Device and method for monitoring server health

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10659552-B2
Application number	US-201615170654-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2016
Priority date	Jun 2, 2015
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

A method for monitoring health of a server is disclosed. The method is performed by a cache device and includes: acquiring information related to results of health checkups on the server based on an inquiry from a load-balancing device about the results of health checkups on the server; and transmitting the information related to results of the health checkups on the server to the load-balancing device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring health of a server, the method being performed by a cache device and comprising:
acquiring, by the cache device, information related to results of health checkups on the server based on an inquiry from a load-balancing device about the results of health checkups on the server, wherein the cache device connects to the load-balancing device via a network, and wherein the information related to results of health checkups on the server indicates whether another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server; and
transmitting, by the cache device, information indicating whether another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server to the load-balancing device via the network, which causes the load-balancing device not to perform health checkups on the server when the another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information related to results of health checkups on the server includes one or more of:
the results of health checkups on the server; and
whether or not the cache device has the results of health checkups on the server.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
updating the information related to the results of health checkups on the server, based on results of health checkups on the server provided by the load-balancing device; or
updating the information related to the results of health checkups on the server to include that the load-balancing device is performing health checkups on the server or that the load-balancing device completes health checkups on the server.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
forwarding the updated information to a distributed cache memory device.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising: directly updating the information related to the results of health checkups on the server based on the results of health checkups on the server provided by the load-balancing device.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
skipping updating the information related to the results of health checkups on the server provided by any load-balancing device when the results are received by the cache device for the first time; and
updating the information related to the results of health checkups on the server when the results are received by the cache device for the second time.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
requesting the distributed cache memory device to write a main try key therein, the main try key being indicative of a first try to write the information related to the results of health checkups and being effective during a predetermined third time period; and
requesting the distributed cache memory device to delete the main try key when the results are received by the cache device for the second time.

8. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
deleting the results of health checkups on the server when a difference between a time the results was last updated and the present time is greater than a first predetermined time period; and
updating the information related to the results of health checkups on the server to include that the cache device stores no results of health checkups on the server.

9. A method for monitoring health of a server, the method being performed by a load-balancing device and comprising:
inquiring, by the load-balancing device, a cache device about information of health checkups on the server, wherein the cache device connects to the load-balancing device via a network;
acquiring, by the load-balancing device, information related to results of health checkups on the server returned from the cache device via the network, wherein the information related to results of health checkups on the server indicates whether another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server;
processing the information related to the results of health checkups on the server to obtain the results of health checkups on the server; and
causing the load-balancing device not to perform health checkups on the server when the information indicates that the another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
when the obtained information related to the results of health checkups on the server indicating that the server is receiving health checkups, performing again the steps of claim 9 after a lapse of a second predetermined time period;
when the obtained information related to the results of health checkups on the server includes the results of health checkups on the server, acquiring the results; or
when the obtained information related to the results of health checkups on the server indicating that the cache device has no results of health checkups on the server, performing health checkups on the server.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the performing health checkups on the server includes:
when performing the health checkups on the server, informing the cache device that the server is receiving the health checkups; and
when the health checkups on the server is completed, informing the cache device that the health checkups on the server is completed.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the performing health checkups on the server includes:
after concluding the health checkups on the server, forwarding results of the health checkups on the server to the cache device.

13. A cache device for monitoring health of a server, comprising:
a first apparatus configured to acquire information related to results of health checkups on the server based on an inquiry from a load-balancing device about the results of health checkups on the server, wherein the cache device connects to the load-balancing device via a network, and wherein the information related to results of health checkups on the server indicates whether another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server; and
a second apparatus configured to transmit information indicating whether another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server to the load-balancing device via the network, which causes the load-balancing device not to perform health checkups on the server when the another load-balancing device is determined to be monitoring the health of the server.

14. The cache device of claim 13 , wherein the information related to results of the health checkups on the server includes one or more of:
the results of health checkups on the server; and
whether or not the cache device has the results of health checkups on the server.

15. The cache device of claim 13 , further comprising:
a third apparatus configured to update the information related to the results of health checkups on the server, based on results of health checkups on the server provided by the load-balancing device; and
a fourth apparatus configured to update the information related to the results of health checkups on the server to include that the load-balancing device is performing health checkups on the server or that the load-balancing device completes health checkups on the server.

16. The cache device of claim 15 , wherein the third apparatus includes:
a first unit configured to forward the updated information to a distributed cache memory device.

17. The cache device of claim 16 , wherein the third apparatus further includes: a second unit configured to directly update the information related to

Assignees

• Alibaba Group Holding Ltd

Inventors

• Wang Qian
• Chen Zhuo
• Chen Ziang
• Wu Jiaming

Classifications

• H04L67/1029 Primary

  using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer · CPC title

• H04L47/125

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title

• H04L43/065

  related to network devices · CPC title

• H04L43/0817

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H04L47/78

  Architectures of resource allocation · CPC title