TW351880B - Load balancing across the processor of a server computer - Google Patents

Abstract

A server computer connectable to a network and having a plurality of processors arranged to provide a service to one or more client computers connected to the network, the service involves the provision of blocks of information to a client computer, and the processor has access to the data storage in which data for the blocks of information is stored, the server computer comprises: a plurality of processor, each processor in the server has block retrieval means, employed in response to the requests from a client computer for a particular block of information from that processor, to retrieve data from the data storage in order to construct a file representing the requested block of information, the file including reference to subsequent blocks of information requestable by the client; a load determining means is provided for periodically determining activity data for the processor for inclusion in a load distribution record maintained for all of the processors of the server, a decision means is then used which, for each reference to a subsequent block of information in the file constructed by the block retrieval means if arranged to determine, based on the load distribution record, which process should service a request from the client computer for that subsequent block of information, and include an address for that processor in the file constructed by the block retrieval means, and a delivery means, the file is then sent to the client computer.