Method, system, and program for allocating processor resources to a first and second types of tasks

• US 20030061264A1
• Filed: 09/21/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Benhase, Michael Thomas, Hsu, YuCheng
• Granted Patent: US 7,178,147 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

Provided is a method, system, and program for allocating processor resources to a first and second types of tasks. An allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks is indicated. Data is gathered indicating a first workload level for the first type of tasks and a second workload level for the second type of tasks. A determination is made of a change to the indicated allocation of processor resources to the fist and second types of tasks based on at least one of the first workload level and second workload level data. Tasks of the first type are dispatched to the processor resources allocated to the first type and tasks of the second type are dispatched to the processor resources allocated to the second type.

Claims

1. A method for allocating processor resources to a first and second types of tasks, comprising:

indicating an allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks;

gathering data indicating a first workload level for the first type of tasks and a second workload level for the second type of tasks;

determining a change to the indicated allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks based on at least one of the first workload level and second workload level data; and

dispatching tasks of the first type to the processor resources allocated to the first type and tasks of the second type to the processor resources allocated to the second type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein there are multiple processors, and wherein indicating the allocation of processor resources comprises indicating the allocation of each of the multiple processor resources to the first and second types of tasks.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein processor resources are allocated on a processor-by-processor basis to the first and second types of tasks.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks further comprises:

allocating a first portion of processor resources to a first mode, wherein only tasks of the first type are dispatched to the first portion of processor resources; and

allocating a second portion of processor resources to a second mode, wherein tasks of the first and second type are both dispatched to the second portion of processor resources.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein gathering the data indicating the second workload level further comprises:

determining a duration during which tasks of the second type are dispatched to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein dispatching tasks of the first and second types to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode further comprises:

dispatching tasks of the first type for a first period of time to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode; and

dispatching tasks of the second type for a second period of time to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second period of time comprises one of a maximum time period for dispatching tasks of the second type or a third time period during which tasks of the second type are available for dispatching, wherein the third time period is less than the maximum time period.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein gathering the data indicating the second workload level further comprises:

determining a duration during which tasks of the second type are dispatched to the processor resources allocated to the second mode, wherein the duration comprises one of the maximum time period or the third time period.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein dispatching the tasks of the second type to the second portion of processor resources comprises concurrently dispatching the tasks of the second type to the second portion of processor resources, wherein the determined duration comprises an average of the durations during which tasks of the second type are concurrently processed by the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein tasks of the first type comprise Input/Output (I/O) tasks and wherein tasks of the second type comprise application tasks.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the data indicating the first workload level comprises determining a rate at which tasks of the fist type are received and gathering data indicating the second workload level comprises determining a duration during which the processor resources process tasks of the second type.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to change the indicated allocation of processor resources is further based on a combination of the indicated allocation of processor resources and at least one of the first workload level and second workload level.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determination to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type of tasks occurs if the second workload level is relatively higher than the first workload level.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the relative difference in the first and second workload levels required to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type is based on the processor resource allocation indicated between the first and second types of tasks.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the relative difference in the first and second workload levels required to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type is less if more processor resources are allocated to the first type than if more processor resources are allocated to the second type.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the determination to change the allocation of processor resources from the second type of tasks to the first type of tasks occurs if the first workload level is relatively higher than the second workload level.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor resources allocated to the first type of tasks execute a first operating system process to ran a second operating system process to execute the first type of tasks and wherein the processor resources allocated to the second type of tasks execute the first operating system process to execute the second type of tasks

18. The method of claim 17, wherein tasks of the first type comprise Input/Output (I/O) tasks, wherein tasks of the second type comprise application tasks, wherein the first operating system comprises a general purpose operating system, and wherein the second operating system comprise an I/O operating system specially designed to optimize performance of I/O task processing.

19. A system for allocating resources, comprising:

a plurality of processors capable of executing a first and second types of tasks, comprising;

means for indicating an allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks;

means for gathering data indicating a first workload level for the first type of tasks and a second workload level for the second type of tasks;

means for determining a change to the indicated allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks based on at least one of the first workload level and second workload level data; and

means dispatching tasks of the first type to the processor resources allocated to the first type and tasks of the second type to the processor resources allocated to the second type.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

multiple processors, and wherein the means for indicating the allocation of processor resources indicates the allocation of each of the multiple processor resources to the first and second types of tasks.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein processor resources are allocated on a processor-by-processor basis to the first and second types of tasks.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for allocating processor resources to the first and second types of tasks further performs:

allocating a first portion of processor resources to a first mode, wherein only tasks of the first type are dispatched to the first portion of processor resources; and

allocating a second portion of processor resources to a second mode, wherein tasks of the first and second type are both dispatched to the second portion of processor resources.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the means for gathering the data indicating the second workload level determines a duration during which tasks of the second type are dispatched to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the means for dispatching tasks of the first and second types to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode further performs:

dispatching tasks of the first type for a first period of time to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode; and

dispatching tasks of the second type for a second period of time to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the second period of time comprises one of a maximum time period for dispatching tasks of the second type or a third time period during which tasks of the second type are available for dispatching, wherein the third time period is less than the maximum time period.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the means for gathering the data indicating the second workload level further determines a duration during which tasks of the second type are dispatched to the processor resources allocated to the second mode, wherein the duration comprises one of the maximum time period or the third time period.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the means for dispatching the tasks of the second type to the second portion of processor resources concurrently dispatches the tasks of the second type to the second portion of processor resources, wherein the determined duration comprises an average of the durations during which tasks of the second type are concurrently processed by the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein tasks of the first type comprise Input/Output (I/O) tasks and wherein tasks of the second type comprise application tasks.

29. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for gathering the data indicating the first workload level determines a rate at which tasks of the first type are received and gathering data indicating the second workload level comprises determining a duration during which the processor resources process tasks of the second type.

30. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for determining whether to change the indicated allocation of processor resources considers a combination of the indicated allocation of processor resources and at least one of the first workload level and second workload level.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the means for determination whether to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type of tasks changes the allocation if the second workload level is relatively higher than the first workload level.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the relative difference in the first and second workload levels required to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type is based on the processor resource allocation indicated between the first and second types of tasks.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the relative difference in the first and second workload levels required to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type is less if more processor resources are allocated to the first type than if more processor resources are allocated to the second type.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the means for determining whether to change the allocation of processor resources from the second type of tasks to the first type of tasks changes the allocation if the first workload level is relatively higher than the second workload level.

35. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor resources allocated to the first type of tasks include means for executing a first operating system process to run a second operating system process to execute the first type of tasks and wherein the processor resources allocated to the second type of tasks include means for executing the first operating system process to execute the second type of tasks

36. The system of claim 35, wherein tasks of the first type comprise Input/Output (I/O) tasks, wherein tasks of the second type comprise application tasks, wherein the first operating system comprises a general purpose operating system, and wherein the second operating system comprise an I/O operating system specially designed to optimize performance of I/O task processing.

37. An article of manufacture including code for allocating processor resources to a first and second types of tasks by:

indicating an allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks;

gathering data indicating a first workload level for the first type of tasks and a second workload level for the second type of tasks;

determining a change to the indicated allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks based on at least one of the first workload level and second workload level data; and

dispatching tasks of the first type to the processor resources allocated to the first type and tasks of the second type to the processor resources allocated to the second type.

38. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein there are multiple processors, and wherein indicating the allocation of processor resources comprises indicating the allocation of each of the multiple processor resources to the first and second types of tasks.

39. The article of manufacture of claim 38, wherein processor resources are allocated on a processor-by-processor basis to the first and second types of tasks.

40. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein the allocation of processor resources to the first and second types of tasks further comprises:

allocating a first portion of processor resources to a first mode, wherein only tasks of the first type are dispatched to the first portion of processor resources; and

allocating a second portion of processor resources to a second mode, wherein tasks of the first and second type are both dispatched to the second portion of processor resources.

41. The article of manufacture of claim 40, wherein gathering the data indicating the second workload level further comprises:

determining a duration during which tasks of the second type are dispatched to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

42. The article of manufacture of claim 40, wherein dispatching tasks of the first and second types to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode further comprises:

dispatching tasks of the first type for a first period of time to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode; and

dispatching tasks of the second type for a second period of time to the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

43. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein the second period of time comprises one of a maximum time period for dispatching tasks of the second type or a third time period during which tasks of the second type are available for dispatching, wherein the third time period is less than the maximum time period.

44. The article of manufacture of claim 43, wherein gathering the data indicating the second workload level further comprises:

determining a duration during which tasks of the second type are dispatched to the processor resources allocated to the second mode, wherein the duration comprises one of the maximum time period or the third time period.

45. The article of manufacture of claim 44, wherein dispatching the tasks of the second type to the second portion of processor resources comprises concurrently dispatching the tasks of the second type to the second portion of processor resources, wherein the determined duration comprises an average of the durations during which tasks of the second type are concurrently processed by the second portion of processor resources allocated to the second mode.

46. The article of manufacture of claim 40, wherein tasks of the first type comprise Input/Output (I/O) tasks and wherein tasks of the second type comprise application tasks.

47. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein gathering the data indicating the first workload level comprises determining a rate at which tasks of the first type are received and gathering data indicating the second workload level comprises determining a duration during which the processor resources process tasks of the second type.

48. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein determining whether to change the indicated allocation of processor resources is further based on a combination of the indicated allocation of processor resources and at least one of the first workload level and second workload level.

49. The article of manufacture of claim 48, wherein the determination to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type of tasks occurs if the second workload level is relatively higher than the first workload level.

50. The article of manufacture of claim 49, wherein the relative difference in the first and second workload levels required to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type is based on the processor resource allocation indicated between the first and second types of tasks.

51. The article of manufacture of claim 50, wherein the relative difference in the first and second workload levels required to change the allocation of processor resources from the first type of tasks to the second type is less if more processor resources are allocated to the first type than if more processor resources are allocated to the second type.

52. The article of manufacture of claim 48, wherein the determination to change the allocation of processor resources from the second type of tasks to the first type of tasks occurs if the first workload level is relatively higher than the second workload level.

53. The article of manufacture of claim 37, wherein the processor resources allocated to the first type of tasks execute a first operating system process to run a second operating system process to execute the first type of tasks and wherein the processor resources allocated to the second type of tasks execute the first operating system process to execute the second type of tasks

54. The article of manufacture of claim 53, wherein tasks of the first type comprise Input/Output (I/O) tasks, wherein tasks of the second type comprise application tasks, wherein the first operating system comprises a general purpose operating system, and wherein the second operating system comprise an I/O operating system specially designed to optimize performance of I/O task processing.