System for autonomically improving performance of Enterprise Java Beans through dynamic workload management

• US 20060167892A1
• Filed: 01/27/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dickerson, Scott Stephen, Chagoly, Bryan Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,769,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program for dynamically changing the weightings used by a workload distribution program to distribute Enterprise JavaBeans among a group of application servers handling EJBs. The changes are made in response to real-time measurements of the performance of EJBs involved in e-business transactions based on the dynamic insertion of monitors within the EJBs to measure their class and method performance from within the J2EE server. The performance data can be tracked for specific users or specific types of transactions, so that the servers are weighted for optimal handling of the most critical EJBs.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a plurality of application servers configured to run enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs);

a work-load management program configured to pass EJBs to ones of said plurality of servers according to a respective weighting assigned to each of said plurality of servers;

a monitoring program configured to monitor a plurality of selected EJBs on said plurality of servers and to record selected execution information for respective ones of said plurality of servers;

wherein said monitoring program is configured to periodically compare said selected execution information for respective ones of said plurality of servers and upon detection of a given difference therebetween, causing the value of at least one of said respective weightings to be changed.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said selected execution information includes the number of times on each of said cluster of servers that an execution time for a monitored EJB exceeded a respective threshold.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said monitoring program comprises a plurality of programs running on respective ones of said servers.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said respective weighting values are changed by a first amount that can be user-input.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein if one of said respective weighting values reaches a maximum value, a message is sent to a console noting that an additional server should be added to said cluster of application servers.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein said maximum value can be user-input.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said causing the values of at least one of said respective weightings to be changed includes sending a message to a monitoring server.

8. The computer system of claim 6, wherein said selected EJBs are the EJBs corresponding to a selected set of customers.

9. The computer system of claim 6, wherein said monitoring program is configured to compare said selected execution information at specified intervals that are specified by user input.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said monitoring program monitors said EJBs without modification of source code.

11. A method of administering a cluster of application servers configured to run enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), comprising the steps of:

dividing a workload of EJBs among ones of said cluster of servers according to respective weighting values associated with said ones of said cluster of application servers;

monitoring a plurality of selected EJBs on said plurality of servers and recording selected execution information for respective ones of said plurality of servers;

periodically comparing said selected execution information for respective ones of said plurality of servers; and

upon detection of a given difference between execution information for said respective ones of said plurality of servers, dynamically changing at least one of said respective weighting values.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said monitoring step is performed by a plurality of programs, each running on ones of said cluster of application servers.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said monitoring step additionally determines an average time EJBs spend in each of said servers.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said monitoring program is configured to check for violations at an interval that is specified by user input.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said dynamically changing step changes said weighting values by a first amount that can be user-input.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein a monitoring server performs said dynamically changing step.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein said periodically comparing step is performed at intervals set by a user.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of sending a message to a console, noting that an additional server should be added to said cluster of application servers, if one of said respective weighting values reaches a maximum value.

19. The method of claim 11,

wherein the monitoring step monitors monitors the occurrence of any violations of execution limits by EJBs running on ones of said cluster of servers;

and

the periodically comparing step compares respective numbers of violations for each of said cluster of servers.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of receiving said maximum value from a user.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein said monitoring step monitors only given EJBs.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said given EJBs are associated with specific customers.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein said monitoring step is performed without change to user source code.

24. A computer program product in a computer-readable media for managing a cluster of application servers configured to run EJBs, said computer program comprising:

workload instructions for dividing a load of EJBs among said cluster of application servers according to weighting values associated with ones of said cluster of application servers;

monitoring instructions for monitoring the occurrence of any violations of specified time limits by EJBs running on ones of said cluster of servers;

comparison instructions for comparing respective numbers of violations for each of said servers;

changing instructions for dynamically changing, if respective ones of said number of violations differ by a given amount, at least one of respective weighting values associated with said application servers.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said monitoring instructions are performed by a plurality of programs, each running on ones of said cluster of application servers.

26. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said monitoring instructions additionally determine an average time EJBs spend on each of said servers.

27. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said computer program product is configured to check for violations at an interval that is specified by user input.

28. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said changing instruction for dynamically changing weighting values changes said weighting values by a first amount that can be user-input.

29. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein a monitoring supervisor performs said changing instructions.

30. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said comparison instructions are performed at intervals set by a user.

31. The computer program product of claim 24, further comprising of sending instructions for sending a message to a console, noting that an additional server should be added to said cluster of application servers, if one of said respective weighting values reaches a maximum value.

32. The computer program product of claim 31, further comprising receiving instructions for receiving said maximum value from a user.

33. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said monitoring instructions monitor only given EJBs.

34. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein said given EJBs correspond to specific customers.

35. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein said monitoring instructions are performed without changes to source code.