Method and system for measuring availability in a distributed network

• US 5,790,431 A
• Filed: 11/20/1995
• Issued: 08/04/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schneiker, Conrad William, Chandra, Arun, Ahrens, George Henry Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Application Number:
  US08/560,918
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 364/468.05, 364/468.08, 364/514 R, 364/514 L, 364/569, 364/550, 364/551.01, 395/182.02, 395/200.01, 395/200.02, 395/200.03, 395/200.06, 395/200.1, 395/200.11, 395/200.2, 395/180, 395/672-675, 395/200.54 , 395/200.55, 395/200.56
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3423 where the assessed time is active or idle time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/503 Resource availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A method and apparatus for determining the availability of a workstation in a distributed network. Availability is determined using an Availability Measurement System having a Downtime unit, an Availability Disable unit, and a Calculation unit. During the initialization of the workstation, a heartbeat monitor daemon is created to store, at predetermined time intervals, timestamps of the network. Once the workstation becomes unavailable, the recording of the timestamps ceases, thus, allowing an accurate representation of when the workstation became unavailable. Upon the return of the workstation to the status of available, the Downtime unit reads the current time of the network and the stored timestamp to calculate the duration of the unavailability of the workstation. The duration is then stored for later calculation of availability of the workstation for a defined interval of time using the Calculation unit. The Availability Measurement System may be disabled using the Availability Disable unit, thus, allowing selected durations of unavailability to be excluded from an availability calculation.

Claims

1. A method of determining the availability of a workstation in a distributed network, the method comprising the steps of:

creating, for the workstation, a heartbeat monitor for storing, at predetermined time intervals, the current time of the network;

retrieving, in response to the workstation transitioning from being unavailable to available, the current time of the network and the stored time;

calculating the total duration for which the workstation was unavailable using the retrieved time and the stored time;

storing the calculated duration; and

calculating the availability of the workstation for a defined period of time using the stored durations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of storing the duration of each interval includes the step of:

storing an indication as to the cause of the unavailability of said workstation for each duration of time.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said step of calculating the availability of said workstation includes the step of:

calculating the availability of said workstation for a defined period of time using selected members of said stored durations.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said selected members are selected based upon unscheduled unavailability times for said workstation.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein a server of said network assigns a job to said workstation based upon said calculated availability.

12. The computer program product of claim 4 wherein said means for storing the duration of each interval includes:

means for storing an indication as to the cause of the unavailability of said workstation for each duration of time.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein said means for calculating the availability of said workstation includes:

means for calculating the availability of said workstation for a defined period of time using selected members of said stored durations.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said selected members are selected based upon unscheduled unavailability times for said workstation.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein a server of said network assigns a job to said workstation based upon said calculated availability.

6. An apparatus for determining the availability of a workstation in a distributed network, the apparatus comprising:

means for creating, for the workstation, a heartbeat monitor for storing, at predetermined time intervals, the current time of the network;

means for retrieving, in response to the workstation transitioning from being unavailable to available, the current time of the network and the stored time;

means for calculating the total duration for which the workstation was unavailable using the retrieved time and the stored time;

means for storing the calculated duration; and

means for calculating the availability of the workstation for a defined period of time using the stored durations.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said means for storing the duration of each interval includes:

means for storing an indication as to the cause of the unavailability of said workstation for each duration of time.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said means for calculating the availability of said workstation includes:

means for calculating the availability of said workstation for a defined period of time using selected members of said stored durations.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said selected members are selected based upon unscheduled unavailability times for said workstation.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein a server of said network assigns a job to said workstation based upon said calculated availability.

11. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in the medium for determining the availability of a workstation in a distributed network, the computer readable program code means including;

means for creating, for the workstation, a heartbeat monitor for storing, at predetermined time intervals, the current time of the network;

means for retrieving, in response to the workstation transitioning from being unavailable to available, the current time of the network and the stored time;

means for calculating the total duration for which the workstation was unavailable using the retrieved time and the stored time;

means for storing the calculated duration; and

means for calculating the availability of the workstation for a defined period of time using the stored durations.