Server architecture with detection and recovery of failed out-of-process application

A server computer system comprising:

• a processing unit;
• a memory subsystem;
• a server program stored in the memory subsystem and executed on the processing unit to receive client requests;
• and
• multiple applications stored in the memory subsystem and executed on the processing unit either in-process or out-of-process with the server program to dynamically generate responses to the client requests, each said application comprising one or more agents to process the client requests and an application manager to manage the one or more agents;
• an application manager director to facilitate delivery of the client requests received by the server program to the applications that are appropriate for processing the client requests;
• and
• a crash detection and recovery subsystem to detect when an out-of-process application fails and to recover the out-of-process application without disrupting operation of the server program.

In a server system having a server program that executes in a first process to receive client requests and at least one out-of-process application that executes in a second process separate from the server program to process the client requests, a method for detecting when the out-of-process application fails, comprising:

• recording a client request on a list as the client request is passed to the out-of-process application;
• examining the client request as it is returned from the out-of-process application;
• determining that the out-of-process application has failed if the returned client request contains erroneous data;
• and
• in an event that the out-of-process application has not failed, removing the client request from the list.