System and method to monitor amount of usage of applications in logical partitions

• US 7,620,950 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2003
• Issued: 11/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nechemias, Marcy J., Tingey, Michael O., Mathias, Thomas B., Wassel, Peter S.
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Ai
• Assistant Examiner(s): ARCOS, CAROLINE H
• Application Number:
  US10/613,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20050004879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,331 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718/100, 718/104, 705/30, 705/32, 705/404, 726/7, 726/19
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3423 where the assessed time is active or idle time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A system, method, and program product for determining an amount of usage of applications in an LPAR in a computer system and a bill for such usage. A guest operating system or other program executing in the LPAR determines information indicative of an amount of usage of each of the applications. Based on the information, an amount of usage of each of the applications is reported to a billing function. The billing function determines a bill for each of the applications based on the amount of usage of each of the applications. The total usage of all of the applications is determined and compared to an amount of usage of the LPAR based on the system data, to audit the amount of usage of the applications in the LPAR or a charge based on the amount of usage of the applications.

Claims

1. A method for determining an amount of usage of applications in a logical partition in a computer system and a bill for such usage, said method comprising:

executing a guest operating system in said logical partition;

said guest operating system dispatching a plurality of applications in said logical partition;

said guest operating system or other program executing in said logical partition determining information indicative of an amount of usage of each of said applications;

determining a total usage of all of said applications in said logical partition based on said information indicative of said amount of usage of each of said applications determined by said guest operating system or said other program;

determining, by a hardware usage monitor, logical partition usage information for hardware resources used by the logical partition;

based on said information, reporting said amount of usage of each of said applications to a billing function; and

comparing said total usage of all of said applications to an amount of usage of hardware resources by said logical partition to audit said amount of usage of said applications in said logical partition or a charge based on said amount of usage of said applications;

said billing function determining a bill for each of said applications based on said amount of usage of each of said applications and said logical partition usage of hardware resources.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

determining said amount of usage of each of said applications based on said information determined by said guest operating system or said other program executing in said logical partition; and

reporting said amount of usage of each of said applications.

3. A method for determining an amount of usage of applications in a logical partition in a computer system and a bill for such usage, said computer system including storage private to said logical partition, storage private to said system and system functions, and storage shared by said logical partition and said system functions, said method comprising:

executing a guest operating system in said logical partition;

said guest operating system dispatching a plurality of applications in said logical partition, determining information indicative of an amount of usage of each of said applications, and writing said information indicative of said amount of usage to said shared storage;

determining a total usage of all of said applications in said logical partition based on said information indicative of an amount of usage from said shared storage;

determining, by a hardware usage monitor, logical partition usage information for hardware resources used by the logical partition;

one of said system functions reading said information indicative of said amount of usage of each of said applications from said shared storage and reporting said amount of usage of each of said applications to a billing function;

comparing said total usage of all of said applications to an amount of usage of hardware resources by said logical partition to audit said amount of usage of said applications in said logical partition or a charge based on said amount of usage of said applications; and

said billing function determining a bill for each of said applications based on the information obtained from said one system function and the logical partition hardware resources usage information.

4. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein said guest operating system determines the amount of usage of each of said applications and reports the amount of usage of each of said applications to said shared storage.

5. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein said guest operating system calculates the amount of usage of each of said applications using storage private to said logical partition, and then reports the amount of usage to said shared storage.

6. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein said one system function processes said information obtained from said shared storage into a different form, and then reports said information in said different form to said billing function.

7. A method as set forth in claim 3 further:

determining an amount of usage of said logical partition without using application usage information generated by said guest operating system.

8. A method as set forth in claim 7 wherein the step of determining said amount of usage of said logical partition based on said system data is performed by checking usage bits of processors which execute said logical partition.

9. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein said bill is based on a peak usage.

10. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein said determining said amount of usage of said logical partition is performed by checking usage bits of processors which execute said logical partition.

11. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein another of said system functions determining said amount of usage of said logical partition without using application usage information generated by said guest operating system comprises:

computing percent utilization of said logical partition as said logical partition utilization=(actual logical partition usage)×

(number of dedicated processors for logical partition or specified processor share for said logical partition×

total number of processors).

12. A method as set forth in claim 3, wherein said comparing said total usage of all of said applications in said logical partition to said amount of usage of said logical partition to audit said amount of usage of said applications in said logical partition, comprises:

reading auditing and business rules;

adding a usage of said applications for said logical partition;

computing percent utilization of said logical partition to form said usage of said logical partition;

reading logical partition usage data for said logical partition;

subtracting said logical partition usage data from said usage of said logical partition to form a difference;

determining whether said difference is within an acceptable range; and

if the difference is within said acceptable range, computing a bill.