POLICY CREATION SUPPORT METHOD, POLICY CREATION SUPPORT SYSTEM, AND PROGRAM THEREFOR

• US 20080228755A1
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Haga, Futoshi, Morimura, Tomohira
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold

Abstract

A policy creation support system is provided, which is capable of reducing cost for creation of an effective autonomic control policy. The policy creation support system measures information indicating performance of a monitoring target system, with regard to a monitoring item of a designated type, for each resource amount of an expandable resource, and selects one representative measurement value from among measurement values on a resource-amount basis. Then, the policy creation support system outputs the monitoring item, the resource amount serving as the monitoring item, and a range of the measurement value corresponding to the resource amount, as a countermeasure decision condition within a policy, by setting a range including the selected representative measurement value as the range of the measurement value.

Claims

1. A policy creation support method for a policy creation support system which is used to control a monitoring target system to satisfy a contract condition, and which supports creation of a policy that contains:

a condition indicating a state of the monitoring target system; and

an action executed if the state of the monitoring target system satisfies the condition,

the condition containing;

a monitoring item serving as a monitoring target in the monitoring target system; and

a range of a measurement value with regard to the monitoring item,

the policy creation support method comprising the following steps executed by the policy creation support system;

a retaining step of retaining a template used to designate a type of the monitoring item necessary for the creation of the policy;

an obtaining step of obtaining the measurement value of each resource amount of a resource serving as an expansion target, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template;

a selecting step of selecting one representative measurement value from among the measurement values, for each resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template; and

an outputting step of outputting the monitoring item, the resource amount serving as the monitoring item, and the range of the measurement value corresponding to the resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, by setting a range including the selected representative measurement value as the range of the measurement value.

2. A policy creation support method according to claim 1, wherein:

the contract condition contains a service level agreement (SLA) which contains;

the monitoring item of the monitoring target system; and

the range of the measurement value to be satisfied by the measurement value with regard to the monitoring item; and

the selecting step includes selecting, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, as the representative measurement value, one of;

a measurement value obtained under a processing load which is closest to a processing load applied when the measurement value, indicating that the monitoring target system is violating the SLA, is obtained; and

a measurement value obtained under a processing load which is lower than the processing load applied when the measurement value, indicating that the monitoring target system is violating the SLA, is obtained and which is closest to the processing load applied when the measurement value, indicating that the monitoring target system is violating the SLA, is obtained.

3. A policy creation support method according to claim 2, further comprising a change amount calculating step of calculating a change amount of the representative measurement value in accordance with a change of the resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, the change amount calculating step being executed by the policy creation support system,

wherein the outputting step includes further outputting the change amount with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template.

4. A policy creation support method according to claim 3, wherein the change amount calculating step includes calculating, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, as the change amount, a difference between the representative measurement value for a minimum resource amount and the representative measurement value for a maximum resource amount.

5. A policy creation support method according to claim 3, wherein the outputting step includes outputting:

the monitoring item having the change amount that is largest, among monitoring items corresponding to the type designated by the template;

the resource amount with regard to the monitoring item; and

the range of the measurement value corresponding to the resource amount.

6. A policy creation support method according to claim 3, wherein the outputting step includes ranking, in descending order in terms of the change amount, the monitoring items corresponding to the type designated by the template, and outputting the monitoring item, the resource amount, and the range of the measurement value, along with information indicating rank.

7. A policy creation support method according to claim 2, wherein the obtaining step includes obtaining the measurement value of each resource amount of the resource serving as a monitoring target, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, from a performance information storage unit which stores performance information of the monitoring target system in a case where a load inputted from a work load simulator has caused SLA violation.

8. A policy creation support method according to claim 1, wherein the retaining step includes receiving the template from outside, and retaining the template in a template storage unit.

9. A policy creation support system, which is used to control a monitoring target system to satisfy a contract condition, and which supports creation of a policy that contains:

a condition indicating a state of the monitoring target system; and

an action executed if the state of the monitoring target system satisfies the condition,

the condition containing;

a monitoring item serving as a monitoring target in the monitoring target system; and

a range of a measurement value with regard to the monitoring item,

the policy creation support system comprising;

a template retaining unit which retains a template used to designate a type of the monitoring item necessary for the creation of the policy;

a measurement value obtaining unit which obtains the measurement value of each resource amount of a resource serving as an expansion target, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template;

a representative measurement value selecting unit which selects one representative measurement value from among the measurement values, for each resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template; and

an outputting unit which outputs the monitoring item, the resource amount serving as the monitoring item, and the range of the measurement value corresponding to the resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, by setting a range including the selected representative measurement value as the range of the measurement value.

10. A program, which causes a computer to function as a policy creation support system that is used to control a monitoring target system to satisfy a contract condition, and that supports creation of a policy that contains:

a condition indicating a state of the monitoring target system; and

an action executed if the state of the monitoring target system satisfies the condition,

the condition containing;

a monitoring item that is a monitoring target in the monitoring target system; and

a range of a measurement value with regard to the monitoring item,

the program causing the computer to implement the following functions;

a template retaining function of retaining a template used to designate a type of the monitoring item necessary for the creation of the policy;

a measurement value obtaining function of obtaining the measurement value of each resource amount of a resource serving as an expansion target, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template;

a representative measurement value selecting function of selecting one representative measurement value from among the measurement values, for each resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template; and

an outputting function of outputting the monitoring item, the resource amount serving as the monitoring item, and the range of the measurement value corresponding to the resource amount, with regard to each monitoring item corresponding to the type designated by the template, by setting a range including the selected representative measurement value as the range of the measurement value.