Managing workload by service

• US 20050038833A1
• Filed: 08/12/2004
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Colrain, Carol, Semler, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,664,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/501 Performance criteria
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers

Abstract

Approaches for manage and measuring workload on computer resources by measuring workload in ways that are independent of physical hardware and that correlate to ways in which it is desirable to measure and manage workload for applications and clients. Specifically, logical abstractions of workload, referred to as services, are defined for a cluster of nodes running a multi-node database server of a database. A service is a category of work hosted on a subset of multi-node database servers, such as work that is performed for an online order entry application. The workload is measured and demarcated by the service no matter which node in a single or multi-node system performs the service, providing a global view of performance realized by the system.

Claims

1. A method for generating information that measures workload in a multi-node system, comprising:

receiving user input that defines categories of work that can be performed by a plurality of nodes in a multi-node system;

storing first data that defines said categories of work; and

each node in the plurality of nodes generating second data that reflects quality of service for work performed by the node for each category of said categories.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of receiving user input includes receiving user input that specifies at least one quality of service requirement for each category of said categories;

based on said second data, determining that a quality of service requirement for a certain category is being violated; and

in response to determining that said performance requirement is being violated, transmitting a message indicating that said performance requirement is being violated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one quality of service requirement is based on a velocity associated with a resource, wherein said velocity reflects a proportion of the resource to provide to execute one or more requests for work of the certain category.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one quality of service requirement is based on a time to elapse to execute one or more requests for work of the certain category.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps further include generating performance grades for a category of said categories, wherein each performance grade of said performance grades indicates a quality of performance realized for a certain category of work on a node relative to other nodes within said multi-node system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each performance grade is based on a velocity associated with a resource, wherein said velocity reflects a proportion of the resource provided to execute requests for work of the certain category of work, wherein said requests occur within an interval of time.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein each performance grade of said performance grades is based on a time that elapsed to execute one or more requests for work of the certain category of work.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating second data includes generating third data that reflects quality of performance for certain work performed on a node for subcategories of at least one category of said categories.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the certain work performed includes certain work performed in response to requests from a client, wherein the client specifies subcategories within which the certain work for the requests is performed.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the method includes establishing a session associated with a user on a node of said plurality of nodes;

the method includes generating third data that specifies a category of said categories that is associated with said session; and

the step of generating second data includes aggregating data, that indicates quality of service realized for said session, according to the category specified by said third data.

11. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving second user input; and

in response to receiving said second user input, generating third data that reflects quality of service realized for subcategories of a category of said categories.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said subcategories include a module and an action as a subcategory of said module.

13. The method of claim 11, further including:

receiving third user input; and

in response to receiving said third user input, ceasing to generate said third data.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each node of said plurality of nodes hosts a database server that manages access to a database; and

wherein the database server performs the step of generating second data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein storing first data includes storing first data in said database.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each node in the plurality of nodes generating second data includes generating data that reflects quality of performance for work performed by a database instance of said database server for a category of said categories.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein generating second data includes:

aggregating performance statistics by said categories; and

periodically computing, based on said performance statistics, performance metrics.