Method and apparatus for controlling the assignment of units of work to a workload enclave in a client/server system

• US 6,085,217 A
• Filed: 03/28/1997
• Issued: 07/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Emmes, David B., Ault, Donald F., Bender, Ernest S., Aman, Jeffrey D., Spiegel, Michael G., Dillenberger, Donna N. T. E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Banankhah, Majid A.
• Application Number:
  US08/825,304
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 709/100, 709/102, 709/105, 709/104, 709/107
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5018 Thread allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling the assignment of units of work to workload enclaves in a client/server system in which units of work are organized into enclaves with the units of work in each enclave being managed as a single entity. Incoming work requests are queued for processing by one or more worker threads of one or more server processes. In response to the receipt of an incoming work request, a putwork() service of the operating system kernel defines an workload enclave for the work request and adds the work request to a queue of incoming work requests to enqueue the request. In response to a request from a worker thread for more work, a getwork() service of the operating system kernel removes a work request from the queue to dequeue the request and associates the worker thread with the enclave defined for the request. If a worker thread must create a new unit of work while processing a work request, it calls an appropriate service of the operating system kernel, which creates the new unit of work and associates the new process with the enclave of the worker thread. The worker thread is disassociated from the enclave upon completion of the work request.

Claims

1. In a client/server system in which incoming work requests are queued for processing by one or more worker threads of one or more server processes and in which units of work are organized into enclaves with the units of work in each enclave being managed as a single entity by a workload manager, each of said enclaves having a workload manager classification for determining a share of system resources to be given to units of work in that enclave, a method of controlling the assignment of said worker threads to said enclaves, comprising the steps of:

in response to the receipt of an incoming work request, defining an enclave for said work, request and adding said work request to a queue of incoming work requests to enqueue said request; and

in response to a request from a worker thread for more work, removing a work request from said queue to dequeue said request and associating slid worker thread with the enclave defined for said request; and

providing said worker thread while processing said request from said queue with a share of system resources based on the workload manager classification of said enclave.

2. The method of claim 1 in which said client/server system has a plurality of server processes, each of which has one or more worker threads associated therewith.

3. The method of claim 1 in which each of said server processes has a plurality of worker threads associated therewith.

4. The method of claim 1 in which said enqueuing step is performed by an operating system kernel in response to a system call.

5. The method of claim 1 in which said dequeuring step is performed by an operating system kernel in response to a system call from said worker thread.

6. The method of claim 1 in which said worker thread creates a new unit of work, said method comprising the further step of associating said new unit of work with the enclave associated with said worker thread.

7. The method of claim 1, including the further step of:

disassociating said worker thread from said enclave upon completion of said work request.

8. The method of claim 7 in which said enclave is deleted upon completion of said work request.

9. The method of claim 1 in which said enclave is newly created upon receipt of said work request.

10. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the method steps of claim 4.

11. In a client/server system in which incoming work requests are queued for processing by one or more worker threads of one or more server processes and in which units of work are organized into enclaves with the units of work in each enclave being managed as a single entity by a workload manager, each of said enclaves having a workload manager classification for determining a share of system resources to be given to units of work in that enclave, apparatus for controlling the assignment of said worker threads to said enclaves, comprising:

enqueuing means responsive to the receipt of an incoming work request for defining an enclave for said work request and adding said work request to a queue of incoming work requests to enqueue said request; and

dequeuing means responsive to a request from a worker thread for more work for removing a work request from said queue to dequeue said request and associating said worker thread with the enclave defined for said request; and

providing said worker thread while processing said request from said queue with a share of system resources based on the workload manager classification of said enclave.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 in which said worker thread creates a new unit of work, said apparatus further comprising:

means for associating said new unit of work with the enclave associated with said worker thread.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

means for disassociating said worker thread from said enclave upon completion of said work request.