System and method for describing and automatically managing resources

• US 20050193115A1
• Filed: 03/14/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burton, William G., Sacheti, Arun K., Chellis, Eugene C., Cole, Justin, VandenBerg, Christopher, Mohan, Siva
• Granted Patent: US 7,257,635 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]

Abstract

A system and method for automatically allocating resources is provided. The system includes one or more components for automatically allocating one or more resources, based at least in part on data associated with the one or more resources, the data including at least one of, type data, instance data, characteristic data, and dynamically modifiable metadata. An alternative aspect of the system provides one or more components for automatically allocating one or more resources distributed on a plurality of resource allocation servers. The one or more components for automatically allocating the one or more resources can improve utilization of the capacity of the one or more resources. In an alternative embodiment the system includes an Application Programming Interface (API) operable to configure and/or control the one or more components for automatically allocating one or more resources.

Claims

1. A system for automatically and dynamically allocating resources, comprising:

one or more allocating components adapted to automatically allocate one or more resources, based at least in part on data associated with the one or more resources, the data including at least one of type data, instance data and modifiable metadata, where at least one of the type data, instance data and modifiable metadata are dynamically modifiable; and

one or more storing components adapted to store data associated with the one or more resources, the data including at least one of type data, instance data and dynamically modifiable metadata.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an Application Programming Interface (API) that configures and/or controls the one or more components for automatically allocating the one or more resources.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the type data includes at least one of resource identifying data and resource characteristic data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instance data includes at least one of an instance identifier, availability status, capacity information, allocation statistics, grouping information and dependency on another instance.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata is dynamically modifiable and includes at least one of data concerning the instance data, data concerning the type data, dependency relationships between services and resources, dependency relationships between resources and resources and constraint information indicating undesired relationships and preference information indicating affinity relationships.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a monitoring component that monitors usage of the one or more resources, the monitoring component can perform at least one of accepting feedback data concerning usage of the one or more resources and producing feedback data concerning usage of the one or more resources.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a reallocating component that reallocates usage of one or more resources, based at least in part on the feedback data concerning usage of the one or more resources.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a discovery component that discovers resources, the discovery component produces discovery data when at least one of a new resource is discovered, the number of resources changes and the type of one or more resources changes.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an Application Programming Interface (API) that facilitates manually allocating one or more resources.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

an updating component that dynamically updates data concerning a resource, wherein updating the data includes one of adding new resource data, changing existing resource data and removing existing resource data, and where changing existing resource data includes one of changing a resource type, changing a resource characteristic, changing resource relationship data and changing resource dependency data.

11. A method for automatically and dynamically allocating resources, comprising:

noticing a resource allocation initiating event, where the initiating event is associated with resource allocation information;

automatically allocating one or more resources, wherein the one or more resources are associated with at least one of type data, instance data, characteristic data and resource metadata and where the automatic allocation is based, at least in part on at least one of the type data, instance data, characteristic data and resource metadata; and

updating at least one of the type data, instance data, characteristic data and resource metadata in response to the automatic allocation.

12. The method of claim 11, where the resource allocation initiating event is at least one of receiving a resource allocation request, receiving an interrupt and receiving a signal.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising returning a reply related to a resource allocation request.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the resources are allocated according to at least one of a provisioning algorithm and one or more allocation rules.

20. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 11.

15. A system for automatically and dynamically allocating one or more resources, comprising:

means for noticing a resource allocation initiating event, where data associated with the resource allocation initiating event specifies one or more desired resources to be allocated;

means for storing information concerning one or more resources available to be allocated, the information including at least one of type data, instance data, characteristic data and metadata; and

means for resolving one or more dependencies between the one or more available resources.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising means for resolving one or more affinities between the one or more available resources.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising means for selecting an algorithm to allocate the one or more available resources.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising means for selecting one or more chosen resources to allocate in response to the resource allocation requests.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising means for allocating one or more chosen resources in response to the resource allocation request;

and

means for updating the information concerning the one or more available resources, the information including at least one of type data, instance data, characteristic data and metadata.