System and method for using an in-memory data grid to improve performance of a process defined by a process execution language in a soa middleware environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016292008-A1
Application number	US-201615075723-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 21, 2016
Priority date	Apr 3, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In accordance with an embodiment, described herein is a system and method for improving performance of an executable process defined by a process execution language in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) middleware environment. Flow states and audit data of a process instance can be stored in a dehydration store implemented on a distributed in-memory data grid, and transferred to a persistent storage at a configurable interval, or at certain state changes such as completions and faults of the process instance. A user interface can be used to configure the persistence policy for the process instance, and to retrieve the flow states and audit data from the persistent storage for process monitoring and diagnosis. The flow states data in the persistent storage can also be used for resuming execution of the process instance after a planned system maintenance, or a system crash.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for improving performance of a process defined by a process execution language, comprising:
a computer including one or more microprocessors; an application server, executing on the computer, that includes a process execution engine and an executable process executing thereon, wherein the executable process is defined by a process execution language; an in-memory data grid associated with the application server, wherein the in-memory data grid includes a write-behind queue, and a dehydration store for storing flow states and audit data of an instance of the executable process; wherein when a cache entry in the dehydration store is updated, the cache entry is added to the write-behind queue; wherein after a specified write-behind delay interval or at a particular event of the process instance, the distributed in-memory data grid persists the stored flow states and audit data in the write-behind queue to a database.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a management console, wherein the management console including a user interface for displaying the flow states and audit data from the database for diagnosing and monitoring the process instance.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the management console includes one or more settings configured to determine whether the stored data in the in-memory data grid is transferred to the database at a write-behind delay interval, or at a particular event of the process instance.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the data persistence to the database is performed by a separate thread than the thread executing the process instance.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the in-memory data grid is a distributed in-memory data grid.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the particular event is a completion of the process instance, or a fault encountered by the process instance during its execution.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the persisted flow states in the database is retrieved for resuming execution of the process instance after a planned system maintenance, or a system crash.

8 . A method for improving performance of a process defined by a process execution language, comprising:
providing an application server executing on the computer, wherein the application server includes a process execution engine and an executable process executing thereon, wherein the executable process is defined by a process execution language; providing an in-memory data grid associated with the application server, wherein the in-memory data grid includes a write-behind queue, and a dehydration store for storing flow states and audit data of an instance of the executable process; detecting a cache entry in the dehydration store is updated; adding the updated cache entry is added to the write-behind queue; persisting the stored flow states and audit data in the write-behind queue to a database after a specified write-behind delay interval or at a particular event of the process instance.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
retrieving, via a user interface on a management console, the flow states and audit data from the database for diagnosing and monitoring the process instance.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the management console includes one or more settings configured to determine whether the stored data in the in-memory data grid is transferred to the database at a write-behind delay interval, or at a particular event of the process instance.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the data persistence to the database is performed by a separate thread than the thread executing the process instance.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the in-memory data grid is a distributed in-memory data grid.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the particular event is a completion of the process instance, or a fault encountered by the process instance during its execution.

14 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the persisted flow states in the database is retrieved for resuming execution of the process instance after a planned system maintenance, or a system crash.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions for improving performance of a process defined by a process execution language, said instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to perform the steps comprising:
providing an application server executing on the computer, wherein the application server includes a process execution engine and an executable process executing thereon, wherein the executable process is defined by a process execution language; providing an in-memory data grid associated with the application server, wherein the in-memory data grid includes a write-behind queue, and a dehydration store for storing flow states and audit data of an instance of the executable process; detecting a cache entry in the dehydration store is updated; adding the updated cache entry is added to the write-behind queue; persisting the stored flow states and audit data in the write-behind queue to a database after a specified write-behind delay interval or at a particular event of the process instance.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising:
retrieving, via a user interface on a management console, the flow states and audit data from the database for diagnosing and monitoring the process instance.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the management console includes one or more settings configured to determine whether the stored data in the in-memory data grid is transferred to the database at a write-behind delay interval, or at a particular event of the process instance.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the in-memory data grid is a distributed in-memory data grid.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the particular event is a completion of the process instance, or a fault encountered by the process instance during its execution.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the data persistence to the database is performed by a separate thread than the thread executing the process instance.

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Kumar Yogesh
• Chmielewski Michal
• Pottlapelli Murali

Classifications

• G06F9/5016 Primary

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• G06F16/2365 Primary

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title

• G06F17/30371

  Physics · mapped topic