the consumer virtual machine 1142 may be included. This consumable resource may include any type of resource for measuring the lease period of the producer virtual machine 1162. For example, consumable resources can include time, a sequence of operations, the amount of data processed by and / or received from the publisher virtual machine 1162, or the producer virtual machine 1162 by the consumer virtual machine 1142. Other metrics may be included for measuring usage.

  At block 1408, the overlay network proxy 1114 attempts to access each producer virtual machine 1162 identified at block 1406 on behalf of the consumer virtual machine 1142. In some embodiments, block 1408 can include attempting to establish a connection with each publisher virtual machine 1162. In other embodiments, block 1408 can include attempting to communicate through an established connection with the producer virtual machine 1162. In block 1410, the overlay network proxy 1114 stores connection information for each established connection in the lease pool. The connection information may include information for identifying the connection and a method for accessing the service using the connection. For example, this connection information may include any information received as part of block 1406, such as identification information of consumable resources in the identification information of the producer host 1106 that hosts the producer virtual machine 1162. . In some embodiments, the lease pool and / or connection information may be stored in the virtual machine mapping repository 1150.

  Similar to process 300, in some embodiments, process 1400 may be used to renew the lease for publisher virtual machine 1162. In such an embodiment, block 1402 may include generating a request to renew the current or previously existing lease of the producer virtual machine. This update request may include the current creator virtual machine lease identification information. Further, block 1406 may include lease information regarding receiving an indication of whether the update request has been approved and, in some cases, additional grants of consumable resources (eg, lease time or processor utilization). .

Example State Management Table One non-limiting example of a state management table 1500 that can be used to facilitate communication within the overlay network environment 1100 is shown in FIG. The state management table 1500 may include a plurality of information that facilitates communication between the consumer virtual machine 1142 and the producer virtual machine 1162. For example, the state management table 1500 may include columns of a source overlay address 1502, a source overlay port 1504, a virtual address 1506, and a destination overlay address 1508. In the state management table 1500, the address may be an internet protocol (IP) address, as indicated by a portion of the table header (eg, source overlay address 1502). However, these addresses are not so limited and may take other forms or follow other protocols.

  In the example of FIG. 15, the illustrated portions of the state management table 1500 are associated with a consumer virtual machine A ′. As shown in the column of virtual address 1506, consumer virtual machine A 'may use multiple virtual addresses, namely X and Y. Further, each virtual address may be associated with a plurality of destination overlay addresses associated with a plurality of creator virtual machines. For example, the virtual address Y may be associated with the producer virtual machine at address K ′ and the producer virtual machine at address M ′. Since multiple destination addresses can be mapped to a single virtual address, the overlay network proxy 1114 may identify a port as shown in the source overlay port 1504 column to direct the data packet to the correct destination. Good. Thus, to send a service request to the producer virtual machine K ', the overlay network proxy 1114 replaces the virtual address Y with the address of K' and uses the port P1. Similarly, to send a service request to the producer virtual machine M ', the overlay network proxy 1114 replaces the virtual address Y with the address of M' and uses port P2.

  In many cases, an overlay network may be implemented using Layer 3 and / or Layer 4 of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. Normally, when an overlay network implemented using layer 3 and / or layer 4 is used, the network connection infrastructure does not recognize each application communicating via the network. This makes it more difficult to balance the load because it becomes more difficult to predict a priori how much data will be transmitted between the consumer virtual machine and the producer virtual machine. There is sex.

  One solution is to create a protocol aware load balancing system that is implemented, at least in part, using layer 7 of the OSI model. In such a system, the overlay network proxy 1114, in some embodiments, examines the packets being transmitted by the consumer virtual machine 1142, thereby allowing the consumer virtual machine 1142 to attempt to access the type of service or its service. It is possible to determine the type of protocol associated with the service request and whether the service request requires one service or multiple services of the same type or different types. Thus, for example, a consumer virtual machine is requesting access to a website using HTTP requests, and each HTTP request is for various web pages or various functions of a web page. The overlay network proxy 1114 determines that the requests are processed by different systems by sending those different requests to different publisher virtual machines 1162 for processing. It is possible to prevent the consumer virtual machine 1142 from being aware of this. Thus, in some cases, a single connection can be demultiplexed over a series of connections. The overlay network proxy 1114 may increase the efficiency or processing speed of the request by dividing the series of requests into multiple publisher virtual machines 1162. Further, if the overlay network proxy 1114 determines that the consumer virtual machine 1142 is placing a large load on the producer virtual machine 1162, the overlay network proxy 1114 replaces the producer virtual machine 1162 that is processing the request. And / or the request can be divided among multiple author virtual machines 1162. Replacing the producer virtual machine 1162 can be accomplished in some cases by associating the request identifier with the service request. For example, as shown in the column of the request identifier 1510 in FIG. 15, the packet with the request identifier I1 can have a virtual address X that is replaced with the address of the producer virtual machine B '. Similarly, a packet with a request identifier of I2 can have a virtual address X that is replaced with the address of the producer virtual machine D '.

Embodiments of the present disclosure can be described in light of the following sections.
Item 1: A method of leasing access to a creator system for obtaining access to a service hosted by the creator system,
With a consumer system that includes one or more processors,
Generating a lease request for access to the services of one of the publisher systems,
Providing the lease request to a plurality of lease agents;
Receiving one or more identification information of the producer system from each lease agent;
Attempting to initiate a connection with at least a portion of the producer system identified by the plurality of lease agents; and
Accessing the service provided by the first producer system in response to successfully establishing a connection with the first producer system included in at least a portion of the publisher system;
Including methods.
Item 2: Receiving one or more pieces of identification information of the producer system from each lease agent means receiving identification information of different producer systems from at least two lease agents of the plurality of lease agents. Item 2. The method according to Item 1.
Item 3: The method according to Item 1 or 2, wherein at least a part of each of the plurality of lease agents is associated with an unequal set of producer systems.
Item 4: Receiving one or more of the identification information of the producer system from each lease agent includes receiving at least some consumable resources of the identified producer system. Item 4. The method according to Item 3.
Item 5: The consumable resource may include lease time, a series of computer cycles, monetary budget for use of the identified producer system, or disk storage capacity, Item 5. The method of Item 4, comprising a time during which the consumer system is allowed to access the service of the producer system.
Item 6: Depending on the amount of consumable resources remaining from the consumable resources of the first producer system that satisfies the lease threshold, the method
Determining the probability that a current service request for access to the service of the first producer will not be completed before the consumable resource expires;
In response to determining that the probability satisfies the renewal threshold, generating a renewal lease request for access to the service of the first producer system; and
Item 6. The method according to Item 5, further comprising: providing the renewed lease request to the lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents that provided the identification information of the first producer system.
Item 7: In response to providing the renewal lease request to the lease agent, the method further includes receiving an update amount of the consumable resource of the first producer system. The method described.
Item 8: In response to providing the renewal lease request to the lease agent, the method receives a new amount of consumable resources of a new producer system that is different from the first producer system. The method according to Item 6 to 7, further comprising:
Item 9: In response to the successful establishment of the connection with the first producer system included in at least a part of the producer system, the method receives metadata from the first producer system. Item 9. The method according to Item 1 to Item 8, further comprising obtaining, wherein at least part of the metadata includes status information regarding the first producer system.
Item 10: The method according to Item 9, further comprising providing at least a part of the metadata to the lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents that provided the identification information of the first producer system. Method.
Item 11: The method according to Item 9 to Item 10, further comprising providing at least a part of the metadata to the plurality of lease agents.
Item 12: In response to the successful establishment of the connection with the second producer system included in at least a part of the creator system, the second service of the second producer system is accessed. Item 12. The method according to Item 1.
Item 13: The method according to Item 12, wherein the service and the second service are the same service.
Item 14: The method according to Items 12 to 13, wherein data accessed using the service is different from data accessed using the second service.
Item 15: A system that leases access to a producer system to gain access to a service hosted by the producer system,
A consumer system comprising one or more processors,
Generate a lease request for access to the services of the producer system,
Providing the lease request to multiple lease agents;
A consumer system further comprising a lease requester configured to receive producer system identification information from at least some of the plurality of lease agents;
Including
The consumer system further includes a connection module configured to attempt to initiate a connection with at least a portion of the producer system identified by the plurality of lease agents;
In response to the connection module having successfully established a connection with the first producer system belonging to at least a part of the producer system, the consumer system provides the service of the first producer system. The system further comprising a resource requester configured to access the.
Item 16: The lease requester is further configured to receive a lease time of at least a part of the identified producer system, the lease time being determined by the consumer system for the service of the producer system. Item 16. The system according to Item 15, which includes a time during which access is permitted.
Item 17: The system according to item 16, wherein the connection module is further configured to provide the first producer system with the lease time associated with the first producer system.
Item 18: The resource requester requests the first creator to access the service in response to the remaining time from the lease time of the first producer system satisfying the lease threshold. Further configured to determine the probability that a current service request will not be completed before the lease time expires;
The lease requester
In response to determining that the probability satisfies the renewal threshold, generate a renewal lease request for access to the service of the first producer system,
Item 16. The item 16 to item 17, further configured to provide the renewal lease request to the lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents that provided the identification information of the first producer system. system.
Item 19: Metadata, wherein at least part of the metadata includes metadata including status information regarding the first producer system from the first producer system,
Item 15-, further comprising a status module configured to provide at least a part of the status information to the lease agents included in the plurality of lease agents that provided the identification information of the first producer system. Item 19. The system according to Item 18.
Item 20: A system that leases access to a producer system to provide access to services hosted by the producer system,
A first lease agent comprising a first lease system and implemented by a computer system including computer hardware, the first lease system comprising:
Receiving a first request from a consumer system seeking to lease access to a service provided by a plurality of producer systems;
From the first plurality of publisher systems based at least in part on the publisher status information associated with each publisher system of the first plurality of publisher systems including a first subset of the plurality of publisher systems. Identify the first producer system,
A first lease agent configured to provide the consumer system with identification information of the first producer system in response to identifying the first producer system;
Receiving from the consumer system a second request to lease access to the service;
A second plurality of producer systems including a second subset of the plurality of producer systems, wherein the second subset of the plurality of producer systems is the first subset of the plurality of producer systems; Identifying a second producer system from the second plurality of producer systems based at least in part on the producer status information associated with each producer system of the second plurality of producer systems that are not identical to ,
In response to identifying the second producer system, the second producer system identification information is provided to the consumer system so that the consumer system is at least the first producer. By enabling the system and the second producer system to request access to the service, the identification of the producer system is determined at least between the first lease agent and the second lease agent. Configured to be a distributed distributed process,
A second lease agent including a second lease system;
Including system.
Item 21: The first lease system is further configured to provide a first lease time to the consumer system, and the first lease time is determined by the consumer system by the first production system. The second lease system is further configured to provide the consumer system with a second lease time, the second lease time being permitted to access the consumer system Item 21. The system of Item 20, wherein the consumer system includes a time during which the consumer system is allowed to access the second producer system.
Item 22: The first lease agent is
Receiving first updated status information of the first producer system;
A first status module configured to update the producer status information of the first producer system based at least in part on the first updated status information;
The second lease agent is
Receiving second updated status information of the second author system;
Item 20 to Item 21 further comprising a second status module configured to update the producer status information of the second producer system based at least in part on the second updated status information. The system described in.
Item 23: The system according to Item 22, wherein the first updated status information and the second updated status information are received from the consumer system.
Item 24: The system according to Item 22, wherein the first updated status information is received from the first producer system, and the second updated status information is received from the second producer system. .
Item 25: The first lease agent is
Receiving from the consumer system a first lease renewal request to obtain additional lease time for the first producer system;
Determining whether to approve the first lease renewal request based at least in part on the producer status information of the first producer system;
Paragraph 20 further configured to provide the consumer system with a first lease renewal time of the first producer system in response to determining to approve the first lease renewal request. 25. The system according to Item 24.
Item 26: In response to deciding not to approve the first lease renewal request, the first lease agent
Identifying a third producer system from the first plurality of producer systems based at least in part on the producer status information associated with each producer system of the first plurality of producer systems;
26. The system of clause 25, further configured to provide identification information of the third producer system to the consumer system in response to identifying the third producer system.
Item 27: A method of distributing a producer system among a plurality of lease agent systems,
With a first lease agent system that includes one or more processors,
Determining a first set of author systems available at a first time;
Identifying a second set of producer systems that can be used at a second time that occurred prior to the first time;
Calculating a difference in number between the first set of producer systems and the second set of producer systems;
Determining whether the difference meets a threshold; and
In response to determining that the difference meets the threshold,
Distributing the first set of producer systems among a plurality of lease agent systems by assigning each lease agent system a separate subset of the first set of producer systems; and
For each lease agent system of the plurality of lease agent systems other than the first lease agent system, the creator system assigned to the lease agent system included in the first set of producer systems. Providing a subset of identification information to each of the lease agent systems so that the various producer systems included in the first set of producer systems can provide services to the various consumer systems; Distributing the first set of producer systems among the plurality of lease agent systems provides the services provided by the first set of producer systems to the various consumer systems. Making it possible to balance when allocating,
Including methods.
Item 28: Notifying a set of lease agent systems included in the plurality of lease agent systems that the first lease agent system distributes the first set of producer systems The first lease agent system distributes the first set of producer systems while the set of lease agent systems does not attempt to distribute the first set of producer systems. Item 28. The method according to Item 27, further comprising:
Item 29: The second set of usable creator systems and the second time ensure that the difference meets the threshold when the first lease agent system is activated after an inactivity period Item 29. The method according to Item 27, wherein the method includes a value.
Item 30: The first set of producer systems includes the total number of producer systems that can be used at the first time, and the second set of producer systems at the second time. Item 30. The method according to Item 27 to Item 29, which includes the total number of producer systems that can be used.
Item 31: receiving an indication that at least one of the plurality of lease agent systems cannot be used at the third time;
Identifying a third set of author systems available at that third time;
Identifying a set of lease agent systems available at the third time;
Distributing the third set of producer systems among the set of lease agent systems available at the third time; and
For each lease agent system of the set of lease agent systems available at the third time, a subset of the producer systems included in the third set of producer systems, the second set 31. The method of paragraphs 27-30, further comprising: providing the lease agent system with identification information for a subset of the author system determined based at least in part on the distribution of the set of author systems. .
Item 32: The method according to Item 31, wherein the third set of producer systems and the first set of producer systems are the same system.
Item 33: Distributing the first set of producer systems that can be used at the first time among the plurality of lease agent systems does not duplicate the first set of producer systems. Item 33. The method according to Item 27 to Item 32, including dividing into a subset of a person system.
Item 34: Determining that a producer system included in a subset of the first producer system assigned to the first lease agent system is no longer usable.
And updating the number of available publisher systems to reflect that the publisher system is no longer available, the first set of publisher systems available at the first time. The determination is based at least in part on the number of available authoring systems,
Item 34. The method according to Item 27 to Item 33, further comprising:
Item 35: The method according to Item 34, wherein determining that the publisher system is no longer usable includes receiving a notification from the consumer system that the publisher system is not responding.
Item 36: Determining that the publisher system is no longer usable includes determining that the publisher system does not respond to the status request provided by the first lease agent system. 36. The method according to item 35.
Item 37: receiving a request from the producer system to register with the first lease agent system;
Determining whether the producer system is included in a subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent system; and
In response to determining that the creator system is included in the subset of the creator system assigned to the first lease agent system, the creator system is registered with the first lease agent system. The method according to Item 27 to Item 36, further comprising:
Item 38: In response to determining that the creator system is not included in the subset of the creator system assigned to the first lease agent system, the method includes:
Identifying a second lease agent system from the plurality of lease agent systems assigned to the producer system; and
38. The method of paragraph 37, further comprising: providing identification information of the second lease agent system to the producer system.
Item 39: The method according to Item 27 to Item 38, wherein a consumer system included in the various consumer systems accesses different producer systems included in the plurality of producer systems at different times.
Item 40: A system for distributing a producer system among a plurality of lease agents,
A plurality of lease agents including a first lease agent, wherein each lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents includes one or more processors, and the first lease agent A plurality of distribution systems configured to determine whether a difference between the set of available publisher systems and the set of available publisher systems at a second time meets a threshold; With a lease agent,
In response to determining that the difference satisfies the threshold in the distribution system,
Based on the number of two or more lease agents included in the plurality of lease agents, the set of creator systems is divided into subsets of the plurality of creator systems, and the plurality of producer systems by various user systems. Try to distribute access to the app across the publisher systems almost evenly,
The lease agent of the plurality of lease agents is further configured to provide the lease agent with identification information of a producer system included in one of the subsets of the plurality of producer systems. A distribution system;
Including system.
Item 41: The system according to Item 40, wherein the number of creator system subsets corresponds to the number of the two or more lease agents included in the plurality of lease agents.
Item 42: The distribution system is further configured to provide each lease agent with identification information of the creator system included in a subset of the creator system different from the subset of the plurality of producer systems. 40. The system according to Item 40 to Item 41.
Item 43: The distribution system of the first lease agent does not include the first lease agent, and the distribution system of the first lease agent does not include the first lease agent. 43. The system of clauses 40-42, further configured to issue a warning that the producer system is being distributed.
Item 44: The distribution of the first lease agent in response to receiving a warning that the second lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents is distributing the set of producer systems. 44. The system according to Item 40 to Item 43, wherein the system is further configured not to distribute the set of producer systems.
Item 45: The first lease agent is
Receiving a request from the producer system to register with the first lease agent;
Determining whether the producer system is included in a subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent;
In response to determining that the producer system is included in the subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent, register the producer system with the first lease agent;
Included in the plurality of lease agents assigned to the creator system in response to determining that the creator system is not included in the subset of the creator system assigned to the first lease agent 45. The system of clauses 40-44, further comprising a registration module configured to identify a second lease agent to be identified and to provide identification information of the second lease agent to the producer system.
Item 46: A method of distributing leases among a plurality of lease agent systems,
With a first lease agent system that includes one or more processors,
Identify a set of available author systems,
Determining multiple leases available to each producer system of the set of available producer systems;
By assigning each lease agent system included in multiple lease agent systems a subset of leases included in the multiple leases available to each producer system, the multiple leases available to each producer system Distributing among the plurality of lease agent systems; and
For each lease agent system of the plurality of lease agent systems, providing the lease agent system with a subset of the leases assigned to the lease agent system, thereby providing the plurality of leases available to each producer system. Allowing the distribution among the plurality of lease agent systems to balance the workload among the plurality of lease agent systems;
Including methods.
Item 47: The method according to Item 46, wherein a non-overlapping subset of leases is assigned to each lease agent system.
Item 48: Providing the subset of leases to the lease agent system excludes providing the lease subset assigned to the lease agent system to the first lease agent system. The method described in 1.
Item 49: Providing the lease agent system with a subset of the lease assigned to the lease agent system means that the plurality of assignees assigned to the lease agent system for each producer system of the plurality of producer systems. 49. The method of clauses 46-48, comprising providing a lease to the lease agent system.
Item 50: Providing the lease agent system with a subset of the lease assigned to the lease agent system includes providing the lease agent system with an identifier for each lease assigned to the lease agent system. Item 46. The method according to Item 46 to Item 49.
Item 51: Distributing the plurality of leases usable for each producer system among the plurality of lease agent systems means that the plurality of leases usable for each producer system is distributed among the plurality of lease agent systems. Item 51. The method according to Item 46 to Item 50, comprising substantially evenly distributing.
Item 52: The method according to Item 46 to Item 51, wherein the plurality of lease agent systems includes a subset of a set of lease agent systems.
Item 53: The method according to Item 52, wherein the plurality of lease agent systems includes the first lease agent system.
Item 54: The method according to Item 46 through Item 53, wherein the set of usable producer systems includes a subset of the available producer systems.
Item 55: The distribution of the plurality of leases that can be used for each creator system among the plurality of lease agent systems is that the set at the first time with the threshold changed compared to the second time. 55. The method of clauses 46 through 54, which occurs in response to the total number of leases available between available producer systems.
Item 56: A method of selecting a producer system from a plurality of producer systems that provide access to a service,
With a first lease agent system that includes one or more processors,
Receiving status information of a plurality of producer systems, each producer system of the plurality of producer systems being associated with a selection weight, at least a portion of the status information being at least one consumer Reflects the determination of the status of at least one publisher system by the system,
Changing the producer status information of the plurality of producer systems based at least in part on the received status information, wherein the changed producer status information is related to the interaction with the consumer system. Including a set of metrics on the performance of multiple author systems,
Changing the selection weight associated with the plurality of publisher systems based at least in part on a first metric included in the set of metrics;
Receiving from the consumer system a request to lease access to one of the plurality of producer systems; and
In response to receiving the request to lease access to one of the plurality of publisher systems,
Selecting a producer system from the plurality of producer systems based at least in part on a corresponding selection weight associated with each producer system of the plurality of producer systems providing service to the consumer system;
Providing identification information of the selected producer system to the consumer system that provided the request to lease access to one of the plurality of producer systems; and
Providing the consumer system with the producer status information related to the selected producer system, wherein at least part of the producer status information is acquired from the second consumer system. To do,
Including methods.
Item 57: The method according to Item 56, wherein the plurality of producer systems include a subset of the producer systems.
Item 58: The change of the selection weight associated with the plurality of producer systems changes the probability that a specific producer system is selected by the selection of the producer system. the method of.
Item 59: The method according to Item 56 to Item 58, wherein the status information is received from at least one consumer system.
Item 60: The method of Item 59, wherein the at least one consumer system includes the consumer system that provided the request to lease access to one of the plurality of producer systems.
Item 61: The method according to Item 56 to Item 60, wherein the status information is received from the plurality of producer systems.
Item 62: The method according to Item 56 to Item 60, wherein the status information is received from the second lease agent system.
Item 63: Determining whether or not the corresponding selection weight after change satisfies the deletion threshold for the first producer system included in the plurality of producer systems;
In response to the selection weight after the change satisfying the deletion threshold, a list of the creator systems that can be used, and the creator systems included in the plurality of creator systems that can be used for selection. 64. The method according to any one of paragraphs 56 to 63, further comprising deleting the identification information of the first producer system from the list of available producer systems including the identification information of the corresponding available producer system.
Item 64: The method according to Item 63, wherein selecting the creator system from the plurality of producer systems includes selecting the creator system from the list of available creator systems.
Item 65: tracking the number of publisher systems deleted from the list of available publisher systems; and
In response to the number satisfying the reduction threshold, the available producer system is re-connected between a plurality of lease agent systems, including the first lease agent system. 65. The method according to item 63 to item 64, further comprising distributing.
Item 66: The method according to Item 63, wherein the deletion threshold is based on an average value of the first metrics of the plurality of creator systems.
Item 67: The producer status information provided to the consumer system includes an independent set of producer status information usable for the first lease agent system, and the independent set of producer statuses. The information enables the consumer system to select a producer system that is less used from a plurality of lease producer systems than other lease producer systems. 66. The method according to 66.
Item 68: Selecting the producer system included in the plurality of producer systems is one of the first set of producer systems that has a lower load than the second set of producer systems. 68. The method according to Item 56 to Item 67, further comprising selecting
Item 69: The method according to Item 68, wherein the selected producer system is not associated with a minimum load, thereby reducing a frequency of occurrence of load fluctuations.
Item 70: A system for selecting a producer system from a plurality of producer systems that provide access to a service,
A first lease agent of a plurality of lease agents, the first lease agent comprising a status module and one or more processors configured to implement a lease system;
The status module
A plurality of producer systems, each producer system included in the plurality of producer systems receiving status information of a first producer system among the plurality of producer systems associated with the selection weight. ,
Configured to change the selection weight associated with the first producer system based at least in part on the received status information;
The leasing system
Receive a request to access one of the author systems,
The plurality of producer systems including the first producer system based at least in part on a corresponding selection weight associated with each producer system of the plurality of producer systems providing a service in response to the request Configured to select the producer system from the
system.
Item 71: The status information is received at the first lease agent by the lease system, and the lease system is further configured to provide the status information to the status module. System.
Item 72: The status module is further configured to determine whether the first producer system is assigned to the first lease agent;
In response to determining that the first producer is not assigned to the first lease agent, the status module
Identify the second lease agent assigned to the first producer,
72. A system according to clauses 70-71, further configured to provide the received status information to the second lease agent.
Item 73: The status module is
Determine whether the changed selection weight satisfies the deletion threshold,
Item 70 to Item 72 are further configured to separate the first producer system from the plurality of producer systems in response to the changed selection weight satisfying the deletion threshold. The system described in.
Item 74: In response to the separation of several producer systems from the plurality of producer systems that satisfy the reduction threshold, the first lease agent determines that the plurality of producer systems 74. The system of clause 73, further comprising a distribution system configured to redistribute between lease agents.
Item 75: The leasing system is further configured to provide the producer system identification information to the consumer system that provided the request to access one of the plurality of producer systems. Item 75. The system according to Item 70.
Item 76: The system according to Item 70 to Item 75, wherein the selected producer system includes the first producer system.
Item 77: A non-transitory physical computer storage device that, when executed by one or more processors, at least
In response to receiving status information of the first producer system of the plurality of producer systems at the first lease agent, the first producer is a subset of the first producer system. Determining whether each member system included in the plurality of creator systems is a member of a subset of the first producer system associated with the first lease agent. Determining that the plurality of publisher systems are divided into a subset of a number of publisher systems associated with the weights;
Responsive to determining that the first producer system is a member of a subset of the first producer system, changing the selection weight associated with the first producer system; and
In response to receiving a request for access to a publisher system, at least the selection weight associated with the publisher system included in the subset of the publisher system that provides a service to the provider of the request Based in part on selecting a second author system from a subset of the first author system;
A non-transitory physical computer storage device that includes computer-executable instructions that instruct the computing system to select a publisher system from the plurality of publisher systems that provide access to the service.
Item 78: The non-transitory physical computer storage device according to Item 77, wherein the second producer system and the first producer system are the same.
Item 79: In response to determining that the first producer system is not a member of a subset of the first producer system, the method includes:
Identifying a subset of a second author system that includes the first author system;
Identifying a second lease agent associated with the second subset of author systems; and
Item 79. The non-transitory physical computer storage device according to Item 77 to Item 78, further comprising: providing the status information to the second lease agent.
Item 80: A method of accessing a service provided by a creator virtual machine in an overlay network,
A consumer system host including one or more processors configured to host one or more consumer virtual machines, wherein at least one of the consumer virtual machines is associated with a first overlay network. Depending on the consumer system host
Receiving a request for access to a service of a producer system from a consumer virtual machine hosted by the consumer system host, wherein the request is a consumer virtual machine associated with the consumer virtual machine; Receiving, including an internal header including an address and a destination virtual address;
Accessing a lease pool associated with the consumer virtual machine, the set including a set of lease producer virtual machines leased for the consumer virtual machine;
Selecting a lease creator virtual machine from the lease pool to access the service;
Replacing the destination virtual address in the internal header with the producer virtual machine address associated with the lease producer virtual machine;
A producer system host associated with the lease producer virtual machine, configured to host one or more producer virtual machines, wherein at least one of the producer virtual machines includes the first overlay Identify the producer system host associated with the network,
Encapsulating the request with an external header including a producer system host address associated with the producer system host and a consumer system host address associated with the consumer system host; and
Enabling the producer system host to process the request by providing the request to the producer system host over the network;
Including methods.
Item 81: Selecting the lease creator virtual machine
Determining whether at least one available lease producer virtual machine is included in the lease pool; and
In response to determining that at least one available lease producer virtual machine is included in the lease pool, select one of the available lease producer virtual machines and select the selected 81. The method according to Item 80, further comprising deleting the available lease creator virtual machine from the lease pool.
Item 82: In response to determining that an available lease producer virtual machine is not included in the lease pool, the method includes:
Obtaining a lease for a set of producer virtual machines included in the first overlay network on behalf of the consumer virtual machines;
Initiating a connection with each producer virtual machine included in the set of lease producer virtual machines; and
Adding for each successfully established connection the corresponding producer virtual machine to the lease pool;
Selecting the lease producer virtual machine selects one of the producer virtual machines added to the lease pool, and deletes the selected producer virtual machine from the lease pool. 84. The method according to Item 81, further comprising:
Item 83: Obtaining a lease for the set of producer virtual machines
Generating a request on behalf of the consumer virtual machine to obtain a lease for the producer virtual machine included in the first overlay network;
Providing the set of lease agents with the request to obtain the lease for the producer virtual machine; and
Including enabling at least some of the lease agents included in the set of lease agents to initiate a connection with the creator virtual machine by receiving lease information of the creator virtual machine. 83. The method according to Item 82.
Item 84: The method according to Item 83, wherein the set of lease agents includes a subset of lease agents in the network.
Item 85: receiving a response from the producer system host to the service request;
Decapsulating the service response by removing the outer header of the response and accessing the inner header of the response;
Determining a destination consumer virtual machine that is one of the consumer virtual machines hosted by the consumer system host based on the internal header of the response; and
85. The method of clauses 80-84, further comprising providing the unencapsulated service response to the recipient consumer virtual machine.
Item 86: The method according to Item 85, wherein the recipient consumer virtual machine and the consumer virtual machine are the same.
Item 87: identifying a source virtual address associated with the source producer virtual machine associated with the response based on the internal header of the response; and
Item 87. The method according to Item 85 to Item 86, further comprising: replacing an address included in the internal header associated with the transmission source creator virtual machine with the transmission source virtual address.
Item 88: The source producer virtual machine corresponds to the selected lease producer virtual machine, the source virtual address corresponds to the destination virtual address, and the destination consumer virtual machine 90. The method according to clause 87, corresponding to the consumer virtual machine.
Item 89: The method of any one of Items 80-88, wherein at least one of the consumer virtual machines is associated with a second overlay network.
Item 90: The method of any one of Items 80-89, wherein at least one of the producer virtual machines is associated with a second overlay network.
Item 91: receiving a second request for access to the service;
Determining whether the load on the lease producer virtual machine meets a load threshold; and
In response to determining that the load on the lease creator virtual machine meets the load threshold,
Selecting from the lease pool a second lease creator virtual machine to access the service; and
95. The method of clauses 80-90, further comprising providing the second request to a second producer system host that hosts the second lease producer virtual machine.
Item 92: In response to determining that the load of the lease creator virtual machine satisfies the load threshold, the method further terminates the connection with the lease creator virtual machine. 92. The method according to Item 91.
Item 93: A system for accessing a service provided by a producer in an overlay network,
A consumer system host including one or more processors and configured to host one or more consumers,
A mapping repository configured to store mappings from authors to publisher system hosts, and
An overlay network proxy,
Receiving a request from the consumer hosted by the consumer system host for access to the producer's services;
Select the leasing producer to access the service, leased for the consumer,
Access the mapping repository to identify a producer system host associated with the lease producer and configured to host one or more producers;
A consumer system host including an overlay network proxy configured to send the request to the producer system host;
Including system.
Item 94: The mapping repository is further configured to store a lease pool that is associated with the consumer and includes a set of lease producers that are leased for the consumer. And
The overlay network proxy
Determine whether at least one available lease producer is included in the lease pool;
In response to determining that at least one available lease producer is included in the lease pool, from the available lease producer, the lease producer to access the service. 94. The system of clause 93, further configured to select.
Item 95: In response to determining that at least one available lease producer is not included in the lease pool, the overlay network proxy
Generate a request on behalf of the consumer to obtain the producer's lease,
Providing such a request to the set of leasing agents to obtain the creator's lease,
95. The system of clause 94, further configured to receive producer lease information for at least some of the lease agents included in the set of lease agents.
Item 96: The system of Item 95, wherein the mapping repository is further configured to store the lease information in the lease pool associated with the consumer.
Item 97: The overlay network proxy is
Receiving a response from the producer host system to the request,
Determine the recipient consumer, including the consumer, based on the internal header of the response,
96. The system of clauses 93-95, further configured to provide the response to the consumer.
Item 98: The overlay network proxy is
Identify the source virtual address associated with the lease producer,
98. The system of clause 97, further configured to replace an address contained in the internal header associated with the lease producer with the source virtual address before providing the response to the consumer. .
Item 99: The overlay network proxy encapsulates the request using an external header including a producer system host address associated with the publisher system host and a consumer system host address associated with the consumer system host. 98. The system of clause 93 through clause 97, further configured to:
Item 100: A non-transitory physical computer storage device that, when executed by one or more processors, at least
A lease associated with the consumer virtual machine in response to receiving a request from the consumer virtual machine hosted by the consumer system host that includes a destination virtual address and seeking access to the services of the producer system Selecting a producer virtual machine for lease to access the service from a pool that is pool and includes connection information for the producer virtual machine leased for the consumer virtual machine;
Replacing the destination virtual address in the request header with the producer virtual machine address associated with the lease producer virtual machine;
Determining a producer system host associated with the lease producer virtual machine; and
Providing the lease producer virtual machine with the request to be sent to the producer system host enables the lease producer virtual machine to process the request for access to the service To do,
A non-transitory physical computer storage device that includes computer-executable instructions that instruct a computing system to access services provided by a producer virtual machine in an overlay network.
Item 101: Selecting the lease producer virtual machine from the lease pool associated with the consumer virtual machine
Determining whether the lease pool contains connection information for at least one lease producer virtual machine not currently in use by the consumer virtual machine; and
In response to determining that at least one lease producer virtual machine not currently in use by the consumer virtual machine is not included in the lease pool, the computer-executable instructions are:
Obtain a lease for a set of producer virtual machines included in the overlay network on behalf of the consumer virtual machine;
Initiating a connection with each producer virtual machine included in the set of lease producer virtual machines; and
101. The non-transitory of clause 100, further comprising: instructing the computing system to add connection information for the corresponding creator virtual machine to the lease pool for each successfully established connection. Physical computer storage device.
Item 102: Selecting the lease producer virtual machine from the lease pool associated with the consumer virtual machine selects one of the producer virtual machines with connection information added to the lease pool 102. The non-transitory physical computer storage device according to Item 101.

Terminology Throughout this disclosure, several computing systems have been described. The statements regarding these systems are not intended to limit the teaching or applicability of the present disclosure. For example, the user systems described herein generally include desktop machines, laptop machines, video game platforms, television set-top boxes, televisions (eg, Internet TV), computerized to name a few examples. And any one or more computing devices such as wireless devices (eg, smart phones, PDAs, tablets, etc.). Further, the user system described herein may be various devices that include or are configured to be different. In addition, the user systems described herein can include any type of operating system (OS). For example, the mobile computing system described herein includes an Android® OS, a Windows® OS, a Mac® OS, a Linux®, or a Unix® based OS. Etc. can be implemented.

  Further, the processing of the various components of the illustrated system can be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and other computing resources. In addition, two or more components of the system can be integrated into fewer components. For example, the various systems illustrated as part of the lease agent 102 can be distributed across multiple computing systems or can be integrated into a single computing system. Further, the various components of the illustrated system can be implemented in one or more virtual machines rather than in dedicated computer hardware. Similarly, the illustrated data repository can represent physical and / or logical data storage devices, such as, for example, a storage area network or other distributed storage system. Further, in some embodiments, the connections between the illustrated components represent possible data flow paths rather than actual connections between hardware. Although several examples of possible connections have been shown, any of the illustrated subsets of components can communicate with any other subset of components in various implementations.

  Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events or functions of any algorithm, method or process described herein may be performed in a different order and may be added, merged or omitted entirely ( For example, not all the acts or events described are required to implement the algorithm). Further, in certain embodiments, actions or events may be performed simultaneously, rather than sequentially, by, for example, multithreaded processing, interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores, or on other parallel architectures.

  Each of the various illustrated systems may be programmed to perform the various functions described herein, or may be implemented as a computing system configured to perform those functions. The computing system may include a plurality of separate computers or computing devices (eg, physical servers, workstations, storage device arrays, etc.) that communicate and collaborate over a network to perform the functions described. . Each such computing device typically includes a processor (or processors) that executes program instructions or modules stored in memory or other non-transitory computer readable storage media. Although the various functions disclosed herein may be implemented using such program instructions, some or all of the disclosed functions will instead be implemented in an application specific circuit (e.g., ASIC) of a computer system. Alternatively, it may be implemented in an FPGA). If a computing system includes multiple computing devices, these devices may be co-located, but need not be so. The results of the disclosed methods and tasks can be stored persistently by converting physical storage devices such as solid state memory chips and / or magnetic disks to different states. Each described process may be implemented by one or more computing devices, such as one or more physical servers programmed with associated server code.

  Conditional language used herein, among others, “can”, “might”, “may”, “eg (eg)”, etc. Unless otherwise specified or construed in the context in which it is used, generally convey that certain features, elements and / or conditions are included in one embodiment but not in other embodiments. Is intended. Accordingly, such conditional language is generally not intended to indicate that all features, elements, and / or states are required for one or more embodiments, but these features, elements and One or more embodiments with logic to determine whether a state is included, or whether it is implemented in any particular embodiment, with or without the author's indication or suggestion Is not intended to indicate that is necessarily included. The terms “comprising”, “including”, “having” and the like are synonymous and are used in a comprehensive and unrestricted manner and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations, etc. . Also, the term “or” is used in an inclusive sense (ie, not in an exclusive sense). Thus, for example, when used to connect elements in a list, the term “or” means one, some or all of the elements in the list. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” should be interpreted to mean “one or more” or “at least one” unless otherwise indicated.

  Conjunctions such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, and Z” generally indicate that an item, term, etc. can be any of X, Y, or Z unless otherwise specified. Usually interpreted in the context in which it is used. Thus, such conjunctions generally indicate that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, and at least one of Z in order for each of X, Y, and Z to be present. It is not intended to be shown.

While the foregoing detailed description has illustrated, described, and pointed out novel features that apply to various embodiments, without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure, in the form and details of an illustrated apparatus or algorithm It will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes may be made. Accordingly, the foregoing description is not intended to indicate that any particular feature, characteristic, step, module, or block is necessary or essential. As will be appreciated, the processes described herein can be used or implemented separately from other features, and thus in a form that does not provide all of the features and advantages described herein. Can be realized. The scope of protection is defined not by the foregoing description, but by the appended claims. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

Claims (15)

A system for distributing a producer system among a plurality of lease agents,
A plurality of lease agents including a first lease agent, wherein each lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents includes one or more processors; A plurality of distribution systems configured to determine whether a difference between a set of available publisher systems and the set of available publisher systems at a second time meets a threshold; With a lease agent,
In response to determining that the difference satisfies the threshold,
Based on the number of two or more lease agents included in the plurality of lease agents, the set of producer systems is divided into subsets of a plurality of producer systems, and the plurality of producer systems by various user systems Attempts to distribute access to the app across the author systems approximately evenly,
Further configured to provide each lease agent of the plurality of lease agents with identification information of a producer system included in one of the subsets of the plurality of producer systems to the lease agent. A distribution system;
Including system.   The distribution system is further configured to provide each lease agent with identification information of the publisher system included in a subset of another publisher system included in the subset of the plurality of publisher systems. The system according to 1.   The distribution system does not include the first lease agent, and the distribution system of the first lease agent distributes the set of creator systems to one or more lease agents of the plurality of lease agents. The system of claim 1, further configured to issue a warning that   In response to receiving a warning that a second lease agent included in the plurality of lease agents is distributing the set of producer systems, the distribution system of the first lease agent includes: The system of claim 1, further configured to not distribute the set of producer systems. The first lease agent is:
Receiving a request from the producer system to register with the first lease agent;
Determining whether the producer system is included in a subset of the producer systems assigned to the first lease agent;
Responsive to determining that the producer system is included in a subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent, registering the producer system with the first lease agent;
Included in the plurality of lease agents assigned to the producer system in response to determining that the producer system is not included in a subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent The system of claim 1, further comprising a registration module configured to identify a second lease agent to be identified and to provide identification information of the second lease agent to the producer system. A method for distributing a producer system among a plurality of lease agent systems,
With a first lease agent system that includes one or more processors,
Determining a first set of author systems available at a first time;
Identifying a second set of producer systems that can be used at a second time that occurred prior to the first time;
Calculating a difference in number between the first set of producer systems and the second set of producer systems;
In response to determining whether the difference meets a threshold, and in response to determining that the difference meets the threshold,
Distributing the first set of producer systems among a plurality of lease agent systems by assigning a separate subset of the first set of producer systems to each lease agent system; and Identifying a subset of the producer systems assigned to the lease agent system included in the first set of producer systems for each of the plurality of lease agent systems other than the lease agent system Providing information to each of the lease agent systems so that the various producer systems included in the first set of producer systems can provide services to the various consumer systems. A set of producer systems is connected to the plurality of lease agent systems. Allowing the distribution among systems to balance the service provided by the first set of producer systems when allocating among the various consumer systems;
Including methods. Receiving an indication that at least one of the plurality of lease agent systems is unavailable at a third time;
Identifying a third set of author systems available at the third time;
Identifying a set of lease agent systems available at the third time;
Distributing the third set of producer systems among the set of lease agent systems available at the third time;
For each lease agent system of the set of lease agent systems available at the third time, a subset of the producer systems included in the third set of producer systems, the second set The method of claim 6, further comprising: providing the lease agent system with identification information for a subset of the producer system determined based at least in part on the distribution of a set of producer systems.   Distributing the first set of producer systems that can be used at the first time among the plurality of lease agent systems is a way for the producer systems that do not overlap the first set of producer systems. The method of claim 6, comprising dividing into subsets. Determining that a producer system included in a subset of the first producer system assigned to the first lease agent system is no longer usable, and updating the number of available producer systems Reflecting that the system is no longer available, and determining the first set of publisher systems available at the first time is at least in the number of available publisher systems Based in part,
Further including
Determining that the producer system is no longer usable is receiving a notification from the consumer system that the producer system is not responding, or in response to a status request provided by the first lease agent system. The method of claim 6, comprising one of determining that the producer system does not respond. Receiving a request from the producer system to register with the first lease agent system;
Determining whether the producer system is included in a subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent system;
Responsive to determining that the producer system is included in a subset of the producer system assigned to the first lease agent system, registering the producer system with the first lease agent system To do,
In response to determining that the producer system is not included in the subset of the producer systems assigned to the first lease agent system, the method includes:
Identifying a second lease agent system from the plurality of lease agent systems assigned to the producer system, and providing identification information of the second lease agent system to the producer system;
The method of claim 6, further comprising: A method of distributing leases among a plurality of lease agent systems,
With a first lease agent system that includes one or more processors,
Identify a set of available author systems,
Determining a plurality of leases available to each producer system of the set of available producer systems;
By assigning each lease agent system included in a plurality of lease agent systems a subset of leases included in the plurality of leases usable in each producer system, the plurality of leases usable in each producer system are assigned. Distributing among the plurality of lease agent systems and providing the lease agent system with a subset of the leases assigned to the lease agent system for each lease agent system of the plurality of lease agent systems, Distributing the plurality of leases available to each producer system among the plurality of lease agent systems enables balancing of the workload among the plurality of lease agent systems;
Including methods.   The method of claim 11, wherein each lease agent system is assigned a non-overlapping subset of leases.   12. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the lease subset to the lease agent system comprises providing the lease subset assigned to the lease agent system to the first lease agent system.   Providing the lease agent system with a subset of the leases assigned to the lease agent system includes: (1) the plurality of assigned to the lease agent system for each producer system of the plurality of producer systems; The method of claim 11, comprising one of providing a lease to the lease agent system or (2) providing an identifier for each lease assigned to the lease agent system to the lease agent system. Distributing the plurality of leases usable for each producer system among the plurality of lease agent systems substantially distributes the plurality of leases usable for each producer system between the plurality of lease agent systems. The method of claim 11, comprising dispensing evenly.