Assembly and method for balancing processors in a partitioned server

• US 20040199632A1
• Filed: 03/21/2003
• Published: 10/07/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Romero, Francisco J., Crawford, Isom
• Granted Patent: US 7,451,183 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

A system and method for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server. The method includes determining that a partition of the partitioned server requires activation of a reserve processor, determining that another partition of the partitioned server has an active processor that may be deactivated, activating the reserve processor, and deactivating the active processor. An article of manufacture including a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server.

Claims

1. A method for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server, the method comprising:

identifying in a partitioned server a first partition having at least one reserve processor available for activation to meet the service level objectives associated with the applications running on the first partition;

identifying in the partitioned server a second partition having at least one active processor which is not allocated;

activating the at least one reserve processor in the first partition; and

deactivating the at least one active processor in the second partition.

2. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising collecting active processor requests in the first partition.

3. The method of claim 2 additionally comprising adjusting the active processor requests in accordance with the number of reserve processors in the first partition.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of reserve processor activated is equal to the number of active processors deactivated.

7. A partitioned server produced in accordance with the method of claim 1.

5. A method for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server, the method comprising:

collecting from a partitioned server an active-processor resource request at a first priority level;

determining that all active processor resources for all partitions in the partitioned server have already been allocated at the first priority level;

collecting from each partition in the partitioned server active-processor resource requests at a second priority level which is lower than the first priority level;

identifying in the partitioned server a first partition having at least one active processor which is not allocated at the second priority level;

identifying in the partitioned server a second partition having at least one reserve processor and which is requesting at least one active processor at the second priority level;

activating the at least one reserve processor in the second partition; and

deactivating the at least one active processor in the first partition.

6. The method of claim 5 additionally comprising adjusting the active-processor resource requests at the second priority level to take into account whether there are reserve processors available in the partitions that are capable of satisfying the active-processor resource requests at the second priority level.

8. A partitioned server produced in accordance with the method of claim 5.

9. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for;

identifying in a partitioned server a first partition having at least one reserve processor available for activation at to meet the service level objectives associated with the applications running on the first partition;

identifying in the partitioned server a second partition having at least one active processor which is not allocated;

activating the at least one reserve processor in the first partition; and

deactivating the at least one active processor in the second partition.

10. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for;

collecting from a partitioned server an active-processor resource request at a first priority level;

determining that all active processor resources for all partitions in the partitioned server have already been allocated at the first priority level;

collecting from each partition in the partitioned server active-processor resource requests at a second priority level which is lower than the first priority level;

identifying in the partitioned server a first partition having at least one active processor which is not allocated at the second priority level;

identifying in the partitioned server a second partition having at least one reserve processor and which is requesting at least one active processor at the second priority level;

activating the at least one reserve processor in the second partition; and

deactivating the at least one active processor in the first partition.

11. A system for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server comprising:

a workload manager; and

a partitioned server coupled to the workload manager and including a plurality of partitions having active processors and a number of reserve processors.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the number of reserve processors remains the same regardless of the number of active processors deactivated and the number of reserve processors activated.

13. A system for automatically allocating computing resources in a partitioned server comprising:

a partitioned server including a plurality of partitions having at least one activated processor which had been deactivated and at least one deactivated processor which had been activated; and

means, coupled to the partitioned server, for determining that a first partition of a partitioned server requires the activation of at least one reserve processor and for determining that a second partition of the partitioned server has at least one active processor that may be deactivated.

14. A method for automatically balancing processors across partitions of a partitioned server, the method comprising:

determining that a first partition of a partitioned server requires the activation of at least one reserve processor;

determining that a second partition of the partitioned server has at least one active processor that may be deactivated;

activating the at least one reserve processor in the first partition; and

deactivating the at least one active processor in the second partition.