System and method for resource usage prediction in the deployment of software applications

• US 20060075399A1
• Filed: 12/27/2002
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Zaslayski, Victoria, Alingcastre, Roy Allan, Loh, Choo Woon
• Application Number:
  US10/540,947
• Publication Number:
  US 20060075399A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]

Abstract

The invention provides a system and method for predicting a quantity of a resource required for the deployment of a software application on a computing system. The method comprises the steps of providing historical resource utilisation data for deployment of software applications on computing systems, providing a value for a parameter of the computing system relevant to resource utilisation, providing a value for a parameter of the software application relevant to resource utilisation, and utilising the historical resource utilisation data and parameter values to predict the quantity of the resource required for deployment of the software application.

Claims

1. A method for estimating a quantity of a resource required during installation of a software application on a computing system, comprising the steps of accessing a database containing historical resource utilisation data for installation of the software application on other computing systems, selecting a value for a parameter of the computing system relevant to resource utilisation and a value for a parameter of the software application relevant to resource utilisation and using the historical resource utilisation data and the selected parameter values to estimate the quantity of the resource required for installation of the software application.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the historical resource utilisation data includes parameter values of the computing systems and parameter values of the software applications historically installed.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the historical resource utilisation data includes statistics, the statistics being values of the quantities of resources used in the historical installation.

4. A method in accordance with claim 3, wherein the historical resource utilisation data includes at least two parameter/statistic pairs for historical installation.

5. A method in accordance with claim 3, wherein the relationship between the parameter and statistic pairs is derived by applying a statistical model to the parameter/statistic pairs.

6. A method in accordance with claim 4, wherein a relationship is predicted between a statistic and n distinct parameters, where n is any integer greater than or equal to two, comprising the further step of obtaining m_n different values for each parameter P_n, and further obtaining at least m₁m₂ m_n values of a statistic for each distinct combination of parameter values, where m₁m₂ m_n represents the product of values m₁, m₂, . . . m_n.

7. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the relationship between the statistic and the parameter or n parameters is determined by assuming that the relationship between the parameter/statistic pairs takes the form of a straight line.

8. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the equation of the straight line is calculated using co-ordinate geometry.

9. A method in accordance with claim 7, wherein the mathematical model takes the form:

19. A computer program arranged, when loaded on a computing system, to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 9.

20. A computer readable medium providing a computer program in accordance with claim 19.

10. A computing system arranged to facilitate the prediction of a statistic for use in the estimation of resources required during installation of a software application, comprising, a database including historical resource utilisation data of the resources required during installation of software applications on computing systems, means for selecting a value for a parameter of the computing system relevant to resource utilisation, and a value for a parameter of the software application relevant to resource utilisation, and computation means arranged to utilise the historical resource utilisation data and parameter values to estimate the quantity of the resource required for installation of the software application.

11. A system in accordance with claim 10, wherein the historical resource utilisation data includes parameter values of the computing systems and parameter values of the software applications historically installed.

12. A system in accordance with claim 11, wherein the historical resource utilisation data includes statistics, the statistics being values of the quantities of resources used in the historical installation.

13. A system in accordance with claim 12, wherein the historical resource utilisation data includes at least two parameter/statistic pairs for historical installation.

14. A system in accordance with claim 13, wherein the relationship between the parameter and statistic pairs is derived by applying a statistical model to the parameter/statistic pairs.

15. A system in accordance with claim 14, wherein a relationship is predicted between a statistic and n distinct parameters, where n is any integer greater than or equal to two, comprising the further step of obtaining m_n different values for each parameter P_n, and further obtaining at least m₁m₂ m_n values of a statistic for each distinct combination of parameter values, where m₁m₂ m_n represents the product of values m₁, m₂, . . . m_n.

16. A system in accordance with claim 15, wherein the relationship between the statistic and the parameter or n parameters is determined by assuming that the relationship between the parameter/statistic pairs takes the form of a straight line.

17. A system in accordance with claim 16, wherein the equation of the straight line is calculated using co-ordinate geometry.

18. A system in accordance with claim 17, wherein the mathematical model takes the form:

21. A method for building a model for use in the prediction of resources required for the installation of a software application, the method comprising the steps of collecting historical resource utilisation data of resources utilised during the installation of software applications on computing systems, and storing the historical resource usage data.

22. A model comprising historical resource utilisation data of resources utilised during the installation of software applications on computing systems, the data being stored in a database.