Automated Load Balancer Provisioning via Workflow Engine
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current service-oriented architectures (SOA) for hosting services face inefficiencies due to client-side load balancing, requiring developers to manage and maintain load balancers, which leads to increased resource expenditure and decreased focus on application development.
Innovation Solution
An automated load balancing architecture that provides self-service provisioning and configuration of load balancers, along with failure detection and resolution, using a service API to manage and distribute application traffic across server instances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If developers use client-side load balancers to distribute traffic across host servers, then traffic distribution and resource utilization are improved, but system complexity and maintenance burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hosting service automatically performs load balancer provisioning, configuration, monitoring, and failure recovery without requiring developer intervention. The system self-manages the complete load balancing lifecycle, eliminating the maintenance burden while preserving traffic distribution benefits
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an automated load balancing service as an intermediary layer between clients and host servers. This service abstracts away the complexity of load balancer management from developers, handling all configuration and maintenance tasks internally while providing simple DNS-based access to users
2Ease of operation
If developers manually manage DNS records to enable client selection of host servers, then service accessibility is improved, but time consumption and operational overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically manages DNS record updates and registrations without requiring developer intervention. The automated load balancing service handles all DNS operations internally, allowing developers to focus solely on application development while the system manages infrastructure configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the DNS management task from the developer's responsibilities and transfers it to the automated hosting service. By separating this operational task from application development, the system improves ease of operation for accessing services while eliminating the time developers would spend on DNS management
3Reliability
If developers monitor and maintain host servers to handle failures, then system reliability is improved, but resource expenditure and operational burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The automated load balancing service continuously monitors host server health and automatically recovers from failures without developer intervention. The system implements self-healing mechanisms that detect and respond to server failures, maintaining high reliability while eliminating the need for developers to spend resources on monitoring and maintenance activities
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods provide automated provisioning of load balancing. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method configures an access point. A request to create the access point may be received and data for the access point may be stored in a data store. The method may invoke a workflow engine. The workflow engine may assign the access point to a load balancer, configure the load balancer, assign a network address to the load balancer, and publish the network address for a plurality of clients.