Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for distributing load in a computer environment

US6658473B1 · kind B1 · utility

73Cited by
16References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 25, 2000
Grant dateDec 2, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 25, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L67/1034
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for distributing load in a multiple server computer environment. In one embodiment, a group manager process on each server periodically determines the server's capacity and load (i.e., utilization) with respect to multiple resources. The capacity and load information is broadcast to the other servers in the group, so that each server has a global view of every server's capacity and current load. When a given terminal authenticates to a server to start or resume one or more sessions, the group manager process of that server first determines whether one of the servers in the group already is hosting a session for that user. If that is the case, one embodiment of the present invention redirects the desktop unit to that server and the load-balancing strategy is not employed. Otherwise, for each resource and server, the proper load balancing strategies are performed to identify which server is best able to handle that particular session.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.