1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of managing systems of servers, such as server farms, and more particularly to a method of and system for dynamically removing, replacing or upgrading servers in a system of servers.
2. Description of the Related Art
As interactive voice response (IVR) products mature from a traditional client/server environment to a more Web-centric architecture, an increasing number of service providers resort to having a managed data center provide IVR services. Managing a Web-based IVR farm of servers includes managing IVR servers, Web servers, and speech recognition servers. As part of management, administrators typically have to upgrade hardware. Examples of such hardware upgrades include adding dialogic cards, adding more disk space, and adding more memory. These changes are generally not dynamic and removing a server from a network and adding a new one is not an automated process. Removing a server from a network or adding a new one requires careful timing and planning.
The present invention provides a method and a system for managing a plurality of servers coupled to a network. Each of the servers is identified by a server name. At least one of the servers is identified by an old server name. The method of the present invention notifies at least some of the plurality of servers that at a specified time the old server name will be changed to a new server name. In some embodiments of the present invention, the new server name may be the name of one of the plurality of servers already connected to the network. In other embodiments, the new server name may be the name of a new server added to the network.
The system according to the present invention includes an administration server coupled to the network and administration clients installed on the plurality of servers. The administration server is configured to broadcast on the network update messages. An update message includes the old server name, the new server name, and the specified time at which the old server name will be changed to the new server name. Each of the plurality of servers includes a local configuration that identifies the servers with which the particular server communicates. When an administration client receives an update message, the administration client determines if the local configuration of the server upon which the client is installed includes the old server name. If so, the administration client initiates a change of the old server name to the new server name in the local configuration file at the specified time.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further purposes and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where:
Referring now to the drawings, and first to
System 100 includes an administration server 109 coupled to network 101. As will be explained in detail hereinafter, administration server 109 is programmed according to embodiments of the present invention to facilitate dynamically removing, replacing, or upgrading the servers of system 100. According to the present invention, each server 103-107 includes an administration client 111. Each administration client 111 is programmed according to embodiments of the present invention to process and act on update messages from administration server 109.
In the example of
Since IVR servers 107d-107f communicate with Web server 105b, the administration clients installed on those IVR servers would schedule a change of hostname 105b to hostname 105a at time TS. At time TS, the system of servers would assume the configuration shown in
Since IVR servers 107a-107c communicate with old Web server 105a, the administration clients installed on those IVR servers would schedule a change of hostname 105c to hostname 105c at time TS. Similarly, since IVR servers 107d-107f communicate with old Web server 105b, the administration clients installed on those IVR servers would schedule a change of hostname 105b to hostname 105d at time TS. Prior to time TS, new Web servers 105c and 105d would be connected to the network. At time TS, the system of servers would assume the configuration shown in
Referring now to
Peripheral devices and input/output (I/O) devices can be attached to various interfaces or ports coupled to ISA bus 817. Such interfaces or ports may include a parallel port 823, a serial port 825, an infrared (IR) interface 827, a keyboard interface 829, a mouse interface 831, and a hard disk drive (HDD) 833.
A BIOS 835 is coupled to ISA bus 817. BIOS 835 incorporates the necessary processor executable code for a variety of low-level system functions and system boot functions. BIOS 835 can be stored in any computer readable medium, including magnetic storage media, optical storage media, flash memory, random access memory, read only memory, and communications media conveying signals encoding the instructions (e.g., signals from a network). In order to couple computer system 800 to another computer system to copy files or send and receive messages over a network, LAN card 813 may be coupled to PCI bus 811. Similarly, a Fibre Channel card may be coupled to PCI bus 813. Additionally, a modem 839 may be coupled to ISA bus 817 through serial port 825 to support dial-up connections.
While the computer system described in
One of the preferred implementations of the invention is an application, namely, a set of instructions (program code) in a code module that may, for example, be in the random access memory of the computer. Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer memory, for example, on a hard disk drive, or in removable storage such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM) or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloaded via the Internet or other computer network. Thus, the present invention may be implemented as a computer program product for use in a computer. In addition, although the various methods described are conveniently implemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the required method steps.
From the foregoing, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that systems and methods according to the present invention are well adapted to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art. While the present invention has been described with reference to presently preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art, given the benefit of the foregoing description, will recognize alternative embodiments. Accordingly, the foregoing description is intended for purposes of illustration and not of limitation.
This application is a continuation application claiming priority to Ser. No. 15/075,959, filed Mar. 21, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,692,648, issued Jun. 27, 2017, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 11/839,805, filed Aug. 16, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 9,300,486, issued Mar. 29, 2016.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20170223099 A1 | Aug 2017 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15075959 | Mar 2016 | US |
Child | 15488633 | US | |
Parent | 11839805 | Aug 2007 | US |
Child | 15075959 | US |