Autonomic method, system and program product for managing processes

• US 20050091654A1
• Filed: 10/28/2003
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lection, David B., Subramanian, Balan, Salahshoor, Mohamad R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,544,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

An improved solution for managing processes. In particular, resources are allocated to processes based on a determination of the available resources and an anticipated benefit for each process. The anticipated benefit can be derived from a current status of the process (e.g., lagging or accelerated) and/or benefit knowledge learned from past executions of the process using diverse resource sets. One or more additional attributes, such as resource dependency between processes, can also be considered before allocating resources.

Claims

1. A method of managing processes, the method comprising:

determining a set of available resources;

determining a set of lagging processes; and

determining an anticipated benefit for the set of available resources for each process in the set of lagging processes

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating the set of available resources to at least one of the set of lagging processes based on the anticipated benefit.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the set of lagging processes comprises a most responsive process for the set of available resources.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing each process using its allocated resources.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising reallocating a resource allocated to an accelerated process to one of the set of lagging processes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating the set of available resources to an accelerated process, wherein the accelerated process comprises a most responsive process for the set of available resources.

7. A method of managing processes, the method comprising:

determining a set of available resources;

determining an anticipated benefit for the set of available resources for each process based on learned benefit knowledge; and

allocating at least some of the set of available resources to a process based on the anticipated benefits.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the process comprises a most responsive process for the set of available resources.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining an anticipated time savings for each process based on the anticipated benefit and a desired execution period.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein a plurality of the processes comprise sub-processes of a first process, further comprising determining a performance benefit for the first process.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining a set of lagging processes.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the allocating step includes allocating at least some of the set of available resources to at least one of the set of lagging processes based on the anticipated benefits for the set of lagging processes.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

allocating a set of required resources to each process; and

executing each process using the allocated resources.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing an execution result and a lag time of a first process to a second process, wherein the second process requires the first process to complete execution before starting to execute.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the allocating step is further based on a minimum amount of the set of available resources that is required for the anticipated benefit.

16. A system for managing processes, the system comprising:

a resource system for determining an availability of resources;

a benefit system for determining an anticipated benefit for each process based on a set of available resources and learned benefit knowledge; and

an allocation system for allocating resources to processes based on the anticipated benefits.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a status system for determining a status of each process, wherein the allocation system further allocates resources based on the status of each process.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising an execution system for executing each process using the allocated resources.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the anticipated benefit is based on a set of entries stored in a benefit knowledge database.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each entry in the set of entries includes a relative performance change and a corresponding set of additional resources.

21. A program product stored on a recordable medium for managing processes, which when executed comprises:

program code for determining an availability of resources;

program code for determining an anticipated benefit for each process based on a set of available resources and learned benefit knowledge; and

program code for allocating the set of available resources to a process based on the anticipated benefits.

22. The program product of claim 21, further comprising program code for determining a status of each process, wherein the program code for allocating is further based on the status of each process.

23. The program product of claim 21, further comprising program code for executing each process using the allocated resources.