Method to Dynamically Provision Additional Computer Resources to Handle Peak Database Workloads

• US 20090183152A1
• Filed: 01/16/2008
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Yang, Kong, Sankaran, Ananda C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,497 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

A method to handle peak database workloads is disclosed. In one form of the disclosure, the method can include requesting resources, receiving virtual-machine information in response to requesting, and allocating first and second portions of a workload according to the virtual-machine information. The method can also include processing the first portion on a virtual machine to generate a first result, processing the second portion on a cloned virtual machine to generate a second result, and aggregating the first and the second results to form a response.

Claims

1. A method to handle peak database workloads, comprising:

requesting resources;

receiving virtual-machine information in response to requesting;

allocating first and second portions of a workload according to the virtual-machine information;

processing the first portion on a virtual machine to generate a first result;

processing the second portion on a cloned virtual machine to generate a second result; and

aggregating the first and the second results to form a response.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a query and providing the response.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual-machine information includes a resource listing for the cloned virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second portion is sized according to the resource listing.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a virtualizations layer to create the cloned virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising causing a virtualizations layer to clone a storage allocated to the virtual machine to create a cloned storage and allocating the cloned storage to the cloned virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising causing the virtualization layer to allocate the cloned storage to the virtual machine after processing the second portion.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein aggregating includes reading the second result from the cloned storage.

9. A computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions to manipulate a processor, the plurality of instructions comprising:

instructions to send a request for resources;

instructions to receive virtual-machine information in response to the request for resources;

instructions to allocate a first and a second portions of a workload according to the virtual machine information;

instructions to process the first portion on a virtual machine to generate a first result;

instructions to process the second portion on a cloned virtual machine to generate a second result; and

instructions to aggregate the first and the second results.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of instructions further comprise instructions to receive a query and providing the response.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the virtual-machine information includes a resource listing for the cloned virtual machine.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the second portion is sized according to the resource listing.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of instructions further comprise instructions to cause a virtualizations layer to create the cloned virtual machine.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of instructions further comprise instructions to cause the virtualizations layer to clone a storage allocated to the virtual machine to create a cloned storage and allocating the cloned storage to the cloned virtual machine.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the plurality of instructions further comprise instructions to cause the virtualization layer to allocate the cloned storage to the virtual machine after processing the second portion.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein aggregating includes reading the second result from the cloned storage.

17. An information handling system, the system comprising:

a plurality of nodes;

a virtualization layer managing compute resources across the plurality of nodes; and

a database application database operating within a first virtual machine, the first virtual machine running on one of the plurality of nodes, the database application configured to;

request resources from the virtualization layer;

receive virtual-machine information from the virtualization layer in response to requesting;

allocate a first and a second portions of a workload according to the virtual-machine information;

cause the virtualization layer to create a cloned virtual machine on a second node of the plurality of nodes;

process the first portion on the first virtual machine to generate a first result;

process the second portion on the cloned virtual machine to generate a second result; and

aggregating the first and the second results.

18. The information handling system of claim 17, wherein the database application is further configured to receive a query and providing the response.

19. The information handling system of claim 17, wherein the virtual-machine information includes a resource listing for the cloned virtual machine.

20. The information handling system of claim 19, wherein the second portion is sized according to the resource listing.

21. The information handling system of claim 17, wherein the database application is further configured to cause a virtualizations layer to create the cloned virtual machine.

22. The information handling system of claim 21, wherein the database application is further configured to cause a virtualizations layer to clone a storage allocated to the virtual machine to create a cloned storage and allocating the cloned storage to the cloned virtual machine.

23. The information handling system of claim 22, wherein the database application is further configured to cause the virtualization layer to allocate the cloned storage to the virtual machine after processing the second portion.

24. The information handling system of claim 23, wherein aggregating includes reading the second result from the cloned storage.