SERIALIZATION IN COMPUTER MANAGEMENT

• US 20090172682A1
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: BOBAK, Mythili K., SWANSON, Michael D., MCCONNELL, Tim A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,365,185 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Processes are programmatically categorized into a plurality of categories, which are prioritized. Serialization is used to control execution of the processes of the various categories. The serialization ensures that processes of higher priority categories are given priority in execution. This includes temporarily preventing processes of lower priority categories from being executed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing processing within a computing environment, said method comprising:

programmatically providing, without user intervention, a plurality of categories of processes, said plurality of categories having a plurality of priorities associated therewith; and

programmatically preventing execution of a process of one category, in response to detecting that a process of another category is executing, wherein the one category is of a lower priority than the another category.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the preventing execution comprises blocking execution of the process or terminating execution of the process.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the programmatically preventing comprises using serialization to prevent the execution of the process of the one category and allow execution of the process of the another category.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of categories comprises a category of critical processes, a category of monitoring processes, a category of preparatory processes, and a category of administrative processes.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the category of critical processes has the highest priority of the plurality of categories, the category of monitoring processes has the next highest priority, the category of preparatory processes has the second lowest priority, and the category of administrative flows has the lowest priority of the plurality of categories.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising executing a plurality of processes of a selected category of processes in parallel.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the selected category of processes comprises administrative processes.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each category of the plurality of categories has a serialization protocol associated therewith to manage processing among the plurality of categories.

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

initiating execution of a process of a category of processes of the plurality of categories of processes;

determining whether a configuration change has occurred since creation of the process; and

invalidating the process, in response to the determining indicating the configuration change.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the determining comprises comparing state of the computing environment at time of creation of the process and state of the current computing environment to detect whether there is a configuration change.

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

executing a process of a category of processes; and

determining that the process has terminated abnormally.

12. A system of managing processing within a computing environment, said system comprising:

a memory storing a plurality of categories of processes programmatically provided without user intervention, said plurality of categories having a plurality of priorities associated therewith; and

a processor to programmatically prevent execution of a process of one category, in response to detecting that a process of another category is executing, wherein the one category is of a lower priority than the another category.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the preventing execution comprises blocking execution of the process or terminating execution of the process.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the programmatically preventing comprises using serialization to prevent the execution of the process of the one category and allow execution of the process of the another category.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of categories comprises a category of critical processes, a category of monitoring processes, a category of preparatory processes, and a category of administrative processes.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer usable medium having computer readable program code logic to manage processing within a computing environment, the computer readable program code logic when executing performing the following;

programmatically providing, without user intervention, a plurality of categories of processes, said plurality of categories having a plurality of priorities associated therewith; and

programmatically preventing execution of a process of one category, in response to detecting that a process of another category is executing, wherein the one category is of a lower priority than the another category.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the preventing execution comprises blocking execution of the process or terminating execution of the process.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the programmatically preventing comprises using serialization to prevent the execution of the process of the one category and allow execution of the process of the another category.

19. The article manufacture of claim 16, further comprising:

initiating execution of a process of a category of processes of the plurality of categories of processes;

determining whether a configuration change has occurred since creation of the process; and

invalidating the process, in response to the determining indicating the configuration change.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 16, further comprising:

executing a process of a category of processes; and

determining that the process has terminated abnormally.