Systems and methods for managing cookies via HTTP content layer

The cookie management system and methods of the present solution address issues with rewriting cookie headers by handling cookies in the content layer of HTTP instead of the HTTP transaction layer. The present solution maintains cookie information for a browser via an intermediary and installs the correct cookie parameters in the browser via the HTTP content layer. Instead of using the headers of the HTTP transaction layer which may cause issues due to rewriting, the present solution manages the cookies outside of this layer. This avoids the browser managing the cookies incorrectly. Set cookies headers served from a server in response to client HTTP requests are removed by the intermediary. Cookie information from the headers are stored in a cookie jar on the intermediary. The intermediary delivers instructions and scripts via the content layer of the HTTP response to set the cookie in the browser. The scripts detect browser changes to the cookie and communicates the changes to the intermediary to update the cookie jar. With the present solution, the domain and path names of a cookie are set correctly on the browser when delivering content via a reverse proxy.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application generally relates to data communication networks. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for managing cookies via an intermediary for a browser outside of the HTTP transaction layer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A reverse proxy is a forwarding topology where the proxy is on behalf of a back-end HTTP server. A reverse proxy is installed within the neighborhood of one or more servers. Typically, reverse proxies are utilized in front of web servers and operate as an application proxy for servers using HTTP. In some cases, a reverse proxy may rewrite content delivered from the web server to the client. For example, a reverse proxy may rewrite a URL of a web page served to a client. Some of the pages served by an HTTP server may include a set-cookie header in the HTTP transaction to set a cookie for the client. In rewriting content, the reverse proxy may rewrite the set-cookie header to have a browser accept and manage the cookie. A reverse proxy may disregard the path and domain values of the set-cookie header in rewriting the cookie. In another case, the reverse proxy may re-write the cookies to encode the path and domain values into an element of the set-cookie header. These re-written set-cookie headers may lead to security leaks and data corruption.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The cookie management systems and methods of the present solution address issues with rewriting cookie headers by handling cookies in the content layer of HTTP instead of the HTTP transaction layer. The present solution maintains cookie information for a browser via an intermediary and installs the correct cookie parameters in the browser via the HTTP content layer. Instead of using the headers of the HTTP transaction layer which may cause issues due to rewriting, the present solution manages the cookies outside of this layer. This avoids the browser managing the cookies incorrectly. Set-cookie headers served from a server in response to client HTTP requests are removed by the intermediary. Cookie information from the headers may be stored in a cookie jar on the intermediary. This cookie jar may include configured cookie information. The intermediary delivers instructions and scripts via the content layer of the HTTP response to set the cookie in the browser based on the cookie information stored in the cookie jar. The script detects browser changes to the cookie and communicates the changes to the intermediary to update the cookie jar. With the present solution, the domain and path names of a cookie are set correctly on the browser when delivering content via a reverse proxy.

In some embodiments, the intermediary may consume many or most of the set-cookie headers or cookies served from the server. The intermediary may use configuration information to determine which cookies should or should not be present or made available to the client and the type and content of the cookie to be set on the client, if any. Based on the configuration and functionality of the intermediary, the present solution may use the content layer of an HTTP request/response to establish and maintain the cookies on the client. Furthermore, the intermediary may install scripts via the content layer to detect client-side cookie activity, such as establishing and changing of cookies by any client-side element. In addition to supporting the configuration of the intermediary, the present solution maintains cookies for these client-side elements that may be using cookies for communications or for storing or transmitting state to a server.

In one aspect, the present invention is related to a method for managing browser cookies by an intermediary between a client and server via content of a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) message. The method includes receiving by an intermediary a response of the server to a request of the client. The response may include a header and a message body. The header may include cookie information specifying a domain and a path attribute values of a cookie. The method also includes removing the cookie information from the header of the response and storing the cookie information in a storage element. The method further includes modifying, by the intermediary, the message body of the response to include script instructions for execution by a browser of the client to set a value of the domain and the path of the cookie based on the cookie information stored in the storage element and to include a script for execution by the browser to detect a change to the cookie by the browser. The intermediary forwards the modified response to the client.

In some embodiments, the method includes modifying, by the intermediary, the message body to identify a Uniform Resource Locator of the script that detects the change to the cookie. The Uniform Resource Locator may identify a location in storage of the intermediary. In another embodiment, the method includes inserting, by the intermediary, in the message body of the response instructions of the script to detect the change to the cookie. The intermediary may receive a message to update cookie information in the intermediary based on the script detecting the change to the cookie. In some embodiments of the method, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to include one or more scripts to detect an event of the browser to add, delete or modify the cookie. The intermediary may modify the message body of the response to include one or more scripts to remove the cookie upon detection of an unload event of the browser.

In response to the message, the intermediary may make the change to the cookie information stored in the storage element. In another embodiment, the method includes the step of receiving, by the intermediary, a request from the browser including a second cookie having encoded values representing changes to the cookie, and in response to receiving the second cookie, updating the cookie information in the storage element based on the second cookie. In some embodiments, the intermediary provides a virtual private network connection between the client and the server and rewrites a Uniform Resource Locator in the modified response to translate the Uniform Resource Locator between a first network of the client and a second network of the server. The intermediary may rewrite the domain and the path of the cookie information in the modified response to translate between the first network of the client and the second network of the server. In another embodiment, the intermediary receives from the browser a second request, modifies the header of the request to include cookie information stored in the storage element, and forwards the modified request to the server.

In another aspect, the present invention is related to a method for managing cookies by a script for a browser via content of an Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) message. The method includes a step of receiving, by a browser of a client, a response from a server to a request of the client. The response includes a message body and a header. The header may exclude cookie information specifying a domain and a path. The message body of the response may include script instructions to set a value of the domain and the path of a cookie. The message body may also include a script to detect a change to the cookie by the browser. Upon loading of the body message of the response, the browser may execute the script instructions to set the domain and the path of the cookie. The browser may also execute the script to detect the change to the cookie by the browser. The script may set one or more values of a second cookie to encode the change to the cookie. The browser may transmit the second cookie to the intermediary. In response to the detection, the script may transmit to an intermediary a message communicating the detected change of the cookie to store via the intermediary.

In some embodiments, the script manages the cookie in the context of the browser transparently to the browser. The script may establish or manage the cookie external to a transaction layer or a header layer of HTTP. In one embodiment, the browser receives the response from the server via the intermediary. The intermediary may remove cookie information from the header, and modify the message body of the response to include the script instructions and the script.

In one embodiment, the script executes in response to a browser event. The script may detect an add, delete or modification to the cookie. The script may remove the cookie from the browser in response to an unload event. The browser may obtain via the script instructions a copy of the script from the intermediary.

The details of various embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodiments of the present invention below, the following descriptions of the sections of the specification and their respective contents may be helpful:Section A describes a network environment and computing environment useful for practicing an embodiment of the present invention;Section B describes embodiments of a system and appliance architecture for accelerating delivery of a computing environment to a remote user;Section C describes embodiments of a client agent for accelerating communications between a client and a server; andSection D describes embodiments of systems and methods for managing cookies by an intermediary and client-side scripts via a content layer of HTTP transactions.
A. Network and Computing Environment

Prior to discussing the specifics of embodiments of the systems and methods of an appliance and/or client, it may be helpful to discuss the network and computing environments in which such embodiments may be deployed. Referring now toFIG. 1A, an embodiment of a network environment is depicted. In brief overview, the network environment comprises one or more clients102a-102n(also generally referred to as local machine(s)102, or client(s)102) in communication with one or more servers106a-106n(also generally referred to as server(s)106, or remote machine(s)106) via one or more networks104,104′ (generally referred to as network104). In some embodiments, a client102communicates with a server106via an appliance200.

AlthoughFIG. 1Ashows a network104and a network104′ between the clients102and the servers106, the clients102and the servers106may be on the same network104. The networks104and104′ can be the same type of network or different types of networks. The network104and/or the network104′ can be a local-area network (LAN), such as a company Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet or the World Wide Web. In one embodiment, network104′ may be a private network and network104may be a public network. In some embodiments, network104may be a private network and network104′ a public network. In another embodiment, networks104and104′ may both be private networks. In some embodiments, clients102may be located at a branch office of a corporate enterprise communicating via a WAN connection over the network104to the servers106located at a corporate data center.

The network104and/or104′ may be any type and/or form of network and may include any of the following: a point to point network, a broadcast network, a wide area network, a local area network, a telecommunications network, a data communication network, a computer network, an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network, a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network, a SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network, a wireless network and a wireline network. In some embodiments, the network104may comprise a wireless link, such as an infrared channel or satellite band. The topology of the network104and/or104′ may be a bus, star, or ring network topology. The network104and/or104′ and network topology may be of any such network or network topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in the art capable of supporting the operations described herein.

As shown inFIG. 1A, the appliance200, which also may be referred to as an interface unit200or gateway200, is shown between the networks104and104′. In some embodiments, the appliance200may be located on network104. For example, a branch office of a corporate enterprise may deploy an appliance200at the branch office. In other embodiments, the appliance200may be located on network104′. For example, an appliance200may be located at a corporate data center. In yet another embodiment, a plurality of appliances200may be deployed on network104. In some embodiments, a plurality of appliances200may be deployed on network104′. In one embodiment, a first appliance200communicates with a second appliance200′. In other embodiments, the appliance200could be a part of any client102or server106on the same or different network104,104′ as the client102. One or more appliances200may be located at any point in the network or network communications path between a client102and a server106.

In some embodiments, the appliance200comprises any of the network devices manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale Fla., referred to as Citrix NetScaler devices. In other embodiments, the appliance200includes any of the product embodiments referred to as WebAccelerator and BigIP manufactured by F5 Networks, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. In another embodiment, the appliance205includes any of the DX acceleration device platforms and/or the SSL VPN series of devices, such as SA 700, SA 2000, SA 4000, and SA 6000 devices manufactured by Juniper Networks, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. In yet another embodiment, the appliance200includes any application acceleration and/or security related appliances and/or software manufactured by Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., such as the Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module service software and network modules, and Cisco AVS Series Application Velocity System.

In one embodiment, the system may include multiple, logically-grouped servers106. In these embodiments, the logical group of servers may be referred to as a server farm38. In some of these embodiments, the servers106may be geographically dispersed. In some cases, a farm38may be administered as a single entity. In other embodiments, the server farm38comprises a plurality of server farms38. In one embodiment, the server farm executes one or more applications on behalf of one or more clients102.

The servers106within each farm38may be heterogeneous. One or more of the servers106can operate according to one type of operating system platform (e.g., WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.), while one or more of the other servers106can operate according to another type of operating system platform (e.g., Unix or Linux). The servers106of each farm38do not need to be physically proximate to another server106in the same farm38. Thus, the group of servers106logically grouped as a farm38may be interconnected using a wide-area network (WAN) connection or medium-area network (MAN) connection. For example, a farm38may include servers106physically located in different continents or different regions of a continent, country, state, city, campus, or room. Data transmission speeds between servers106in the farm38can be increased if the servers106are connected using a local-area network (LAN) connection or some form of direct connection.

Servers106may be referred to as a file server, application server, web server, proxy server, or gateway server. In some embodiments, a server106may have the capacity to function as either an application server or as a master application server. In one embodiment, a server106may include an Active Directory. The clients102may also be referred to as client nodes or endpoints. In some embodiments, a client102has the capacity to function as both a client node seeking access to applications on a server and as an application server providing access to hosted applications for other clients102a-102n.

In some embodiments, a client102communicates with a server106. In one embodiment, the client102communicates directly with one of the servers106in a farm38. In another embodiment, the client102executes a program neighborhood application to communicate with a server106in a farm38. In still another embodiment, the server106provides the functionality of a master node. In some embodiments, the client102communicates with the server106in the farm38through a network104. Over the network104, the client102can, for example, request execution of various applications hosted by the servers106a-106nin the farm38and receive output of the results of the application execution for display. In some embodiments, only the master node provides the functionality required to identify and provide address information associated with a server106′ hosting a requested application.

In one embodiment, the server106provides functionality of a web server. In another embodiment, the server106areceives requests from the client102, forwards the requests to a second server106band responds to the request by the client102with a response to the request from the server106b. In still another embodiment, the server106acquires an enumeration of applications available to the client102and address information associated with a server106hosting an application identified by the enumeration of applications. In yet another embodiment, the server106presents the response to the request to the client102using a web interface. In one embodiment, the client102communicates directly with the server106to access the identified application. In another embodiment, the client102receives application output data, such as display data, generated by an execution of the identified application on the server106.

Referring now toFIG. 1B, an embodiment of a network environment deploying multiple appliances200is depicted. A first appliance200may be deployed on a first network104and a second appliance200′ on a second network104′. For example, a corporate enterprise may deploy a first appliance200at a branch office and a second appliance200′ at a data center. In another embodiment, the first appliance200and second appliance200′ are deployed on the same network104or network104. For example, a first appliance200may be deployed for a first server farm38, and a second appliance200may be deployed for a second server farm38′. In another example, a first appliance200may be deployed at a first branch office while the second appliance200′ is deployed at a second branch office. In some embodiments, the first appliance200and second appliance200′ work in cooperation or in conjunction with each other to accelerate network traffic or the delivery of application and data between a client and a server.

Referring now toFIG. 1C, another embodiment of a network environment deploying the appliance200with one or more other types of appliances, such as between one or more WAN optimization appliances205,205′ is depicted. For example, a first WAN optimization appliance205is shown between networks104and104′ and s second WAN optimization appliance205′ may be deployed between the appliance200and one or more servers106. By way of example, a corporate enterprise may deploy a first WAN optimization appliance205at a branch office and a second WAN optimization appliance205′ at a data center. In some embodiments, the appliance205may be located on network104′. In other embodiments, the appliance205′ may be located on network104. In some embodiments, the appliance205′ may be located on network104′ or network104″. In one embodiment, the appliance205and205′ are on the same network. In another embodiment, the appliance205and205′ are on different networks. In another example, a first WAN optimization appliance205may be deployed for a first server farm38and a second WAN optimization appliance205′ for a second server farm38′.

In one embodiment, the appliance205is a device for accelerating, optimizing or otherwise improving the performance, operation, or quality of service of any type and form of network traffic, such as traffic to and/or from a WAN connection. In some embodiments, the appliance205is a performance enhancing proxy. In other embodiments, the appliance205is any type and/or form of WAN optimization or acceleration device, sometimes also referred to as a WAN optimization controller. In one embodiment, the appliance205is any of the product embodiments referred to as WANScaler manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. In other embodiments, the appliance205includes any of the product embodiments referred to as BIG-IP link controller and WANjet manufactured by F5 Networks, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. In another embodiment, the appliance205includes any of the WX and WXC WAN acceleration device platforms manufactured by Juniper Networks, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. In some embodiments, the appliance205includes any of the steelhead line of WAN optimization appliances manufactured by Riverbed Technology of San Francisco, Calif. In other embodiments, the appliance205includes any of the WAN related devices manufactured by Expand Networks Inc. of Roseland, N.J. In one embodiment, the appliance205includes any of the WAN related appliances manufactured by Packeteer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., such as the PacketShaper, iShared, and SkyX product embodiments provided by Packeteer. In yet another embodiment, the appliance205includes any WAN related appliances and/or software manufactured by Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., such as the Cisco Wide Area Network Application Services software and network modules, and Wide Area Network engine appliances.

In one embodiment, the appliance205provides application and data acceleration services for branch-office or remote offices. In one embodiment, the appliance205includes optimization of Wide Area File Services (WAFS). In another embodiment, the appliance205accelerates the delivery of files, such as via the Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol. In other embodiments, the appliance205provides caching in memory and/or storage to accelerate delivery of applications and data. In one embodiment, the appliance205provides compression of network traffic at any level of the network stack or at any protocol or network layer. In another embodiment, the appliance205provides transport layer protocol optimizations, flow control, performance enhancements or modifications and/or management to accelerate delivery of applications and data over a WAN connection. For example, in one embodiment, the appliance205provides Transport Control Protocol (TCP) optimizations. In other embodiments, the appliance205provides optimizations, flow control, performance enhancements or modifications and/or management for any session or application layer protocol.

In another embodiment, the appliance205encoded any type and/or form of data or information into custom or standard TCP and/or IP header fields or option fields of network packet to announce presence, functionality or capability to another appliance205′. In another embodiment, an appliance205′ may communicate with another appliance205′ using data encoded in both TCP and/or IP header fields or options. For example, the appliance may use TCP option(s) or IP header fields or options to communicate one or more parameters to be used by the appliances205,205′ in performing functionality, such as WAN acceleration, or for working in conjunction with each other.

In some embodiments, the appliance200preserves any of the information encoded in TCP and/or IP header and/or option fields communicated between appliances205and205′. For example, the appliance200may terminate a transport layer connection traversing the appliance200, such as a transport layer connection from between a client and a server traversing appliances205and205′. In one embodiment, the appliance200identifies and preserves any encoded information in a transport layer packet transmitted by a first appliance205via a first transport layer connection and communicates a transport layer packet with the encoded information to a second appliance205′ via a second transport layer connection.

Referring now toFIG. 1D, a network environment for delivering and/or operating a computing environment on a client102is depicted. In some embodiments, a server106includes an application delivery system190for delivering a computing environment or an application and/or data file to one or more clients102. In brief overview, a client10is in communication with a server106via network104,104′ and appliance200. For example, the client102may reside in a remote office of a company, e.g., a branch office, and the server106may reside at a corporate data center. The client102comprises a client agent120, and a computing environment15. The computing environment15may execute or operate an application that accesses, processes or uses a data file. The computing environment15, application and/or data file may be delivered via the appliance200and/or the server106.

In some embodiments, the appliance200accelerates delivery of a computing environment15, or any portion thereof, to a client102. In one embodiment, the appliance200accelerates the delivery of the computing environment15by the application delivery system190. For example, the embodiments described herein may be used to accelerate delivery of a streaming application and data file processable by the application from a central corporate data center to a remote user location, such as a branch office of the company. In another embodiment, the appliance200accelerates transport layer traffic between a client102and a server106. The appliance200may provide acceleration techniques for accelerating any transport layer payload from a server106to a client102, such as: 1) transport layer connection pooling, 2) transport layer connection multiplexing, 3) transport control protocol buffering, 4) compression and 5) caching. In some embodiments, the appliance200provides load balancing of servers106in responding to requests from clients102. In other embodiments, the appliance200acts as a proxy or access server to provide access to the one or more servers106. In another embodiment, the appliance200provides a secure virtual private network connection from a first network104of the client102to the second network104′ of the server106, such as an SSL VPN connection. In yet other embodiments, the appliance200provides application firewall security, control and management of the connection and communications between a client102and a server106.

In some embodiments, the application delivery management system190provides application delivery techniques to deliver a computing environment to a desktop of a user, remote or otherwise, based on a plurality of execution methods and based on any authentication and authorization policies applied via a policy engine195. With these techniques, a remote user may obtain a computing environment and access to server stored applications and data files from any network connected device100. In one embodiment, the application delivery system190may reside or execute on a server106. In another embodiment, the application delivery system190may reside or execute on a plurality of servers106a-106n. In some embodiments, the application delivery system190may execute in a server farm38. In one embodiment, the server106executing the application delivery system190may also store or provide the application and data file. In another embodiment, a first set of one or more servers106may execute the application delivery system190, and a different server106nmay store or provide the application and data file. In some embodiments, each of the application delivery system190, the application, and data file may reside or be located on different servers. In yet another embodiment, any portion of the application delivery system190may reside, execute or be stored on or distributed to the appliance200, or a plurality of appliances.

The client102may include a computing environment15for executing an application that uses or processes a data file. The client102via networks104,104′ and appliance200may request an application and data file from the server106. In one embodiment, the appliance200may forward a request from the client102to the server106. For example, the client102may not have the application and data file stored or accessible locally. In response to the request, the application delivery system190and/or server106may deliver the application and data file to the client102. For example, in one embodiment, the server106may transmit the application as an application stream to operate in computing environment15on client102.

In some embodiments, the application delivery system190comprises any portion of the Citrix Access Suite™ by Citrix Systems, Inc., such as the MetaFrame or Citrix Presentation Server™ and/or any of the Microsoft® Windows Terminal Services manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation. In one embodiment, the application delivery system190may deliver one or more applications to clients102or users via a remote-display protocol or otherwise via remote-based or server-based computing. In another embodiment, the application delivery system190may deliver one or more applications to clients or users via streaming of the application.

In one embodiment, the application delivery system190includes a policy engine195for controlling and managing the access to, selection of application execution methods and the delivery of applications. In some embodiments, the policy engine195determines the one or more applications a user or client102may access. In another embodiment, the policy engine195determines how the application should be delivered to the user or client102, e.g., the method of execution. In some embodiments, the application delivery system190provides a plurality of delivery techniques from which to select a method of application execution, such as a server-based computing, streaming or delivering the application locally to the client120for local execution.

In one embodiment, a client102requests execution of an application program and the application delivery system190comprising a server106selects a method of executing the application program. In some embodiments, the server106receives credentials from the client102. In another embodiment, the server106receives a request for an enumeration of available applications from the client102. In one embodiment, in response to the request or receipt of credentials, the application delivery system190enumerates a plurality of application programs available to the client102. The application delivery system190receives a request to execute an enumerated application. The application delivery system190selects one of a predetermined number of methods for executing the enumerated application, for example, responsive to a policy of a policy engine. The application delivery system190may select a method of execution of the application enabling the client102to receive application-output data generated by execution of the application program on a server106. The application delivery system190may select a method of execution of the application enabling the local machine10to execute the application program locally after retrieving a plurality of application files comprising the application. In yet another embodiment, the application delivery system190may select a method of execution of the application to stream the application via the network104to the client102.

A client102may execute, operate or otherwise provide an application, which can be any type and/or form of software, program, or executable instructions such as any type and/or form of web browser, web-based client, client-server application, a thin-client computing client, an ActiveX control, or a Java applet, or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capable of executing on client102. In some embodiments, the application may be a server-based or a remote-based application executed on behalf of the client102on a server106. In one embodiment, the server106may display output to the client102using any thin-client or remote-display protocol, such as the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. or the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The application can use any type of protocol and it can be, for example, an HTTP client, an FTP client, an Oscar client, or a Telnet client. In other embodiments, the application comprises any type of software related to VoIP communications, such as a soft IP telephone. In further embodiments, the application comprises any application related to real-time data communications, such as applications for streaming video and/or audio.

In some embodiments, the server106or a server farm38may be running one or more applications, such as an application providing a thin-client computing or remote display presentation application. In one embodiment, the server106or server farm38executes as an application, any portion of the Citrix Access Suite™ by Citrix Systems, Inc., such as the MetaFrame or Citrix Presentation Server™, and/or any of the Microsoft® Windows Terminal Services manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation. In one embodiment, the application is an ICA client, developed by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. In other embodiments, the application includes a Remote Desktop (RDP) client, developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Also, the server106may run an application, which, for example, may be an application server providing email services such as Microsoft Exchange manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., a web or Internet server, or a desktop sharing server, or a collaboration server. In some embodiments, any of the applications may comprise any type of hosted service or products, such as GoToMeeting™ provided by Citrix Online Division, Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif., WebEx™ provided by WebEx, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., or Microsoft Office Live Meeting provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.

Still referring toFIG. 1D, an embodiment of the network environment may include a monitoring server106A. The monitoring server106A may include any type and/or form performance monitoring service198. The performance monitoring service198may include monitoring, measurement and/or management software and/or hardware, including data collection, aggregation, analysis, management and reporting. In one embodiment, the performance monitoring service198includes one or more monitoring agents197. The monitoring agent197includes any software, hardware or combination thereof for performing monitoring, measurement and data collection activities on a device, such as a client102, server106or an appliance200,205. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent197includes any type and form of script, such as Visual Basic script, or Javascript. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent197executes transparently to any application and/or user of the device. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent197is installed and operated unobtrusively to the application or client. In yet another embodiment, the monitoring agent197is installed and operated without any instrumentation for the application or device.

In some embodiments, the monitoring agent197monitors, measures and collects data on a predetermined frequency. In other embodiments, the monitoring agent197monitors, measures and collects data based upon detection of any type and form of event. For example, the monitoring agent197may collect data upon detection of a request for a web page or receipt of an HTTP response. In another example, the monitoring agent197may collect data upon detection of any user input events, such as a mouse click. The monitoring agent197may report or provide any monitored, measured or collected data to the monitoring service198. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent197transmits information to the monitoring service198according to a schedule or a predetermined frequency. In another embodiment, the monitoring agent197transmits information to the monitoring service198upon detection of an event.

In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197performs monitoring and performance measurement of any network resource or network infrastructure element, such as a client, server, server farm, appliance200, appliance205, or network connection. In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197performs monitoring and performance measurement of any transport layer connection, such as a TCP or UDP connection. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures network latency. In yet one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures bandwidth utilization.

In other embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures end-user response times. In some embodiments, the monitoring service198performs monitoring and performance measurement of an application. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197performs monitoring and performance measurement of any session or connection to the application. In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of a browser. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of HTTP based transactions. In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of a Voice over IP (VoIP) application or session. In other embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of a remote display protocol application, such as an ICA client or RDP client. In yet another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of any type and form of streaming media. In still a further embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of a hosted application or a Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) delivery model.

In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197performs monitoring and performance measurement of one or more transactions, requests or responses related to application. In other embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures any portion of an application layer stack, such as any .NET or J2EE calls. In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures database or SQL transactions. In yet another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures any method, function or application programming interface (API) call.

In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197performs monitoring and performance measurement of a delivery of application and/or data from a server to a client via one or more appliances, such as appliance200and/or appliance205. In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of delivery of a virtualized application. In other embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of delivery of a streaming application. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of delivery of a desktop application to a client and/or the execution of the desktop application on the client. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of a client/server application.

In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197is designed and constructed to provide application performance management for the application delivery system190. For example, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197may monitor, measure and manage the performance of the delivery of applications via the Citrix Presentation Server. In this example, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors individual ICA sessions. The monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197may measure the total and per session system resource usage, as well as application and networking performance. The monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197may identify the active servers for a given user and/or user session. In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197monitors back-end connections between the application delivery system190and an application and/or database server. The monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197may measure network latency, delay and volume per user-session or ICA session.

In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors memory usage for the application delivery system190, such as total memory usage, per user session and/or per process. In other embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors CPU usage the application delivery system190, such as total CPU usage, per user session and/or per process. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors the time required to log-in to an application, a server, or the application delivery system, such as Citrix Presentation Server. In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors the duration a user is logged into an application, a server, or the application delivery system190. In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors active and inactive session counts for an application, server or application delivery system session. In yet another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors user session latency.

In yet further embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors any type and form of server metrics. In one embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors metrics related to system memory, CPU usage, and disk storage. In another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors metrics related to page faults, such as page faults per second. In other embodiments, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors round-trip time metrics. In yet another embodiment, the monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent197measures and monitors metrics related to application crashes, errors and/or hangs.

In some embodiments, the monitoring service198and monitoring agent198includes any of the product embodiments referred to as EdgeSight manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. In another embodiment, the performance monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent198includes any portion of the product embodiments referred to as the TrueView product suite manufactured by the Symphoniq Corporation of Palo Alto, Calif. In one embodiment, the performance monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent198includes any portion of the product embodiments referred to as the TeaLeaf CX product suite manufactured by the TeaLeaf Technology Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. In other embodiments, the performance monitoring service198and/or monitoring agent198includes any portion of the business service management products, such as the BMC Performance Manager and Patrol products, manufactured by BMC Software, Inc. of Houston, Tex.

The client102, server106, and appliance200may be deployed as and/or executed on any type and form of computing device, such as a computer, network device or appliance capable of communicating on any type and form of network and performing the operations described herein.FIGS. 1E and 1Fdepict block diagrams of a computing device100useful for practicing an embodiment of the client102, server106or appliance200. As shown inFIGS. 1E and 1F, each computing device100includes a central processing unit101, and a main memory unit122. As shown inFIG. 1E, a computing device100may include a visual display device124, a keyboard126and/or a pointing device127, such as a mouse. Each computing device100may also include additional optional elements, such as one or more input/output devices130a-130b(generally referred to using reference numeral130), and a cache memory140in communication with the central processing unit101.

The central processing unit101is any logic circuitry that responds to and processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit122. In many embodiments, the central processing unit is provided by a microprocessor unit, such as: those manufactured by Intel Corporation of Mountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation of Schaumburg, Ill.; those manufactured by Transmeta Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.; the RS/6000 processor, those manufactured by International Business Machines of White Plains, N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif. The computing device100may be based on any of these processors, or any other processor capable of operating as described herein.

Main memory unit122may be one or more memory chips capable of storing data and allowing any storage location to be directly accessed by the microprocessor101, such as Static random access memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM), Dynamic random access memory (DRAM), Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM (EDO RAM), Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM), Burst Extended Data Output DRAM (BEDO DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), JEDEC SRAM, PC100 SDRAM, Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), SyncLink DRAM (SLDRAM), Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), or Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM). The main memory122may be based on any of the above described memory chips, or any other available memory chips capable of operating as described herein. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 1E, the processor101communicates with main memory122via a system bus150(described in more detail below).FIG. 1Edepicts an embodiment of a computing device100in which the processor communicates directly with main memory122via a memory port103. For example, inFIG. 1Fthe main memory122may be DRDRAM.

FIG. 1Fdepicts an embodiment in which the main processor101communicates directly with cache memory140via a secondary bus, sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In other embodiments, the main processor101communicates with cache memory140using the system bus150. Cache memory140typically has a faster response time than main memory122and is typically provided by SRAM, BSRAM, or EDRAM. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 1E, the processor101communicates with various I/O devices130via a local system bus150. Various busses may be used to connect the central processing unit101to any of the I/O devices130, including a VESA VL bus, an ISA bus, an EISA bus, a MicroChannel Architecture (MCA) bus, a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, a PCI-Express bus, or a NuBus. For embodiments in which the I/O device is a video display124, the processor101may use an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) to communicate with the display124.FIG. 1Fdepicts an embodiment of a computer100in which the main processor101communicates directly with I/O device130via HyperTransport, Rapid I/O, or InfiniBand.FIG. 1Falso depicts an embodiment in which local busses and direct communication are mixed: the processor101communicates with I/O device130using a local interconnect bus while communicating with I/O device130directly.

The computing device100may support any suitable installation device116, such as a floppy disk drive for receiving floppy disks such as 3.5-inch, 5.25-inch disks or ZIP disks, a CD-ROM drive, a CD-R/RW drive, a DVD-ROM drive, tape drives of various formats, USB device, hard-drive or any other device suitable for installing software and programs such as any client agent120, or portion thereof. The computing device100may further comprise a storage device128, such as one or more hard disk drives or redundant arrays of independent disks, for storing an operating system and other related software, and for storing application software programs such as any program related to the client agent120. Optionally, any of the installation devices116could also be used as the storage device128. Additionally, the operating system and the software can be run from a bootable medium, for example, a bootable CD, such as KNOPPIX®, a bootable CD for GNU/Linux that is available as a GNU/Linux distribution from knoppix.net.

Furthermore, the computing device100may include a network interface118to interface to a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) or the Internet through a variety of connections including, but not limited to, standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN links (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, 56 kb, X.25), broadband connections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM), wireless connections, or some combination of any or all of the above. The network interface118may comprise a built-in network adapter, network interface card, PCMCIA network card, card bus network adapter, wireless network adapter, USB network adapter, modem or any other device suitable for interfacing the computing device100to any type of network capable of communication and performing the operations described herein.

A wide variety of I/O devices130a-130nmay be present in the computing device100. Input devices include keyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs, microphones, and drawing tablets. Output devices include video displays, speakers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and dye-sublimation printers. The I/O devices130may be controlled by an I/O controller123as shown inFIG. 1E. The I/O controller may control one or more I/O devices such as a keyboard126and a pointing device127, e.g., a mouse or optical pen. Furthermore, an I/O device may also provide storage128and/or an installation medium116for the computing device100. In still other embodiments, the computing device100may provide USB connections to receive handheld USB storage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line of devices manufactured by Twintech Industry, Inc. of Los Alamitos, Calif.

In some embodiments, the computing device100may comprise or be connected to multiple display devices124a-124n, which each may be of the same or different type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices130a-130nand/or the I/O controller123may comprise any type and/or form of suitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software to support, enable or provide for the connection and use of multiple display devices124a-124nby the computing device100. For example, the computing device100may include any type and/or form of video adapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface, communicate, connect or otherwise use the display devices124a-124n. In one embodiment, a video adapter may comprise multiple connectors to interface to multiple display devices124a-124n. In other embodiments, the computing device100may include multiple video adapters, with each video adapter connected to one or more of the display devices124a-124n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of the computing device100may be configured for using multiple displays124a-124n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices124a-124nmay be provided by one or more other computing devices, such as computing devices100aand100bconnected to the computing device100, for example, via a network. These embodiments may include any type of software designed and constructed to use another computer's display device as a second display device124afor the computing device100. One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate the various ways and embodiments that a computing device100may be configured to have multiple display devices124a-124n.

In other embodiments, the computing device100may have different processors, operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device. For example, in one embodiment the computer100is a Treo 180, 270, 1060, 600 or 650 smart phone manufactured by Palm, Inc. In this embodiment, the Treo smart phone is operated under the control of the PalmOS operating system and includes a stylus input device as well as a five-way navigator device. Moreover, the computing device100can be any workstation, desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer, server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, any other computer, or other form of computing or telecommunications device that is capable of communication and that has sufficient processor power and memory capacity to perform the operations described herein.

B. Appliance Architecture

FIG. 2Aillustrates an example embodiment of the appliance200. The architecture of the appliance200inFIG. 2Ais provided by way of illustration only and is not intended to be limiting. As shown inFIG. 2, appliance200comprises a hardware layer206and a software layer divided into a user space202and a kernel space204.

Hardware layer206provides the hardware elements upon which programs and services within kernel space204and user space202are executed. Hardware layer206also provides the structures and elements which allow programs and services within kernel space204and user space202to communicate data both internally and externally with respect to appliance200. As shown inFIG. 2, the hardware layer206includes a processing unit262for executing software programs and services, a memory264for storing software and data, network ports266for transmitting and receiving data over a network, and an encryption processor260for performing functions related to Secure Sockets Layer processing of data transmitted and received over the network. In some embodiments, the central processing unit262may perform the functions of the encryption processor260in a single processor. Additionally, the hardware layer206may comprise multiple processors for each of the processing unit262and the encryption processor260. The processor262may include any of the processors101described above in connection withFIGS. 1E and 1F. In some embodiments, the central processing unit262may perform the functions of the encryption processor260in a single processor. Additionally, the hardware layer206may comprise multiple processors for each of the processing unit262and the encryption processor260. For example, in one embodiment, the appliance200comprises a first processor262and a second processor262′. In other embodiments, the processor262or262′ comprises a multi-core processor.

Although the hardware layer206of appliance200is generally illustrated with an encryption processor260, processor260may be a processor for performing functions related to any encryption protocol, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. In some embodiments, the processor260may be a general purpose processor (GPP), and in further embodiments, may be have executable instructions for performing processing of any security related protocol.

Although the hardware layer206of appliance200is illustrated with certain elements inFIG. 2, the hardware portions or components of appliance200may comprise any type and form of elements, hardware or software, of a computing device, such as the computing device100illustrated and discussed herein in conjunction withFIGS. 1E and 1F. In some embodiments, the appliance200may comprise a server, gateway, router, switch, bridge or other type of computing or network device, and have any hardware and/or software elements associated therewith.

The operating system of appliance200allocates, manages, or otherwise segregates the available system memory into kernel space204and user space204. In example software architecture200, the operating system may be any type and/or form of UNIX operating system although the invention is not so limited. As such, the appliance200can be running any operating system such as any of the versions of the Microsoft® Windows operating systems, the different releases of the Unix and Linux operating systems, any version of the Mac OS® for Macintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any network operating system, any real-time operating system, any open source operating system, any proprietary operating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices or network devices, or any other operating system capable of running on the appliance200and performing the operations described herein.

The kernel space204is reserved for running the kernel230, including any device drivers, kernel extensions or other kernel related software. As known to those skilled in the art, the kernel230is the core of the operating system, and provides access, control, and management of resources and hardware-related elements of the application104. In accordance with an embodiment of the appliance200, the kernel space204also includes a number of network services or processes working in conjunction with a cache manager232, sometimes also referred to as the integrated cache, the benefits of which are described in detail further herein. Additionally, the embodiment of the kernel230will depend on the embodiment of the operating system installed, configured, or otherwise used by the device200.

In one embodiment, the device200comprises one network stack267, such as a TCP/IP based stack, for communicating with the client102and/or the server106. In one embodiment, the network stack267is used to communicate with a first network, such as network108, and a second network110. In some embodiments, the device200terminates a first transport layer connection, such as a TCP connection of a client102, and establishes a second transport layer connection to a server106for use by the client102, e.g., the second transport layer connection is terminated at the appliance200and the server106. The first and second transport layer connections may be established via a single network stack267. In other embodiments, the device200may comprise multiple network stacks, for example267and267′, and the first transport layer connection may be established or terminated at one network stack267, and the second transport layer connection on the second network stack267′. For example, one network stack may be for receiving and transmitting network packet on a first network, and another network stack for receiving and transmitting network packets on a second network. In one embodiment, the network stack267comprises a buffer243for queuing one or more network packets for transmission by the appliance200.

As shown inFIG. 2, the kernel space204includes the cache manager232, a high-speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240, an encryption engine234, a policy engine236and multi-protocol compression logic238. Running these components or processes232,240,234,236and238in kernel space204or kernel mode instead of the user space202improves the performance of each of these components, alone and in combination. Kernel operation means that these components or processes232,240,234,236and238run in the core address space of the operating system of the device200. For example, running the encryption engine234in kernel mode improves encryption performance by moving encryption and decryption operations to the kernel, thereby reducing the number of transitions between the memory space or a kernel thread in kernel mode and the memory space or a thread in user mode. For example, data obtained in kernel mode may not need to be passed or copied to a process or thread running in user mode, such as from a kernel level data structure to a user level data structure. In another aspect, the number of context switches between kernel mode and user mode are also reduced. Additionally, synchronization of and communications between any of the components or processes232,240,235,236and238can be performed more efficiently in the kernel space204.

In some embodiments, any portion of the components232,240,234,236and238may run or operate in the kernel space204, while other portions of these components232,240,234,236and238may run or operate in user space202. In one embodiment, the appliance200uses a kernel-level data structure providing access to any portion of one or more network packets, for example, a network packet comprising a request from a client102or a response from a server106. In some embodiments, the kernel-level data structure may be obtained by the packet engine240via a transport layer driver interface or filter to the network stack267. The kernel-level data structure may comprise any interface and/or data accessible via the kernel space204related to the network stack267, network traffic or packets received or transmitted by the network stack267. In other embodiments, the kernel-level data structure may be used by any of the components or processes232,240,234,236and238to perform the desired operation of the component or process. In one embodiment, a component232,240,234,236and238is running in kernel mode204when using the kernel-level data structure, while in another embodiment, the component232,240,234,236and238is running in user mode when using the kernel-level data structure. In some embodiments, the kernel-level data structure may be copied or passed to a second kernel-level data structure, or any desired user-level data structure.

The cache manager232may comprise software, hardware or any combination of software and hardware to provide cache access, control and management of any type and form of content, such as objects or dynamically generated objects served by the originating servers106. The data, objects or content processed and stored by the cache manager232may comprise data in any format, such as a markup language, or communicated via any protocol. In some embodiments, the cache manager232duplicates original data stored elsewhere or data previously computed, generated or transmitted, in which the original data may require longer access time to fetch, compute or otherwise obtain relative to reading a cache memory element. Once the data is stored in the cache memory element, future use can be made by accessing the cached copy rather than refetching or recomputing the original data, thereby reducing the access time. In some embodiments, the cache memory element comprises a data object in memory264of device200. In other embodiments, the cache memory element may comprise memory having a faster access time than memory264. In another embodiment, the cache memory element may comprise any type and form of storage element of the device200, such as a portion of a hard disk. In some embodiments, the processing unit262may provide cache memory for use by the cache manager232. In yet further embodiments, the cache manager232may use any portion and combination of memory, storage, or the processing unit for caching data, objects, and other content.

Furthermore, the cache manager232includes any logic, functions, rules, or operations to perform any embodiments of the techniques of the appliance200described herein. For example, the cache manager232includes logic or functionality to invalidate objects based on the expiration of an invalidation time period or upon receipt of an invalidation command from a client102or server106. In some embodiments, the cache manager232may operate as a program, service, process or task executing in the kernel space204, and in other embodiments, in the user space202. In one embodiment, a first portion of the cache manager232executes in the user space202while a second portion executes in the kernel space204. In some embodiments, the cache manager232can comprise any type of general purpose processor (GPP), or any other type of integrated circuit, such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

The policy engine236may include, for example, an intelligent statistical engine or other programmable application(s). In one embodiment, the policy engine236provides a configuration mechanism to allow a user to identifying, specify, define or configure a caching policy. Policy engine236, in some embodiments, also has access to memory to support data structures such as lookup tables or hash tables to enable user-selected caching policy decisions. In other embodiments, the policy engine236may comprise any logic, rules, functions or operations to determine and provide access, control and management of objects, data or content being cached by the appliance200in addition to access, control and management of security, network traffic, network access, compression or any other function or operation performed by the appliance200. Further examples of specific caching policies are further described herein.

The encryption engine234comprises any logic, business rules, functions or operations for handling the processing of any security related protocol, such as SSL or TLS, or any function related thereto. For example, the encryption engine234encrypts and decrypts network packets, or any portion thereof, communicated via the appliance200. The encryption engine234may also setup or establish SSL or TLS connections on behalf of the client102a-102n, server106a-106n, or appliance200. As such, the encryption engine234provides offloading and acceleration of SSL processing. In one embodiment, the encryption engine234uses a tunneling protocol to provide a virtual private network between a client102a-102nand a server106a-106n. In some embodiments, the encryption engine234is in communication with the Encryption processor260. In other embodiments, the encryption engine234comprises executable instructions running on the Encryption processor260. The multi-protocol compression engine238comprises any logic, business rules, function or operations for compressing one or more protocols of a network packet, such as any of the protocols used by the network stack267of the device200. In one embodiment, multi-protocol compression engine238compresses bi-directionally between clients102a-102nand servers106a-106nany TCP/IP based protocol, including Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) (email), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol (file transfer), Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Mobile IP protocol, and Voice Over IP (VoIP) protocol. In other embodiments, multi-protocol compression engine238provides compression of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) based protocols and in some embodiments, provides compression of any markup languages, such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML). In one embodiment, the multi-protocol compression engine238provides compression of any high-performance protocol, such as any protocol designed for appliance200to appliance200communications. In another embodiment, the multi-protocol compression engine238compresses any payload of or any communication using a modified transport control protocol, such as Transaction TCP (T/TCP), TCP with selection acknowledgements (TCP-SACK), TCP with large windows (TCP-LW), a congestion prediction protocol such as the TCP-Vegas protocol, and a TCP spoofing protocol.

As such, the multi-protocol compression engine238accelerates performance for users accessing applications via desktop clients, e.g., Microsoft Outlook and non-Web thin clients, such as any client launched by popular enterprise applications like Oracle, SAP and Siebel, and even mobile clients, such as the Pocket PC. In some embodiments, the multi-protocol compression engine238by executing in the kernel mode204and integrating with packet processing engine240accessing the network stack267is able to compress any of the protocols carried by the TCP/IP protocol, such as any application layer protocol.

High speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240, also generally referred to as a packet processing engine or packet engine, is responsible for managing the kernel-level processing of packets received and transmitted by appliance200via network ports266. The high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240may comprise a buffer for queuing one or more network packets during processing, such as for receipt of a network packet or transmission of a network packer. Additionally, the high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240is in communication with one or more network stacks267to send and receive network packets via network ports266. The high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240works in conjunction with encryption engine234, cache manager232, policy engine236and multi-protocol compression logic238. In particular, encryption engine234is configured to perform SSL processing of packets, policy engine236is configured to perform functions related to traffic management such as request-level content switching and request-level cache redirection, and multi-protocol compression logic238is configured to perform functions related to compression and decompression of data.

The high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240includes a packet processing timer242. In one embodiment, the packet processing timer242provides one or more time intervals to trigger the processing of incoming, i.e., received, or outgoing, i.e., transmitted, network packets. In some embodiments, the high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240processes network packets responsive to the timer242. The packet processing timer242provides any type and form of signal to the packet engine240to notify, trigger, or communicate a time related event, interval or occurrence. In many embodiments, the packet processing timer242operates in the order of milliseconds, such as for example 100 ms, 50 ms or 25 ms. For example, in some embodiments, the packet processing timer242provides time intervals or otherwise causes a network packet to be processed by the high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240at a 10 ms time interval, while in other embodiments, at a 5 ms time interval, and still yet in further embodiments, as short as a 3, 2, or 1 ms time interval. The high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240may be interfaced, integrated or in communication with the encryption engine234, cache manager232, policy engine236and multi-protocol compression engine238during operation. As such, any of the logic, functions, or operations of the encryption engine234, cache manager232, policy engine236and multi-protocol compression logic238may be performed responsive to the packet processing timer242and/or the packet engine240. Therefore, any of the logic, functions, or operations of the encryption engine234, cache manager232, policy engine236and multi-protocol compression logic238may be performed at the granularity of time intervals provided via the packet processing timer242, for example, at a time interval of less than or equal to 10 ms. For example, in one embodiment, the cache manager232may perform invalidation of any cached objects responsive to the high speed layer 2-7 integrated packet engine240and/or the packet processing timer242. In another embodiment, the expiry or invalidation time of a cached object can be set to the same order of granularity as the time interval of the packet processing timer242, such as at every 10 ms.

In contrast to kernel space204, user space202is the memory area or portion of the operating system used by user mode applications or programs otherwise running in user mode. A user mode application may not access kernel space204directly and uses service calls in order to access kernel services. As shown inFIG. 2, user space202of appliance200includes a graphical user interface (GUI)210, a command line interface (CLI)212, shell services214, health monitoring program216, and daemon services218. GUI210and CLI212provide a means by which a system administrator or other user can interact with and control the operation of appliance200, such as via the operating system of the appliance200and either is user space202or kernel space204. The GUI210may be any type and form of graphical user interface and may be presented via text, graphical or otherwise, by any type of program or application, such as a browser. The CLI212may be any type and form of command line or text-based interface, such as a command line provided by the operating system. For example, the CLI212may comprise a shell, which is a tool to enable users to interact with the operating system. In some embodiments, the CLI212may be provided via a bash, csh, tcsh, or ksh type shell. The shell services214comprises the programs, services, tasks, processes or executable instructions to support interaction with the appliance200or operating system by a user via the GUI210and/or CLI212.

Health monitoring program216is used to monitor, check, report and ensure that network systems are functioning properly and that users are receiving requested content over a network. Health monitoring program216comprises one or more programs, services, tasks, processes or executable instructions to provide logic, rules, functions or operations for monitoring any activity of the appliance200. In some embodiments, the health monitoring program216intercepts and inspects any network traffic passed via the appliance200. In other embodiments, the health monitoring program216interfaces by any suitable means and/or mechanisms with one or more of the following: the encryption engine234, cache manager232, policy engine236, multi-protocol compression logic238, packet engine240, daemon services218, and shell services214. As such, the health monitoring program216may call any application programming interface (API) to determine a state, status, or health of any portion of the appliance200. For example, the health monitoring program216may ping or send a status inquiry on a periodic basis to check if a program, process, service or task is active and currently running. In another example, the health monitoring program216may check any status, error or history logs provided by any program, process, service or task to determine any condition, status or error with any portion of the appliance200.

Daemon services218are programs that run continuously or in the background and handle periodic service requests received by appliance200. In some embodiments, a daemon service may forward the requests to other programs or processes, such as another daemon service218as appropriate. As known to those skilled in the art, a daemon service218may run unattended to perform continuous or periodic system wide functions, such as network control, or to perform any desired task. In some embodiments, one or more daemon services218run in the user space202, while in other embodiments, one or more daemon services218run in the kernel space.

Referring now toFIG. 2B, another embodiment of the appliance200is depicted. In brief overview, the appliance200provides one or more of the following services, functionality or operations: SSL VPN connectivity280, switching/load balancing284, Domain Name Service resolution286, acceleration288and an application firewall290for communications between one or more clients102and one or more servers106. Each of the servers106may provide one or more network related services270a-270n(referred to as services270). For example, a server106may provide an http service270. The appliance200comprises one or more virtual servers or virtual internet protocol servers, referred to as a vServer, VIP server, or just VIP275a-275n(also referred herein as vServer275). The vServer275receives, intercepts or otherwise processes communications between a client102and a server106in accordance with the configuration and operations of the appliance200.

The vServer275may comprise software, hardware or any combination of software and hardware. The vServer275may comprise any type and form of program, service, task, process or executable instructions operating in user mode202, kernel mode204or any combination thereof in the appliance200. The vServer275includes any logic, functions, rules, or operations to perform any embodiments of the techniques described herein, such as SSL VPN280, switching/load balancing284, Domain Name Service resolution286, acceleration288and an application firewall290. In some embodiments, the vServer275establishes a connection to a service270of a server106. The service275may comprise any program, application, process, task or set of executable instructions capable of connecting to and communicating to the appliance200, client102or vServer275. For example, the service275may comprise a web server, http server, ftp, email or database server. In some embodiments, the service270is a daemon process or network driver for listening, receiving and/or sending communications for an application, such as email, database or an enterprise application. In some embodiments, the service270may communicate on a specific IP address, or IP address and port.

In some embodiments, the vServer275applies one or more policies of the policy engine236to network communications between the client102and server106. In one embodiment, the policies are associated with a VServer275. In another embodiment, the policies are based on a user, or a group of users. In yet another embodiment, a policy is global and applies to one or more vServers275a-275n, and any user or group of users communicating via the appliance200. In some embodiments, the policies of the policy engine have conditions upon which the policy is applied based on any content of the communication, such as internet protocol address, port, protocol type, header or fields in a packet, or the context of the communication, such as user, group of the user, vServer275, transport layer connection, and/or identification or attributes of the client102or server106.

In other embodiments, the appliance200communicates or interfaces with the policy engine236to determine authentication and/or authorization of a remote user or a remote client102to access the computing environment15, application, and/or data file from a server106. In another embodiment, the appliance200communicates or interfaces with the policy engine236to determine authentication and/or authorization of a remote user or a remote client102to have the application delivery system190deliver one or more of the computing environment15, application, and/or data file. In yet another embodiment, the appliance200establishes a VPN or SSL VPN connection based on the policy engine's236authentication and/or authorization of a remote user or a remote client103In one embodiment, the appliance102controls the flow of network traffic and communication sessions based on policies of the policy engine236. For example, the appliance200may control the access to a computing environment15, application or data file based on the policy engine236.

In some embodiments, the vServer275establishes a transport layer connection, such as a TCP or UDP connection with a client102via the client agent120. In one embodiment, the vServer275listens for and receives communications from the client102. In other embodiments, the vServer275establishes a transport layer connection, such as a TCP or UDP connection with a client server106. In one embodiment, the vServer275establishes the transport layer connection to an internet protocol address and port of a server270running on the server106. In another embodiment, the vServer275associates a first transport layer connection to a client102with a second transport layer connection to the server106. In some embodiments, a vServer275establishes a pool of transport layer connections to a server106and multiplexes client requests via the pooled transport layer connections.

In some embodiments, the appliance200provides a SSL VPN connection280between a client102and a server106. For example, a client102on a first network102requests to establish a connection to a server106on a second network104′. In some embodiments, the second network104′ is not routable from the first network104. In other embodiments, the client102is on a public network104and the server106is on a private network104′, such as a corporate network. In one embodiment, the client agent120intercepts communications of the client102on the first network104, encrypts the communications, and transmits the communications via a first transport layer connection to the appliance200. The appliance200associates the first transport layer connection on the first network104to a second transport layer connection to the server106on the second network104. The appliance200receives the intercepted communication from the client agent102, decrypts the communications, and transmits the communication to the server106on the second network104via the second transport layer connection. The second transport layer connection may be a pooled transport layer connection. As such, the appliance200provides an end-to-end secure transport layer connection for the client102between the two networks104,104′.

In one embodiment, the appliance200hosts an intranet internet protocol or intranetIP282address of the client102on the virtual private network104. The client102has a local network identifier, such as an internet protocol (IP) address and/or host name on the first network104. When connected to the second network104′ via the appliance200, the appliance200establishes, assigns or otherwise provides an IntranetIP, which is network identifier, such as IP address and/or host name, for the client102on the second network104′. The appliance200listens for and receives on the second or private network104′ for any communications directed towards the client102using the client's established IntranetIP282. In one embodiment, the appliance200acts as or on behalf of the client102on the second private network104. For example, in another embodiment, a vServer275listens for and responds to communications to the IntranetIP282of the client102. In some embodiments, if a computing device100on the second network104′ transmits a request, the appliance200processes the request as if it were the client102. For example, the appliance200may respond to a ping to the client's IntranetIP282. In another example, the appliance may establish a connection, such as a TCP or UDP connection, with computing device100on the second network104requesting a connection with the client's IntranetIP282.

In some embodiments, the appliance200provides one or more of the following acceleration techniques288to communications between the client102and server106: 1) compression; 2) decompression; 3) Transmission Control Protocol pooling; 4) Transmission Control Protocol multiplexing; 5) Transmission Control Protocol buffering; and 6) caching. In one embodiment, the appliance200relieves servers106of much of the processing load caused by repeatedly opening and closing transport layers connections to clients102by opening one or more transport layer connections with each server106and maintaining these connections to allow repeated data accesses by clients via the Internet. This technique is referred to herein as “connection pooling”.

In some embodiments, in order to seamlessly splice communications from a client102to a server106via a pooled transport layer connection, the appliance200translates or multiplexes communications by modifying sequence number and acknowledgment numbers at the transport layer protocol level. This is referred to as “connection multiplexing”. In some embodiments, no application layer protocol interaction is required. For example, in the case of an in-bound packet (that is, a packet received from a client102), the source network address of the packet is changed to that of an output port of appliance200, and the destination network address is changed to that of the intended server. In the case of an outbound packet (that is, one received from a server106), the source network address is changed from that of the server106to that of an output port of appliance200and the destination address is changed from that of appliance200to that of the requesting client102. The sequence numbers and acknowledgment numbers of the packet are also translated to sequence numbers and acknowledgement expected by the client102on the appliance's200transport layer connection to the client102. In some embodiments, the packet checksum of the transport layer protocol is recalculated to account for these translations.

In another embodiment, the appliance200provides switching or load-balancing functionality284for communications between the client102and server106. In some embodiments, the appliance200distributes traffic and directs client requests to a server106based on layer 4 or application-layer request data. In one embodiment, although the network layer or layer 2 of the network packet identifies a destination server106, the appliance200determines the server106to distribute the network packet by application information and data carried as payload of the transport layer packet. In one embodiment, the health monitoring programs216of the appliance200monitor the health of servers to determine the server106for which to distribute a client's request. In some embodiments, if the appliance200detects a server106is not available or has a load over a predetermined threshold, the appliance200can direct or distribute client requests to another server106.

In some embodiments, the appliance200acts as a Domain Name Service (DNS) resolver or otherwise provides resolution of a DNS request from clients102. In some embodiments, the appliance intercepts' a DNS request transmitted by the client102. In one embodiment, the appliance200responds to a client's DNS request with an IP address of or hosted by the appliance200. In this embodiment, the client102transmits network communication for the domain name to the appliance200. In another embodiment, the appliance200responds to a client's DNS request with an IP address of or hosted by a second appliance200′. In some embodiments, the appliance200responds to a client's DNS request with an IP address of a server106determined by the appliance200.

In yet another embodiment, the appliance200provides application firewall functionality290for communications between the client102and server106. In one embodiment, the policy engine236provides rules for detecting and blocking illegitimate requests. In some embodiments, the application firewall290protects against denial of service (DoS) attacks. In other embodiments, the appliance inspects the content of intercepted requests to identify and block application-based attacks. In some embodiments, the rules/policy engine236comprises one or more application firewall or security control policies for providing protections against various classes and types of web or Internet based vulnerabilities, such as one or more of the following: 1) buffer overflow, 2) CGI-BIN parameter manipulation, 3) form/hidden field manipulation, 4) forceful browsing, 5) cookie or session poisoning, 6) broken access control list (ACLs) or weak passwords, 7) cross-site scripting (XSS), 8) command injection, 9) SQL injection, 10) error triggering sensitive information leak, 11) insecure use of cryptography, 12) server misconfiguration, 13) back doors and debug options, 14) website defacement, 15) platform or operating systems vulnerabilities, and 16) zero-day exploits. In an embodiment, the application firewall290provides HTML form field protection in the form of inspecting or analyzing the network communication for one or more of the following: 1) required fields are returned, 2) no added field allowed, 3) read-only and hidden field enforcement, 4) drop-down list and radio button field conformance, and 5) form-field max-length enforcement. In some embodiments, the application firewall290ensures cookies are not modified. In other embodiments, the application firewall290protects against forceful browsing by enforcing legal URLs.

In still yet other embodiments, the application firewall290protects any confidential information contained in the network communication. The application firewall290may inspect or analyze any network communication in accordance with the rules or polices of the engine236to identify any confidential information in any field of the network packet. In some embodiments, the application firewall290identifies in the network communication one or more occurrences of a credit card number, password, social security number, name, patient code, contact information, and age. The encoded portion of the network communication may comprise these occurrences or the confidential information. Based on these occurrences, in one embodiment, the application firewall290may take a policy action on the network communication, such as prevent transmission of the network communication. In another embodiment, the application firewall290may rewrite, remove or otherwise mask such identified occurrence or confidential information.

Still referring toFIG. 2B, the appliance200may include a performance monitoring agent197as discussed above in conjunction withFIG. 1D. In one embodiment, the appliance200receives the monitoring agent197from the monitoring service1908or monitoring server106as depicted inFIG. 1D. In some embodiments, the appliance200stores the monitoring agent197in storage, such as disk, for delivery to any client or server in communication with the appliance200. For example, in one embodiment, the appliance200transmits the monitoring agent197to a client upon receiving a request to establish a transport layer connection. In other embodiments, the appliance200transmits the monitoring agent197upon establishing the transport layer connection with the client102. In another embodiment, the appliance200transmits the monitoring agent197to the client upon intercepting or detecting a request for a web page. In yet another embodiment, the appliance200transmits the monitoring agent197to a client or a server in response to a request from the monitoring server198. In one embodiment, the appliance200transmits the monitoring agent197to a second appliance200′ or appliance205.

In other embodiments, the appliance200executes the monitoring agent197. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of any application, program, process, service, task or thread executing on the appliance200. For example, the monitoring agent197may monitor and measure performance and operation of vServers275A-275N. In another embodiment, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of any transport layer connections of the appliance200. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of any user sessions traversing the appliance200. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of any virtual private network connections and/or sessions traversing the appliance200, such an SSL VPN session. In still further embodiments, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the memory, CPU and disk usage and performance of the appliance200. In yet another embodiment, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of any acceleration technique288performed by the appliance200, such as SSL offloading, connection pooling and multiplexing, caching, and compression. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of any load balancing and/or content switching284performed by the appliance200. In other embodiments, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of application firewall290protection and processing performed by the appliance200.

C. Client Agent

Referring now toFIG. 3, an embodiment of the client agent120is depicted. The client102includes a client agent120for establishing and exchanging communications with the appliance200and/or server106via a network104. In brief overview, the client102operates on computing device100having an operating system with a kernel mode302and a user mode303, and a network stack310with one or more layers310a-310b. The client102may have installed and/or execute one or more applications. In some embodiments, one or more applications may communicate via the network stack310to a network104. One of the applications, such as a web browser, may also include a first program322. For example, the first program322may be used in some embodiments to install and/or execute the client agent120, or any portion thereof. The client agent120includes an interception mechanism, or interceptor350, for intercepting network communications from the network stack310from the one or more applications.

The network stack310of the client102may comprise any type and form of software, or hardware, or any combinations thereof, for providing connectivity to and communications with a network. In one embodiment, the network stack310comprises a software implementation for a network protocol suite. The network stack310may comprise one or more network layers, such as any networks layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communications model as those skilled in the art recognize and appreciate. As such, the network stack310may comprise any type and form of protocols for any of the following layers of the OSI model: 1) physical link layer, 2) data link layer, 3) network layer, 4) transport layer, 5) session layer, 6) presentation layer, and 7) application layer. In one embodiment, the network stack310may comprise a transport control protocol (TCP) over the network layer protocol of the internet protocol (IP), generally referred to as TCP/IP. In some embodiments, the TCP/IP protocol may be carried over the Ethernet protocol, which may comprise any of the family of IEEE wide-area-network (WAN) or local-area-network (LAN) protocols, such as those protocols covered by the IEEE 802.3. In some embodiments, the network stack310comprises any type and form of a wireless protocol, such as IEEE 802.11 and/or mobile internet protocol.

In view of a TCP/IP based network, any TCP/IP based protocol may be used, including Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) (email), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol (file transfer), Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Mobile IP protocol, and Voice Over IP (VoIP) protocol. In another embodiment, the network stack310comprises any type and form of transport control protocol, such as a modified transport control protocol, for example a Transaction TCP (T/TCP), TCP with selection acknowledgements (TCP-SACK), TCP with large windows (TCP-LW), a congestion prediction protocol such as the TCP-Vegas protocol, and a TCP spoofing protocol. In other embodiments, any type and form of user datagram protocol (UDP), such as UDP over IP, may be used by the network stack310, such as for voice communications or real-time data communications.

Furthermore, the network stack310may include one or more network drivers supporting the one or more layers, such as a TCP driver or a network layer driver. The network drivers may be included as part of the operating system of the computing device100or as part of any network interface cards or other network access components of the computing device100. In some embodiments, any of the network drivers of the network stack310may be customized, modified or adapted to provide a custom or modified portion of the network stack310in support of any of the techniques described herein. In other embodiments, the acceleration program120is designed and constructed to operate with or work in conjunction with the network stack310installed or otherwise provided by the operating system of the client102.

The network stack310comprises any type and form of interfaces for receiving, obtaining, providing or otherwise accessing any information and data related to network communications of the client102. In one embodiment, an interface to the network stack310comprises an application programming interface (API). The interface may also comprise any function call, hooking or filtering mechanism, event or call back mechanism, or any type of interfacing technique. The network stack310via the interface may receive or provide any type and form of data structure, such as an object, related to functionality or operation of the network stack310. For example, the data structure may comprise information and data related to a network packet or one or more network packets. In some embodiments, the data structure comprises a portion of the network packet processed at a protocol layer of the network stack310, such as a network packet of the transport layer. In some embodiments, the data structure325comprises a kernel-level data structure, while in other embodiments, the data structure325comprises a user-mode data structure. A kernel-level data structure may comprise a data structure obtained or related to a portion of the network stack310operating in kernel-mode302, or a network driver or other software running in kernel-mode302, or any data structure obtained or received by a service, process, task, thread or other executable instructions running or operating in kernel-mode of the operating system.

Additionally, some portions of the network stack310may execute or operate in kernel-mode302, for example, the data link or network layer, while other portions execute or operate in user-mode303, such as an application layer of the network stack310. For example, a first portion310aof the network stack may provide user-mode access to the network stack310to an application while a second portion310aof the network stack310provides access to a network. In some embodiments, a first portion310aof the network stack may comprise one or more upper layers of the network stack310, such as any of layers 5-7. In other embodiments, a second portion310bof the network stack310comprises one or more lower layers, such as any of layers 1-4. Each of the first portion310aand second portion310bof the network stack310may comprise any portion of the network stack310, at any one or more network layers, in user-mode203, kernel-mode,202, or combinations thereof, or at any portion of a network layer or interface point to a network layer or any portion of or interface point to the user-mode203and kernel-mode203.

The interceptor350may comprise software, hardware, or any combination of software and hardware. In one embodiment, the interceptor350intercept a network communication at any point in the network stack310, and redirects or transmits the network communication to a destination desired, managed or controlled by the interceptor350or client agent120. For example, the interceptor350may intercept a network communication of a network stack310of a first network and transmit the network communication to the appliance200for transmission on a second network104. In some embodiments, the interceptor350comprises any type interceptor350comprises a driver, such as a network driver constructed and designed to interface and work with the network stack310. In some embodiments, the client agent120and/or interceptor350operates at one or more layers of the network stack310, such as at the transport layer. In one embodiment, the interceptor350comprises a filter driver, hooking mechanism, or any form and type of suitable network driver interface that interfaces to the transport layer of the network stack, such as via the transport driver interface (TDI). In some embodiments, the interceptor350interfaces to a first protocol layer, such as the transport layer and another protocol layer, such as any layer above the transport protocol layer, for example, an application protocol layer. In one embodiment, the interceptor350may comprise a driver complying with the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), or a NDIS driver. In another embodiment, the interceptor350may comprise a min-filter or a mini-port driver. In one embodiment, the interceptor350, or portion thereof, operates in kernel-mode202. In another embodiment, the interceptor350, or portion thereof, operates in user-mode203. In some embodiments, a portion of the interceptor350operates in kernel-mode202while another portion of the interceptor350operates in user-mode203. In other embodiments, the client agent120operates in user-mode203but interfaces via the interceptor350to a kernel-mode driver, process, service, task or portion of the operating system, such as to obtain a kernel-level data structure225. In further embodiments, the interceptor350is a user-mode application or program, such as application.

In one embodiment, the interceptor350intercepts any transport layer connection requests. In these embodiments, the interceptor350execute transport layer application programming interface (API) calls to set the destination information, such as destination IP address and/or port to a desired location for the location. In this manner, the interceptor350intercepts and redirects the transport layer connection to a IP address and port controlled or managed by the interceptor350or client agent120. In one embodiment, the interceptor350sets the destination information for the connection to a local IP address and port of the client102on which the client agent120is listening. For example, the client agent120may comprise a proxy service listening on a local IP address and port for redirected transport layer communications. In some embodiments, the client agent120then communicates the redirected transport layer communication to the appliance200.

In some embodiments, the interceptor350intercepts a Domain Name Service (DNS) request. In one embodiment, the client agent120and/or interceptor350resolves the DNS request. In another embodiment, the interceptor transmits the intercepted DNS request to the appliance200for DNS resolution. In one embodiment, the appliance200resolves the DNS request and communicates the DNS response to the client agent120. In some embodiments, the appliance200resolves the DNS request via another appliance200′ or a DNS server106.

In yet another embodiment, the client agent120may comprise two agents120and120′. In one embodiment, a first agent120may comprise an interceptor350operating at the network layer of the network stack310. In some embodiments, the first agent120intercepts network layer requests such as Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) requests (e.g., ping and traceroute). In other embodiments, the second agent120′ may operate at the transport layer and intercept transport layer communications. In some embodiments, the first agent120intercepts communications at one layer of the network stack210and interfaces with or communicates the intercepted communication to the second agent120′.

The client agent120and/or interceptor350may operate at or interface with a protocol layer in a manner transparent to any other protocol layer of the network stack310. For example, in one embodiment, the interceptor350operates or interfaces with the transport layer of the network stack310transparently to any protocol layer below the transport layer, such as the network layer, and any protocol layer above the transport layer, such as the session, presentation or application layer protocols. This allows the other protocol layers of the network stack310to operate as desired and without modification for using the interceptor350. As such, the client agent120and/or interceptor350can interface with the transport layer to secure, optimize, accelerate, route or load-balance any communications provided via any protocol carried by the transport layer, such as any application layer protocol over TCP/IP.

Furthermore, the client agent120and/or interceptor may operate at or interface with the network stack310in a manner transparent to any application, a user of the client102, and any other computing device, such as a server, in communications with the client102. The client agent120and/or interceptor350may be installed and/or executed on the client102in a manner without modification of an application. In some embodiments, the user of the client102or a computing device in communications with the client102are not aware of the existence, execution or operation of the client agent120and/or interceptor350. As such, in some embodiments, the client agent120and/or interceptor350is installed, executed, and/or operated transparently to an application, user of the client102, another computing device, such as a server, or any of the protocol layers above and/or below the protocol layer interfaced to by the interceptor350.

The client agent120includes an acceleration program302, a streaming client306, a collection agent304, and/or monitoring agent197. In one embodiment, the client agent120comprises an Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) client, or any portion thereof, developed by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is also referred to as an ICA client. In some embodiments, the client120comprises an application streaming client306for streaming an application from a server106to a client102. In some embodiments, the client agent120comprises an acceleration program302for accelerating communications between client102and server106. In another embodiment, the client agent120includes a collection agent304for performing end-point detection/scanning and collecting end-point information for the appliance200and/or server106.

In some embodiments, the acceleration program302comprises a client-side acceleration program for performing one or more acceleration techniques to accelerate, enhance or otherwise improve a client's communications with and/or access to a server106, such as accessing an application provided by a server106. The logic, functions, and/or operations of the executable instructions of the acceleration program302may perform one or more of the following acceleration techniques: 1) multi-protocol compression, 2) transport control protocol pooling, 3) transport control protocol multiplexing, 4) transport control protocol buffering, and 5) caching via a cache manager. Additionally, the acceleration program302may perform encryption and/or decryption of any communications received and/or transmitted by the client102. In some embodiments, the acceleration program302performs one or more of the acceleration techniques in an integrated manner or fashion. Additionally, the acceleration program302can perform compression on any of the protocols, or multiple-protocols, carried as a payload of a network packet of the transport layer protocol.

The streaming client306comprises an application, program, process, service, task or executable instructions for receiving and executing a streamed application from a server106. A server106may stream one or more application data files to the streaming client306for playing, executing or otherwise causing to be executed the application on the client102. In some embodiments, the server106transmits a set of compressed or packaged application data files to the streaming client306. In some embodiments, the plurality of application files are compressed and stored on a file server within an archive file such as a CAB, ZIP, SIT, TAR, JAR or other archive. In one embodiment, the server106decompresses, unpackages or unarchives the application files and transmits the files to the client102. In another embodiment, the client102decompresses, unpackages or unarchives the application files. The streaming client306dynamically installs the application, or portion thereof, and executes the application. In one embodiment, the streaming client306may be an executable program. In some embodiments, the streaming client306may be able to launch another executable program.

The collection agent304comprises an application, program, process, service, task or executable instructions for identifying, obtaining and/or collecting information about the client102. In some embodiments, the appliance200transmits the collection agent304to the client102or client agent120. The collection agent304may be configured according to one or more policies of the policy engine236of the appliance. In other embodiments, the collection agent304transmits collected information on the client102to the appliance200. In one embodiment, the policy engine236of the appliance200uses the collected information to determine and provide access, authentication and authorization control of the client's connection to a network104.

In one embodiment, the collection agent304comprises an end-point detection and scanning mechanism, which identifies and determines one or more attributes or characteristics of the client. For example, the collection agent304may identify and determine any one or more of the following client-side attributes: 1) the operating system an/or a version of an operating system, 2) a service pack of the operating system, 3) a running service, 4) a running process, and 5) a file. The collection agent304may also identify and determine the presence or versions of any one or more of the following on the client: 1) antivirus software, 2) personal firewall software, 3) anti-spam software, and 4) internet security software. The policy engine236may have one or more policies based on any one or more of the attributes or characteristics of the client or client-side attributes.

In some embodiments, the client agent120includes a monitoring agent197as discussed in conjunction withFIGS. 1D and 2B. The monitoring agent197may be any type and form of script, such as Visual Basic or Java script. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures performance of any portion of the client agent120. For example, in some embodiments, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures performance of the acceleration program302. In another embodiment, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures performance of the streaming client306. In other embodiments, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures performance of the collection agent304. In still another embodiment, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures performance of the interceptor350. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures any resource of the client102, such as memory, CPU and disk.

The monitoring agent197may monitor and measure performance of any application of the client. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent129monitors and measures performance of a browser on the client102. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent197monitors and measures performance of any application delivered via the client agent120. In other embodiments, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors end user response times for an application, such as web-based or HTTP response times. The monitoring agent197may monitor and measure performance of an ICA or RDP client. In another embodiment, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors metrics for a user session or application session. In some embodiments, monitoring agent197measures and monitors an ICA or RDP session. In one embodiment, the monitoring agent197measures and monitors the performance of the appliance200in accelerating delivery of an application and/or data to the client102.

In some embodiments and still referring toFIG. 3, a first program322may be used to install and/or execute the client agent120, or portion thereof, such as the interceptor350, automatically, silently, transparently, or otherwise. In one embodiment, the first program322comprises a plugin component, such an ActiveX control or Java control or script that is loaded into and executed by an application. For example, the first program comprises an ActiveX control loaded and run by a web browser application, such as in the memory space or context of the application. In another embodiment, the first program322comprises a set of executable instructions loaded into and run by the application, such as a browser. In one embodiment, the first program322comprises a designed and constructed program to install the client agent120. In some embodiments, the first program322obtains, downloads, or receives the client agent120via the network from another computing device. In another embodiment, the first program322is an installer program or a plug and play manager for installing programs, such as network drivers, on the operating system of the client102.

D. Cookie Management

Referring now toFIG. 4A, an embodiment of a cookie management system is depicted. In this embodiment, an intermediary, such as an appliance200or client agent120, may manage cookies for a browser using the content or body of an HTTP response instead of the set cookie-header or transaction layer. The cookie management system ofFIG. 4Amaintains cookie information for a browser via an intermediary and provides the correct cookie parameters in the browser via the HTTP content layer. Set-cookie headers served from a server in response to client HTTP requests are removed by the intermediary. A cookie jar of the intermediary may store configured cookies to be used by the intermediary for the clients, such as in accordance with a policy. In some cases, cookie information from the removed headers may be stored in a cookie jar on the intermediary. The intermediary delivers instructions and scripts via the content layer of the HTTP response to set the cookie in the browser based on the cookie information stored in the intermediary. The scripts detect browser changes to the cookie and communicate the changes to the intermediary to update the cookie jar.

In brief overview of the system ofFIG. 4A, a client102may include a browser having a scripting engine. The client via the browser may request content from a server106, such as an HTTP server. The request may traverse an appliance200, acting as a proxy or intermediary between the client and the server. The server may communicate a response415to the client request. The response415may include a header portion417and a message body419portion. The server106may set one or more cookies via the header of the HTTP transaction, such as using the set-cookie header417. The set-cookie header may include cookie information420such as name-value pairs and domain and path names. The appliance200receives the response415and removes the set-cookie header420from the response415. The appliance may store the cookie information420in a storage410, referred to as a cookie jar.

The engine240of the appliance200inserts script instructions415and scripts430to form a modified response415′ forwarded to the client102. The script instructions425set the cookie in the browser in accordance with configured cookies or cookie information420in the cookie jar410. The script430provides or identifies a script for detecting changes to the cookie and reporting the changes to the appliance200. The browser receives the response415′ and executes the content of the body message418of the response415′. This sets the cookie in the browser in accordance with the maintained or configured cookie information of the cookie jar410. The browser loads the scripts430which execute upon one or more events that may change the information of the cookie. In response to detecting such changes, the scripts may transmit the changes to the appliance for updating the cookie jar410.

The client102may include any embodiments of the client agent120previously described in conjunction withFIG. 3. The client may include any type and form of user agent. A user agent may be a browser, editor, spider (web-traversing robots), or any other end user tool or program. The client102may include any type and form of browser. In one embodiment, the browser is any version of Internet Explorer manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. In another embodiment, the browser is any version of the Netscape browser manufactured by the Netscape Communications Corporation. In other embodiments, the browser is any version of the open source browser referred to as Firefox and provided by Mozilla Foundation of California and found at www.mozilla.com. In yet another embodiment, the browser is any version of the browser referred to as Opera manufactured by Opera Software ASA of Oslo, Norway. In some embodiments, the client102executes or includes any type and form of application or program for displaying web pages, web content or HTTP content.

In one embodiment, the client102may execute a remote display client, such as an ICA client manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc or a Remote Desktop Protocol manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation. In these embodiments, a server106may execute the browser on behalf of the client and display output from the browser on the client102via a remote display protocol, such as ICA or RDP, to a remote display client agent120. The client102via the browser, an application or remote desktop client may display one or more pages, such as any web or HTTP page or content, served from a server106. The page or pages may include or more objects. The page or pages may identify one or more objects. For example, a page may identify an object via a URL or hyperlink.

The browser may include any type and form of scripting engine which may execute any type and form of scripts. The scripting engine may support and execute any implementation, dialect or version of the ECMAScript standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 specification. In one embodiment, the scripting engine supports and executes Java Script. In another embodiment, the scripting engine supports and executes Microsoft's implementation of the ECMAscript standard referred to as Jscript. In one embodiment, the scripting engine operates with Jscript .Net. In some embodiments, the scripting engine supports and executes VBscript.

The appliance200may include any embodiments of the packet processing engine240previously described in connection withFIG. 2A. The engine240may process packets communicated between a client and a server. The engine240may receive requests from a client, modify the requests and forward the modified requests to a server. The engine240may receive responses from a server, modify the responses and forward the modified responses to the client. In some embodiments, the engine240is HTTP aware and understands how to access/read HTTP transactions and modify the HTTP transaction in accordance with the policies, design and construction of the appliance200. In one embodiment, the engine240is constructed, designed or adapted to perform any of the cookie management operations or techniques described herein.

The engine240may access one or more scripts412stored in or accessible by the appliance200. The scripts412may be stored as data within the engine240such as via objects or data structures. In some cases, the scripts412are stored in one or more memory elements. In other cases, the scripts412are stored to disk. In one embodiment, the scripts are accessible via the network104from another computing device, such as a server106. In some embodiments, the engine240accesses the scripts via disk or the network and loads the scripts into memory. In some embodiments, the engine240requests the script from a server.

The appliance200may include any type and form of storage element410for storing or providing storage for cookie information. This storage element may be referred to as the cookie jar410as a plurality of cookies from one or more servers for one or more clients may be stored to this storage element. In some embodiments, the storage element410may comprise memory, such as a data structure or object. In other embodiments, the storage elements410may include one or more files or a database. The scripts412may include contents of one or more scripts, such as the executable instructions. The script412may include URLs or locations to other scripts or portions of scripts, such as functions.

The appliance200and/or engine240may store cookie information into the cookie jar410in any arrangement, layout, format, relationship or combination. In some embodiments, the engine240stores cookie information in the cookie jar410based on type of cookie. In other embodiment, the engine240stores cookie information in the cookie jar410in association with a service or server. In another embodiment, the engine240stores cookie information in the cookie jar410in association with a type of service, appliance or server. In one embodiment, the engine240stores cookie information in the cookie jar410in association with a user or group of users. In yet another embodiments, the engine240stores cookie information in the cookie jar410in association with a URL. The engine240may store cookie information in the cookie jar410in associate with a domain name, a host name or other network identifier, such as an IP address. In one embodiment, the engine240stores cookie information in the cookie jar410based on the cookie header, or any portion thereof.

The engine240may use any type of indexing, key, or other relationship scheme to query or find any cookie information in the cookie jar410. In some embodiments, the engine240may encode cookie information420obtained from a response415in any manner to store in the cookie jar410. The engine240may parse any information from a header417to obtain name-value pairs of the cookie information420. In other embodiments, the engine240may perform any type and form of hash function on the cookie information420or any portion thereof for storage and retrieval from the cookie jar410. In one embodiment, the engine240may store the cookie information420, encoded or otherwise, in a cache. In some embodiments, the engine240uses the cookie jar410as a cache or as a compression history. In another embodiment, the engine240stores compressed cookie information in the cookie jar410.

The cookie jar410may include any type and form of configured cookies to be used for a client. For example, an administrator of the appliance may configure one or more cookies to be used by a user or a client. In some cases, the administrator configures cookie information in the cookie jar410to provide a cookie for a predetermined application. In other cases, the administrator configures cookie information in the cookie jar410to provide a cookie for a predetermined group of users. In one case, the administrator configures cookie information in the cookie jar410to provide a cookie for users of an SSL VPN connection. In various embodiments, the administrator configures cookie information in the cookie jar410to provide cookies to clients instead of using cookie information from the server. For example, the administrator may configure cookies in the cookie jar to replace or use instead of any server provided cookies.

Still referring toFIG. 4A, the responses415,415′ depicts a transaction layer and a content layer of an HTTP transaction. In an embodiment of HTTP, a request and/or response may include a header417and a message body419. The header portion417of the response may be directed to transactional information and directives, such as caching, cookie setting, language, character encoding, allowed methods, authorization, etc. The message body or content layer419of the HTTP response includes the message body or body419of a request and/or response is used to carry the entity-body associated with the request or response. The server may serve up content, such as web pages, URLs, file or other requested resource. An HTTP message may have a body of data sent after the header lines. In a response, the body419is where the requested resource is returned to the client or perhaps explanatory text if there's an error. In a request, the body419is where user-entered data or uploaded files may be sent to the server.

A server or a client102, such as a browser, may have rules for handling header information at the transaction layer. For example, the server and the client may manage state and state information using any cookie and set-cookie header417. Upon receiving an HTTP response, a browser may keep track of state information that arrives via the set-cookie header417provided by a server. If the cookie set by the header does not follow predetermined cookie rules, the browser may reject any cookies or not store and/or keep track of cookie information. For example, the browser ignores any attribute-value pairs of the set-cookie header417the browser does not recognize. A browser may have security or other cookie settings to prevent possible security or privacy violations and may reject cookies set via the set cookie header that does not meet these settings. In some cases, the browser has rules regarding cookie management via headers directed towards limiting the set of servers for which a cookie is valid. The rules may reject or accept cookies via the cookie header based on the values of the path, domain, and port attributes and/or the request-URI, request-host and request-port.

Some example of browser rules for rejecting or accepting cookies via the transaction layer or headers of an HTTP transaction include: 2) rejecting the cookie via the set-cookie header if the version attribute is missing, 2) the value for the path attribute is not a prefix of the request-URI, 3) the value for the domain attribute contains no embedded dots, and the value is not .local., 4) the effective host name that derives from the request-host does not domain-match the domain attribute, 5) the request-host is a host domain name, HDN (not IP address), and has the form HD, where D is the value of the domain attribute, and H is a string that contains one or more dots and 6) the port attribute has a list of ports, and the request-port was not in the list. The browser may also include limits on the number of cookies for a server.

An intermediary, such as the appliance200or a client agent120, may remove the set-cookie header420of a response415and forward the modified response415′ to the requester, such as the client102. In some embodiments, by removing the set-cookie header from the transaction layer the cookie and state management rules of the browser, user agent or client for the transaction layer are bypassed and/or avoided. If the response415′ received by the requester or client does not have any set-cookie headers420in the header portion417, the requester, such as the browser, may not perform any cookie or state management based on the response.

In one embodiment, the intermediary obtains, stores and maintains the cookie information420identified and/or removed from the header417of the response415to the cookie jar410. The intermediary may maintain this cookie information in the cookie jar on behalf of or for any user agent, browser or client. The intermediary may maintain this cookie information outside of the transaction layer of the HTTP response. Furthermore, the intermediary may set or otherwise provide this cookie information to the user agent, browser or client outside or external to headers417or transaction layer of a request or response. Although the server may set the cookie via the header417, the intermediary removes the cookie header from the response and sets and manages the cookie external to the header417. For example, in some embodiments, the intermediary sets and manages the cookie via the message body or content layer of the request/response.

In some embodiments, the intermediary does not store or maintain the cookie information420identified and/or removed from the header417of the response415. For example, the intermediary may remove and ignore cookies served from the server, and manage and set client-side cookies based on configuration and policy of the intermediary. The intermediary may remove the set-cookie header(s) from the response415to prevent cookie management at the HTTP transaction layer. The intermediary may desire to use the cookie information configured or maintained by the intermediary, such as in the cookie jar410, instead of the information set by the server via the set-cookie header. In one embodiment, the intermediary may determine not to provide a cookie or a set a cookie on the client, even if the server provided a set-cookie header. For example, the intermediary may not provide or set a client-side cookie for a Microsoft Outlook Web Access application. In another embodiment, the intermediary may determine to provide an intermediary configured or predetermined cookie instead of the server cookie provided via the set-cookie header. For example, the intermediary may use intermediary configured cookie information or profiles to set the cookie on the client-side for a Web Interface application of Citrix Systems, Inc. The intermediary may determine whether or not to set the cookie on the client based on a policy of a policy engine. The intermediary may also determine which cookie information to set on the client based on a policy of a policy engine.

As depicted in the embodiment of the appliance200as an intermediary inFIG. 4A, the appliance200sets and manages the cookie via the message body419portion of the response415,415′. The engine240may insert, modify or otherwise include in body419of the response415′ one or more scripts instructions425to set the cookie in the browser via one or more APIs. The script instructions425may include any type and form of scripts programming language already discussed herein. The script instructions425may set any one or more of the attribute-value pairs for a cookie. The script instructions425may set the values of the cookie in accordance with the cookie information420removed from the header417and stored in the cookie jar417. By way of example and in no manner limiting, the scripting instructions425may use the document.cookie property and API such as via the following instructions:

The script instructions425may set the domain, path and any port related attributes of the cookie. The cookie inserted on the client/browser via the script instructions425may be set correctly to host, domain and content path requested. In some embodiments, the script instructions415identify one or more scripts412available on the intermediary or via the network to set the attribute-values of the cookie.

The intermediary may determine the names and values for these instructions425in accordance with any policies, such as content rewriting policies or rules, such as content rewriting rules. For example, the intermediary may rewrite content for traversing between a first network, e.g., public network, and a second network, e.g., private network, of an SSL VPN connection between the client and server. Any portion of the cookie may be set via the instructions425to set values and information to support any of the functionality of the appliance200and/or client agent described herein, such as those embodiments described in connection withFIG. 2A-2BorFIG. 3.

The appliance200may also provide via the body419of the response419one or more scripts430to manage the cookies within the context of the browser or user agent of the client. The engine240may insert, modify or otherwise include in body419of the response415′ one or more scripts430to manage any changes to the cookie. In one embodiment, the script430identifies or directs the browser to obtain and load a script from a location, such as storage412. For example, the script430may identify the source of the scripts via a URL. Responsive to one or more events of the browser or user agent, the script430may determine if there are any changes to the cookie set via the instructions425, such as an addition, deletion or modification to the cookie. For example, the script420may trigger any property change events that change a cookie. In another example, the script430may trigger on or detect any unload events. The script may delete or de-establish the cookie upon an unload event. In some cases, the script430may trigger on or detect any document attach events. In another embodiment, the script430may poll the value of the cookie to determine if there are any changes to the cookie since the cookie was set via the script instructions425. In these embodiments, the script430may execute on a predetermined frequency. In some of these embodiments, the script430may poll the values of the cookie to detect changes based on detection or triggering of an event. Other embodiments of the script430for updating the cookie jar410will be discussed below in conjunction withFIGS. 5A-5B.

Although the script is generally described for detecting changes to the cookie made by the browser, this may include any components, libraries, scripts, controls, applets or other programs and scripts loaded or managed by the browser or otherwise executed on the client. The browser may make changes to a cookie based on executing or operating any of these types and forms of executable instructions regardless if provided by an intermediary or not. When the browser is generally discussed as executing, the execution may include running or operating any of these types of and forms of executable instructions, in the context of the browser or external thereto. Any of these executable instructions or applications on the client-side may use cookies as a communication mechanism or channel or otherwise to store or transmit state. The script430may used to detect and manage any of these cookies or cookie changes from any of these client-side executable instructions or applications. By doing so, the present solution may continue to support these applications and executable instructions while performing any of the operations described herein.

Upon detecting or determining a change to the cookie, the script430may communicate these changes to the intermediary using any communication mechanism and format. In one embodiment, the script430transmits a message to the intermediary via a transport layer connection. In another embodiment, the script430transmits the message to the intermediary via an HTTP based message or transaction. In other embodiments, the script submits or otherwise includes these changes via any communication of the browser or another program on the client to the server or intermediary.

In some embodiments, the script430encodes the changes in a cookie. In one embodiment, the script430creates a second cookie to specify the changes. In some embodiments, the script430encodes the cookie (and/or second cookie) with any data or meta information not present in a standard HTTP cookie header. For example, the script may encode information in a value of any attribute to represent the data or meta information for these changes. The script430may attach the cookie having these changes to any request from the browser. The script may include the cookie having these changes in any communication from the client traversing the intermediary. The intermediary may detect this cookie and the encoded changes therein. The intermediary may update the cookie jar with the changes to the cookie.

Although the cookie management techniques are generally described in the context of HTTP requests and responses, the techniques of the present solution may be used with any protocol. Furthermore, although generally described in the context of an appliance as the intermediary, any of the functions, operations and methods of the appliance may be deployed via the client agent120. For example, the client agent120may include the engine240or any portion thereof for performing any of the operations described herein. The client agent120may also include and manage the cookie jar410as well as maintaining any cookie management scripts412.

Referring now toFIG. 4B, an embodiment of steps of a method for providing cookie management by an intermediary via the content layer of the response is depicted. In brief overview of method450, at step455, the intermediary receives a response from the server to a request of the client. The response includes a header and a message body. The header includes a set-cookie header, for example, setting the domain and path of the cookie. At step460, the intermediary removes the set-cookie header from the response. The intermediary may store the cookie information from the header into a storage element, such as the cookie jar410. At step465, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to include script instructions. The script instructions and/or script set the value of the cookie via the message body based on cookie information stored in the cookie jar, which may include any configured cookies. At step470, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to include a script for detecting any changes to the cookie.

In further details of step455, the intermediary may receive any type and form of response415from the server. In some embodiments, the intermediary may server a response on behalf of the server, such as a via a cache of the appliance. The intermediary may receive an HTTP response to an HTTP request. In another embodiment, the intermediary may receive a response comprising XML or any other markup language. In one embodiment, the response includes a header417without a message body419. In another embodiment, the response415includes a plurality of headers417. In other embodiments, the intermediary receives a response have multiple cookie headers. In various embodiments, the intermediary may receive a response having headers other than a cookie related header. In one embodiment, the intermediary receives a response having a cookie header and a non-cookie related header. In yet another embodiment, the intermediary receives a response415that includes a script or script instructions. In one embodiment, the intermediary receives a response415that includes script instructions425and/or script430. The intermediary may receive via the header or transaction layer of the response415any type and form of cookie information. In one embodiment, the intermediary receives a set of one or more attribute-value pairs for the cookie. In some cases, the intermediary receives values for a domain, host, path and/or port for the cookie.

In some embodiments, the intermediary consumes (e.g., removes) all set-cookie headers served from the server. In other embodiments, the intermediary consumes set-cookie headers served from the server based on the type or name of the application. For example, the intermediary may consume set-cookie headers of a first application while leaving intact the set-cookie header for a second application. In another embodiment, the intermediary consumes set-cookie headers served from the server based on the user. In one embodiment, the intermediary consumes set-cookie headers served from the server based on the user. In yet another embodiment, the intermediary consumes set-cookie headers served from the server based on one or more policies.

At step460, the intermediary identifies the cookie information420in the header portion417of the response415. The intermediary may remove the cookie information from the response415. In some embodiments, the intermediary removes the one or more set-cookie headers from the response. In one embodiment, the intermediary removes the set-cookie header entirely. In another embodiment, the intermediary removes a portion of the set-cookie header. In other embodiments, the intermediary removes the attribute-value portions of the set-cookie header. In yet one embodiment, the intermediary removes all headers from the response. In another embodiment, the intermediary modifies the set-cookie header in the response415′ to disable the cookie or otherwise cause an error, be ignored or rejected when received by the requester.

The intermediary, such as via engine240, may store the identified information of the cookie header to the cookie storage410. The intermediary may encode the cookie information in any manner and store the encoded cookie information to the storage410. In some embodiments, the intermediary stores the cookie information as script instructions425, or a portion thereof. The intermediary may store the cookie information in association with any other information known by the intermediary. In one embodiment, the intermediary stores the cookie information in association with one or more of: the server, the client, the browser and/or the user. In other embodiments, the intermediary does not store or maintain the removed cookie information420. Instead the intermediary may use configured or default information in the cookie jar. In another embodiments, the intermediary may choose not to provide any cookies to the client or the application.

At step465, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to provide a modified response415′ including instructions to set the cookie for the requester. In one embodiment, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to include instructions425for setting the cookie in a context of the browser. In another embodiment, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to include instructions425for setting the cookie in a context of a session. The intermediary may provide scripting instructions425in the body of the response to set a cookie in accordance with the cookie information maintained by the intermediary. In one embodiment, the intermediary may provide scripting instructions425to set the cookie in a manner corresponding to the set-cookie header received by the server. In yet another embodiment, the appliance200provides instructions to set the cookie in accordance with a configured cookie policy. In some embodiments, the appliance200provides instructions to set the cookie in accordance with any configured cookies of the appliance. In still one embodiment, the appliance200may not provide instructions to the client to set or establish the cookie. In another case, the appliance200provides instructions to the client that do not set or establish a cookie.

At step470, the intermediary modifies the message body of the response to provide a modified response415′ including a script430to monitor and/or detect changes to the cookie provided by the appliance or otherwise to any client-side cookies. The intermediary may provide a script430in the response415′ to monitor and/or detect changes to a cookie in a context of the browser. In some cases, the intermediary may provide a script430in the response415′ to monitor and/or detect changes to a cookie in a context of a session. In one embodiment, the intermediary modifies the message body to provide an instruction to load the script430from an identified location. In other embodiments, the intermediary includes content of one or more scripts430in the modified response415′. In some embodiments, the intermediary provides instructions via the message body for the scripting engine to load or use a script430. In another embodiment, the appliance200provides instructions to the client agent120to monitor or detect changes to the cookie.

As will be discussed in more detail below, the browser of the client receives the modified response. Upon loading the message body of the response, the browser executes the script instructions to set the cookie in accordance with the values in the cookie jar maintained by the intermediary. The setting of the cookie is performed via the HTTP content layer instead of the header or HTTP transaction layer. This bypasses the browser cookie management rules upon receiving a set-cookie header. Upon loading the message body of the response, the browser may load or execute the script430for detecting and monitoring changes to the cookie.

Referring now toFIG. 5A, an embodiment of a system for client-side management of cookies is depicted. In brief overview, the client102includes an embodiment of a client agent120and a browser. The browser includes a script engine for loading or executing one or more scripts. The browser may load or may execute a script430received from the intermediary, such as a script430delivered via a message body of a response. The script430may monitor the cookie505via events of the browser or via polling the cookie505. The cookie may have been set or established via the content layer of a response. Upon detecting a change to the cookie, the script430may communicate the change to the intermediary, such as the appliance200. The script430may communicate a message510to the intermediary. In another embodiment, the script430may provide a cookie512to indicate the changes to the cookie505, such as encoding the cookie with change values. The intermediary may update the cookie jar410based on the changes communicated via message510or cookie512.

Referring now toFIG. 5B, an embodiment of steps of a method for providing cookie management from a client-side perspective is depicted. In brief overview of method550, at step550, the browser of the client receives a response from a server. The response includes a message body and a header. The header may exclude cookie information, such as a set-cookie header. The message body of the response may include script instructions425and/or a script430. The script430may be for monitoring and detecting changes to a cookie set by the script instructions425or for cookies set or established by client-side programs. At step560, upon loading the message body of the response, the browser executes the script instructions425to establish the cookie505. This sets the cookie in accordance with the cookie jar maintained by the intermediary. At step565, the browser also loads or executes the script425from the response to monitor changes to cookies. At step570, the script430detects a change to a cookie and communicates the change to the intermediary. At step574, the intermediary may modify requests to the server to include cookie header information in the header417of the request based on values stored in the cookie jar410.

In further details, at step555, the client102receives a response from the server106, such as the modified response415′ described in conjunction withFIGS. 4A and 4B. In some cases, the response415′ comprises a message body419and a header417. In other embodiments, the response415comprises a message body419and no header417. In another case, the response415′ comprises a plurality of headers417. In these embodiments, one, more or all of these headers may not include cookie information. In one embodiment, the header of the response includes a set cookie header for a first cookie and the body of the response includes instructions425to establish a second cookie in the browser. In some embodiments, the intermediary removes all set-cookie headers from the response forward to the client102. The client102may receive the script instructions425and the script430in the same response or different responses. In one embodiment, the intermediary may not send the script430if the intermediary knows or thinks the client102or browser already has the script430.

At step560, the client102, client agent120, browser or other user agent may load the body message of a response. Upon loading the body message419of the response, the cookie may be set on the client in accordance with the script instructions425. In one embodiment, the browser executes the instructions425to establish the cookie. In some embodiments, the cookie is established in the context of the browser. In other embodiments, the cookie is established in the context of a session. The instructions may set one or more attribute-value pairs of a cookie505. In some embodiments, the instructions set the domain, path and/or port attributes of the cookie in accordance with the appliance and/or the cookie jar410. In another embodiment, the instructions are configured to set the attribute-value pairs, such as domain and path, in accordance with any content management or content rewriting rules of the appliance200. In one embodiment, the instructions are configured to set the attribute-value pairs in accordance with any policies of a policy engine of the appliance200or a server. For example, the instructions may establish a cookie for the browser based on a configured cookie or default profile of the appliance.

At step565, the client102, client agent120, browser or other user agent may load or execute the script430. The script may be loaded or executed at any time. In one embodiment, the script is loaded or executed upon receipt of the response. In another embodiment, the script is loaded upon a predetermined event. In some embodiments, the script is executed upon a predetermined event. In other embodiments, the intermediary transmits a signal to the client, such as via client agent120or browser, to load or execute the script. In another embodiment, the browser loads the script upon startup. In one embodiment, the browser loads or executes the script responsive to executing or completing the execution of script instructions425. In yet another embodiment, the scripting engine, the client agent or the browser executes the script on a predetermined frequency.

The script430may detect one or more changes to the cookie505. In one embodiment, the script430detects the creation, addition, deletion or modification of any cookie. The script may detect changes to any cookie of the browser regardless if set via the technique of the intermediary or otherwise. In another embodiment, the script430detects a change to the cookie505or any other cookie made via the browser, such as via any cookie and state management functionality of the browser. In some embodiments, the script is executed upon an event related to a change to a cookie or cookie management. In other embodiments, the script is executed upon any type of event and checks during execution if any value or information of a cookie has changed. In another embodiment, the script determines the browser added an attribute-value pair of a cookie. In some embodiments, the script determines the browser modified a value of an attribute-value pair of a cookie. In other embodiments, the script determines the browser deleted any portion of a cookie. In yet further embodiments, the script monitors and determines changes for a plurality of cookies.

At step570, the script may communicate or cause to communicate information to the intermediary regarding changes to a cookie. In some embodiments, the script430may generate and transmit a message510to the intermediary. The message may encode or otherwise indicate changes to a cookie, such as cookie505, such as additions, modifications or deletions. In one embodiment, the script430transmits the message510via a transport layer connection to the intermediary. In some embodiments, the script430uses an application layer protocol to communicate the changes to a cookie. In another embodiment, the script430creates a set-cookie header message and transmits this message to the intermediary via an HTTP based protocol. The script may encode the detected cookie changes in a cookie, such as cookie505or a second cookie512. In some embodiments, the browser transmits the second cookie to the intermediary with a request515, such as a subsequent request of the browser or client.

Upon receipt of a message, such as message510or cookie512, indicating a change to the cookie505, the intermediary updates the cookie jar410with the changes. In some embodiments, the intermediary receives multiple messages510and/or512and updates the cookie jar one at time based on each message. In other embodiment, the intermediary may update the cookie jar with the last message received if receive multiple messages within a certain time period. In another embodiment, the intermediary determines the changes indicated in the message are already stored in the cookie jar410. In these embodiments, the intermediary may not take any further action with respect to the message. In yet another embodiment, the intermediary may determine the changes are for a cookie not yet stored in the cookie jar. In response to the determination, the intermediary may create and store a record in the cookie jar for the cookie represented by the changes of any of the messages510and/or512.

At step575, the intermediary may modify any requests to the server to include cookie information based on the information stored in the cookie jar410. In some embodiments, the browser of the client102transmits a request515using the cookie505established for the browser. In other embodiments, the browser of the client102transmits a request515having any cookies created or changed by the browser. In other embodiments, the browser transmits a request not having a cookie or a cookie header. The intermediary may intercept or otherwise receive the request515. The intermediary modifies the request to include cookie header information520and forwards the modified request515′ to the server. The intermediary may modify the header417of the request to include cookie information based on cookie information of the request from the client, cookie information in the cookie jar410, policies of the intermediary, configuration of the intermediary or any combination thereof.

In this manner, the intermediary maintains for the server the cookie information in the header or transaction layer of the request. The intermediary may keep the content-based cookie management technique transparent to the server. Furthermore, the intermediary may maintain or set cookies in the content layer of HTTP for the client in accordance with any policies or functionality of the intermediary while maintaining any cookies of any client-side applications for transmission to the server. Cookie management of the intermediary and the client may be handled outside of the set-cookie header/cookie header content of the transaction layer and managed in the message body/content layer of request and responses between the client and the intermediary.

Any portion of the cookie management techniques discussed herein may be performed transparently and seamlessly to the browser and/or the server. Although the script instructions and/or script are executed by the browser, the browser may be unaware that the management of the cookie outside of the transaction layer of HTTP is being handled via these scripts and/or the intermediary. The server sends set-cookie headers to the client and receives cookie headers from the client and as such may be unaware of the cookie management operations at the content layer performed by the intermediary or any of the client-side scripting.

In view of the structure, functions and operations of the systems and methods described herein, the present solution provides a useful way for managing cookies outside of the transaction or header layer of HTTP. This provides advantages in the context of a rewriting reverse proxy, such as appliance200, or a content rewriting agent, such as the client agent or network engine240. The present solution installs the correct cookies in the client browser respecting any and all cookie parameters. By correctly maintaining cookie parameters, such as across an SSL VPN connection, the present solution avoids compromised and corrupted cookie data leading to security leaks and application instability.