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  <h2>Session One: Intro/Demo, lonc/d, Replication and Load Balancing (Gerd)</h2>

  <p> <img width=432 height=555

src="Session%20One_files/image002.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"> <span

style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.1</b></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> 

    Ð Overview of Network</span></p>

  <h3><a name="_Toc514840838"></a><a name="_Toc421867040">Overview</a></h3>

  <p>Physically, the Network consists of relatively inexpensive upper-PC-class 

    server machines which are linked through the commodity internet in a load-balancing, 

    dynamically content-replicating and failover-secure way. <b>Fig. 1.1.1</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    shows an overview of this network.</span></p>

  <p>All machines in the Network are connected with each other through two-way 

    persistent TCP/IP connections. Clients (<b>B</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>, </span><b>F</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, 

    </span><b>G</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> and </span><b>H</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    in </span><b>Fig. 1.1.1</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>) connect to the 

    servers via standard HTTP. There are two classes of servers, Library Servers 

    (</span><b>A</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> and </span><b>E</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    in </span><b>Fig. 1.1.1</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>) and Access Servers 

    (</span><b>C</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, </span><b>D</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>, </span><b>I</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    and </span><b>J</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> in </span><b>Fig. 1.1.1</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>). Library Servers are used to store all personal records 

    of a set of users, and are responsible for their initial authentication when 

    a session is opened on any server in the Network. For Authors, Library Servers 

    also hosts their construction area and the authoritative copy of the current 

    and previous versions of every resource that was published by that author. 

    Library servers can be used as backups to host sessions when all access servers 

    in the Network are overloaded. Otherwise, for learners, access servers are 

    used to host the sessions. Library servers need to be strong on I/O, while 

    access servers can generally be cheaper hardware. The network is designed 

    so that the number of concurrent sessions can be increased over a wide range 

    by simply adding additional Access Servers before having to add additional 

    Library Servers. Preliminary tests showed that a Library Server could handle 

    up to 10 Access Servers fully parallel.</span></p>

  <p>The Network is divided into so-called domains, which are logical boundaries 

    between participating institutions. These domains can be used to limit the 

    flow of personal user information across the network, set access privileges 

    and enforce royalty schemes.</p>

  <h3><a name="_Toc514840839"></a><a name="_Toc421867041">Example of Transactions</a></h3>

  <p><b>Fig. 1.1.1</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> also depicts examples 

    for several kinds of transactions conducted across the Network. </span></p>

  <p>An instructor at client <b>B</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> modifies and publishes a resource on her Home Server </span><b>A</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>. Server </span><b>A</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> has a record of all server machines currently subscribed to this resource, 

    and replicates it to servers </span><b>D</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> and </span><b>I</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>. However, server 

    </span><b>D</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> is currently offline, so the update notification gets 

    buffered on </span><b>A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> until </span><b>D</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> comes online again.</span><b> </b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>Servers </span><b>C</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> and </span><b>J</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> are currently not 

    subscribed to this resource. </span></p>

  <p>Learners <b>F</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> and </span><b>G</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> have open sessions on server </span><b>I</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>, and the new resource is immediately available to 

    them. </span></p>

  <p>Learner <b>H</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> tries to connect to server 

    </span><b>I</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> for a new session, however, 

    the machine is not reachable, so he connects to another Access Server </span><b>J</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    instead. This server currently does not have all necessary resources locally 

    present to host learner </span><b>H</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, 

    but subscribes to them and replicates them as they are accessed by </span><b>H</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>. </span></p>

  <p>Learner <b>H</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> solves a problem on server 

    </span><b>J</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>. Library Server </span><b>E</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    is </span><b>H</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>Õs Home Server, so this information gets forwarded 

    to </span><b>E</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, where the records of 

    </span><b>H</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> are updated. </span></p>

  <h3><a name="_Toc514840840"></a><a name="_Toc421867042">lonc/lond/lonnet</a></h3>

  <p><b>Fig. 1.1.2</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> elaborates on the details 

    of this network infrastructure. </span></p>

  <p><b>Fig. 1.1.2A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> depicts three servers 

    (</span><b>A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, </span><b>B</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> and </span><b>C</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, 

    </span><b>Fig. 1.1.2A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>) and a client who 

    has a session on server </span><b>C.</b></p>

  <p>As <b>C</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> accesses different resources 

    in the system, different handlers, which are incorporated as modules into 

    the child processes of the web server software, process these requests.</span></p>

  <p>Our current implementation uses <span style='font-family:

"Courier New"'>mod_perl</span> inside of the Apache web server software. As an 

    example, server <b>C</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> currently has four 

    active web server software child processes. The chain of handlers dealing 

    with a certain resource is determined by both the server content resource 

    area (see below) and the MIME type, which in turn is determined by the URL 

    extension. For most URL structures, both an authentication handler and a content 

    handler are registered.</span></p>

  <p>Handlers use a common library <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonnet</span> 

    to interact with both locally present temporary session data and data across 

    the server network. For example, <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonnet</span> 

    provides routines for finding the home server of a user, finding the server 

    with the lowest loadavg, sending simple command-reply sequences, and sending 

    critical messages such as a homework completion, etc. For a non-critical message, 

    the routines reply with a simple Òconnection lostÓ if the message could not 

    be delivered. For critical messages,<i> </i><span style='font-family:

"Courier New";font-style:normal'>lonnet</span><i> </i><span style='font-style:

normal'>tries to re-establish</span><i> </i><span style='font-style:normal'>connections, 

    re-send the command, etc. If no valid reply could be received, it answers 

    Òconnection deferredÓ and stores the message in</span><i> </i><span

style='font-style:normal'>buffer space to be sent</span><i> </i><span

style='font-style:normal'>at a later point in time. Also, failed critical messages 

    are logged.</span></p>

  <p>The interface between <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonnet</span> 

    and the Network is established by a multiplexed UNIX domain socket, denoted 

    DS in <b>Fig. 1.1.2A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>. The rationale behind 

    this rather involved architecture is that httpd processes (Apache children) 

    dynamically come and go on the timescale of minutes, based on workload and 

    number of processed requests. Over the lifetime of an httpd child, however, 

    it has to establish several hundred connections to several different servers 

    in the Network.</span></p>

  <p>On the other hand, establishing a TCP/IP connection is resource consuming 

    for both ends of the line, and to optimize this connectivity between different 

    servers, connections in the Network are designed to be persistent on the timescale 

    of months, until either end is rebooted. This mechanism will be elaborated 

    on below.</p>

  <p>Establishing a connection to a UNIX domain socket is far less resource consuming 

    than the establishing of a TCP/IP connection. <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> is a proxy daemon that forks off 

    a child for every server in the Network. . Which servers are members of the 

    Network is determined by a lookup table, which <b>Fig. 1.1.2B</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> is an example of. In order, the entries denote an 

    internal name for the server, the domain of the server, the type of the server, 

    the host name and the IP address.</span></p>

  <p>The <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> parent process maintains 

    the population and listens for signals to restart or shutdown, as well as 

    <i>USR1</i><span style='font-style:normal'>. Every child establishes a multiplexed 

    UNIX domain socket for its server and opens a TCP/IP connection to the </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> 

    daemon (discussed below) on the remote machine, which it keeps alive.<i> </i><span

style='font-style:normal'>If the connection is interrupted, the child dies, whereupon 

    the parent makes several attempts to fork another child for that server. </span></p>

  <p>When starting a new child (a new connection), first an init-sequence is carried 

    out, which includes receiving the information from the remote <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> 

    which is needed to establish the 128-bit encryption key Ð the key is different 

    for every connection. Next, any buffered (delayed) messages for the server 

    are sent.</p>

  <p>In normal operation, the child listens to the UNIX socket, forwards requests 

    to the TCP connection, gets the reply from <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span>, and sends it back to the UNIX socket. 

    Also, <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> takes care to the 

    encryption and decryption of messages.</p>

  <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> was build by putting 

    a non-forking multiplexed UNIX domain socket server into a framework that 

    forks a TCP/IP client for every remote <span style='font-family:

"Courier New"'>lond</span>.</p>

  <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> is the remote end of 

    the TCP/IP connection and acts as a remote command processor. It receives 

    commands, executes them, and sends replies. In normal operation,<i> </i><span

style='font-style:normal'>a </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> 

    child is constantly connected to a dedicated <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> 

    child on the remote server, and the same is true vice versa (two persistent 

    connections per server combination). </p>

  <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span><i>&nbsp; </i><span style='font-style:normal'>listens 

    to a TCP/IP port (denoted P in <b>Fig. 1.1.2A</b></span>) and forks off enough 

    child processes to have one for each other server in the network plus two 

    spare children. The parent process maintains the population and listens for 

    signals to restart or shutdown. Client servers are authenticated by IP<i>.</i></p>

  <br

clear=ALL style='page-break-before:always'>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <img width=432 height=492

src="Session%20One_files/image004.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026"> </span></p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.2A</b></span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'> Ð Overview of Network Communication</span></p>

  <p>When a new client server comes online<i>,</i><span

style='font-style:normal'> </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> 

    sends a signal<i> USR1 </i><span style='font-style:normal'>to </span><span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span>, whereupon <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> tries again to reestablish all lost 

    connections, even if it had given up on them before Ð a new client connecting 

    could mean that that machine came online again after an interruption.</p>

  <p>The gray boxes in <b>Fig. 1.1.2A</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> denote the entities involved in an example transaction of the Network. 

    The Client is logged into server </span><b>C</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, 

    while server </span><b>B</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> is her Home 

    Server. Server </span><b>C</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> can be an 

    Access Server or a Library Server, while server </span><b>B</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> is a Library Server. She submits a solution to a homework 

    problem, which is processed by the appropriate handler for the MIME type ÒproblemÓ. 

    Through </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonnet</span>, the 

    handler writes information about this transaction to the local session data. 

    To make a permanent log entry, <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonnet 

    </span>establishes a connection to the UNIX domain socket for server <b>B</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>. </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> 

    receives this command, encrypts it, and sends it through the persistent TCP/IP 

    connection to the TCP/IP port of the remote <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span>. 

    <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> decrypts the command, 

    executes it by writing to the permanent user data files of the client, and 

    sends back a reply regarding the success of the operation. If the operation 

    was unsuccessful, or the connection would have broken down, <span style='font-family:

"Courier New"'>lonc</span> would write the command into a FIFO buffer stack to 

    be sent again later. <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> now 

    sends a reply regarding the overall success of the operation to <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonnet</span> via the UNIX domain port, which 

    is eventually received back by the handler.</p>

  <h3><a name="_Toc514840841"></a><a name="_Toc421867043">Scalability and Performance 

    Analysis</a></h3>

  <p>The scalability was tested in a test bed of servers between different physical 

    network segments, <b>Fig. 1.1.2B</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> shows the network configuration of this test.</span></p>

  <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>

    <tr> 

      <td width=443 valign=top class="Normal"> <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>msul1:msu:library:zaphod.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.51</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>msua1:msu:access:agrajag.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.68</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>msul2:msu:library:frootmig.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.69</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>msua2:msu:access:bistromath.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.67</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>hubl14:hub:library:hubs128-pc-14.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.34</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>hubl15:hub:library:hubs128-pc-15.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.35</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>hubl16:hub:library:hubs128-pc-16.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.36</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>huba20:hub:access:hubs128-pc-20.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.40</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>huba21:hub:access:hubs128-pc-21.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.41</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>huba22:hub:access:hubs128-pc-22.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.42</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>huba23:hub:access:hubs128-pc-23.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.43</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>hubl25:other:library:hubs128-pc-25.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.45</span></p>

        <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>huba27:other:access:hubs128-pc-27.cl.msu.edu:35.8.116.47</span></p></td>

    </tr>

  </table>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.2B</b></span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'> Ð Example of Hosts Lookup Table </span><span

style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</span></p>

  <p>In the first test,<span style='layout-grid-mode:line'> the simple </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New";layout-grid-mode:line'>ping</span><span

style='layout-grid-mode:line'> command was used. The </span><span

style='font-family:"Courier New";layout-grid-mode:line'>ping</span><span

style='layout-grid-mode:line'> command is used to test connections and yields 

    the server short name as reply.&nbsp; In this scenario, </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New";layout-grid-mode:

line'>lonc</span><span style='layout-grid-mode:line'> was expected to be the speed-determining 

    step, since </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New";

layout-grid-mode:line'>lond</span><span style='layout-grid-mode:line'> at the 

    remote end does not need any disk access to reply.&nbsp; The graph <b>Fig. 

    1.1.2C</b></span><span style='layout-grid-mode:

line'> shows number of seconds till completion versus number of processes issuing 

    10,000 ping commands each against one Library Server (450 MHz Pentium II in 

    this test, single IDE HD). For the solid dots, the processes were concurrently 

    started on <i>the same</i></span><span style='layout-grid-mode:

line'> Access Server and the time was measured till the processes finished Ð all 

    processes finished at the same time. One Access Server (233 MHz Pentium II 

    in the test bed) can process about 150 pings per second, and as expected, 

    the total time grows linearly with the number of pings.</span></p>

  <p><span style='layout-grid-mode:line'>The gray dots were taken with up to seven 

    processes concurrently running on <i>different</i></span><span

style='layout-grid-mode:line'> machines and pinging the same server Ð the processes 

    ran fully concurrent, and each process finished as if the other ones were 

    not present (about 1000 pings per second). Execution was fully parallel.</span></p>

  <p>In a second test, <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> was 

    the speed-determining step Ð 10,000 <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>put</span> 

    commands each were issued first from up to seven concurrent processes on the 

    same machine, and then from up to seven processes on different machines. The 

    <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>put</span> command requires data to be written 

    to the permanent record of the user on the remote server.</p>

  <p>In particular, one <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>&quot;put&quot;</span> 

    request meant that the process on the Access Server would connect to the UNIX 

    domain socket dedicated to the library server, <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> 

    would take the data from there, shuffle it through the persistent TCP connection, 

    <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> on the remote library 

    server would take the data, write to disk (both to a dbm-file and to a flat-text 

    transaction history file), answer &quot;ok&quot;, <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lonc</span> would take that reply and send it 

    to the domain socket, the process would read it from there and close the domain-socket 

    connection.</p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <img width=220 height=190

src="Session%20One_files/image005.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027"> </span></p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.2C</b></span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'> Ð Benchmark on Parallelism of Server-Server Communication 

    (no disk access)</span></p>

  <p>The graph <b>Fig. 1.1.2D</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> shows the results. 

    Series 1 (solid black diamond) is the result of concurrent processes on the 

    same server Ð all of these are handled by the same server-dedicated </span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond-</span>child, 

    which lets the total amount of time grow linearly.</p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <img width=432 height=311

src="Session%20One_files/image007.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1028"> </span></p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 2D</b></span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'> Ð Benchmark on Parallelism of Server-Server Communication 

    (with disk access as in Fig. 2A)</span></p>

  <p>Series 2 through 8 were obtained from running the processes on different 

    Access Servers against one Library Server, each series goes with one server. 

    In this experiment, the processes did not finish at the same time, which most 

    likely is due to disk-caching on the Library Server Ð <span

style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span>-children whose datafile was (partly) 

    in disk cache finished earlier. With seven processes from seven different 

    servers, the operation took 255 seconds till the last process was finished 

    for 70,000 <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>put</span> commands (270 

    per second) Ð versus 530 seconds if the processes ran on the same server (130 

    per second).</p>

  <h3><a name="_Toc514840842"></a><a name="_Toc421867044">Dynamic Resource Replication</a></h3>

  <p>Since resources are assembled into higher order resources simply by reference, 

    in principle it would be sufficient to retrieve them from the respective Home 

    Servers of the authors. However, there are several problems with this simple 

    approach: since the resource assembly mechanism is designed to facilitate 

    content assembly from a large number of widely distributed sources, individual 

    sessions would depend on a large number of machines and network connections 

    to be available, thus be rather fragile. Also, frequently accessed resources 

    could potentially drive individual machines in the network into overload situations.</p>

  <p>Finally, since most resources depend on content handlers on the Access Servers 

    to be served to a client within the session context, the raw source would 

    first have to be transferred across the Network from the respective Library 

    Server to the Access Server, processed there, and then transferred on to the 

    client.</p>

  <p>To enable resource assembly in a reliable and scalable way, a dynamic resource 

    replication scheme was developed. <b>Fig. 1.1.3</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> shows the details of this mechanism.</span></p>

  <p>Anytime a resource out of the resource space is requested, a handler routine 

    is called which in turn calls the replication routine (<b>Fig. 1.1.3A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). 

    As a first step, this routines determines whether or not the resource is currently 

    in replication transfer (</span><b>Fig. 1.1.3A,</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    </span><b>Step D1a</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>). During replication transfer, the incoming data is 

    stored in a temporary file, and </span><b>Step D1a</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> checks for the presence of that file. If transfer of a resource is actively 

    going on, the controlling handler receives an error message, waits for a few 

    seconds, and then calls the replication routine again. If the resource is 

    still in transfer, the client will receive the message ÒService currently 

    not availableÓ.</span></p>

  <p>In the next step (<b>Fig. 1.1.3A, Step D1b</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>), the replication routine checks if the URL is locally 

    present. If it is, the replication routine returns OK to the controlling handler, 

    which in turn passes the request on to the next handler in the chain.</span></p>

  <p>If the resource is not locally present, the Home Server of the resource author 

    (as extracted from the URL) is determined (<b>Fig. 1.1.3A, Step D2</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). 

    This is done by contacting all library servers in the authorÕs domain (as 

    determined from the lookup table, see </span><b>Fig. 1.1.2B</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). 

    In </span><b>Step D2b</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> a query is sent 

    to the remote server whether or not it is the Home Server of the author (in 

    our current implementation, an additional cache is used to store already identified 

    Home Servers (not shown in the figure)). In Step </span><b>D2c</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>, the remote server answers the query with True or 

    False. If the Home Server was found, the routine continues, otherwise it contacts 

    the next server (</span><b>Step D2a</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). 

    If no server could be found, a ÒFile not FoundÓ error message is issued. In 

    our current implementation, in this step the Home Server is also written into 

    a cache for faster access if resources by the same author are needed again 

    (not shown in the figure). </span></p>

  <br

clear=ALL style='page-break-before:always'>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <img width=432 height=581

src="Session%20One_files/image009.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1029"> </span></p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.3A</b></span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'> Ð Dynamic Resource Replication, subscription</span></p>

  <br

clear=ALL style='page-break-before:always'>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <img width=432 height=523

src="Session%20One_files/image011.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1030"> </span></p>

  <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.3B</b></span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'> Ð Dynamic Resource Replication, modification</span></p>

  <p>In <b>Step D3a</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, the routine sends a 

    subscribe command for the URL to the Home Server of the author. The Home Server 

    first determines if the resource is present, and if the access privileges 

    allow it to be copied to the requesting server (</span><b>Fig. 1.1.3A, Step 

    D3b</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). If this is true, the requesting 

    server is added to the list of subscribed servers for that resource (</span><b>Step 

    D3c</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). The Home Server will reply with 

    either OK or an error message, which is determined in </span><b>Step D4</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>. 

    If the remote resource was not present, the error message ÒFile not FoundÓ 

    will be passed on to the client, if the access was not allowed, the error 

    message ÒAccess DeniedÓ is passed on. If the operation succeeded, the requesting 

    server sends an HTTP request for the resource out of the /</span><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>raw</span> 

    server content resource area of the Home Server.</p>

  <p>The Home Server will then check if the requesting server is part of the network, 

    and if it is subscribed to the resource (<b>Step D5b</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>). If it is, it will send the resource via HTTP to 

    the requesting server without any content handlers processing it (</span><b>Step 

    D5c</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). The requesting server will store 

    the incoming data in a temporary data file (</span><b>Step D5a</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>) Ð this is the file that </span><b>Step D1a</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> checks for. If the transfer could not complete, and 

    appropriate error message is sent to the client (</span><b>Step D6</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>). Otherwise, the transferred temporary file is renamed 

    as the actual resource, and the replication routine returns OK to the controlling 

    handler (</span><b>Step D7</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). </span></p>

  <p><b>Fig. 1.1.3B</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; depicts the process 

    of modifying a resource. When an author publishes a new version of a resource, 

    the Home Server will contact every server currently subscribed to the resource 

    (</span><b>Fig. 1.1.3B, Step U1</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>), as 

    determined from the list of subscribed servers for the resource generated 

    in </span><b>Fig. 1.1. 3A, Step D3c</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>. 

    The subscribing servers will receive and acknowledge the update message (</span><b>Step 

    U1c</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>). The update mechanism finishes when the last subscribed 

    server has been contacted (messages to unreachable servers are buffered).</span></p>

  <p>Each subscribing server will check if the resource in question had been accessed 

    recently, that is, within a configurable amount of time (<b>Step U2</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>). 

    </span></p>

  <p>If the resource had not been accessed recently, the local copy of the resource 

    is deleted (<b>Step U3a</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>) and an unsubscribe 

    command is sent to the Home Server (</span><b>Step U3b</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>). The Home Server will check if the server had indeed 

    originally subscribed to the resource (</span><b>Step U3c</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>) and then delete the server from the list of subscribed 

    servers for the resource (</span><b>Step U3d</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>).</span></p>

  <p>If the resource had been accessed recently, the modified resource will be 

    copied over using the same mechanism as in <b>Step D5a</b><span

style='font-weight:normal'> through </span><b>D7</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'> of </span><b>Fig. 1.1.3A</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> (</span><b>Fig. 

    1.1.3B</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, </span><b>Steps U4a </b><span

style='font-weight:normal'>through</span><b> U6</b><span style='font-weight:

normal'>).</span></p>

  <p><span style='font-family:Arial'>Load Balancing</span></p>

  <p><span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>lond</span> provides a function to 

    query the serverÕs current <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>loadavg</span><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'>. </span>As a configuration parameter, one can determine 

    the value of <span style='font-family:"Courier New"'>loadavg,</span> which 

    is to be considered 100%, for example, 2.00. </p>

  <p>Access servers can have a list of spare access servers, <span

style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>/home/httpd/lonTabs/spares.tab</span>, 

    to offload sessions depending on own workload. This check happens is done 

    by the login handler. It re-directs the login information and session to the 

    least busy spare server if itself is overloaded. An additional round-robin 

    IP scheme possible. See <b>Fig. 1.1.4</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> 

    for an example of a load-balancing scheme.</span></p>

  <p><span style='font-size:28.0pt;color:green'> <img width=241 height=139

src="Session%20One_files/image013.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1031"> </span></p>

  <p><span

style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Fig. 1.1.4 Ð </b></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Example 

    of Load Balancing</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> <b><i><br

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    </i></b></span></p>

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