Method and system for load balancing of computing resources

• US 20080222647A1
• Filed: 05/19/2008
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adam R. Holley, David Bruce Kumhyr, Neil Allen Taylor, Vijay K. Aggarwal
• Original Assignee: Adam R. Holley, David Bruce Kumhyr, Neil Allen Taylor, Vijay K. Aggarwal
• Inventors: Kumhyr, David Bruce, Holley, Adam R., Taylor, Neil Allen, Aggarwal, Vijay K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,219,998 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A load balancing method incorporates temporarily inactive machines as part of the resources capable of executing tasks during heavy process requests periods to alleviate some of the processing load on other computing resources. This method determines which computing resources are available and prioritizes these resources for access by the load balancing process. A snap shot of the resource configuration and made secured along with all data on this system such that no contamination occurs between resident data on that machine and any data placed on that machine as put of the load balancing activities. After a predetermined period of time or a predetermined event, the availability of the temporary resources for load balancing activities ends. At this point, the original configuration and data is restored to the computing resource such that no trace of use of the resource in load balancing activities is detected to the user.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. (canceled)

3. (canceled)

4. (canceled)

5. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

29. The method as described in claim 6 further comprising before said managing step, the step of configuring each temporarily available computing resource for use in load balancing operations.

7. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

32. The method as described in claim 11 wherein said managing step further comprises the steps of:

detecting a request for a computing resource;

determining the resource capabilities necessary to execute a computing task that is the subject of the request;

determining the order of use of all available computing machines as needed to perform the load balancing function.

12. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

16. (canceled)

17. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

21. A method for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing resources in the performance of computing tasks and comprising the steps of:

identifying temporarily inactive computing machines that may be available for load balancing operations;

determining which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations;

securing the current configuration of each computing that qualifies for load balancing operations;

prioritizing the qualifying computing machines for use during load balancing operations;

managing the computing load of machines on a computing system and assigning tasks to the qualified computing machines as part of the load balancing operations; and

reinstalling the secured current computing configurations for each qualifying computing machine at the completion of the load balancing operations.

22. The method as described in claim 21 wherein said determining which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations step further comprises:

determining the amount of continuous time a temporary computing source will be available;

determining the security level of a computing resource, the security level can be based on a combination of one or several parameters, which include the types of tasks performed on that computing machine, the data stored and the function of a user of the machine.

23. The method as described in claim 21 wherein said prioritizing step further comprises:

determining the priority level of a computing machine based on the level of user having access to that computing machine users; and

assigning the determined priority level to the computing device.

24. The method as described in claim 22 wherein said determining which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations step further comprises:

determining whether a particular computing machine has a security level in the predetermine range for the computing machine to be used in load balancing operations; and

disqualifying a computing machine with a security level not in the range for use in load balancing operations.

25. The method as described in claim 24 further comprising the step of tagging a machine as available for use load balancing operations.

26. The method as described in claim 21 further comprising before the performance of load balancing operations, the step of determining a maximum load capacity for a computing machine in the load balancing operations.

27. The method as described in claim 26 wherein said managing step further comprises the steps of:

detecting a request for a computing resource;

determining the resource capabilities necessary to execute a computing task that is the subject of the request;

identifying an available computing resource having the lowest priority; and

installing the task on that computing resource for execution.

28. The method as described in claim 27 further comprising the step of updating the capacity status of the computing resource in which the task was installed for execution to reflect the new load on that particular computing resource.

30. The method as described in claim 27 wherein said identifying step further comprises the step of determining whether a computer resource has a sufficient amount of continuous time to perform a requested task.

31. The method as described in claim 21 wherein said identifying step further comprises:

identifying all computing machines of a computing system that are available for load balancing operations and wherein said wherein said determination of which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations further comprises determine which of all identified computing machines qualify for load balancing operations.

33. A system for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing resources in the performance of computing tasks comprising:

primary computing devices initially designated for load balancing operations;

secondary computing devices determined to qualify for load balancing operations;

a storage device;

a software program for processing computing devices used in load balancing operations; and

a software program for balancing a computer load between computing devices.

34. The system as described in claim 33 wherein said processing program further comprises:

a software module for determining the availability of a computing device as a secondary computing device;

a software module for prioritizing the secondary computing devices;

a software module for securing and storing the current configuration of each secondary computing device and a software module for re-installing the secured and stored current configuration of each secondary device.

35. The system as described in claim 33 wherein said load balancing program further comprises:

a module for monitoring the load of a computing system; and

a module for determining the availability of a computing device to execute a task and assigning task to secondary devices to execute the task.

36. The system as described in claim 33 further comprising a system resource for determining which system are used first according to the need of the load balancer.

40. The method as described in claim 36 wherein said managing step further comprises the steps of:

detecting a request for a computing resource;

determining the resource capabilities necessary to execute a computing task that is the subject of the request;

identifying an available computing resource having the lowest priority; and

installing the task on that computing resource for execution.

37. A computer system program for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing resources in the performance of computing tasks and comprising:

instructions for identifying temporarily inactive computing machines that may be available for load balancing operations;

instructions for determining which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations;

instructions for securing the current configuration of each computing that qualifies for load balancing operations;

instructions for prioritizing the qualifying computing machines for use during load balancing operations;

instructions for managing the computing load of machines on a computing system and assigning tasks to the qualified computing machines as part of the load balancing operations; and

instructions for reinstalling the secured current computing configurations for each qualifying computing machine at the completion of the load balancing operations.

38. The computer system program as described in claim 37 wherein said determining which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations instructions further comprise:

instructions for determining the amount of continuous time a temporary computing source will be available; and

instructions for determining the security level of a computing resource, the security level can be based on a combination of one or several parameters which include the types of tasks performed on that computing machine, the data stored and the function of a user of the machine.

39. The computer system program as described in claim 37 wherein said prioritizing instructions further comprise:

instructions for determining the priority level of a computing machine based on the level of user having access to that computing machine users; and

instructions for assigning the determined priority level to the computing device.