Enhanced availability for message services

Abstract

An enhanced availability environment for facilitating a message service provided by a plurality of service elements is disclosed herein. The enhanced availability environment comprises a monitoring element and an enhanced availability element. The monitoring element monitors a first service element of the plurality of service elements for a monitored characteristic, generates monitoring information corresponding to the monitored characteristic, and communicates the monitoring information to the enhanced availability element. The enhanced availability element determines an availability of the first service element for the message service based at least in part on the monitoring information and an availability characteristic of the first service element, and communicates the availability to initiate an availability action.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . One or more computer readable media having stored thereon program instructions for implementing an enhanced availability process in a message service provided by a plurality of service elements, wherein the program instructions, when executed by a computer system, direct the computer system to:
 receive monitoring information corresponding to a monitored characteristic of a first service element of the plurality of service elements;   determine an availability of the first service element for the message service based at least in part on the monitoring information and an availability characteristic of the first service element; and   communicate the availability of the first service element to initiate an availability action.   
     
     
         2 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 1  wherein to determine the availability of the first service element the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, direct the computer system to:
 process the availability characteristic to determine whether the first service element is operative or inoperative; 
 in response to a determination that the first service element is operative, process the monitoring information to determine if the first service element is available or unavailable. 
 
     
     
         3 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 2  wherein to communicate the availability of the first service element the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, direct the computer system to communicate to a second service element whether the first service element is available or unavailable. 
     
     
         4 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 3  wherein the availability action comprises removal of the first service element from the message service when the first service element is unavailable. 
     
     
         5 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 4  wherein the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, further direct the computer system to direct service communications to a failover service element of the plurality of service elements in place of the first service element. 
     
     
         6 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 3  wherein the message service comprises an email service, and wherein the plurality of service elements comprises a plurality of messaging servers, wherein the first service element comprises one of the plurality of messaging servers and wherein the second service element comprises another one of the plurality of messaging servers. 
     
     
         7 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 3  wherein the message service comprises an email service, and wherein the plurality of service elements comprises a plurality entry servers and at least one network load balancer, wherein the first service element comprises one of the plurality of entry servers and wherein the second service element comprises the network load balancer. 
     
     
         8 . The one or more computer readable media of  claim 1  wherein to receive the monitoring information the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, direct the computer system to receive the monitoring information from a monitoring element. 
     
     
         9 . An enhanced availability environment for facilitating a message service provided by a plurality of service elements, the enhanced availability environment comprising:
 a monitoring element configured to monitor a first service element of the plurality of service elements for a monitored characteristic, generate monitoring information corresponding to the monitored characteristic, and communicate the monitoring information to an enhanced availability element; and   the enhanced availability element configured to determine an availability of the first service element for the message service based at least in part on the monitoring information and an availability characteristic of the first service element, and communicate the availability to initiate an availability action.   
     
     
         10 . The enhanced availability environment of  claim 9  wherein to determine the availability of the first service element, the enhanced availability element is configured to process the availability characteristic to determine whether the first service element is operative or inoperative, and in response to a determination that the first service element is operative, process the monitoring information to determine if the first service element is available or unavailable. 
     
     
         11 . The enhanced availability environment of  claim 10  wherein to communicate the availability of the first service element, the enhanced availability element communicates to a second service element whether the first service element is available or unavailable. 
     
     
         12 . The enhanced availability environment of  claim 11  wherein the availability action comprises a removal of the first service element from the message service when the first service element is unavailable. 
     
     
         13 . The enhanced availability environment of  claim 9  wherein the availability action comprises a designation of a passive message database hosted by a failover service element as an active message database in place of a previously active message database hosted by the first service element. 
     
     
         14 . A method of operating an enhanced availability element to facilitate a message service provided by a plurality of service elements, the method comprising:
 receiving monitoring information corresponding to a monitored characteristic of a first service element of the plurality of service elements;   determining an availability of the first service element for the message service based at least in part on the monitoring information and an availability characteristic of the first service element; and   communicating the availability of the first service element to initiate an availability action.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein determining the availability of the first service element comprises:
 processing the availability characteristic to determine whether the first service element is operative or inoperative; and 
 in response to determining that the first service element is operative, processing the monitoring information to determine if the first service element is available or unavailable. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein communicating the availability of the first service element comprises communicating to a second service element whether the first service element is available or unavailable. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the availability action comprises removing the first service element from the message service when the first service element is unavailable, and wherein the method further comprises directing service communications to a failover service element of the plurality of service elements in place of the first service element. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the message service comprises an email service, and wherein the plurality of service elements comprises a plurality messaging servers, wherein the first service element comprises one of the plurality of messaging servers and wherein the second service element comprises another one of the plurality of messaging servers. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the message service comprises an email service, and wherein the plurality of service elements comprises a plurality entry servers and at least one network load balancer, wherein the first service element comprises one of the plurality of entry servers and wherein the second service element comprises the network load balancer. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14  wherein receiving the monitoring information comprises receiving the monitoring information from a monitoring element.