Object-oriented framework for generic adaptive control

• US 7,120,621 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2002
• Issued: 10/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pilgrim, Jeffrey Robert, Bigus, Joseph Phillip, Schlosnagle, Donald A., Thathachar, Jayram S., Hellerstein, Joseph L., Parekh, Sujay, Squillante, Mark S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abel-Jalil, Neveen
• Application Number:
  US10/059,665
• Publication Number:
  US 20030144983A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,715 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/101, 707/103.R, 709/105, 717/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing

Abstract

A system and method are described for constructing and implementing generic software agents for automated tuning of computer systems and applications. The framework defines the modules and interfaces to allow agents to be created in a modular fashion. The specifics of the target system are captured by adaptors that provide a uniform interface to the target system. Data in the agent is managed by a metric manager, and controller modules implement the desired control algorithms. The modular structure and common interfaces allow for the construction of generic agents that are applicable to a wide variety of target systems, and can use a wide variety of control algorithms.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising the steps of:

managing at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems;

providing one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies for adaptively tuning performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems;

providing one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems;

automatically invoking the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values,

wherein said step of providing the one or more controllers comprises the step of selecting the one or more controllers from a plurality of controllers.

2. A computer-implemented method for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising the steps of:

managing at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems;

providing one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies to adaptively tune performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems;

providing one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems;

automatically invoking the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values,

wherein said step of providing the one or more adaptors comprises the step of selecting the one or more adaptors from a plurality of adaptors.

3. A computer-implemented method for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising the steps of:

managing at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems;

providing one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies to adaptively tune performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems;

providing one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems;

automatically invoking the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values; and

providing at least one customizer to receive user inputs to customize at least one of said metric manager, said one or more controllers, and said one or more adaptors, the at least one customizer being a graphical user interface.

4. A computer-based tuning system for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising:

a metric manager to manage at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems, wherein the set of metrics comprise read-only metrics and read/write metrics;

one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies to adaptively tune performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems, and

one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems,

wherein the one or more controllers invoke the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values.

5. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein each of the one or more control strategies corresponds to a separate computer program.

6. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein more than one of the one or more controllers is employed in a given application of the tuning system to a given one of the one or more target systems.

7. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein at least some of the one or more controllers are modular and are configured to be deleted from the tuning system, modified, or replaced.

8. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein at least some of the one or more adaptors are modular and are configured to be deleted from the tuning system, modified, or replaced.

9. The tuning system of claim 4, further comprising a shared facility to log metric changes.

11. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein said one or more adaptors directly obtain latest values of the read-only metrics from the one or more target systems.

12. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein said one or more adaptors set values corresponding to the read/write metrics on the one or more target systems.

13. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein said metric manager is configured to add, delete and list the at least one set of metrics.

14. The tuning system of claim 4, wherein the tuning system is configured to invoke other tuning systems to form a hierarchical tuning system with respect to the one or more target systems.

15. The tuning system of claim 14, wherein the tuning system and the other tuning systems operate cooperatively to implement the one or more control strategies.

16. The tuning system of claim 4, further comprising an administrator application programming interface (API) to specify service-level requirements of the one or more target systems.

17. The tuning system of claim 4, further comprising an administrator application programming interface (API) to monitor an operation of the tuning system.

10. A computer-based tuning system for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising:

a metric manager to manage at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems;

one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies to adaptively tune performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems, and

one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems,

wherein the one or more controllers invoke the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values,

wherein said one or more controllers comprise a master controller to resolve conflicts between the one or more control strategies.

18. A computer-based tuning system for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising:

a metric manager to manage at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems;

one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies to adaptively tune performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems, and

one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems,

wherein the one or more controllers invoke the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values,

wherein said metric manager is configured to receive an input specifying at least a subset of metrics to be stored from among the at least-one set of metrics.

19. A computer-based tuning system for automatically tuning one or more target systems, comprising:

a metric manager to manage at least one set of metrics corresponding to the one or more target systems;

one or more controllers to implement one or more control strategies to adaptively tune performance characteristics of the one or more target systems based upon the at least one set of metrics, wherein the one or more control strategies are independent of a particular architecture of any of the one or more target systems, and

one or more adaptors to provide an abstract interface to the one or more target systems with respect to the one or more control strategies, wherein at least one of the one or more adaptors is specific to a corresponding one of the one or more target systems,

wherein the one or more controllers invoke the one or more adaptors (i) to obtain metric values from the one or more target systems to compute tuning control values, and (ii) to tune the one or more target systems using the computed tuning control values; and

at least one customizer to receive user inputs to customize at least one of said metric manager, said one or more controllers, and said one or more adaptors, wherein a user interacts with the at least one customizer using a graphical user interface.

20. The tuning system of claim 19, wherein said customizer receives the user inputs to set default values for at least one of said metric manager, said one or more controllers, and said one or more adaptors.

21. The tuning system of claim 19, wherein said customizer receives the user inputs to select a number of said one or more adaptors that is to be employed in a given application of the tuning system to a given one of the one or more target systems.

22. The tuning system of claim 19, wherein said customizer receives the user inputs to select one or more types of said one or more adaptors that is to be employed in a given application of the tuning system to a given one of the one or more target systems.

23. The tuning system of claim 19, wherein said customizer receives the user inputs to select a number of said one or more controllers that is to be employed in a given application of the tuning system to a given one of the one or more target systems.

24. The tuning system of claim 19, wherein said customizer receives the user inputs to select one or more types of said one or more controllers that is to be employed in a given application of the tuning system to a given one of the one or more target systems.