Intelligent system control agent for managing jobs on a network by managing a plurality of queues on a client

• US 7,996,507 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Larkin, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin; Kenny S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ali; Farhad
• Application Number:
  US11/461,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20070050490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,835 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4862 the task being a mobile agent, i.e. specifically designed to migrate

Abstract

Disclosed is a robust intelligent system control agent configured to receive user job requests, submit the user job requests to selected qualified clients for servicing, and monitor the progress of the requests. The system is also configured with the capability of relocating a system control agent from one location within a network to another location within the network and for relocating a job request from one client to another. This ability to relocate agents and jobs provides robustness and reliability to the system, allowing the agent to move to a different machine when, for example, its current host system requires maintenance or other downtime. In order to facilitate the relocation of a job request, the state of the request is temporarily stored by the agent or by other means while the job request is relocated to another client.

Claims

1. An intelligent system control agent for coordinating user requested jobs among a plurality of clients, comprising:

a user interface module configured to receive a user request by way of a processor;

a client selection module configured to select one of a plurality of clients to service the user request according to a predetermined criterion, the client selection module configured to centrally provide job request allocations for each client, each client comprising a plurality of queue types, each queue type having an individual scheme for prioritizing jobs, the plurality of queue types for each client comprising two or more of an asynchronous queue, a synchronous queue and an exclusive queue, each client further comprising a job execution module that selects one of the plurality of queue types of the selected client for queuing the user request based on characteristics of the requested job; and

a communication module configured to submit the user request to the job execution module of the selected client;

wherein the user interface module, client selection module, and communication module comprise one or more of logic hardware and executable code, the executable code stored on one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media; and

wherein the asynchronous queue is configured to dispatch job requests simultaneously, the synchronous queue is configured to dispatch job requests only in the same order in which the job requests were received, and the exclusive queue is configured to dispatch job requests either exclusively of any other job requests in any of the other queue types or when no other activity is occurring on the client.

2. The intelligent system control agent of claim 1, wherein each client comprises each of an asynchronous queue, a synchronous queue, and an exclusive queue.

3. The intelligent system control agent of claim 1, further comprising a system health check module configured to maintain an awareness of the state of the selected client.

4. The intelligent system control agent of claim 1, further comprising an agent endpoint module configured to enable the relocation of the system control agent.

5. The intelligent system control agent of claim 1, further comprising a federation module configured to allow cross-communication and interaction between a plurality of system control agents.

6. The intelligent system control agent of claim 1, further comprising a job relocation module configured to centrally relocate a user requested job from one client to another, and further comprising a state storage module configured to store the state of jobs being relocated from one client to another, the job relocation module accessing data in the state storage module to relocate a user requested job from one client to another.

7. The intelligent system control agent of claim 6, wherein relocating the user request from the selected client within the network to another client within the network further comprises:

instructing the selected client to relocate the user request by a system administrator or agent;

sending the user request to a state storage system by the selected client;

sending instructions to the new client to access the user request from the state storage system by the agent;

accessing the user request from the state storage system by the new client; and

relocating the user request to the new client.

8. A system for remotely controlling clients from a central location, the system comprising:

a plurality of clients, each client comprising a plurality of queue types, each queue type having an individual scheme for prioritizing jobs, the plurality of queue types for each client comprising two or more of an asynchronous queue, a synchronous queue and an exclusive queue, each client further comprising a job execution module that selects one of the plurality of queue types of the selected client for queuing a requested job based on characteristics of the requested job;

an agent configured to receive a user request from a user and determine based upon a predetermined criterion which of the plurality of the clients to submit the user request to, the agent configured to centrally provide job request allocations for each client, each client comprising a plurality of queue types, each queue type having an individual scheme for prioritizing jobs, the plurality of queue types for each client comprising two or more of an asynchronous queue, a synchronous queue and an exclusive queue, each client further comprising a job execution module that selects one of the plurality of queue types of the selected client for queuing the user request based on characteristics of the requested job; and

a communication channel configured to send the user request to the specified client;

wherein the asynchronous queue is configured to dispatch job requests simultaneously, the synchronous queue is configured to dispatch job requests only in the same order in which the job requests were received, and the exclusive queue is configured to dispatch job requests either exclusively of any other job requests in any of the other queue types or when no other activity is occurring on the client.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each client comprises at least three queue types.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the job execution module selects an asynchronous queue in response to a job request having a short execution time.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the job execution module selects an asynchronous queue in response to determining that a requested job is configured to run requests simultaneously within the specified client.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the job execution module selects a synchronous queue configured to run requests in the order the requests are received by the specified client in response to determining that a job requires client resources above an acceptable threshold.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the job execution module selects an exclusive queue configured to run requests exclusive of any other requests in any other queue on the system in response to determining that a job requires execution without interruption.

14. A method of operating a software control agent, comprising:

receiving a user request with a first software control agent;

automatically selecting based upon a predetermined criterion one of a plurality of clients to submit the user job request to for service of the request, each client comprising a plurality of queue types, each queue type having a different scheme for prioritizing job requests, the plurality of queue types for each client comprising two or more of an asynchronous queue configured to dispatch job requests simultaneously, a synchronous queue configured to dispatch job requests only in the same order in which the job requests were received, and an exclusive queue configured to dispatch job requests either exclusively of any other job requests in any of the other queue types or when no other activity is occurring on the client;

sending the user request over a communication channel to the selected client;

selecting one of the plurality of queue types of the selected client for queuing the user job request based on characteristics of the requested job; and

relocating the first agent from one computer station within a network to another computer station within the network wherein relocating the first agent from one computer system within the network to another computer system within the network comprises instructing the first agent to relocate to a known agent endpoint by a system administrator.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein relocating the first agent from one computer system within the network to another computer system within the network further comprises requesting the new endpoint to instantiate a new agent and sending a request to the first agent'"'"'s endpoint to close the first agent.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein relocating the first agent from one computer system within the network to another computer system within the network further comprises waiting while the new agent populates its database with the data from the state storage system by the agent and sending a message to all clients in the domain that the agent is relocated to the new agent by the first agent.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising sending a message to all federated agents that the agent for a domain is relocated to the new agent by a first agent.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising relocating a user requested job from one client to another.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein automatically relocating the agent from one computer system within the network to another computer system within the network further comprises:

flushing in-process requests to a state storage system by the agent;

requesting the new endpoint to instantiate a new agent by the agent;

waiting while the new agent populates its database with the data from the state storage system by the agent;

sending a message to all federated agents that the agent for a domain is relocated to the new agent by a first agent;

sending a message to all clients in the domain that the agent is relocated to the new agent by the first agent; and

sending a request to the first agent'"'"'s endpoint to close the first agent by the new agent.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising automatically relocating the user request from the selected client within the network to another client within the network.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein automatically relocating the user request from the selected client within the network to another client within the network further comprises:

instructing the selected client to relocate the user request by a system administrator or agent;

sending the user request to a state storage system by the selected client;

sending instructions to the new client to access the user request from the state storage system by the agent;

accessing the user request from the state storage system by the new client; and

relocating the user request to the new client.

22. An article for manufacture comprising a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processor and to perform a method of operating a software control agent, comprising:

receiving a user request;

automatically selecting based upon a predetermined criterion one of a plurality of clients to centrally submit the request to for service of user request, each client comprising a plurality of queue types, each queue type having an individual scheme for prioritizing jobs, the plurality of queue types for each client comprising two or more of an asynchronous queue, a synchronous queue and an exclusive queue, each client further comprising a job execution module that selects one of the plurality of queue types of the selected client for queuing the user request based on characteristics of the requested job; and

sending the user request over a communication channel to the job execution module of the selected client;

wherein the asynchronous queue is configured to dispatch job requests simultaneously, the synchronous queue is configured to dispatch job requests only in the same order in which the job requests were received, and the exclusive queue is configured to dispatch job requests either exclusively of any other job requests in any of the other queue types or when no other activity is occurring on the client.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 22, further comprising automatically relocating a software control agent from one computer station within a network to another computer station within the network.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 22, further comprising providing an agent endpoint module configured to allow the mobility of an agent from one system to another.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 22, further comprising automatically relocating a user requested job from one client within a network to another client within the network.