Method for determining metrics of a content delivery and global traffic management network

A process for a determining server performance metrics in a network, comprising the steps of:

• providing service metric probe resident on a server for determining service availability and metric measurements of types of services provided by a content delivery server;
• providing latency probe resident on a server for determining a latency value for various servers within the network;
• wherein the service metric probe sends an update to all DNS servers in the network that consists of all service availability and metric measurements since a last update;
• wherein the latency probe updates the DNS servers with client latency data;
• and
• wherein, for a given DNS name, a DNS server uses updates to the latency values and updates to the service availability and metric measurements to determine a content delivery server to return.

A program storage medium readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for determining server performance metrics in a network, comprising the steps of:

• providing a service metric probe resident on a server for determining service availability and metric measurements of types of services provided by a content delivery server;
• providing a latency probe resident on a server for determining latency values for various content delivery servers within the network;
• wherein the service metric means consults a configuration file containing each DNS name in an area associated with the service metric probe and any set(s) of services associated with each DNS name;
• wherein the set(s) of services include any of:
• HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, streaming media, or generic SNMP;
• wherein the latency probe calculates a latency value from a location of the latency probe location to a client's location;
• and
• wherein, for a given DNS name, a DNS server uses updates to the latency values and updates to the service availability and metric measurements to determine a content delivery server to return.

A program storage medium readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for a determining server performance metrics in a network, comprising the steps of:

• providing service metric probe resident on a server for determining service availability and metric measurements of types of services provided by a content delivery server;
• providing latency probe resident on a server for determining a latency value for various servers within the network;
• wherein the service metric probe sends an update to all DNS servers in the network that consists of all service availability and metric measurements since a last update;
• wherein the latency probe updates the DNS servers with client latency data;
• and
• wherein, for a given DNS name, a DNS server uses updates to the latency values and updates to the service availability and metric measurements to determine a content delivery server to return.

An apparatus for a determining server performance metrics in a network, comprising:

• a service metric probe resident on a server for determining service availability and metric measurements of types of services provided by a content delivery server;
• a latency probe resident on a server for determining latency values for various content delivery servers within the network;
• wherein the service metric probe consults a configuration file containing each DNS name in an area associated with the service metric probe and any set(s) of services associated with each DNS name;
• wherein the set(s) of services include any of:
• HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, streaming media, or generic SNMP;
• wherein the latency probe calculates a latency value from a location of the latency probe location to a client's location;
• and
• wherein, for a given DNS name, a DNS server uses updates to the latency values and updates to the service availability and metric measurements to determine a content delivery server to return.

An apparatus for a determining server performance metrics in a network, comprising:

• service metric probe resident on a server for determining service availability and metric measurements of types of services provided by a content delivery server;
• latency probe resident on a server for determining a latency value for various servers within the network;
• wherein the service metric probe sends an update to all DNS servers in the network that consists of all service availability and metric measurements since a last update;
• and
• wherein the latency probe updates the DNS servers with client latency data;
• and
• wherein, for a given DNS name, a DNS server uses updates to the latency values and updates to the service availability and metric measurements to determine a content delivery server to return.