Distributed system to determine a server's health

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10686683-B2
Application number	US-201715858163-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2017
Priority date	May 16, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments for a distributed system for determining a server's health are disclosed. The systems and methods provide for a network controller to direct one or more servicing nodes to check the health of one or more servers, and report a health score to the network controller. The network controller may then calculate, update and maintain a health score for each server in the network from the various health scores reported to it from the servicing nodes. This allows a distributed system to be used to facilitate network operations, as a single device is not relied on for periodically determining each server's health.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for determining a health score of a server, the system comprising:
a plurality of servicing nodes; and
a network controller configured to:
receive a request for a service session;
direct the plurality of servicing nodes to determine a health score of a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servicing nodes being an individual network node and configured to determine the health score of at least one server of the plurality of servers;
receive a plurality of health scores of the at least one server of the plurality of servers from the plurality of servicing nodes, the plurality of health scores including the health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers received from each of the plurality of servicing nodes;
calculate an aggregated health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers using the received plurality of health scores of the at least one server of the plurality of servers; and
send the aggregated health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers to a servicing node designated the process the service session by selecting, by the servicing node, based on the aggregated health score, one of the plurality of servers for serving the service session, wherein the sending the aggregated health score to the servicing node designated to process the service session enables the servicing node to use the aggregated health score to select the server or not select the server for the service session, wherein the servicing node designated to process the service session is one of the plurality of servicing nodes, and the aggregated health score conflicts with the health score determined by the servicing node, wherein the servicing node designated to process the service session does not select the server based on the aggregated health score when the servicing node designated to process the service session would have selected the server if using the health score determined by the servicing node.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the servicing node designated to process the service session is not one of the plurality of servicing nodes that reported a health score to the network controller.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the aggregated health score is based on a majority of health scores received by the network controller.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the aggregated health score is based on an average of the received health scores, or a weighted average of the received health scores.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network controller is further configured to:
receive one or more updated health scores from at least one of the plurality of servicing nodes;
calculate an updated aggregated health score based on the one or more updated health scores; and
send the updated aggregated health score to the servicing node designated to process the service session.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the received health scores comprises one or more scores related to connectivity, system resource utilization, number of connections, and load of a service application.

7. A system for determining a health score of a server, the system comprising:
a plurality of servicing nodes; and
a network controller configured to:
receive a request for a service session;
direct the plurality of servicing nodes to determine a health score of a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servicing nodes being an individual network node and configured to determine the health score of at least one server of the plurality of servers;
receive a plurality of health scores of the at least one server of the plurality of servers from the plurality of servicing nodes, the plurality of health scores including the health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers received from each of the plurality of servicing nodes;
calculate an aggregated health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers using the received plurality of health scores of the at least one server of the plurality of servers;
send the aggregated health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers to a servicing node designated the process the service session, wherein the sending the aggregated health score to the servicing node designated to process the service session enables the servicing node to use the aggregated health score to select the server or not select the server for the service session, wherein the servicing node designated to process the service session is not one of the plurality of servicing nodes that reported a health score to the network controller;
receive one or more updated health scores from at least one of the plurality of servicing nodes;
calculate an updated aggregated health score based on the one or more updated health scores; and
send the updated aggregated health score to the servicing node designated to process the service session by selecting, by the servicing node, based on the aggregated health score, one of the plurality of servers for serving the service session, wherein:
the servicing node designated to process the service session is one of the plurality of servicing nodes, and the aggregated health score conflicts with the health score determined by the servicing node; and
the servicing node designated to process the service session does not select the server based on the aggregated health score when the servicing node designated to process the service session would have selected the server if using the health score determined by the servicing node.

8. The system of claim 2 , wherein, based on the aggregated health score, the servicing node designated to process the service session does not select the server, when the servicing node would have selected the server without using the aggregated health score.

9. The system of claim 3 , wherein the majority of received health scores indicate that the server is in good health, or the majority of received health scores indicate that the server is in poor health.

10. A system for determining a health score of a server, the system comprising:
a plurality of servicing nodes; and
a network controller configured to:
receive a request for a service session;
direct the plurality of servicing nodes to determine a health score of a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servicing nodes being an individual network node and configured to determine the health score of at least one server of the plurality of servers;
receive a plurality of health scores of the at least one server of the plurality of servers from the plurality of servicing nodes, the plurality of health scores including the health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers received from each of the plurality of servicing nodes;
calculate an aggregated health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers using the received plurality of health scores of the at least one server of the plurality of servers; and
send the aggregated health score of the at least one server of the plurality of servers to a servicing node designated the process the service session by selecting, by the servicing node, based on the aggregated health score, one of the plurality of servers for serving the service session, wherein the sending the aggregated health score to the servicing node designated to process the service session enables the servicing node to use the aggregated health score to select the server or not select the server for the service session, wherein the servicing node designated to process the service session is not one of the plurality of servicing nodes that reported a health score to the network controller, wherein:
the servicing n

Assignees

• A10 Networks Inc

Inventors

• Jalan Rajkumar
• Sankar Swaminathan
• Kamat Gurudeep

Classifications

• H04L43/0817 Primary

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H04L43/04

  Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation · CPC title

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title