Methods and Architectures for Resource Management

• US 20070083868A1
• Filed: 09/01/2006
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sankaranarayan, Mukund, Srinivasan, Jai, Raffman, Andy
• Granted Patent: US 8,375,393 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5014 Reservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5015 Service provider selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5021 Priority
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or s more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates s access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. A resource consumer creates an “activity” at the resource manager and builds one or more “configurations” that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity.

Claims

1. A resource management method comprising:

representing, as a hierarchical tree structure, a plurality of resources that are needed by a resource consumer to perform a task, each resource being associated with a resource provider that manages its particular resource, at least one of the resources being represented as a parent node, at least one other resource being represented as a child node of the parent node;

monitoring for a particular condition associated with a particular resource; and

in the event that the particular condition is detected for the resource that is associated with the child node, notifying the resource provider that is associated with the child node.

2. The resource management method of claim 1 further comprising notifying a resource consumer in the event that the particular condition is detected.

3. The resource management method of claim 2, wherein the particular condition pertains to a resource becoming available that previously was not available.

4. The resource management method of claim 2, wherein the particular condition pertains to a resource that was previously available becoming not available.

5. The resource management method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of resources are capable of being requested for reservation by the resource consumer, and said particular condition occurs when a reservation for a resource cannot be made

6. The resource management method of claim 1, wherein said particular condition occurs when another task frees at least a portion of one or more resources that one or more potential resource consumers can utilize.

7. The resource management method of claim 1 further comprising reserving the plurality of resources for the task, and said particular condition occurs when another task preempts one or more of the resources.

8. The resource management method of claim 1 further comprising notifying the resource provider that is associated with the parent node.

9. The resource management method of claim 8, wherein the notifying of the resource provider that is associated with the parent node comprises:

notifying said resource provider that is associated with the parent node with a notification that is specific to the resource provider from which the notification originated;

translating the specific notification into a different form of notification; and

using the different form of notification to notify the resource consumer that the resource with which the child node is associated is not available.

10. The resource management method of claim 9, wherein said using of the different form of notification comprises presenting one or more options to the resource consumer that can be selected by the resource consumer to still perform the task, but with a different configuration of the resources.

11. The resource management method of claim 1 further comprising attempting to remedy the particular condition using the notified resource provider so that the task can still be performed.

12. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, implements the method of claim 1.

13. A resource management method comprising:

defining a chain of resource providers each of which being associated with a different resource that can be consumed by a resource consumer to perform a task;

reporting an error concerning one of the resources to a resource provider; and

troubleshooting the error with the resource provider without reporting the error to the resource consumer so that the task can be performed.

14. The resource management method of claim 13, wherein said reporting comprises reporting the error to the resource provider with which the resource is associated.

15. A resource management method comprising:

defining a chain of resource providers each of which being associated with a different resource that can be consumed by a resource consumer to perform a task;

reporting an error concerning one of the resources to the resource provider with which it is associated;

reporting the error up the chain of resource providers; and

reporting the error from a resource provider at the top of the chain to the resource consumer.

16. The resource management method of claim 15, wherein said reporting comprises presenting the resource consumer with at least one option that will enable the task to be performed with a different configuration of resources.

17. A resource management method comprising:

defining a chain of resource providers each of which being associated with a different resource that can be consumed by a resource consumer to perform a task;

reporting an availability of a resource to a resource provider;

reporting the availability of the resource up the chain of resource providers; and

reporting the availability of the resource from a resource provider in the chain of resource providers to the resource consumer.