METHODS AND APPARATUS TO MONITOR COMPUTING RESOURCES

• US 20130050246A1
• Filed: 08/22/2011
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Barry, Timothy G., Walker, Philip M.
• Application Number:
  US13/214,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20130050246A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/593
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to monitor computing resources are disclosed. An example method to monitor computing resources includes a determination of a first color indicative of a usage of a first computing resource managed by a first virtual machine and a determination of a second color indicative of a usage of a second computing resource managed by the first virtual machine. The example method also includes the first color and the second color being combined to determine a third color and the third color being displayed to indicate an allocation of computing resources managed by the first virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method to monitor computing resources comprising:

determining a first color indicative of a usage of a first computing resource managed by a first virtual machine;

determining a second color indicative of a usage of a second computing resource managed by the first virtual machine;

combining the first color and the second color to determine a third color; and

displaying the third color to indicate an allocation of computing resources managed by the first virtual machine.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first color, the second color and the third color are colors in the red-green-blue palette.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the allocation of computing resources is an indication of a level of usage of at least one resource relative to a capacity of the at least one resource.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the level of usage of at least one resource is indicated by an intensity of the color.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising displaying the first, second and third colors in an array and grouping the first, second and third colors in accordance with a usage condition.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising reallocating a resource and reassigning a color encoding after the reallocation.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the computer resources include one or more of the central processor, the primary disk or the main memory.

8. A tangible machine readable medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

assign a first color to represent a numerical value indicative of a usage of a first computing resource managed by a first virtual machine;

assign a second color to represent a numerical value indicative of a usage of a second computing resource managed by a first virtual machine; and

display an icon having a third color that is an aggregate of the first color and the second color, the third color indicative of an allocation of the first and the second computing resources.

9. A machine readable medium as described in claim 8, further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

assign a fourth color to represent a numerical value indicative of a usage of a third computing resource managed by a second virtual machine;

assign a fifth color to represent a numerical value indicative of a usage of a fourth computing resource managed by a second virtual machine; and

display a second icon having a sixth color that is an aggregate of the fourth color and the fifth color, the sixth color indicative of an allocation of the third and the fourth computing resources.

10. A machine readable medium as described in claim 9, further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to group the first and the second icons to designate virtual machines that may be candidates for computing resource allocation to balance computing resources.

11. A system to monitor a plurality of virtual machines corresponding to a plurality of computing resources, the system comprising:

an encoder to assign a first color to a first icon representative of a usage of a first computing resource, to assign a second color to a second icon representative of a usage of a second computing resource, and to assign a third color to a third icon representative of an aggregate usage of the first computing resource and the second computing resource, the third color being a combination of the first color and the second color; and

a display to display the third icon to provide a visual identifier of the allocation of the first and the second computing resources of the virtual machines.

12. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the first color is different from the second color.

13. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the encoder is to assign a fourth color to a fourth icon representative of a usage of a third computing resource, to assign a fifth color to a fifth icon representative of a usage of a fourth computing resource, and to assign a sixth color to a sixth icon representative of an aggregate usage of the third computing resource and the fourth computing resource, the sixth color being a combination of the fourth color and the fifth color.

14. A system as defined in claim 13, wherein the display is to display the sixth icon.

15. A system as defined in claim 14 further comprising a balancer to determine if a computing resource allocation scheme balances the computing resources and to group the candidate computing resources for reallocation, the display to show the groupings of icons associated with the candidate computing resources.