Methods, systems, and media to expand resources available to a logical partition

• US 20050044228A1
• Filed: 08/21/2003
• Published: 02/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schardt, Terry L., Grimm, Randall L., Birkestrand, Daniel C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,877,754 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

Methods, systems, and media to expand resources available to logical partition associated with a client are contemplated. Embodiments may associate the logical partition with a grid that retains a list of resources, referred to as grid resources, available for allocation to logical partitions. The grid resources may include resources from, e.g., other logical partitions within the logically partitioned system, logical partitions from other logically partitioned systems, another type of system, a cluster, and the like. Further, one or more of the systems associated with the grid may include on-demand resources that are also available to supplement resources based upon the demands of the client. Embodiments may also monitor resource usage by the client and meter billable usage of the grid resources and/or on-demand resources based upon agreements between service providers and clients.

Claims

1. A method for expanding resources available to a logical partition associated with a client, the method comprising:

associating partition resources of the logical partition with a grid;

providing grid resources from the grid to the logical partition based upon usage of the partition resources, wherein the grid resources are available to the logical partition; and

providing on-demand resources to the logical partition based upon the usage of the partition resources and a usage of the grid resources when the grid resources are available to the logical partition.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising metering a usage of the grid resources by the client to determine a cost to assess the client.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising metering a usage of the on-demand resources by the client to determine a cost to assess the client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein associating partition resources comprises enabling allocations from the grid resources to the logical partition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein associating partition resources comprises registering with the grid at least a portion of partition resources associated with the logical partition, to allow the portion to be allocated to other logical partitions associated with the grid.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing grid resources comprises:

determining an unallocated portion of the grid resources and

allocating the unallocated portion of the grid resources to the logical partition.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing grid resources comprises:

determining that use of partition resources has at least reached a partition utilization threshold and

allocating an unallocated portion of the grid resources to the logical partition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing on-demand resources comprises:

determining that use of partition resources has at least reached a partition utilization threshold;

determining that sufficient resources are unavailable from the grid resources; and

allocating an unallocated portion of the on-demand resources to the logical partition.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing on-demand resources further comprises:

determining that usage of the grid resources has at least reached a grid utilization threshold;

requesting an enablement code to enable the on-demand resources; and

allocating an unallocated portion of the on-demand resources to the logical partition.

10. A method for expanding resources available to logical partitions associated with a client, the method comprising:

registering resources with a grid as grid resources;

allocating grid resources to the logical partition after utilization of partition resources by the logical partition reaches a first utilization threshold;

allocating on-demand resources to the logical partition after the logical partition reaches a second utilization threshold for the grid resources; and

billing the client for usage of the on-demand resources.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising billing the client for usage of the grid resources to offset a cost associated with enabling the on-demand resources.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein billing the client for usage of the on-demand resources comprises billing the client for the on-demand resources allocated to the logical partition based upon actual usage of the on-demand resources.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein billing the client for usage of the on-demand resources comprises billing the client for the on-demand resources allocated to the logical partition based upon a quantity of the on-demand resources allocated and the amount of time for which the quantity of the on-demand resources are allocated.

14. An apparatus for expanding resources available to a logical partition associated with a client of a system having on-demand resources, the apparatus comprising:

a grid associator to associate the logical partition with a grid;

a resource monitor coupled with the grid associator to monitor usage of partition resources associated with the logical partition and usage of grid resources associated with the grid, and coupled with the on-demand resources to allocate the grid resources and the on-demand resources to the logical partition based upon utilization thresholds associated with the partition resources and the grid resources; and

a resource meter coupled with the resource monitor to determine a first rate associated with an allocation of the on-demand resources to the logical partition for billing the client.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource associator comprises a list of resources associated with the grid to identify the grid resources.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource monitor comprises a resource allocator to allocate an unallocated portion of grid resources to the logical partition when the logical partition utilizes at least a threshold utilization of the partition resources.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource monitor comprises a resource allocator to request an enablement code for the on-demand resources and to allocate a portion of the on-demand resources to the logical partition when the logical partition utilizes at least a threshold utilization of the partition resources.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource meter tracks usage of grid resources by the logical partition to determine a second rate to charge the client for allocating the grid resources to the logical partition.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource meter comprises a rate determiner to determine the first rate based upon usage of the grid resources by the client, to offset costs associated with enabling the on-demand resources.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource meter comprises a rate determiner to determine the first rate based upon usage of the on-demand resources by the logical partition to at least recoup costs associated with enabling the on-demand resources.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource meter comprises a rate determiner configured to determine the first rate to charge the client based upon an agreement for allocation of the grid resources and the on-demand resources to the logical partition.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the resource meter comprises a usage log to log allocations of resources to the logical partition to supplement the partition resources for charging the client based upon the allocations.

23. A computer readable medium containing a program which, when executed, performs an operation, comprising:

associating partition resources of a logical partition with a grid;

providing grid resources from the grid to the logical partition based upon usage of the partition resources, wherein the grid resources are available to the logical partition; and

providing on-demand resources to the logical partition based upon the usage of the partition resources and usage of the grid resources when the grid resources are available to the logical partition.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the operation further comprises metering the usage of the grid resources utilized by the logical partition to determine a cost to assess a client associated with the logical partition.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the operation further comprises metering the usage of the on-demand resources utilized by the logical partition to determine a cost to assess a client associated with the logical partition.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein associating partition resources comprises enabling allocation of the grid resources to the logical partition.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein providing grid resources comprises:

determining that use of partition resources has at least reached a partition utilization threshold and

allocating an unallocated portion of the grid resources to the logical partition.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein providing on-demand resources comprises:

determining that use of partition resources has at least reached a partition utilization threshold;

determining that sufficient resources are unavailable from the grid resources; and

allocating an unallocated portion of the on-demand resources to the logical partition.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein providing on-demand resources further comprises

determining that usage of the grid resources has at least reached a grid utilization threshold;

requesting an enablement code to enable the on-demand resources; and

allocating an unallocated portion of the on-demand resources to the logical partition.

30. A method for managing and controlling allocation of resources of a logical partition, comprising:

providing grid resources to the logical partition based upon usage of partition resources; and

providing on-demand resources to the logical partition based upon the usage of the partition resources and a usage of the grid resources.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein providing grid resources to the logical partition comprises:

determining that use of partition resources has at least exceeded a partition utilization threshold; and

in response to the determining, allocating the grid resources to the logical partition.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein providing the on demand resources to the logical partition comprises:

determining that use of grid resources has at least exceeded a grid utilization threshold; and

in response to the determining, allocating the on demand resources to the logical partition.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the grid utilization threshold comprises an amount of grid resources used during a predetermined amount of time.

34. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

applying a first fee for use of the grid resources; and

applying a second fee for use of the on-demand resources.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein at least one of the first fee and the second fee vary based on a factor chosen from the group consisting of a time of day and a time of year.

36. A method for deploying a computer application on a host service provider system, comprising:

installing a computer application on a logical partition of a computer system, the computer system having on-demand resources associated therewith;

associating the logical partition with a grid, the grid having grid resources associated therewith;

configuring the computer system to provide the grid resources to the logical partition based upon usage of the partition resources; and

configuring the computer system to provide the on-demand resources to the logical partition based upon a usage of the grid resources.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

applying a first fee for use of the grid resources; and

applying a second fee for use of the on-demand resources.