Workload scheduler with cumulative weighting indexes

• US 20050132167A1
• Filed: 06/24/2004
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Longobardi, Giuseppe
• Granted Patent: US 7,441,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A workload scheduler supporting the definition of a cumulative weighting index is proposed. The scheduler maintains (384-386) a profile for each job; the profile (built using statistics of previous executions of the job) defines an estimated usage of different resources of the system by the job. A tuning module imports (304) the attributes of the jobs from the profile. The attributes of each job are rated (306-307) according to an estimated duration of the job. The rated attributes so obtained are then combined (308-320), in order to define a single cumulative index for each job and a single cumulative index for each application (for example, weighting the rated attributes according to corresponding correction factors). In this way, the cumulative indexes allow an immediate comparison (324-356) of the impact of the different jobs/applications of a plan on the whole performance of the system.

Claims

1. A method of scheduling submission of work units for execution on a data processing system, the method including the steps of:

estimating a plurality of attributes for each work unit, each attribute being indicative of the usage of a corresponding resource of the system by the work unit,

combining the attributes of each work unit into a single cumulative index, the index being indicative of a total usage of the resources of the system by the work unit,

defining a plan of execution of the work units for optimizing the total usage of the resources of the system according to the corresponding cumulative indexes, and

submitting the work units of the plan.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of combining the attributes of each work unit into the cumulative index includes:

estimating a duration of the work unit,

calculating a plurality of rated attributes dividing the attributes by the estimated duration, and

calculating the cumulative index according to the rated attributes.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of calculating the cumulative index according to the rated attributes includes:

weighting each rated attribute according to a correction factor associated with the corresponding resource of the system, and

summing the weighted attributes.

4. The method according to claim 3, further including the step of:

dynamically updating each correction factor.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of estimating the plurality of attributes for each work unit includes:

measuring a plurality of metric values each one representing the usage of a corresponding resource of the system by at least one previous instance of the job,

for each resource averaging the corresponding metric values of the at least one previous instance,

and wherein the step of estimating (306) the duration of the work unit includes;

measuring a further metric value representing the duration of the at least one previous instance,

averaging the further metric values of the at least one previous instance.

6. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of:

verifying whether the sum of the cumulative indexes of the work units to be executed concurrently according to the plan exceeds a threshold value.

7. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of:

verifying, for at least one selected resource, whether the sum of the associated rated attributes of the work units to be executed concurrently according to the plan exceeds a corresponding further threshold value.

8. A computer program, directly loadable into a working memory of a data processing system, for performing the method of claim 1 when the program is run on the system.

9. A program product comprising a computer readable medium embodying the program of claim 8.

10. A structure for scheduling submission of work units for execution on a data processing system, the structure including means for estimating a plurality of attributes for each work unit, each attribute being indicative of the usage of a corresponding resource of the system by the work unit, means for combining the attributes of each work unit into a single cumulative index, the cumulative index being indicative of a total usage of the resources of the system by the work unit, means for defining a plan of execution of the work units for optimizing the total usage of the resources of the system according to the corresponding cumulative indexes, and means for submitting the work units of the plan.