Business continuation policy for server consolidation environment

• US 7,529,822 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Operating Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Dalal, Kaushal R., Joshi, Darshan B., Senicka, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Joo; Joshua
• Application Number:
  US10/159,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20090024868A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,531 Days
• Field of Search: 709220-226, 714/1, 714/4, 714/100
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration

Abstract

A method, computer program product and system that establishes and maintains a business continuity policy in a server consolidation environment. Business continuity is ensured by enabling high availability of applications. When an application is started, restarted upon failure, or moved due to an overload situation, a system is selected best fulfilling the requirements for running the application. These requirements can include application requirements, such as an amount of available capacity to handle the load that will be placed on the system by the application. These requirements can further include system requirements, such as honoring a system limit of a number of applications that can be run on a particular system. Respective priorities of applications can be used to determine whether a lower-priority application can be moved to free resources for running a higher-priority application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting that a first application, among a plurality of applications running on a first system of a plurality of systems, has failed;

determining whether the first application can be restarted on a second system of the plurality of systems based on a first prerequisite, wherein the first prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by the first application; and

when the first application cannot be restarted on the second system,

determining whether a third system of the plurality of systems can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite, wherein the determining whether the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite comprises;

determining whether a fourth system of the plurality of systems satisfies a second prerequisite, wherein the second prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by a second application running on the third system, and

when the fourth system satisfies the second prerequisite, and the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite,

moving the second application to the fourth system, and

restarting the first application on the third system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining whether the first application can be restarted further comprises:

determining whether the first application will overload the second system; and

when the first application will overload the second system, determining that the first application cannot be restarted.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining whether the first application can be restarted further comprises:

determining whether the first application will overload the second system; and

when the first application will overload the second system, providing an overload warning.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining whether the third system satisfies the first prerequisite further comprises:

determining whether the first application will overload the third system; and

when the first application will overload the third system, determining that the third system does not satisfy the first prerequisite.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the third system satisfies the first prerequisite when the third system has an available resource fulfilling the first prerequisite.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the first prerequisite corresponds to a load placed on the third system by running the first application;

and the third system satisfies the first prerequisite when the available resource corresponds to an available capacity greater than or equal to the load.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

ascertaining that the first application falls within a limit for the third system prior to the restarting the first application on the third system.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the limit corresponds to a maximum number of applications that can be run on the third system.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the limit corresponds to a maximum number of applications of a type of the first application that can be run on the third system.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first application can be restarted on the second system when the second system has an available resource fulfilling the first prerequisite.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when the first application can be restarted on the second system, restarting the first application on the second system.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

ascertaining that the second application falls within a limit of the fourth system prior to the moving of the second application.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using a first priority of the first application and a second priority of the second application for the determining whether the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

increasing the performance of the first application in response to receiving a user input command to raise a resource allocation of the first application.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

when the first application cannot be restarted on the second system and the second application cannot be moved, notifying an administrator that the first application cannot be started;

wherein;

the first priority and the second priority are each among the group of priorities comprising;

mission critical, business critical, task critical, and nonessential;

the determining whether the first application can be restarted on a second system comprises evaluating a CurrentLimits value of the second system in comparison with the first prerequisite; and

the moving the second application to the fourth system comprises stopping a low-priority application, having a priority that is lower than the second priority, on the fourth system.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting whether the first application has failed further comprises at least one of:

simulating that the first application has failed; and

simulating that the first system has failed.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the determining whether the first application can be restarted on the second system comprises determining whether resources on the second system that are unallocated to current applications satisfy the first prerequisite; and

the determining whether the third system of the plurality of systems can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite comprises determining whether resources on the third system that are allocated to current applications satisfy the first prerequisite.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the restarting the first application on the third system comprises:

deallocating a resource on the third system from the second application; and

allocating the resource to the first application.

19. A method comprising:

detecting that a first application is to be started;

determining whether a first system of a plurality of systems meets a first prerequisite, wherein the first prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by the first application; and

when the first system does not meet the first prerequisite,

determining whether a second system of the plurality of systems can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite, wherein the determining whether the second system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite comprises;

determining, whether a third system of the plurality of systems satisfies a second prerequisite, wherein the second prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by a second application running on the second system, and

when the third system satisfies the second prerequisite, and the second system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite,

moving the second application to the third system, and

starting the first application on the second system.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the detecting that the first application is to be started comprises detecting that the first application has failed while running on a fourth system of the plurality of systems.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the detecting that the first application is to be started comprises detecting that the first application is running on a fourth system of the plurality of systems, the fourth system being overloaded.

22. A system comprising:

a processor;

means for detecting that a first application, among a plurality of applications running on a first system of a plurality of systems, has failed, wherein the means for detecting that the first application has failed is coupled to the processor;

first determining means for determining whether the first application can be restarted on a second system of the plurality of systems based on a first prerequisite, wherein the first prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by the first application;

second determining means for determining, in response to a determination that the first application can not be restarted on the second system, whether a third system of the plurality of systems can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite, wherein the second determining means comprises;

third determining means for determining, whether a fourth system of the plurality of systems satisfies a second prerequisite, wherein the second prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by a second application running on the third system, and

first moving means for moving the second application to the fourth system in response to determinations that the fourth system satisfies the second prerequisite and the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite; and

first restarting means for restarting the first application on the third system in response to the determinations that the fourth system satisfies the second prerequisite and that the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite.

23. The system of claim 22 further comprising:

second restarting means for restarting the first application on the second system in response to a determination that the first application can be restarted on the second system.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the second determining means comprises:

means for using a first priority of the first application and a second priority of the second application for determining whether the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the means for detecting that the first application has failed comprises at least one of:

means for simulating that the first application has failed;

or

means for simulating that the first system has failed.

26. A computer readable storage medium, having encoded thereon instructions executable by a computer system, the instructions comprising:

detecting instructions to detect that a first application, among a plurality of applications running on a first system of a plurality of systems, has failed;

first determining instructions to determine whether the first application can be restarted on a second system of the plurality of systems based on a first prerequisite, wherein the first prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by the first application;

second determining instructions to determine, in response to a determination that the first application can not be restarted on the second system, whether a third system of the plurality of systems can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite, wherein the second determining instructions comprise;

third determining instructions to determine, whether a fourth system of the plurality of systems satisfies a second prerequisite, wherein the second prerequisite corresponds to resources needed by a second application running on the third system;

first moving instructions to move the second application to the fourth system in response to determinations that the fourth system satisfies the second prerequisite and the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite; and

first restarting instructions to restart the first application on the third system in response to the determinations that the fourth system satisfies the second prerequisite and that the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, the instructions further comprising:

second restarting instructions to restart the first application on the second system in response to a determination that the first application can be restarted on the second system.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, the instructions further comprising:

instructions to use a first priority of the first application and a second priority of the second application to determine whether the third system can be made to satisfy the first prerequisite.