Control of a Computing System Having Adjustable Inputs

• US 20100091786A1
• Filed: 10/13/2008
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Cohen, Ira, Zhu, Xiaoyun, Singhal, Sharad, Wang, Zhikui, Liu, Xue
• Granted Patent: US 9,143,554 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A technique for controlling an output of a computing system having multiple adjustable inputs includes providing a set of adjustable inputs to the computing system, observing an output of the computing system while the system is in operation, and selecting a subset of adjustable inputs from the set of adjustable inputs based on the observation of the output. The inputs in the selected subset are then adjusted to achieve a desired output of the computing system.

Claims

1. A method of controlling an output of a computing system, comprising:

providing a set of adjustable inputs to the computing system;

observing, while in operation, an output of the computing system;

selecting, while in operation, a subset of adjustable inputs from the set of adjustable inputs based on the observing of the output; and

adjusting, while in operation, only the subset of adjustable inputs to achieve a desired output of the computing system.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting the subset is further based on observing a response of the output of the computing system to the adjustment of the adjustable inputs.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

generating a reduced input-output model of the computing system using the selected subset of adjustable inputs; and

adjusting the adjustable inputs in the selected subset based on the reduced input-output model.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

periodically updating the reduced input-output model.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

selecting a new subset of adjustable inputs in response to a change of the output; and

re-generating the reduced input-output model using the new subset of adjustable inputs.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing information technology services, wherein the observing task, the selecting task, and the adjusting task are part of the information technology services.

7. A system for dynamically controlling an output of a computing system having a plurality of adjustable inputs, comprising:

an input selection module to dynamically select a subset of a plurality of adjustable parameters for input to a computing system in response to observation of an output of the computing system while the computing system is in operation; and

a control module coupled to the input selection module and configured to adjust the adjustable parameters in the selected subset to achieve a desired output of the computing system.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the control module comprises a model identification module to generate an input-output model of the computing system based on the selected subset.

9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the model identification module periodically regenerates the input-output model.

10. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the input selection module implements a statistical regression analysis to select the subset of adjustable parameters.

11. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the computing system is a shared server system.

12. The system as recited claim 11, wherein the plurality of adjustable parameters includes at least one of an application-level parameter and a system-level parameter.

13. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the input selection module selects a new subset of the adjustable parameters in response to a change in the output of the computing system.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the model identification module regenerates the input-output model based on the new subset of the adjustable parameters.

15. An article comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed by a processor-based system cause the processor-based system to:

observe an output of a computing system during operation of the computing system, the computing system having a plurality of adjustable inputs;

select, during operation of the computing system, a subset of the plurality of adjustable inputs based on the observed output;

generate an input-output model of the computing system based on the selected subset of adjustable inputs; and

use the input-output model to adjust, during operation of the computing system, the adjustable inputs in the selected subset to achieve a desired output of the computing system.