Method and system for operating a commissioned E-commerce service provider
View Patent ↗A method for operating a commissioned e-commerce service provider provides services to businesses on a computerized network such as the Internet in exchange for a small commission on the commercial transactions generated using those services. Unlike most ISPs that provide services to individuals and businesses, the commissioned e-commerce service provider preferably provides Internet services for businesses operating web sites or other application that generate e-commerce transactions for the business. Instead of paying a monthly fee for the Internet services required to host a web site or operate and e-commerce site, the business contracts with the commissioned e-commerce service provider to provide these services based on receiving a percentage commission of the commercial transactions generated using these services. Preferably, the commission percentage is tiered in accordance with the amount of traffic at the site to provide a nominal level of service at a lower commission rate, yet allow for an exceptional volume of traffic to be accommodated by the site at a higher commission rate without having the site fail or the service become overwhelmed.
1. A method for automatically allocating computing resources of a rack-and-blade computer assembly including an application server pool, a second application server pool, and a free server pool comprising:
receiving server performance information from the application server pool disposed in a rack of the rack-and-blade computer assembly;
said application server pool comprising a blade server including an associated server agent for measuring performance of an application running on the blade server;
determining at least one Quality of Service (QoS) attribute for the application server pool;
determining that the at least one QoS attribute is below a standard;
if the free server pool has an available blade server for allocation to the application server pool, allocating a free blade server from the free server pool for use by the application server pool;
if the free server pool does not have the available blade server for allocation to the application server pool, allocating, responsive to a resource request from the application, a different blade server from the second application server pool in the rack to and for use by the application server pool if the application server pool has a first application server pool priority that is higher than a second application server pool priority that is associated with the second application server pool; and
running the application on resources of the application server pool and of the different blade server allocated to the application server pool.
2. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising selecting, prior to allocating for use, said blade server from the free server pool to obtain a selected blade server.
3. The method of claim 2 additionally comprising preparing, prior to allocating for use, the selected blade server for operation with the application server pool.
4. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising reconfiguring a traffic management device associated with the application server pool.
5. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising provisioning images onto at least one blade server of the application server pool.
6. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising monitoring the performance of at least one blade server of the application server pool from information received by the server agent associated with the blade server.
7. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising removing the use of at least one blade server from the application server pool.
8. The method of claim 7 additionally comprising disposing the removed blade server in the free server pool.
9. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising determining a relative performance of another application server pool.
10. The method of claim 9 additionally comprising identifying at least one blade server from said another application server pool that would impact performance the least if reallocated to the application server pool.
11. A method for automatically allocating computing resources of a rack-and-blade computer assembly including an application server pool and a second application server pool comprising:
receiving server performance information from the application server pool disposed in a rack of the rack-and-blade computer assembly;
said application server pool comprising a blade server including an associated server agent for measuring performance of an application running on the blade server;
determining at least one level of service for the application server pool;
determining that the at least one level of service is above a standard;
removing the use of the blade server from the application server pool responsive to a resource request from the application;
allocating the blade server for use by the second application server pool in the rack if the application server pool has a first application server pool priority associated with the application server pool that is lower than a second application server pool priority that is associated with the second application server pool; and
running the application on resources of the second application server pool and of the blade server allocated to the second application server pool.
12. The method of claim 11 additionally comprising allocating the use of the removed blade server for use by a free server pool.
13. A method for automatically allocating computing resources of a rack-and-blade computer assembly including an application server pool, a second application server pool, and a free server pool comprising:
receiving server performance information from the application server pool disposed in the rack of a rack-and-blade computer assembly;
said application server pool comprising a blade server including an associated server agent for measuring performance of an application running on the blade server;
determining at least one level of service for the application server pool;
determining that the level of service is below a standard;
determining that no blade server in the free server pool is available for use;
selecting a lower priority blade server in the second application server pool in the rack for use by the application server pool if the application server pool has a first application server pool priority that is higher than a second application server pool priority that is associated with the second application server pool responsive to a resource request from the application; and
running the application on resources of the application server pool and of the lower priority blade server allocated to the application server pool.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein said selecting a lower priority blade server comprises selecting a lower priority blade server from the application server pool to obtain a selected blade server.
15. The method of claim 14 additionally comprising preparing the selected blade server for operation with the application server pool.
16. The method of claim 15 additionally comprising flushing the selected blade server.
17. The method of claim 13 additionally comprising reconfiguring a traffic management device associated with the application server pool.
18. A method for automatically allocating servers and resources of a scalable computer engine comprising:
receiving server performance measurements from an administrative group of servers disposed in a rack of a scalable computer engine, the rack of the scalable computer engine including a first administrative group of servers, a second administrative group of servers, and a free pool of servers;
said first administrative group of servers comprising a blade server including an associated server manager for measuring performance of a service hosted on the blade server;
determining at least one level of service for the first administrative group of servers;
determining that the at least one level of service is below a standard;
if the free sever pool has an available blade for allocation to the first administrative group of servers, allocating a free blade server from the free server pool for use by the first administrative group of servers;
if the free server pool does not have an available blade server for allocation to the application server pool, allocating, responsive to a resource request from the application, a different blade server from the second administrative group of servers in the rack to and for use by the first administrative group of servers if the first administrative group of servers has a first pool priority that is higher than a second pool priority that is associated with the second administrative group of servers;
hosting the service on resources of the first administrative group of servers and on the different blade server allocated to the first administrative group of servers.
19. A method for automatically allocating computing resources of a rack-and-blade computer assembly comprising:
receiving server performance information from an application server pool disposed in a rack of a rack-and-blade computer assembly including the application server pool, a second application server pool, and a free server pool;
said application server pool comprising a blade server including an associated server agent for measuring performance of an application running on the blade server;
determining at least one level of service for the application server pool;
determining that the at least one level of service is below a standard;
determining that the free server pool has a free blade server available for use;
selecting from the free server pool the available free blade server for use by the application server pool;
if the free server pool does not have the available free blade server, selecting, responsive to a resource request from the application, a different blade server from the second application server pool in the rack for use by the application server pool if the application server pool has a first application server pool priority that is higher than a second application server pool priority that is associated with the second application server pool; and
running the application on resources of the application server pool and of the different blade server allocated to the application server pool.
20. The method of claim 19 additionally comprising installing software on the selected available blade server.
21. The method of claim 20 additionally comprising configuring the selected available blade server.
22. The method of claim 19 additionally comprising readying configuring the selected available blade server for operation.
23. The method of claim 19 additionally comprising reconfiguring a traffic management device associated with the application server pool.