Techniques for assigning user workloads to application servers

1. A computer program product for assigning a user workload to an application server, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable storage device having computer-readable program code embodied thereon, wherein the computer-readable program code, when executed by a data processing system, causes the data processing system to:

receive a user request to initiate execution of a workload assigned to a user;

select an application server, from among multiple application servers, to execute the workload based on compatibility between respective current states of the application servers and the workload;

in response to the user not being previously authenticated, transmit the user request to an authenticator executing on the data processing system;

attempt, by the authenticator, to authenticate the user;

in response to the authenticator successfully authenticating the user, transmit a cache hit test package for the user to the application servers, wherein the cache hit test package includes one or more cache lookup keys and one or more cache types that are utilized to determine the compatibility between the respective current states of the application servers and the workload; and

initiate generation, by each of the application servers, respective affinity scores for the cache hit test package based on respective states of the application servers, wherein the respective affinity scores indicate the compatibility between the respective current states of the application servers and the workload.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the user request includes a user identifier (ID) for a user.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program code, when executed by the data processing system, further causes the data processing system to:

in response to the user already being authenticated and assigned to a given one of the application servers, select the given one of the application servers to execute the workload.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable program code, when executed by the data processing system, further causes the data processing system to:

determine a primary application server, included within the application servers, based on the affinity scores;

determine a secondary application server, included within the application servers, based on the affinity scores; and

transmit a service request for the user request to the primary application server.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the computer-readable program code, when executed by the data processing system, further causes the data processing system to:

in response to the primary application server indicating that the primary application server cannot service the service request, transmit another service request for the user request to the secondary application server.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the one or more cache types include authorization, description, metadata, translation, application, and asset cache types.

7. A data processing system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to:

receive a user request to initiate execution of a workload assigned to a user, wherein the user request includes a user identifier;

in response to the user not being previously authenticated, transmit the user request to an authenticator executing on the data processing system;

attempt, by the authenticator, to authenticate the user;

in response to the authenticator successfully authenticating the user, transmit a cache hit test package for the user to the application servers;

select an application server, from among multiple application servers, to execute the workload based on respective affinity scores generated by the application servers, wherein the affinity scores indicate a compatibility between respective current states of the application servers and the workload, and wherein the cache hit test package includes one or more cache lookup keys and one or more cache types that are utilized to determine the compatibility between the respective current states of the application servers and the workload.

8. The data processing system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine a primary application server, included within the application servers, based on the affinity scores;

determine a secondary application server, included within the application servers, based on the affinity scores; and

transmit a service request for the user request to the primary application server.

9. The data processing system of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

in response to the primary application server indicating that the primary application server cannot service the service request, transmit another service request for the user request to the secondary application server.