Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data routing – Least weight routing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-30
2002-09-24
Courtenay, III, St. John (Department: 2151)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data routing
Least weight routing
C709S241000, C709S202000, C709S241000, C709S229000, C709S224000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06457063
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computer server program administration. Specifically, this invention is a method, apparatus and computer program product for dynamic administration, management and monitoring of daemon programs executing within a computer.
2. Background
Most computer operating systems include a mechanism for executing server programs. These server-programs are used to provide services to other, possibly networked, client-programs. These server-programs generally do not interact with a user. Instead, a client-program requests the server-program to perform an operation. The server-program performs the requested operation and generally returns a result to the client-program. These server-programs are commonly referred to as “daemon” programs and are subsequently defined. The daemon program is often invoked when the operating system initializes. When the daemon program starts execution, it may access command line options and/or read a preference or initialization file to further configure its operation. Daemon programs often provide services that are similar to operating system services. One example of a daemon program is a program that provides file opening and closing services for file resources. Another example of a daemon program is an HTTP server program that provides World Wide Web (WWW) page services for web page resources over the Internet.
FIG. 1A
illustrates a prior art daemon architecture, indicated by general reference character
100
, for providing services for one or more resources. This example uses an HTTP server daemon program
101
within the prior art daemon architecture
100
. The HTTP server daemon program
101
accesses a preference file
103
to obtain information about the resources that it serves. The prior art daemon architecture
100
also includes a connection to a network
105
. The communication through the network may be, but need not be, totally contained within the computer hosting the HTTP server daemon program
101
. The HTTP server daemon program
101
provides service for multiple WWW domains. These include a first served web site
107
, a second served web site
109
and a third served web site
111
. In this example, each of the WWW domains is a resource served by the HTTP server daemon program
101
.
One problem with prior art daemon programs is that they are generally designed to begin execution soon after the computer's operating system is booted and to continue execution until the computer is shutdown. Thus, if the operating characteristics for the daemon program change from the characteristics specified when the daemon program initiated, the daemon program must be terminated and restarted with the new characteristics. Between the time the daemon program terminates and the time the restarted daemon program is initialized, the service provided by the daemon program is unavailable. Thus, performing administrative functions on the daemon program effects the availability of the services for the resources provided by the daemon program. Such administrative functions include (without limitation) reconfiguration of the daemon program, performance tuning of the daemon program, and performance monitoring of the daemon program.
FIG. 1B
illustrates a prior art daemon re-initialization process, indicated by general reference character
150
, used to change the characteristics of a daemon program. The prior art daemon re-initialization process
150
initiates at a ‘start’ terminal
151
and continues to a ‘daemon program invocation’ step
153
. As was previously described, the daemon program can be invoked by a system administrator who may specify invocation options. Once the daemon program is invoked, it initializes itself (possibly using command line options and/or information contained in a preference file) and provides services at a ‘first daemon program execution’ step
155
. The administrator then decides to change the operation of the daemon program. To do so, the system administrator edits the preference file if required (if the desired changes can be accomplished simply by changing startup options this step is not necessary) at an ‘edit preferences’ step
157
. Next, the system administrator initiates a ‘terminate daemon program’ step
159
that terminates the daemon program. Once the daemon program terminates, the services for the resources provided by the daemon program are no longer available to client-programs. Next, at a ‘daemon program re-invocation’ step
161
, the system administrator restarts the daemon program using different command line options and/or the preference file edited by the ‘edit preferences’ step
157
. Thus, a ‘second daemon program execution’ step
163
begins execution using the new options and/or preference file and so operates differently than the ‘first daemon program execution’ step
155
. The prior art daemon re-initialization process
150
completes at an ‘end’ terminal
165
.
Some daemon programs provide services for multiple resources. One example of such a daemon program is an HTTP daemon program. For example, a typical HTTP daemon program supports multiple WWW sites. If the execution of the HTFP server daemon program is terminated to modify a parameter for one of the served WWW sites (for example, by using the process of FIG.
1
B), service for all the served WWW sites will be interrupted until the HTTP daemon program is restarted.
These daemon programs need a more efficient mechanism to allow an administrator to control the operation of the daemon programs. For example, a WWW server administrator needs the ability to change access control options, to enable particular domains and to gather data for monitoring the performance of the daemon program. In the prior art, the daemon program generally stores performance and status information in a file. The administrator often needs to terminate the daemon program to get access to all the information in the file.
Thus, one problem is that the administration of daemon programs causes interruptions to the services for resources provided by the daemon programs. This service interruption affects the users of programs served by the daemon programs. This service interruption also generally requires administration of the daemon programs to be performed when the daemon programs are least utilized—generally at times that are inconvenient to the administrator.
It would be advantageous to provide a method, apparatus and program product that allow administration of a daemon program without requiring that the daemon program be completely disabled during the administration process. Such an invention improves the performance of computer systems by reducing the amount of time that services to resources are unavailable because of administrative functions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention improves the administration of daemon programs by providing a mechanism to perform administrative functions on the daemon programs without terminating the services provided by the daemon programs to the serviced resources.
One aspect of the invention is a computer controlled method for dynamically performing a control operation on a daemon program. The daemon program provides a service for one or more resources. The method includes the step of registering the daemon program with an inter-process communication mechanism. Another step is that of connecting a service agent program to the daemon program using the inter-process communication mechanism. The method also sends a message from the service agent program to the daemon program using the inter-process communication mechanism. Yet another step is that of processing the message by the daemon program performing the control operation.
Another aspect of the invention is an apparatus, having a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory coupled to the CPU, for dynamically performing a control operation on a daemon program. The daemon program provides a service for a one or more resources. The apparatus includes a registration mechanism that is configured
Chintalapati Murthy V. R.
Mellencamp Robbe D.
Bullock, Jr. Lewis A.
Courtenay III St. John
Hickman Palermo & Truong & Becker LLP
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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