Durable Instance Manager for Persistent Application Activation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Long-running applications face challenges in reliably restarting and maintaining sessions across computer systems, especially when execution hosts fail or need to be dormant for extended periods, leading to inefficiencies in resource management and session recovery.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for persistent application activation and timer notifications, where a durable instance manager persists system properties indicating reactivation conditions, allowing for event notifications to reload application instances at alternative hosts, ensuring seamless continuation of processing upon reactivation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If long-running applications are persisted to durable storage to allow recovery after failures, then reliability is improved, but the application cannot be reactivated in time to receive anticipated messages
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by setting up event subscriptions and registration mechanisms before the application is persisted. When the application needs to be reactivated, the pre-configured event notifications enable immediate reactivation without waiting for external triggers, thus resolving the timing conflict between persistence and timely reactivation.
2Speed
If application instances are kept in system memory for quick access, then processing speed is improved, but resource consumption increases and persistence becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically manages application instance states, allowing instances to transition between executing and dormant states based on workload and resource availability. Instances can be quickly reactivated from dormant state through event notifications, providing both speed when needed and resource efficiency when not in use.
3Productivity
If application instances are persisted to durable storage, then resource management efficiency is improved, but session consistency and reactivation reliability become challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the durable instance manager continuously monitors for reactivation events and notifies execution hosts when conditions are met. This feedback loop ensures that session state is properly restored and consistency is maintained during the transition from persisted to executing state.
Solution Approach 2:
The durable instance manager acts as an intermediary between the persisted application instances and the execution hosts. It manages the coordination of reactivation, ensuring that sessions are properly restored and consistent state is achieved before the application resumes execution.
4Loss of energy
If the system waits for external events to trigger application reactivation, then resource usage is optimized, but reactivation timing cannot be precisely controlled
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary configuration of event subscriptions and reactivation conditions before persistence. This allows the system to maintain resource efficiency while being pre-prepared for precise reactivation timing when specific events occur or time-based conditions are met.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for persistent application activation and timer notifications. A durable instance manager, instance execution hosts, and an instance store interoperate to transition instances between executing and persisted states. System properties are associated with an instance. System properties can define re-activation conditions, that when satisfied, indicate that an instance is to be re-activated for execution. System properties can define timers as well as indications that instances are in a persisted but ready to run state.