Patent Application
20250036440
The present disclosure relates generally to network communications and information security, and more specifically to a system and method for switching traffic routes between an application and an updated application.
An entity generally provides certain application services by allowing a user to access an application product running on a server through a communication equipment. The entity may need to update the application product for the user to access. However, an interaction between the communication equipment and the server may be paused or interrupted when the application product is updating on the server for the user to access.
Current technology is not configured to provide a reliable and efficient solution to switch traffic routes between an application and an updated application. The system described in the present disclosure is particularly integrated into a practical application and provides technical solutions to seamlessly switch traffic routes between an application and an updated application.
In a conventional system, an entity or a service provider may provide certain application services by allowing a first user associated with a first communication equipment to access a first version of an application running on a production server to perform an interaction with the entity for an application service. A second user associated with a second communication equipment may evaluate development code of the application (e.g., a second version of the application) for deployment on a testing server. The second version of the application includes development code associated with corresponding updated application services. When the second version of the application passes an evaluation for deployment, the system may switch traffic routes between the first version of the application and the second version of the application for the first user to access the second version of the application to use the updated application service. However, promoting the second version of the application from the testing server to the production server for the first user to access may interrupt a user interaction with the entity or cause a service delay. The present system addresses this issue by using a webserver with at least two virtual machines, a first global traffic management (GTM) server, a second GTM server, and a pair of local traffic management (LTM) servers in each of two data centers. A first GTM server may route a first traffic from the first communication equipment associated with the first user to a first virtual machine of the webserver to access the first version of the application running on the first virtual machine. The second GTM server may route a second traffic from the second communication equipment associated with the second user to a second virtual machine of the webserver to evaluate the second version of the application for deployment. After the second version of the application passes an evaluation with the deployment on the second virtual machine, the first GTM server, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers associated with the first data center, may route the first traffic to the second virtual machine for the first user to access the second version of the application to continue the interaction with the entity. The second GTM server, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers associated with the first data center, may route the second traffic to the first virtual machine of the webserver for additional operations associated with application validation and deployment.
A system for switching traffic routes between an application and an updated application comprises the first webserver, the first global traffic management (GTM) server, the second GTM server, and the pair of local traffic management (LTM) servers in each of the two data centers. The first virtual machine runs a first version of an application. The second virtual machine is configured to evaluate a second version of the application for deployment. The first GTM server receives a first traffic from a first communication equipment to access a first version of an application. The second GTM server receives a second traffic from a second communication equipment to evaluate a second version of the application for deployment. The first GTM server, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers associated with the first data center, routes the first traffic to the first virtual machine of the first webserver to access the first version of the application. The second GTM server, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers associated with the first data center, routes the second traffic to the second virtual machine of the first webserver. The first GTM server and the second GTM server receive a notification from one or both of the LTM servers. The notification indicates that the second version of the application passes an evaluation for deployment on the second virtual machine. In response, the first GTM server, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers associated with the first data center, routes the first traffic to the second virtual machine of the first webserver to access the second version of the application. The second GTM server, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers associated with the first data center, routes the second traffic to the first virtual machine of the first webserver. In some embodiments, the notification is configured to simultaneously trigger the first GTM server to route the first traffic to the second virtual machine and trigger the second GTM server to route the second traffic to the first virtual machine.
The system described in the present disclosure provides technical solutions to solve the technical problems of the previous systems. The disclosed system provides a practical application that uses two GTM servers and multiple LTM servers to seamlessly switch a traffic route to access a first version of an application (e.g., production application) running on a first virtual machine to another traffic route to access a second version of the application deployed on a second virtual machine. This process provides a technical advantage that efficiently prevents interaction interruption and service delay during an interaction between a user and entity. As such, the disclosed system may provide technical advantages of improving the underlying operations by seamlessly and dynamically switching traffic routes between an application and an updated application in real time. In this way, after an updated version of the application passes an evaluation with deployment for production use, the corresponding traffic for an interaction between the communication equipment and a virtual machine of the webserver can be seamlessly switched to the updated version of the application. A user may not be aware of a traffic route switch that occurs during the interaction with the entity. Further, the disclosed system may use two GTM servers and multiple LTM servers to seamlessly switch traffic routes between an application and an updated application, the disclosed system may use two GTM servers and multiple LTM servers to seamlessly switch traffic routes between the application and the updated application which may respectively run and be evaluated for deployment on different virtual machines of different webservers in a data center. In some embodiments, the disclosed system may use two GTM servers and multiple LTM servers to seamlessly switch traffic routes associated with corresponding virtual machines of a first data center to other virtual machines in a second data center. Thus, the user may not notice that the traffic route for accessing the first version of the application is switched to the second version of the application during an interaction with an entity even though a webserver or a data center has lost a network connectivity with a network. In addition, the disclosed system may provide an efficient usage of network resources by using two GTM servers, multiple LTM servers, and a webserver with two virtual machines to implement traffic route switching between an application and an updated application.
Certain embodiments of this disclosure may include some, all, or none of these advantages. These advantages and other features will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.
For a more complete understanding of this disclosure, reference is now made to the following brief description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and detailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts.
Previous technologies fail to provide efficient and reliable solutions to switch traffic routes between an application and an updated application. This disclosure presents a system and method for seamlessly switching traffic routes between an application and an updated application by referring to
In some embodiments, an entity or a service provider may need to switch traffic routes between a first version of an application A1 and a second version of the application A2 for users to use updated application services associated with the second version of the application A2 during interactions between the users and the entity. For example, a first GTM server 130 may route a first traffic 136 from a first communication equipment 132 to a first virtual machine 114A of a first webserver 112A to access a first version of an application A1 running on the first virtual machine 114A. The second GTM server 140 may route a second traffic 146 to a second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A to evaluate a second version of the application A2 for deployment on the second virtual machine 114B. In a particular embodiment, the second version of the application A2 may be a beta version of software that is undergoing development and/or testing. After determining that the second version of the application A2 passes an evaluation for deployment on the second virtual machine 114B, the first GTM server 130, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the first traffic 136 from the first communication equipment 132 to access the second version of the application A2 deployed on the second virtual machine 114B. Accordingly, the second GTM server 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the second traffic 146 from the second communication equipment 142 to the first virtual machine 114A for additional operations associated with application validation and deployment.
Network 150 may be any suitable type of wireless and/or wired network, including, but not limited to, all or a portion of the Internet, an Intranet, a private network, a public network, a peer-to-peer network, the public switched telephone network, a cellular network, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), and a satellite network. The network 150 may be configured to support any suitable type of communication protocol as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art.
As illustrated in
The system 100 may include at least a first data center 110 and a second data center 120 which are managed by an entity to provide certain application services. The first data center 110 and the second data center 120 may be backup data centers which include the same network components, network applications, and data storages associated with the entity for certain application services. For example, the second data center 120 may include duplicate system structure of the first data center 110. The first data center 110 and the second data center 120 may store the same software instructions and data for the entity to provide corresponding application services. After the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 detect that the first data center 110 has lost a network connectivity, the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may automatically route network traffic associated with the first data center 110 to the second data center 120. Each data center may include a plurality of webservers. For example, the first data center 110 may include a first webserver 112A and a second webserver 112B. The second data center 120 may include a third webserver 122A and a fourth webserver 122B.
In some embodiments, the system 100 may include a plurality of servers to implement operations of switching traffic routes between an application and an updated application. The plurality of the servers may include a first global traffic management (GTM) server 130, a second GTM server 140, and a plurality of LTM servers 148A-D which are located in one or more data centers 110 and 120.
Each webserver, GTM server, or LTM server is generally a server, or any other computing device configured to process data and communicate with communication equipment 132 and 142 via the network 150. Each GTM server 130 and 140 may communicate with a plurality of communication equipment 132 and 142 to receive traffic from users to interact with an entity for certain application services. With respect to data center 110, each GTM server 130 and 140 may communicate with each webserver 112A-B to identify corresponding applications running on the webserver 112A-B in a data center 110. Each GTM server 130 and 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both LTM servers 148A-B of data center 110, may route the traffic from the plurality of the communication equipment 132 and 142 through corresponding communication ports to corresponding webservers 112A-112B for users to access the corresponding applications to complete corresponding application services provided by the entity. Similar operations may be performed with respect to data center 120, as appropriate.
Network interface 113 is configured to enable wired and/or wireless communications (e.g., via network 150). The network interface 113 is configured to communicate data between the first webserver 112A and a plurality of communication equipment, databases, systems, or domains. For example, the network interface 113 may comprise a WIFI interface, a local area network (LAN) interface, a wide area network (WAN) interface, a modem, a switch, or a router. The processor 111 is configured to send and receive data using the network interface 113. The network interface 113 may be configured to use any suitable type of communication protocol as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art.
Memory 115 may be volatile or non-volatile and may comprise a read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM), dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and static random-access memory (SRAM). Memory 115 may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium implemented using one or more disks, tape drives, solid-state drives, and/or the like. Memory 115 is operable to store the software instructions 117, a user interface application, and other program modules to implement operational flows of the system of
The first webserver 112A may be a host server and configured to communicate with a plurality of virtual machines and global traffic management servers in the system 100. The first webserver 112A may be a server implemented in the cloud and may also be organized in a distributed manner. The first webserver 112A may include a plurality of virtual machines, such as a first virtual machine 114A and a second virtual machine 114B. For example, a first webserver 112A is generally configured to manage operations of a first virtual machine 114A and a second virtual machine 114B as described further below in conjunction with the operational flows of the method 300 described in
Route a First Traffic from a First Communication Equipment to a First Virtual Machine
In some embodiments, a first GTM server 130 may receive a first traffic 136 indicative of a first request from the first communication equipment 132 associated with a first user 134. The first user 134 may access an application and have an interaction with an entity for a particular application service. The first GTM server 130 may communicate with the first webserver 112A and identify that a first version of the application A1 runs on a first virtual machine 114A of the first webserver 112A. The first version of the application A1 includes application production code which may be executed by the first virtual machine 114A to provide the particular application service to users. The first GTM server 130 may route the first traffic 136 from the first communication equipment 132 to the first virtual machine 114A through a first communication port 1 of the first GTM server 130. The first user 134 may access the first version of the application A1 through the first communication equipment 132 via a first traffic route 1 to have an interaction with the entity for the particular application service.
Route a Second Traffic from a Second Communication Equipment to a Second Virtual Machine
The entity may update the first version of the application A1 to a second version of the application A2 which includes new functions or features associated with the particular application service. For example, the second version of the application A2 may include application development code stored in a second virtual machine 114B. The application development code of the second version of the application A2 may be evaluated before being prompted for deployment on the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A. In some embodiments, a second GTM server 140 may receive a second traffic 146 from a second communication equipment 142 associated with a second user 144 to evaluate a second version of the application A2 for deployment. The second GTM server 140 may route the second traffic 146 from the second communication equipment 142 via a second traffic route 2 to the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A through a third communication port 3 of the second GTM server 140.
After the second version of the application A2 passes an evaluation with the deployment on the second virtual machine 114B, one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B may send a notification 138 to the first GTM server 130 and to the second GTM server 140. The notification 138 may indicate that the second version of the application A2 is ready for use. The notification 138 may be a message configured to simultaneously trigger the first GTM server 130 to route the first traffic 136 to the second virtual machine 114B and trigger the second GTM server 140 to route the second traffic 146 to the first virtual machine 114A.
In response to receiving the notification 138, the first GTM server 130, either alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the first traffic 136 to the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A through a third traffic route 3 via a second communication port 2 of the first GTM server 130. The first user 134 may access the second version of the application A2 through the first communication equipment 132 to continue the interaction with the entity for the particular application service through the third traffic route 3 via the second communication port 2. Meanwhile, in response to receiving the notification 138, the second GTM server 140, either alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B may route the second traffic 146 to the first virtual machine 114A of the first webserver 112A through a fourth traffic route 4 via a fourth communication port 4 of the second GTM server 140 for additional operations associated with application validation and deployment.
The first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may therefore perform seamless traffic route switch between a first version of an application A1 and a second version of the application A2 between the first virtual machine 114A and the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A. The first user 134 may access the second version of the application A2 through the first communication equipment 132 without needing to be aware of the traffic route switch that occurs during the interaction between the user and the entity.
In some embodiments, the entity may store a third version of the application on the first virtual machine 114A for evaluation and deployment. The second user 144 may further access the first virtual machine 114A of the first webserver 112A through the fourth traffic route 4 to evaluate the third version of the application for deployment. After the third version of the application passes an evaluation with the deployment on the first virtual machine 114A, one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B may send a new notification 138 to the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 to trigger a new traffic route switch between the second version of the application and the third version of the application in a similar manner as described above. The new notification 138 may be configured to simultaneously trigger the first GTM server 130 to route the first traffic from the second virtual machine 114B to the first virtual machine 114A to access the third version of the application. The new notification 138 may be configured to simultaneously trigger the second GTM server 140 to route the second traffic 146 to from the first virtual machine 114A to the second virtual machine 114B for additional operations associated with application validation and deployment. The first virtual machine 114A and the second virtual machine 114B may alternatively operate with the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 to perform a seamless switch between an application and an updated application.
In some embodiments, the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may perform a traffic route switch between an application and an updated application associated with the third virtual machine 114C and the fourth virtual machine 114D of the second webserver 112B in the first data center 110, either alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148C and 148D, in a similar manner to that described above.
Switch Traffic Routes Between an Application and an Updated Application from a First Data Center to a Second Data Center
In some embodiments, the first data center 110 and the second data center 120 may operate to provide backup operations to users. Network traffic and different versions of an application in a first data center 110 may be duplicated in a second data center 120. The first data center 110 and the second data center 120 may include the same updates to the application on corresponding virtual machines. Both data centers provide traffic routes for users to access the corresponding version application to perform interactions with the entity or evaluate an updated application for deployment. For example, the second data center 120 may store the first version of the application A1 running on the virtual machine 124A of the third webserver 122A. The first user 134 may access the first version of the application A1 to interact with the entity for a particular application service. The second data center 120 may store the second version of the application A2 on the virtual machine 124B of the third webserver 122A for a second user 144 to evaluate for deployment.
In some embodiments, the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may detect a network connectivity failure with the first data center 110. The first GTM server 130 may route the first traffic 136 from the first communication equipment 132 to the virtual machine 124A of the third webserver 122A in the second data center 120. The first user 134 may continue an interaction with the entity to implement the particular application service. The second GTM server 140 may route the second traffic 146 from the second communication equipment 142 to the virtual machine 124B of the third webserver 122A in the second data center 120. The second user 144 may continue an interaction with the entity through the second communication equipment 142 to evaluate the second version of the application A2 for deployment. After the second version of the application A2 passes an evaluation with the deployment on the virtual machine 124B, one or both of LTM servers 148C and 148D may send a corresponding notification signal 138 to the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140. The corresponding notification signal 138 may be a message configured to trigger the first GTM server 130 to route the first traffic 136 to the virtual machine 124A. The notification signal 138 may further trigger the second GTM server 140 to route the second traffic 146 to the virtual machine 124B. The first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140, either alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148C and 148D, may perform a seamless traffic route switch between an application and an updated application in the second data center 120 in a similar manner to that described above and in conjunction with
The method 300 begins at operation 302 where the first GTM server 130 may receive a first traffic 136 from a first communication equipment 132 to access a first version of an application A1. The first version of the application A1 may run on a first virtual machine 114A of a first webserver 112A.
At operation 304, a second GTM server 140 may receive a second traffic 146 from a second communication equipment 142 to evaluate a second version of the application A2 for deployment. The second version of the application A2 may be stored on a first virtual machine 114A of the first webserver 112A.
At operation 306, the first GTM server 130 may determine whether the first data center 110 is in communication with a network 150. In response to determining that the first data center 110 is not in communication with the network 150, operations 320-324 may be performed as described below.
At operation 308, in response to determining that the first data center 110 is in communication with the network 150, the first GTM server 130 may determine whether the first webserver 112A of the first data center 110 is in communication with the network 150. In response to determining that the first webserver 112A in the first data center 110 is not in communication with the network 150, operations 326-330 may be performed as described below.
In some embodiments, the second GTM server 140 may also or alternatively determine whether the first data center 110 is in communication with the network 150. In response to determining that the first data center 110 is not in communication with the network 150, the second GTM server 140 may also or alternatively determine whether the first webserver 112A in the first data center 110 is in communication with the network 150.
At operation 310, in response to determining that the first webserver 112A of the first data center 110 is in communication with the network 150, the first GTM server 130, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the first traffic 136 associated with the first communication equipment 132 to the first virtual machine 114A of the first webserver 112A for the first user 134 to access the first version of the application A1 to interact with the entity.
At operation 312, in response to determining that the first webserver 112A in the first data center 110 is in communication with the network 150, the second GTM server 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the second traffic 146 associated with the second communication equipment 142 to the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A. The second virtual machine 114B may be configured to evaluate the second version of the application A2 for a deployment.
At operation 314, the first GTM server 130 may receive a notification signal 138. The notification signal 138 may indicate that the second version of the application A2 passes an evaluation with the deployment on the second virtual machine 114B. For example, the notification signal 138 may be sent simultaneously to the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140. The notification signal 138 may be configured to trigger the first GTM server 130 to route the first traffic 136 to the second virtual machine 114B and trigger the second GTM server 140 to route the second traffic 146 to the second virtual machine 114B.
At operation 316, in response to receiving the notification signal 138, the first GTM server 130, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the first traffic 136 to the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A for the first user 134 to access the second version of the application A2.
At operation 318, in response to receiving the notification signal 138, the second GTM server 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the second traffic 146 to the first virtual machine 114A of the first webserver 112A for additional operations associated with application validation and deployment.
Referring back to operation 306, in response to determining that the first data center 110 is not in communication with the network 150, the method 300 may proceed to operations 320-324. The first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may route traffic from corresponding communication equipment 132 and 142 to the second data center 120. For example, the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may automatically route network traffic associated with the first data center 110 to the second data center 120 after detecting the first data center 110 has lost network connectivity. The second data center 120 may include a third webserver 122A and a fourth webserver 122B. The third webserver 122A in the second data center 120 may include virtual machines 124A and 124B.
At operation 320, the first GTM server 130, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148C and 148D, may route the first traffic 136 to a corresponding virtual machine 124A of the third webserver 122A in the second data center 120. The first version of the application A1 may be stored on the virtual machine 124A. The first user 134 may access the virtual machine 124A of the third webserver 122A through the first communication equipment 132 to continue an interaction with the entity.
At operation 322, the second GTM server 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148C and 148D, may route the second traffic 146 to a corresponding virtual machine 124B of the third webserver 122A in the second data center 120. The second version of the application A2 may be stored on the virtual machine 124B. The second user 144 may access the virtual machine 124B to continue an interaction with the entity to evaluate the second version of the application A2 for deployment.
At operation 324, the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148C and 148D, may perform operations of switching traffic routes associated with corresponding virtual machines 124A and 124B in the second data center 120. For example, the virtual machines 124A and 124B may be configured to communicate with the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 to perform similar operations 310-318 which are associated with the first virtual machine 114A and the second virtual machine 114B of the first webserver 112A. Similarly, the fourth webserver 122B in the second data center 120 may include virtual machines 124C and 124D. The first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may communicate with the virtual machines 124C and 124D to perform similar operations 310-318 to implement seamless traffic route switch as described above.
Referring back to operation 308, when the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 detect that the first webserver 112A is not in communication with the network 150, the method 300 may proceed to operations 326-330.
At operation 326, the first GTM server 130, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the first traffic 136 associated with the first communication equipment 132 to the third virtual machine 114C of the second webserver 112B through the first traffic route 1 via the first communication port 1. The first version of the application A1 may be stored on the third virtual machine 114C. The first user 134 may access the third virtual machine 114C of the second webserver 112B through the first communication equipment 132 for the first user to continue an interaction with the entity.
At operation 328, the second GTM server 140, alone or in conjunction with one or both of LTM servers 148A and 148B, may route the second traffic 146 from the second communication equipment 142 via the second traffic route 2 to the fourth virtual machine 114D of the second webserver 112B through the third communication port 3. The second version of the application A2 may be stored on the fourth virtual machine 114D. The second user 144 may access the fourth virtual machine 114D to continue an interaction with the entity to evaluate the second version of the application A2 for deployment.
At operation 330, the first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may perform operations of switching traffic routes associated with the second webserver 112B in the first data center 110. The second webserver 112B may include the third virtual machines 114C and the fourth virtual machine 114D. The first GTM server 130 and the second GTM server 140 may communicate with the third virtual machines 114C and the fourth virtual machine 114D to perform similar operations 310-318 to implement seamless traffic route switch as described above.
The disclosed system is integrated into a practical application which may prevent interaction interruption and service delay during an interaction between a first communication equipment associated with the first user and a webserver by seamlessly switching traffic routes between an application and an updated application.
While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods might be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is not to be limited to the details given herein. For example, the various elements or components may be combined or integrated with another system or certain features may be omitted, or not implemented.
In addition, techniques, systems, subsystems, and methods described and illustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may be combined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, or methods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Other items shown or discussed as coupled or directly coupled or communicating with each other may be indirectly coupled or communicating through some interface, device, or intermediate component whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise. Other examples of changes, substitutions, and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in the art and could be made without departing from the spirit and scope disclosed herein.
To aid the Patent Office, and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants note that they do not intend any of the appended claims to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) as it exists on the date of filing hereof unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
