Self-aware and self-healing computing system

• US 20070053252A1
• Filed: 08/30/2005
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gangadhar, Deepak
• Granted Patent: US 7,484,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 369/36.10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1423 by reconfiguration of paths
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

Autonomic computing systems are self-aware and self-healing. Microstates of components of a system are organized into macrostates, and the macrostates are organized into meta-dynamic states (MDS'"'"'s). When the system is perturbed, it is determined whether the system enters a given undesirable MDS. Where the system will enter an undesirable MDS, a microstate/MDS graph (MMG) is constructed depicting which meta-dynamic states the system enters when its microstates are changed. A self-heal graph (SHG) is constructed from the MMG. The undesirable MDS is at the center of, and a desired MDS is at the periphery of, the SHG. The SHG has paths from the undesirable MDS to the desired MDS, each path having an associated cost incurred if the system moves along the path. An optimal path is selected from these paths that have the lowest associated costs. The system moved on the selected optimal path to reach the desired MDS.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

organizing a computing system into a plurality of meta-dynamic states, the computing system having a plurality of components, each component having a plurality of microstates, the microstates of the components organized into a plurality of macrostates of the computing system, the macrostates organized into the meta-dynamic states;

monitoring the computing system, such that perturbations of the computing system are detected;

where a perturbation of the computing system will result in movement thereof to a new meta-dynamic state,

determining whether the new meta-dynamic state is undesirable;

where the new meta-dynamic state is undesirable,

determining a path to cause the computing system to move back to a desirable meta-dynamic state; and

,

causing the computing system to move on the path to the desirable meta-dynamic state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein organizing the computing system into the meta-dynamic states comprises:

organizing the microstates of the components into the macrostates of the computing system; and

,

organizing the macrostates of the computing system into the meta-dynamic states.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each microstate represents a state a component of the computing system is able to individually enter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each macrostate represents a state the computing system is able to enter as a whole.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the macrostates are organized into attractors and basins of attraction, each attractor being a stable state in which the computing system is stable, and each basin of attraction being a transient state in which the computing system is unstable, but which leads to one of the attractors.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising constructing an attractor separation map indicating how the attractors are separated from one another by a plurality of hamming distances, each hamming distance being a number of bits that differ between two attractors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta-dynamic states having a dynamic system invariance property, such that the computing system is capable of being in different macrostates when in a meta-dynamic state, but remains dynamically invariant regardless of which macrostate the computing system is in.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising organizing the meta-dynamic states into a plurality of desirable meta-dynamic states, a plurality of undesirable meta-dynamic states, and a plurality of transient meta-dynamic states.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each desirable and undesirable meta-dynamic state is a stable meta-dynamic state of the computing system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein each transient meta-dynamic state is an unstable meta-dynamic state of the computing system, such that the computing system automatically proceeds to one of the desirable and undesirable meta-dynamic state from the transient meta-dynamic state over time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a path to cause the computing system to move back to a desirable meta-dynamic state comprises:

constructing a microstate/meta-dynamic state graph that depicts which of the meta-dynamic states the computing system enters when one or more of the microstates are changed according to one or more parameters,

wherein construction of the microstate/meta-dynamic state graph is completed when the desirable meta-dynamic state has been reached from the new meta-dynamic state that is undesirable.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more parameters comprise:

a maximum number of components that the computing system is able to force a microstate change on at the same time;

a cost associated with each microstate change that the computing system is able to force;

a time limit for how long movement of the computing system to the desirable meta-dynamic state from the new meta-dynamic state that is undesirable is able to maximally take; and

,

a desired meta-dynamic state that is the desirable meta-dynamic state to which the computing system is to move.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein determining a path to cause the computing system to move back to a desirable meta-dynamic state further comprises:

construing a self-heal graph from the microstate/meta-dynamic state graph, such that the new meta-dynamic state that is undesirable is at a center of the self-heal graph, and the desirable meta-dynamic state is at a periphery of the self-heal graph,

wherein the self-heal graph comprises a plurality of paths from the new meta-dynamic state that is undesirable to the desirable meta-dynamic state, each path having an associated cost that is incurred for the computing system to move along the path from the new meta-dynamic state that is undesirable to the desirable meta-dynamic state.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining a path to cause the computing system to move back to a desirable meta-dynamic state further comprises:

selecting an optimal path from the paths from the meta-dynamic state that is undesirable to the desirable meta-dynamic state that have lowest associated costs,

wherein the optimal path is the path that the computing system is caused to move on to the desirable meta-dynamic state.

15. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon to perform a method comprising:

organizing a plurality of microstates of a plurality of components of a computing system into a plurality of macrostates of the computing system;

organizing macrostates of the computing system into a plurality of meta-dynamic states of the computing system;

organizing the meta-dynamic states into a plurality of desirable meta-dynamic states, a plurality of undesirable meta-dynamic states, and a plurality of transient meta-dynamic states;

in response to the computing system being perturbed, where the computing system will enter or has entered a given undesirable meta-dynamic state,

constructing a microstate/meta-dynamic state graph that depicts which of the meta-dynamic states the computing system enters when one or more of the microstates are changed according to a maximum number of components that the computing system is able to force a microstate change on, a cost associated with each microstate change, and a time limit for how long movement of the computing system to a desired meta-dynamic state is able to maximally take;

constructing a self-heal graph from the microstate/meta-dynamic state graph, such that the given undesirable meta-dynamic state is at a center of the self-heal graph, and the desired meta-dynamic state is at a periphery of the self-heal graph, the self-heal graph having a plurality of paths from the given undesirable meta-dynamic state to the desired meta-dynamic state, each path having an associated cost that is incurred for the computing system to move along the path;

selecting an optimal path from the paths from the given undesirable meta-dynamic state to the desired meta-dynamic state that have lowest associated costs; and

,

causing the computing system to move on the optimal path selected to the desired meta-dynamic state.

16. A computing system comprising:

a first component to monitor a target computing system to detect perturbations of the target computing system resulting in movement thereof to new meta-dynamic states, and to determine whether the new meta-dynamic states are undesirable; and

,

a second component to cause the target computing system to move along paths to desired meta-dynamic states where the first component has determined that the new meta-dynamic states are undesirable,

wherein the target computing system comprises a plurality of components, each component having a plurality of microstates organized into a plurality of macrostates of the target computing system, the macrostates organized into a plurality of meta-dynamic states.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the computing system is capable of being in different macrostates when in a given meta-dynamic state, but remains dynamically invariant when in the given meta-dynamic state regardless of which macrostate the target computing system is in.

18. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the second component is to construct a microstate/meta-dynamic state graph depicting which of the meta-dynamic states the target computing system enters when one or more of the microstates have been changed according to one or more parameters.

19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the second component is to construct a self-heal graph from the microstate/meta-dynamic state graph, such that an undesirable meta-dynamic state is at a center of the self-heal graph, and a desired meta-dynamic state is at a periphery of the self-heal graph.

20. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the target computing system is part of the computing system and is an autonomic computing system.