Resource manager architecture

• US 6,799,208 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2000
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McDowell, Sean C., Backman, Terje K., Sankaranarayan, Mukund, Foltz, Forrest C., Srinivasan, Jai, Shaw, George, Speed, Robin, Raffman, Andy R., Jones, Michael B., Sather, Dale A., Raja, Jayachandran, Bakin, David S., Parry, William G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M.
• Application Number:
  US09/563,726
• Time in Patent Office: 1,610 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/201, 709/223, 710/6, 710/15, 710/16, 710/17, 710/18, 710/19, 710/62, 710/240
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5014 Reservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/522 Manager
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/526 Mutual exclusion algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB

Abstract

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. One policy is a priority-based policy that distinguishes among which applications and/or users have priority over others to use the resources. A resource consumer creates an “activity” at the resource manager and builds one or more “configurations” that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity. If multiple configurations are specified, the resource consumer can rank them according to preference. This allows the resource consumers to be dynamically changed from one configuration to another as operating conditions change.

Claims

1. A resource management architecture comprising:

multiple resource providers associated with resources;

multiple consumers that utilize the resources provided by the resource providers; and

a resource manager to arbitrate access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers with regard to resource configurations that each identify at least one resource provider of the multiple resource providers.

2. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein the resource providers and the resource manager reside at a kernel level.

3. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein at least one of the consumers comprises an application program.

4. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein at least one resource provider acts as a consumer of a resource provided by at least one other resource provider.

5. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein the consumers submit requests to reserve the resources to the resource manager.

6. The resource management architecture of claim 5, wherein the resource providers prevent the consumers from using the resources without first reserving the resources.

7. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein the resource providers register with the resource manager.

8. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein each of the resource providers comprises a resource quantifier that determines an amount of the associated resource that is available for allocation.

9. The resource management architecture of claim 8, wherein the resource quantifier comprises a counter that maintains a count of how many of the resources are available for allocation.

10. The resource management architecture of claim 8, wherein the resource quantifier comprises a temporal tracking component that tracks a duration that the resources is available for allocation.

11. The resource management architecture of claim 8, wherein the resource quantifier comprises a percentage tracking component that tracks a percentage of the resources that is available for allocation.

12. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein the resource manager exposes an application program interface, the resource providers and the consumers making calls to the resource manager via the application program interface.

13. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein the resource manager allocates the resources to the consumers according to a priority-based policy in which higher priority consumers are given precedence over lower priority consumers.

14. The resource management architecture of claim 1, wherein the consumers create activities at the resource manager, each activity being associated with a task to be performed by a corresponding consumer.

15. The resource management architecture of claim 1, further comprising a policy manager to establish an allocation policy, the resource manager using the allocation policy to arbitrate access to the resources.

16. The resource management architecture of claim 1, further comprising an interface component to request a set of one or more of the resources on behalf of the consumers, the interface component submitting requests to the resource manager.

17. A resource management architecture comprising:

multiple resource providers associated with resources;

multiple consumers that utilize the resources provided by the resource providers; and

a resource manager to arbitrate access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers;

wherein the consumers create activities at the resource manager, each activity being associated with a task to be performed by a corresponding consumer; and

wherein the consumers build one or more configurations for each of the activities at the resource manager, each configuration identifying a set of one or more of the resources to perform the task.

18. The resource management architecture of claim 17, wherein said each configuration contains a set of one or more resource descriptors, each descriptor being an instance of a corresponding resource.

19. The resource management architecture of claim 18, wherein said each descriptor holds data including an identity of a resource provider associated with the resource and a quantity of the resource needed to perform the task.

20. A resource management architecture comprising:

multiple resource providers associated with resources;

multiple consumers that utilize the resources provided by the resource providers; and

a resource manager to arbitrate access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers;

one of the consumers creates an activity at the resource manager in association with a task to be performed and builds multiple configurations for the activity, each configuration identifying a set of one or more of the resources to perform the task; and

the resource manager being configured to switch the activity from one of the configurations to another of the configurations to reallocate particular resources to or away from the activity.

21. The resource management architecture of claim 20, wherein the resource manager is configured to switch said one configuration to said another configuration automatically.

22. The resource management architecture of claim 20, wherein the configurations are ranked in order of preference, the resource manager being configured to switch the activity from a more preferred configuration to a less preferred configuration.

23. A resource management architecture comprising:

multiple resource providers associated with resources;

multiple consumers that utilize the resources provided by the resource providers; and

a resource manager to arbitrate access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers;

wherein;

one of the consumers creates an activity at the resource manager in association with a task to be performed and builds multiple configurations for the activity, each configuration identifying a set of one or more of the resources to perform the task; and

the resource manager being configured to reserve the resources that satisfy at least one of the configurations.

24. The resource management architecture of claim 23, wherein the configurations are ranked in order of preference and the configuration with reserved resources is not highest ranked among the configurations, wherein the resource manager sends an upgrade notification to said one consumer when resources for a higher ranked configuration becomes available.

25. The resource management architecture of claim 24, wherein said one consumer, in response to the upgrade notification, requests the resource manager to reserve the resources for the higher ranked configuration.

26. A resource management architecture comprising:

multiple resource providers associated with resources;

multiple consumers that utilize the resources provided by the resource providers; and

a resource manager to arbitrate access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers;

wherein the resource providers are configured without any knowledge of real time, further comprising a scheduling component to schedule allocation of a set of the resources at a later time.

27. A resource management architecture comprising:

multiple resource providers that are associated with resources;

multiple consumers that utilize the resources provided by the resource providers to perform tasks;

a resource manager to allocate the resources provided by the resource providers to one or more of the consumers;

at least one activity data structure created at the resource manager in association with a task to be performed by a corresponding consumer; and

at least one configuration data structure created at the resource manager in association with the activity data structure, the configuration data structure describing a set of one or more resources used to perform the associated activity.

28. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the configuration data structure is contained within the activity data structure.

29. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the configuration data structure contains at least one resource descriptor that identifies one of the resource providers.

30. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the resource providers and the resource manager reside at a kernel level.

31. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein at least one of the consumers comprises an application program.

32. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein at least one resource provider acts as a consumer of a resource provided by at least one other resource provider.

33. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the resource providers register with the resource manager.

34. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein each of the resource providers comprises a resource quantifier that determines an amount of the associated resource that is available for allocation.

35. The resource management architecture of claim 34, wherein the resource quantifier comprises a counter that maintains a count of how many of the resources are available for allocation.

36. The resource management architecture of claim 34, wherein the resource quantifier comprises a temporal tracking component that tracks a duration that the resources is available for allocation.

37. The resource management architecture of claim 34, wherein the resource quantifier comprises a percentage tracking component that tracks a percentage of the resources that is available for allocation.

38. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the resource manager exposes an application program interface, the resource providers and the consumers making calls to the resource manager via the application program interface.

39. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the resource manager allocates the resources to the consumers according to a priority-based policy in which higher priority consumers are given precedence over lower priority consumers.

40. The resource management architecture of claim 27, further comprising multiple configuration data structures created in association with the activity data structure.

41. The resource management architecture of claim 27, wherein the resource manager allocates the resources specified in one of the configuration data structures.

42. The resource management architecture of claim 41, wherein the resource manager subsequently reallocates at least one of the resources specified in said one configuration data structure and automatically reserves a different set of the resources specified in another of the configuration data structures.

43. The resource management architecture of claim 42, wherein the resource manager notifies the consumer corresponding to the activity data structure when the resources specified in said one configuration data structure are once again available.

44. The resource management architecture of claim 43, wherein the consumer, in response to notification, requests the resource manager to reserve the resources specified in said one configuration data structure.

45. A resource management architecture comprising:

a resource provider associated with a resource; and

a resource manager to create an activity in association with a task to be performed at least in part by the resource and to build at least one configuration for the activity that identifies the resource, the resource manager being further configured to determine whether the resource identified in the configuration can be reserved for the activity in order to perform the task.

46. The resource management architecture of claim 45, further comprising a policy manager to establish a policy used by the resource manager to determine whether the resource can be reserved.

47. The resource management architecture of claim 45, wherein the resource provider comprises a resource quantifier that determines an amount of the resource that is available for allocation.

48. The resource management architecture of claim 45, wherein the resource manager exposes an application program interface, the resource provider makes calls to the resource manager via the application program interface.

49. A resource manager, comprising:

an application program interface to permit calls to reserve one or more resources used to perform a task;

at least one activity associated with the task;

at least one configuration associated with the activity to identify the one or more resources used to perform the task.

50. The resource manager of claim 49, further comprising means for determining whether to reserve the one or more resources specified in the configuration.

51. A resource manager comprising:

means for receiving a request to reserve a set of resources to perform a task;

means for creating a new activity in association with the task to be performed;

means for building at least one new configuration for the new activity, the new configuration identifying the set of resources; and

means for determining whether the set of resources identified in the new configuration can be reserved for the new activity in order to perform the task.

52. A method comprising:

receiving a request to reserve a set of resources to perform a task;

creating a new activity in association with the task to be performed;

building at least one new configuration for the new activity, the new configuration identifying the set of resources; and

determining whether the set of resources identified in the new configuration can be reserved for the new activity in order to perform the task.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the determining comprises:

identifying all existing activities that currently use the resources being requested; and

assigning the resources among the existing activities and the new activity according to an allocation policy.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the policy is a priority-based policy so that the resources are assigned to the activities according to their priority.

55. The method of claim 52, wherein the determining comprises:

constructing an activity list of all existing activities that have reserved resources and the new activity being created;

constructing a resource list of the resources identified in the new configuration that are currently reserved for the existing activities in the activity list;

determining a quantity of the resources in the resource list that are used by the activities in the activity list; and

in an event that the resources are insufficient to satisfy all of the activities in the activity list, identifying any activity for which there are insufficient resources.

56. The method of claim 55, further comprising ordering the resource list according to priority.

57. The method of claim 55, further comprising notifying the identified activity that the resources could not be reserved.

58. The method of claim 55, further comprising, in an event that the resources are sufficient to satisfy all of the activities in the activity list, reserving the resources for the new activity.

59. A computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computer system to perform the method of claim 52.

60. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing device to:

receive a request to reserve a set of resources to perform a task;

create a new activity in association with the task to be performed;

build at least one new configuration for the new activity, the new configuration identifying the set of resources;

identify all existing activities that currently use the resources being requested; and

assign the resources among the existing activities and the new activity according to an allocation policy.

61. The computer-readable medium of claim 60, wherein the policy is a priority-based policy so that the resources are assigned to the activities according to their priority.

62. An operating system embodied on the computer-readable medium of claim 60 and comprising the computer-executable instructions.