Method for event triggered monitoring of managed server health

Abstract

A Node Manager monitors the status of multiple servers. The Node Manager detects server failures, periodically monitors server health status, and performs server maintenance. When the Node Manager detects a server failure, it determines whether or not the server should be restarted. While periodically monitoring servers, the Node Manager may determine how often to trigger a health check, how long to wait for a response, and how to proceed if the server is deemed failed. The Node Manager may be controlled by an Administrative Server directly or by an external administrative agent. An administrative agent may control the Node Manager by interfacing with the Administrative Server. The Node Manager and AS may authenticate each other and encode their communications to each other for increased security.

1 . A method for monitoring at least one server comprising: 
 determining, at the occurrence of a triggering event, a health status of the at least one server, the server configured to return the health status of the server in response to a query of the health status;    detecting at least one of a degenerate health status of the at least one server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status; and    performing treatment on the at least one server when at least one of a degenerate health status of the at least one server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status is detected, by: 
 determining a value of an auto-terminate parameter, the value specified in the auto-terminate parameter indicating whether the server can be automatically killed; and  
 determining whether to kill the at least one server based at least in part upon whether the auto-terminate parameter indicates that the server may be killed when degenerate health or a failure to respond has been detected.  
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining, at the occurrence of a triggering event includes determining a period of time has elapsed.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining, at the occurrence of a triggering event includes receiving a signal from an entity external to an object monitoring the server.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein detecting at least one of a degenerate health status of the at least one server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status comprises: 
 determining whether the server responds to the query signal.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein determining whether the server responds to the query signal includes waiting a specified period of time before determining the server has not responded to the query signal.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein detecting at least one of a degenerate health status of the at least one server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status comprises: 
 receiving the server's response to the query signal; and    determining the server's health status based upon the server's response.    
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein performing treatment includes terminating the server if the server is deemed failed.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising controlling monitoring of the at least one server at an administration server.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising encoding communication between an entity performing monitoring of the at least one server and the administration server.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining the health status of the server includes: 
 invoking a servlet on the server, the servlet configured to return a health status of the server.    
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein invoking a servlet on the server, the servlet configured to return a health status of the server includes: 
 invoking an asynchronous servlet configured to return the health status to the monitoring instance upon the occurrence of an event.    
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining, at the occurrence of a triggering event includes: 
 determining whether an interval period has elapsed, the interval period corresponding to a time between successive health checks performed on a server, wherein a value specified in a health check interval parameter corresponds to the interval period.    
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising accessing and setting the health check interval parameter.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining, at the occurrence of a triggering event includes: 
 determining whether a timeout period has elapsed, the timeout period corresponding to a time the monitoring instance will wait for a response to a health check query performed by the monitoring instance to the server, wherein a value specified in a health check timeout parameter corresponds to the timeout period.    
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising accessing and setting the health check interval parameter.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 continuing operations with the server in a degenerated health status, if it is determined not to kill the server.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 restarting the server if it is determined to do so.    
     
     
         18 . A machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for implementing interoperable management of application servers, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of: 
 determining, at the occurrence of a triggering event, a health status of the at least one server, the server configured to return the health status of the server in response to a query of the health status;    detecting at least one of a degenerate health status of the at least one server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status; and    performing treatment on the at least one server when at least one of a degenerate health status of the at least one server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status is detected, by: 
 determining a value of an auto-terminate parameter, the value specified in the auto-terminate parameter indicating whether the server can be automatically killed; and  
 determining whether to kill the at least one server based at least in part upon whether the auto-terminate parameter indicates that the server may be killed when degenerate health or a failure to respond has been detected.  
   
     
     
         19 . A monitoring apparatus for remotable monitoring of an application server, the apparatus comprising: 
 a monitoring instance, triggered at the occurrence of a triggering event to query health status of the application server,    a monitoring servlet to return the health status of the application server in response to a query of the health status; wherein    when the monitoring instance detects at least one of a degenerate health status of the application server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status, the monitoring instance performs treatment on the application server when at least one of a degenerate health status of the application server and a failure to respond to the query of the health status is detected; and wherein performing treatment includes: 
 determining a value of an auto-terminate parameter, the value specified in the auto-terminate parameter indicating whether the application server can be automatically killed; and  
 determining whether to kill the application server based at least in part upon whether the auto-terminate parameter indicates that the application server may be killed when degenerate health or a failure to respond has been detected.