METHOD AND APPARATUS TO DETERMINE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY RELATED TO MOBILITY OF VIRTUAL SERVERS

• US 20080235388A1
• Filed: 03/21/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fried, Eric Philip, Houlihan, John Richard, Grost, David Glenn, Rodriquez, Jorge D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5083 wherein the managed service relates to web hosting

Abstract

A method and system for determining hardware and software compatibility related to mobility of virtual servers. Upon receiving an inventory of properties of a managed server which are relevant for compatibility testing, mandatory and optional properties available for use in a compatibility policy for a WPAR instance running on the managed server are defined. Mandatory compatibility tests are selected based on the mandatory properties in the compatibility policy for the WPAR instance. Optional compatibility tests are selected based on the optional properties in the compatibility policy for the WPAR instance. The selected mandatory and optional compatibility tests are associated with the compatibility policy, wherein the selected tests are executed to compare a profile of a potential target system with the WPAR instance and to determine compatibility of the potential target system with the WPAR instance prior to performing a mobility operation of the WPAR instance.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for defining a compatibility policy for a workload partition instance in a managed server, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to receiving, from a managed server, an inventory of properties of the managed server which are relevant for compatibility testing, defining mandatory properties and optional properties available for use in a compatibility policy for a workload partition instance running on the managed server;

selecting mandatory compatibility tests based on the mandatory properties in the compatibility policy for the workload partition instance;

selecting optional compatibility tests based on the optional properties in the compatibility policy for the workload partition instance; and

associating the selected mandatory compatibility tests and selected optional compatibility tests for the workload partition instance with the compatibility policy, wherein the selected mandatory compatibility tests and selected optional compatibility tests are executed to compare a profile of a potential target system with the workload partition instance and to determine compatibility of the potential target system with the workload partition instance prior to performing a mobility operation of the workload partition instance.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the mandatory compatibility tests include tests comprising common compatibility criteria to be executed for all workload partition instances.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the common compatibility criteria include processor type, revision type, or operating system type of the workload partition instance.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the optional compatibility tests include tests which comprise optional compatibility criteria to be executed for a workload partition instance when specified in the compatibility policy associated with the workload partition instance.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the optional compatibility criteria include memory page size.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the inventory of properties of the managed server are received in a compatibility profile object representing hardware and software properties of the managed server.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the compatibility policy is defined by a user.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the optional compatibility tests are selected by a user.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the defining, selecting, and associating steps are implemented in workload partition manager.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing the potential target system from a list of potential target systems in response to determining the potential target system is not compatible with the workload partition instance.

11. A computer program product for defining a compatibility policy for a workload partition instance in a managed server, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code tangibly embodied thereon, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code for receiving, from a managed server, an inventory of properties of the managed server which are relevant for compatibility testing;

computer usable program code for, defining mandatory properties and optional properties available for use in a compatibility policy for a workload partition instance running on the managed server;

computer usable program code for selecting mandatory compatibility tests based on the mandatory properties in the compatibility policy for the workload partition instance;

computer usable program code for selecting optional compatibility tests based on the optional properties in the compatibility policy for the workload partition instance; and

computer usable program code for associating the selected mandatory compatibility tests and selected optional compatibility tests for the workload partition instance with the compatibility policy, wherein the selected mandatory compatibility tests and selected optional compatibility tests are executed to compare a profile of a potential target system with the workload partition instance and to determine compatibility of the potential target system with the workload partition instance prior to a performing a mobility operation of the workload partition instance.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the mandatory compatibility tests include tests comprising common compatibility criteria to be executed for all workload partition instances.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the common compatibility criteria include processor type, revision type, or operating system type of the workload partition instance.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the optional compatibility tests include tests which comprise optional compatibility criteria to be executed for a workload partition instance when specified in the compatibility policy associated with the workload partition instance.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the optional compatibility criteria include memory page size.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the inventory of properties of the managed server are received in a compatibility profile object representing hardware and software properties of the managed server.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the compatibility policy is defined by a user.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the optional compatibility tests are selected by a user.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for removing the potential target system from a list of potential target systems in response to determining the potential target system is not compatible with the workload partition instance.

20. A data processing system for defining a compatibility policy for a workload partition instance in a managed server, the data processing system comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains computer usable code;

at least one managed device connected to the bus;

a communications unit connected to the bus; and

a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable code to define mandatory properties and optional properties available for use in a compatibility policy for a workload partition instance running on the managed server;

select mandatory compatibility tests based on the mandatory properties in the compatibility policy for the workload partition instance;

select optional compatibility tests based on the optional properties in the compatibility policy for the workload partition instance; and

associate the selected mandatory compatibility tests and selected optional compatibility tests for the workload partition instance with the compatibility policy, wherein the selected mandatory compatibility tests and selected optional compatibility tests are executed to compare a profile of a potential target system with the workload partition instance and to determine compatibility of the potential target system with the workload partition instance prior to a performing a mobility operation of the workload partition instance.