WORKFLOW CONTROL OF RESERVATIONS AND REGULAR JOBS USING A FLEXIBLE JOB SCHEDULER

• US 20120198462A1
• Filed: 02/01/2011
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: CHAM, LINDA C., DRUYAN, ALEXANDER, LI, WEI, MARTHI, KAILASH N., XIANG, YUN T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,453,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5014 Reservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5021 Priority
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

A scheduler receives at least one flexible reservation request for scheduling in a computing environment comprising consumable resources. The flexible reservation request specifies a duration and at least one required resource. The consumable resources comprise at least one machine resource and at least one floating resource. The scheduler creates a flexible job for the at least one flexible reservation request and places the flexible job in a prioritized job queue for scheduling, wherein the flexible job is prioritizes relative to at least one regular job in the prioritized job queue. The scheduler adds a reservation set to a waiting state for the at least one flexible reservation request. The scheduler, responsive to detecting the flexible job positioned in the prioritized job queue for scheduling next and detecting a selection of consumable resources available to match the at least one required resource for the duration, transfers the selection of consumable resources to the reservation and sets the reservation to an active state, wherein the reservation is activated as the selection of consumable resources become available and has uninterrupted use of the selection of consumable resources for the duration by at least one job bound to the flexible reservation.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A system for managing workflow, comprising:

a scheduler operative to schedule use of a computing environment comprising a plurality of consumable resources comprising at least one machine resource and at least one floating resource;

the scheduler operative to receive at least one flexible reservation request for scheduling in the computing environment, wherein the flexible reservation request specifies a duration and at least one required resource;

the scheduler operative to create a flexible job for the at least one flexible reservation request and placing the flexible job in a prioritized job queue for scheduling;

the scheduler operative to add a reservation set to a waiting state for the at least one flexible reservation request;

the scheduler, responsive to detecting the flexible job positioned in the prioritized job queue for scheduling next and detecting a selection of the plurality of consumable resources available to match the at least one required resource for the duration, operative to transfer the selection of the plurality of consumable resources to the reservation and setting the reservation to an active state, wherein the reservation is activated as the selection of the plurality of consumable resources become available and has uninterrupted use of the selection of the plurality of consumable resources for the duration for at least one bound job to the flexible reservation.

11. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler operative to receive a first job for scheduling in the computing environment;

the scheduler operative to place the first job in the prioritized job queue in a position relative in priority to the flexible job;

the scheduler, responsive to detecting the first job positioned in the prioritized job queue for scheduling next and detecting a second selection of the plurality of consumable resources available for the first job, operative to dispatch the first job to a resource manager to run on the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources;

the scheduler, responsive to receiving a second job with a priority level greater than the first job dispatched to the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources and only the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources are available for the second job, operative to preempt the first job by removing the job from the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources and dispatching the second job to the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources;

the scheduler, responsive to receiving, by the scheduler, a second flexible reservation request, operative to create a second flexible job for the second flexible reservation request and placing the second flexible job in a prioritized job queue for scheduling;

the scheduler operative to add a second reservation set to a waiting state for the second flexible reservation request; and

the scheduler, responsive to receiving the second flexible job with a priority level greater than the second job dispatched to the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources and only the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources are available for the second flexible job, operative to preempt the second job by removing the second job from the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources, transferring the second selection of the plurality of consumable resources to the second reservation and setting the second reservation to an active state.

12. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler operative to prioritize the flexible job within the prioritized job queue in a position relative in priority to at least one regular job, wherein each job within the prioritized job queue waits in the prioritized job queue until scheduled by the scheduler in order of priority.

13. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler, responsive to receiving the at least one bound job for the flexible reservation, operative to dispatch the at least one bound job directly to the flexible reservation for running on the selection of plurality of consumable resources without placement in the prioritized job queue.

15. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler operative to configure the plurality of consumable resources in a cluster managed by the scheduler.

16. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler, responsive to setting the reservation to an active state, operative to remove the flexible job from the prioritized job queue.

17. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler operative to receive an advance reservation requirement for scheduling in the computing environment, wherein the advance reservation requirement specifies a required start time, a second duration, and at least one required machine resource;

the scheduler, responsive to determining that at the required start time a particular at least one machine resource from among the plurality of consumable resources matching the at least one required machine resource are available for the second duration, operative to add an advance reservation to a reservation sequences list reserving the particular at least one machine resource for uninterrupted use from the start time for the second duration;

the scheduler, responsive to determining that the current time matches the required start time for the reservation, operative to transfer the at least one required machine resource to the advance reservation and responsive to receiving a job bound to the advance reservation requiring a particular floating resource, waiting to run the job until the particular floating resource from among the at least one floating resource is available; and

the scheduler, responsive to determining that at the required start time there are not resources available from the plurality of consumable resources to match the at least one required machine resource, operative to reject the advance reservation requirement.

18. The system according to claim 10, further comprising:

the scheduler operative to specify a rolling update license for the at least one floating resource;

the scheduler operative to receive a plurality of flexible reservation requests each specifying at least one required machine resource and a required rolling update license;

the scheduler operative to create a separate flexible job for each of the plurality of flexible reservation requests and placing each separate flexible job in the prioritized job queue for scheduling;

the scheduler operative to add a separate reservation set to a waiting state for each of the plurality of flexible reservation requests;

the scheduler, responsive to detecting a particular flexible job from among the separate flexible jobs positioned in the prioritized job queue for scheduling next and detecting a selection of the plurality of consumable resources comprising the rolling update license available to match the at least one required resource for the duration, operative to transfer the selection of the plurality of consumable resources to the separate reservation and setting the separate reservation to an active state, wherein the separate reservation is activated as the selection of the plurality of consumable resources become available and has uninterrupted use of the selection of the plurality of consumable resources;

the scheduler operative to send an update to a cluster management system indicating the separate reservation is active;

receiving, by the scheduler, at least one job bound to the separate reservation for upgrading at least one software element within the plurality of consumable resources; and

the scheduler operative to dispatch the at least one job bound to the separate reservation to the separate reservation.

19. A computer program product for managing workflow, said computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium and comprising computer executable instructions which cause a computer to:

receive, by a scheduler, at least one flexible reservation request for scheduling in a computing environment comprising a plurality of consumable resources, wherein the flexible reservation request specifies a duration and at least one required resource and wherein the plurality of consumable resources comprises at least one machine resource and at least one floating resource;

create, by the scheduler, a flexible job for the at least one flexible reservation request and placing the flexible job in a prioritized job queue for scheduling;

add a reservation set to a waiting state for the at least one flexible reservation request;

responsive to detecting the flexible job positioned in the prioritized job queue for scheduling next and detecting a selection of the plurality of consumable resources available to match the at least one required resource for the duration, transfer the selection of the plurality of consumable resources to the reservation and setting the reservation to an active state, wherein the reservation is activated as the selection of the plurality of consumable resources become available and has uninterrupted use of the selection of the plurality of consumable resources for the duration for at least one bound job to the flexible reservation.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, further comprising computer executable instructions which cause a computer to:

prioritize the flexible job within the prioritized job queue in a position relative in priority to at least one regular job, wherein each job within the prioritized job queue waits in the prioritized job queue until scheduled by the scheduler in order of priority.