Application Management for Reducing Energy Costs

• US 20090265704A1
• Filed: 04/17/2008
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stecher, John J., Branda, Steven J., Johnson, Chris D., Weaver, Matthew R.
• Application Number:
  US12/104,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20090265704A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for managing and executing applications in a clustered server system. In one embodiment, an application may be installed at an application server having the associated lowest energy cost of maintenance, thereby lowering the cost of operating the system. In another embodiment, requests for services from the system may be routed to application servers having the lowest energy cost, thereby lowering the cost of operating the system.

Claims

1. A method for installing applications, comprising:

receiving an indication to install an application in one of a plurality of servers;

determining a server, of the plurality of servers, having a cost of energy to operate that is less than a cost of energy for operating at least one remaining server in the plurality of servers; and

installing the application on the determined server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to determining the server:

determining whether the application is designated as an application capable of being installed at a location having relatively lower energy cost.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the indication comprises receiving a selection in a GUI screen comprising a plurality of applications, wherein the selection indicates that the application is designated as an application capable of being installed at a location having relatively lower energy cost.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the server comprises accessing a record comprising a cost of energy associated with each of the plurality of servers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of servers are located at different geographic locations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of servers are application servers.

7. A computer readable storage medium comprising a program product which, when executed by a processor, is configured to perform an operation for installing applications, the operation comprising:

receiving an indication to install an application in one of a plurality of servers;

determining a server, of the plurality of servers, having a cost of energy to operate that is less than a cost of energy for operating at least one remaining server in the plurality of servers; and

installing the application in the determined server.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, the operation further

comprising, prior to determining the server:

determining whether the application is designated as an application capable of being installed at a location having relatively lower energy cost; and

upon determining that the application is so designated, determining the server.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein receiving the indication comprises receiving a selection in a GUI screen comprising a plurality of applications, wherein the selection indicates that the application is designated as an application capable of being installed at a location having relatively lower energy cost.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein determining the server comprises accessing a record comprising a cost of energy associated with each of the plurality of servers.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of servers are located at different geographic locations.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of servers are application servers.

13. A system, comprising:

at least one client computer; and

a plurality of servers, wherein each server comprises one or more applications and at least one server comprises an application manager configured to;

receive an indication to install an application in one of the plurality of servers;

determine a server, of the plurality of servers, the server having a cost of energy to operate the server that is less than a cost of energy for operating at least one remaining server in the plurality of servers; and

install the application on the determined application server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein, prior to determining the server, the application manager is further configured to:

determine whether the application is designated as an application capable of being installed at a location having relatively lower energy cost; and

upon determining that the application is so designated, determine the server.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the application manager is configured to receive the indication by receiving a selection made in a GUI screen comprising a plurality of applications, wherein the selection indicates that the application is designated as an application capable of being installed at a location having relatively lower energy cost.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the application manager is configured to determine the server by accessing a record comprising a cost of energy associated with each of the plurality of servers.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of application servers are located at different geographic locations.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more applications comprise business logic for services provided by business organization.

19. The system of claim 13, further comprising one or more backend servers comprising data and data manipulation logic, wherein the one or more applications are configured to access the data in the one or more backend servers in response to receiving requests for services from the at least one client computer.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising a load balancer configured to:

receive a request for a service from the at least one client computer;

determine whether the request is associated with the application; and

upon determining that the request is associated with the application, transfer the request to the application server.

21. A method for installing applications, comprising:

receiving an indication to install an application in a server having a cost of energy to operate that is less than a cost of energy for operating at least one remaining server in a plurality of servers, wherein the application is installed in a first server of the plurality of servers;

determining a second server having a cost of energy to operate that is less than a cost of energy to operate the first server; and

in response to determining the second server, installing the application on the second server.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises uninstalling the application from the first server.