Requester-Side Autonomic Governor

• US 20090307352A1
• Filed: 06/10/2008
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Morgan, Robert A., Roberson, Kenneth W., Felton, Mitchell D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• 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

A requester-side autonomic governor is provided for a requester configured to send service requests to a service provider. For example, the requester and service provider may be disposed in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) architected system. A feedback loop, preferably a monitor portion of a Monitor, Analyze, Plan, and Execute (MAPE) loop, is configured to monitor responses to service requests. An autonomic governor mechanism limits the type and/or number of concurrent service requests according to a resource pool scheme, and dynamically adjusts a resource threshold of the resource pool scheme based on information provided by the feedback loop. In one embodiment, the resource threshold is reduced if more than a predetermined number of service requests generated time-outs, and is increased if more than a predetermined number of service requests are being held awaiting available pool resources and less than a predetermined number of service requests generated time-outs.

Claims

1. A requester-side autonomic governor, comprising:

a feedback loop configured to monitor responses to service requests sent by a requester system to a service provider system;

an autonomic governor mechanism that limits at least one of the type and number of concurrent service requests active at any time according to a resource pool scheme, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism dynamically adjusts a resource threshold of the resource pool scheme based on information provided by the feedback loop.

2. The requester-side autonomic governor as recited in claim 1, wherein the requester system and the service provider system are disposed in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) architected system.

3. The requester-side autonomic governor as recited in claim 1, wherein the feedback loop and the autonomic governor mechanism together comprise a Monitor, Analyze, Plan, and Execute (MAPE) loop, wherein the feedback loop comprises a monitor portion of the MAPE loop, and wherein the autonomic governor mechanism comprises an analyze, plan and execute portion of the MAPE loop.

4. The requester-side autonomic governor as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a Generic Log Adapter (GLA) configured to receive log information from one or more logs available to the requester system and translate the log information into a common log format.

5. The requester-side autonomic governor as recited in claim 1, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism dynamically adjusts the resource threshold based on at least one of:

a response time, wherein the response time is a duration of time between when a given service request is sent to the service provider system by the requester system and when a response to the given service request is received by the requester system;

a timed-out status, wherein the timed-out status occurs when the response time is more than a predetermined amount of time;

a hold status, wherein the hold status occurs if a given service request is put on hold awaiting available pool resources;

a service request characteristic parameter, wherein the service request characteristic parameter is based on at least one of complexity and size of a given service request.

6. The requester-side autonomic governor as recited in claim 5, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism reduces the resource threshold if the timed-out status occurs with respect to more than a predetermined number of service requests, and wherein the autonomic governor mechanism increases the resource threshold if the hold status occurs with respect to more than a predetermined number of service requests and the timed-out status occurs with respect to less than a predetermined number of service requests.

7. The requester-side autonomic governor as recited in claim 1, wherein the information provided by the feedback loop is used to construct a peak history of one or more measures indicative of a constrained resource, and wherein the autonomic governor mechanism dynamically adjusts the resource threshold based on the peak history.

8. An apparatus configured to send service requests to a service provider, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

an autonomic governor mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the autonomic governor mechanism limiting at least one of the type and number of concurrent service requests active at any time according to resource pool scheme, and dynamically adjusting a resource threshold of the resource pool scheme based on information provided by a feedback loop configured to monitor responses to service requests sent by the apparatus to the service provider.

9. The apparatus as recited in claim 8, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism dynamically adjusts the resource threshold based on a response time, wherein the response time is a duration of time between when a given service request is sent to the service provider by the apparatus and when a response to the given service request is received by the apparatus.

10. The apparatus as recited in claim 9, wherein the autonomic govern mechanism dynamically adjusts the resource threshold based on a combination of the response time and a service request characteristic parameter, the service request characteristic parameter being based on at least one of complexity and size of a given service request.

11. The apparatus as recited in claim 8, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism dynamically adjusts the resource threshold based on at least one of a timed-out status and a hold status, wherein the timed-out status occurs when a response time is more than a predetermined amount of time, the response time being a duration of time between when a given service request is sent to the service provider by the apparatus and when a response to the given service request is received by the apparatus, and wherein a hold status occurs if a given service request is put on hold awaiting available pool resources.

12. The apparatus as recited in claim 11, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism reduces the resource threshold if the timed-out status occurs with respect to more than a predetermined number of service requests, and wherein the autonomic governing mechanism increases the resource threshold if the hold status occurs with respect to more than a predetermined number of service requests and the timed-out status occurs with respect to less than a predetermined number of service requests.

13. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein the autonomic governor mechanism sends a notification if the resource threshold is reduced below a minimum size.

14. The apparatus as recited in claim 8, wherein the information provided by the feedback loop is used to construct a peak history of one or more measures indicative of a constrained resource, and wherein the autonomic governor mechanism dynamically adjusts the resource threshold based on the peak history.

15. A computer program product for implementing a requester-side autonomic governor in a digital computing device configured to send service requests to a service provider, the computer program product comprising:

a plurality of instructions provided on a signal-bearing media, wherein the instructions when executed by at least one processor of the digital computing device, cause the digital computing device to perform the steps of;

limiting at least one of the type and number of concurrent service requests active at any time according to a resource pool scheme;

dynamically adjusting a resource threshold of the resource pool scheme based on information provided by a feedback loop configured to monitor responses to service requests sent by the digital computing device to the service provider.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the information provided by the feedback loop comprises at least one of:

a response time, wherein the response time is a duration of time between when a given service request is sent to the service provider by the digital computing device and when a response to the given service request is received by the digital computing device;

a timed-out status, wherein the timed-out status occurs when the response time is more than a predetermined amount of time;

a hold status, wherein the hold status occurs if a given service request is put on hold awaiting available pool resources;

a service request characteristic parameter, wherein the service request characteristic parameter is based on at least one of complexity and size of a given service request.

17. The computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the step of dynamically adjusting the resource threshold based on the information provided by the feedback loop comprises the steps of:

reducing the resource threshold if the timed-out status occurs with respect to more than a predetermined number of service requests;

increasing the resource threshold if the hold status occurs with respect to more than a predetermined number of service requests and the timed-out status occurs with respect to less than a predetermined number of service requests.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 17, wherein the step of dynamically adjusting the resource threshold based on the information provided by the feedback loop comprises the steps of:

providing a peak history by logging over a period of time one or more measures indicative of a constrained resource based on the information provided by the feedback loop;

dynamically adjusting the resource threshold based on the peak history.

19. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the signal-bearing media comprises recordable media.

20. The computer program product as recited in claim 15, wherein the signal-bearing media comprises communications media.