System and method for supporting transaction affinity based request handling in a middleware environment

A system for supporting transaction processing in a middleware environment comprising a cluster including a plurality of application servers, the system comprising:

• one or more hardware microprocessors;
• an interceptor and a handler running on said one or more hardware microprocessors in said cluster;
• wherein said interceptor and handler are configured to perform steps comprising:
• intercepting a first remote method invocation (RMI) request associated with a first global transaction received at said cluster;
• determining that no RMI request associated with said first global transaction has been previously received by said cluster;
• selecting a first application server of said plurality of application servers for processing said first RMI request using a load balancing method, wherein the load balancing method utilizes a load balancing algorithm selected from a round robin algorithm, weight-based algorithm, random algorithm, round-robin-affinity algorithm, weight-based-affinity algorithm, and a random-affinity algorithm;
• routing said first RMI request to said first application server for processing;
• intercepting a second RMI request received at the cluster;
• determining whether the second RMI request is associated with the first global transaction;
• and
• selecting the first application server for processing the second RMI request if the second RMI request is associated with the first global transaction, and using the load balancing method for selecting a second application server of said plurality of application servers for processing said second RMI request if the second RMI request is associated with a second global transaction.

A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for supporting transaction processing in a middleware environment comprising a cluster including a plurality of application servers, which instructions, when executed, cause said cluster to perform steps comprising:

• receiving at said cluster a first remote method invocation (RMI) request associated with a first global transaction;
• determining that no RMI request associated with said first global transaction has been previously received by said cluster;
• selecting a first application server of said plurality of application servers for processing said first RMI request using a load balancing method, wherein the load balancing method utilizes a load balancing algorithm selected from a round robin algorithm, weight-based algorithm, random algorithm, round-robin-affinity algorithm, weight-based-affinity algorithm, and a random-affinity algorithm;
• routing said first RMI request to said first application server for processing;
• processing on the first application server, a first method invoked by the first RMI request associated with the first global transaction;
• receiving at said cluster a second RMI request;
• determining whether the second RMI request is associated with the first global transaction;
• and
• selecting the first application server for processing the second RMI request if the second RMI request is associated with the first global transaction, and using the load balancing method for selecting a second application server of said plurality of application servers for processing said second RMI request if the second RMI request is associated with a second global transaction.