Responding to the Failure of a Data Source

When Directory Proxy Server detects an error on a connection, the proxy closes the connection and tries to reestablish the connection immediately. If the proxy can reestablish the connection, it considers the data source to be up and running. If the proxy cannot reestablish the connection, it flags the data source as unavailable. Directory Proxy Server stops distributing requests to the data source and closes all other connections to the data source.

If a request fails because of a failed connection or a failed data source, Directory Proxy Server replays the request over another connection to the same data source or replays the request to another data source. If the request is replayed to another data source, the load balancing algorithm determines which data source is used.

If there are no data sources to which Directory Proxy Server can replay the request, the proxy returns an error to the client.

Replaying the request enables the failure to be transparent to the client. Requests are replayed for the following operations:

• Search

• Bind

• Compare

Requests are not replayed for write operations because Directory Proxy Server cannot be sure whether the operation was performed before the connection failure occurred.

When a data source recovers after a being unavailable, Directory Proxy Server returns the data source to the list of candidate data sources. The work that was being carried out by the other candidate data sources is redistributed to include this data source, according to the load balancing algorithm.

When the failed data source recovers, Directory Proxy Server recommences monitoring the traffic between the data sources and their clients.