Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-30
2001-03-13
Rinehart, Mark (Department: 2756)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Accessing a remote server
C709S217000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202089
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to computer programming and networking, and more particularly to an automated method and computer apparatus for dynamically assigning a plurality of remote procedure call endpoints to a server process.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Users of computers desire computer systems that require minimal manual interaction to perform systems management functions. Moreover, in this age of electronic communication, a large number of computers are connected to a network which allows them to practice numerous services over the network.
Many of these networked services are implemented using the client-server model. Using the client-server architecture, a client computer located on the network performs a remote procedure call (RPC) to a RPC endpoint of a server process running on a server computer to request information or initiate the performance of some activity. To be able to make such a call, the client must know a priori the correct endpoint of the server process.
In many configurations, the server process uses a predetermined “static” endpoint which either requires manual intervention on the part of the computer user to specify for the client, or is set by the developer of the client and server software. As the number of endpoints are limited for a computer, different programs can conflict with each other, and then require manual intervention to reconfigure the endpoints for the software to function properly. The static definition of the server ports also presents configuration problems when a server process is modified or moved to another computer as each of the clients might need to be manually reconfigured.
Attempting to overcome some of these deficiencies, “dynamic endpoints” are provided. The endpoint number of these dynamic endpoints are assigned at runtime by certain RPC runtime environments. A client process can then discover the address of the endpoint via the endpoint mapper (part of the RPC subsystem) and possibly in conjunction with a RPC Name Service. However, the RPC Name Service is a complex set of separate processes running on one or more computers that allows clients to determine a server location by specifying a logical name for that service and requires substantial initial configuration and maintenance.
The use of dynamic endpoints where the RPC endpoint is assigned at runtime overcomes some of the configuration and conflict problems associated with the use of static endpoints. However, certain RPC runtime systems only provide a mechanism for a single dynamic endpoint per server process which is very limiting to the design and efficiency of server processes.
In an environment that provides a RPC service that supports only a single RPC dynamic endpoint for a given process, statically defined endpoints are used to provide multiple endpoints to a single process, where the plurality of port numbers are previously known to the remote process. As previously described, current approaches do not provide a mechanism for the dynamic assignment of a plurality of RPC endpoints to a single server process at runtime, and for efficiently informing the client process of these endpoints.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, an automated method is provided for assigning a plurality of remote procedure call (RPC) endpoints at runtime to a single server process, and for the server process itself to efficiently inform a requesting client of at least one of the plurality of the RPC endpoints. In one embodiment of the present invention, a single server process establishes a plurality of non-statically defined endpoints at runtime corresponding to various RPC services provided by the server process. Thus, the server process will have a plurality of RPC endpoints which do not conflict with other RPC applications. In addition, the server process establishes another RPC endpoint for responding to RPC endpoint address queries from clients; this address query endpoint could either be predetermined or dynamically assigned at runtime.
To acquire and use one of the plurality of endpoints of the server process assigned at runtime, a client first places a remote procedure call to the address request endpoint of the server process where the remote procedure call includes a description of the desired service or endpoint. In response, the server process returns an identifier of one or more matching endpoints or services. Based on this identifier, the client then places a remote procedure call on the desired endpoint of the server process.
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Using MSMQ as an RPC Transpo
Cardone Jason D.
Leydig , Voit & Mayer, Ltd.
Microsoft Corporation
Rinehart Mark
LandOfFree
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