Method and system for load balancing of computer resources among computers

• US 7,421,497 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2002
• Issued: 09/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Virtuozzo International GmbH
• Original Assignee: Swsoft Holdings, Ltd.
• Inventors: Rosenbach, Yariv, Harel, Igal, Bondar, Gregory, Baram, Nir
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): WASEL, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US10/487,481
• Publication Number:
  US 20040243706A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,203 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/223, 709/225, 709/226, 718/105
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30

Abstract

A method and system for balancing the load of computer resource(s) among a plurality of computers having consumers consuming the resource(s) is disclosed. After defining the lower threshold of the consumption level of the resource(s) and obtaining the consumption level of the resource(s) for each of the consumers and for each of said computers, the consumption level for each of the computers is compared during a period with its associated lower threshold. Whenever a computer having a consumption level of the resource(s) higher than the lower threshold is identified, a new layout of computer resource(s) for each of the consumers is determined. Consumer(s) are then shifted from their current location in the computer to a corresponding location in another computer according to the layout, so that the consumption level of the resource(s) for a computer may be reduced.

Claims

1. A method for balancing the load of computer resource(s) among a plurality of computers having consumers consuming said resource(s), comprising:

a) For each of said computers, defining the lower threshold of the consumption level of said resource(s);

b) Obtaining the consumption level of said resource(s) for each of said consumers;

c) Obtaining a consumption level of said resource(s) for each of said computers by hooking calls for service(s) on each of the computers;

d) Periodically comparing the consumption level for each of said computers during a period with its associated lower threshold;

e) Whenever a computer having a consumption level of said resource(s) higher than said lower threshold is identified, determining a new layout, being a definition for each of said consumers from which computer of said group said computer resource(s) should be provided, and moving consumer(s) from their current location in the computer to the corresponding location in said or in another computer according to said layout, and which includes moving the consumer(s) from a computer with a first operating system to a computer with a different operating system, thereby reducing the consumption level of said resource(s) on said computer.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumption level is a numerical value representing the consumption of the resource(s) during a period.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consumption level is a numerical value representing the highest consumption of the resource(s) during a period.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the resource is any of disk quota, network traffic, CPU time, system physical memory and/or system virtual memory.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computers support any of Web sites, Web servers, virtual dedicated servers, and computer users.

6. A system for balancing the load of computer resource(s) among a plurality of computers having a plurality of Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDSs) consuming said resource(s), comprising:

the plurality of VDSs running on the plurality of computers, each VDS servicing requests from clients, and multiple VDSs running on the same computer sharing a single instance of the operating system;

each of the plurality of computers executing code for measuring the consumption level of the resource(s) on each of the computers by hooking calls for service(s) on each of the computers, the computers also executing code for implementing the steps of;

retrieving the consumption level from the computers;

comparing the consumption level of the computers with their allowed lower threshold;

determining the VDSs to be moved, and the computer(s) to move the VDSs to; and

moving a VDS from one of the computers to another, and which includes moving the VDS from a computer with a first operating system to a computer with a different operating system.

7. The system according to claim 6, further comprising a user interface for administrating the system.

8. A system for balancing the load of computer resources, the system comprising:

a plurality of Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDSs) running on a plurality of computers, each VDS executing at least one user application and responding to requests from clients, and multiple VDSs running on the same computer sharing a single instance of the operating system;

means for measuring the consumption level of the resources by each VDS on each computer;

means for retrieving the consumption level from the computers by hooking calls for service(s) on each of the computers;

means for comparing the consumption level of the resources on the computers by the VDSs with their allowed lower threshold;

means for determining which of the VDSs need to be moved from one of the computers to a different computer, based on the comparison, and to which computer the VDS should be moved; and

means for moving a VDS from one of the computers to a different computers, and which includes moving the VDS from a computer with a first operating system to a computer with a different operating system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the consumption level is a numerical value representing the consumption of the resources during a particular time period.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the consumption level is a numerical value representing the highest consumption of the resources during a particular time period.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the resource is any of disk quota, network traffic, CPU time, system physical memory, and/or system virtual memory.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the VDSs support any of websites and webservers.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the websites are static websites, and wherein the moving is performed without user intervention for configuration of the website to the different operating system on the computer to which the VDS has been moved.

14. A method for balancing a load of computer resources among a plurality of computers having Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDSs) consuming the resources, comprising:

a) for each computer, defining a lower threshold of the consumption level of the resources by each VDS, wherein each VDS responds to requests from clients, and multiple VDSs running on the same computer sharing a single instance of the operating system;

b) obtaining the consumption level of the resources for each VDS;

c) obtaining a consumption level of the resources for each of the computers by hooking calls for service(s) on each of the computers;

d) periodically comparing the consumption level for each of the computers during a period with its associated lower threshold;

e) whenever a first computer having a consumption level of the resources higher than the lower threshold is identified, determining to which computer the resources should be provided, and moving VDSs from their current location in the first computer to a corresponding location in a second computer, and which includes moving the VDS from a computer with a first operating system to a computer with a different operating system, thereby reducing the consumption level of the resources on the first computer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the hooking of the calls is done for each VDS on a particular computer.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the hooking of the calls is then done for the the particular computer.