Extensible job submission

• US 20070294697A1
• Filed: 04/23/2007
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Theimer, Marvin, Smith, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,381,214 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5013 Request control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5014 Reservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

Briefly, aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to job submission. In aspects, a client (which itself may be a scheduler) sends a request to a scheduler to execute a job. The client may indicate which extensions to a base job submission protocol the client supports. The scheduler may implement a base case protocol and may also implement extensions to the base case. The client and scheduler may communicate information and requests about a job based on extensions both support, if any. The scheduler maintains state information about executing jobs that may include substate information without affecting interoperability with clients that do not recognize substates. A job may be in multiple substates at the same time.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computer, the method comprising:

receiving, at a scheduler, a request to execute a job;

updating a data structure that indicates a state and a substate associated with the job, wherein the state includes the substate, wherein the state is one of a plurality of states that may be associated with the job depending on a status of the job; and

providing information including the state or the state and the substate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request indicates whether an entity making the request recognizes the substate.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the state and the substate are provided if the entity recognizes the substate.

4. the method of claim 2, wherein the substate is not provided if the entity does not recognize the substate.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the substate is provided regardless of whether the entity recognizes the substate and is ignored by the entity if the entity does not recognize the substate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of states is not a substate of any other state of a state machine associated with the status of the job.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising adding the substate to the state machine without adding any additional transitions between any of the plurality of states.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes other data about the job in addition to the state and the substate.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform actions, comprising:

sending, to a scheduler, a request to execute a job, wherein states are associated with a current status of the job;

receiving an identifier that is associated with the job; and

receiving information that indicates the current state and a substate of the job.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the request includes an indication a substate to indicate in the information.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the identifier uniquely identifies the job to the scheduler.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the substate is one of a plurality of substates that the job is currently in, and wherein the information further indicates the plurality of substates.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the states are represented by a state machine having transitions between the states, further comprising extending the state machine without adding a transition between the states.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the states comprise new, pending, running, failed, cancelled, and finished.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the substate includes one of running:

migrating, running;

stage-in, running;

executing, running;

stage-out, and running;

suspended.

16. In a computing environment, an apparatus, comprising:

a data store operable to store data that includes information about a state of a job;

a communication component operable to receive requests and to send some or all of the information about the state of the job; and

a component operable to monitor the state of the job and to update the information as the state changes, wherein at least one of the states includes a substate, and wherein the job may be in multiple substates simultaneously.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the all of the information about the state includes state and substate information that indicates the state and one or more substates that the job is in.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication component is further operable to send the all of the information in response to a request from a client that is capable of recognizing the one or more substates.

19. the apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication component is operable to omit information regarding the substates when communicating with a client that is not capable of recognizing the one or more substates.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication component is further operable to receive a list of schedulers involved in a job and further comprising a cycle detection component operable to detect cycles within the list.