Resource Allocation and Modification

• US 20100011365A1
• Filed: 07/10/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Blackwave Inc.
• Inventors: Gerovac, Branko J., Carver, David C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,887,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/762 triggered by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/828 Allocation of resources per group of connections, e.g. per group of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes obtaining information characterizing a level of actual usage of a first item of content; based on the obtained information, determining whether a re-provisioning condition is satisfied and if so, generating a specification of a re-provisioning operation to be executed in association with the resources of a storage environment; and executing the re-provisioning operation. The first item of content is stored on a first set of elements of resources of the storage environment according to a first resource allocation arrangement. The re-provisioning operation includes identifying a second resource allocation arrangement for storing the first item of content; and allocating a second set of elements of the resources of the storage environment according to the second resource allocation arrangement.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining information characterizing a level of actual usage of a first item of content, the first item of content being stored on a first set of elements of resources of a storage environment according to a first resource allocation arrangement;

based on the obtained information, determining whether a re-provisioning condition is satisfied and if so, generating a specification of a re-provisioning operation to be executed in association with the resources of the storage environment, the re-provisioning operation including;

identifying a second resource allocation arrangement for storing the first item of content; and

allocating a second set of elements of the resources of the storage environment according to the second resource allocation arrangement; and

executing the re-provisioning operation.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein executing the re-provisioning operation includes:

storing one or multiple new instances of the first item of content on the second set of elements of resources according to the second resource allocation arrangement; and

removing one or multiple previously-stored instances of the first item of content from the first set of elements of resources of the storage environment.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the re-provisioning operation includes a first type of anomaly-based re-provisioning operations.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

detecting a discrepancy between the level of the actual usage of a first item of content and a provisioned level of usage, the provisioned level of usage being characterized by a first set of schema attributes associated with the first resource allocation arrangement; and

comparing the discrepancy to an anomaly criterion to determine an occurrence of a provisioning anomaly.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the anomaly criterion includes an anomaly threshold.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising, upon determining the occurrence of the provisioning anomaly:

creating a provisioning anomaly object associated with the first item of content;

maintaining the provisioning anomaly object in a list of outstanding re-provisions; and

determining an anomaly-based re-provisioning operation to be executed in response to the provisioning anomaly object.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the anomaly-based re-provisioning operation includes:

identifying a second set of schema attributes that is representative of the level of actual usage of the first item of content, the second set of schema attributes being associated with the second resource allocation arrangement.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the anomaly-based re-provisioning operation includes:

an up-provisioning operation to be executed when the level of actual usage of the first item of content exceeds the provisioned level of usage by a first predetermined threshold amount; and

a down-provisioning operation to be executed when the provisioned level of usage of the first item of content exceeds the level of actual usage by a second predetermined threshold amount.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the list of outstanding re-provisions includes a plurality of provisioning anomaly objects, each one of the plurality of provisioning anomaly objects being associated with a respective one of a plurality of anomaly-based re-provisioning operations.

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

prioritizing the plurality of anomaly-based re-provisioning operations based on a relative urgency of each one of the plurality of re-provisioning operations and an availability of the resources of the storage environment.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtained information includes one or more of the following:

a number of concurrent access requests to the first item of content at a given time, an aggregate of access requests to the first item during a detection period, and a number and frequency of access requests being denied due to resource unavailability.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

accepting a plan for managing resource allocation associated with a first item stored on resources of a storage environment, the plan including at least a first rule associated with a rule trigger; and

applying the first rule upon activation of the rule trigger, the first rule associating an adjustment in resource allocation to the first item,

wherein the first item is characterized by an initial set of attributes, and is stored on resources of an storage environment according to one of a plurality of resource allocation arrangements that is compatible with the initial set of attributes.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of resource allocation arrangements are maintained in a first database.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the first rule includes a specification of an adjustment applicable to the initial set of attributes characterizing the first item, and the method of applying the first rule includes:

computing an adjusted set of attributes of the first item according to the specification of the adjustment;

selecting one from the plurality of resource allocation arrangements that is compatible with the adjusted set of attributes of the first item; and

allocating resources to store one or multiple instances of the first item based on the selected one of the plurality of resource allocation arrangements.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the adjustment applicable to the initial set of attributes includes applying a discount factor to a present value of at least one of the initial set of attributes.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the first rule includes a description of sequentially selecting one from a list of candidate resource allocation arrangements for the first item.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the rule trigger is defined in part by an onset point followed by an activation window.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the onset point and the activation window are determined based in part on an assessment of a trend of a pattern of access to the first item with respect to time.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the rule trigger is defined by a sequence of onset points, each one of the sequence of onset points being followed by a respective activation window.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the method of applying the first rule includes:

iteratively applying the first rule to the first item upon occurrence of each one of the sequence of onset points.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the first item is characterized by a respective initial set of attributes, and is stored on resources of the storage environment according to a respective one of a plurality of resource allocation arrangements.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the method of applying the first rule includes:

applying the first rule to each one of a group of items according a predetermined order.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the first rule includes a plurality of components, each component being specific to a different item of a group of items.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the predetermined order is specified in the plan.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the plan further includes a plurality of rules, each rule associated with a respective rule trigger.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

modifying the plan for manage resource allocation in response to a change in an operating condition of the storage environment.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, wherein the operating condition of the storage environment includes a hardware configuration of the resources of the storage environment.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, wherein the operating condition of the storage environment includes a pattern of access to one or multiple items of the group of items stored on resources of the storage environment.