System and method for managing resources

• US 8,046,466 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2007
• Issued: 10/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Sutou, Hiromi
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tiv; Backhean
• Application Number:
  US11/668,598
• Publication Number:
  US 20080034093A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

A resource management system including a plurality of computer systems and providing services through operations of task applications by combining the plurality of the computer systems, which comprises: a storage which is included in at least one of the computer systems for storing information for identifying the computer systems which execute the task applications, respectively, and resource utilization rate information which includes utilization rates of resources configuring the respective computer systems; and an effected range investigation unit which is included in at least one of the computer systems and obtains utilization rates of additional resources required by a task application from the resource utilization rate information when the effected range investigation unit obtains information that the task application requires the additional resources of the computer systems; and sums utilization rates of resources configuring newly configured computer systems.

Claims

1. A resource management system including a plurality of computer systems and providing services through operations of task applications by utilizing resources of the plurality of the computer systems, the resource management system comprising:

a storage which is included in at least one of the computer systems for storing information for identifying the computer systems which execute the task applications, respectively, and resource utilization rate information which includes utilization rates of resources configuring the respective computer systems, wherein the resources are shared by the task applications; and

an effected range investigation unit which is included in at least one of the computer systems and which, responsive to obtaining information that a task application requires additional resources of the computer systems and prior to deciding assignment of the additional resources of a proposed configuration;

obtaining expected utilization rates of the additional resources required by the task application in the proposed configuration, from the resource utilization rate information, and existing utilization rates of the resources which are being used at a time when the additional resources are requested, and

summing the expected utilization rates of the additional resources of the proposed configuration together with the existing utilization rates of the resources which are being used at the time,

wherein the resource management system deciding whether or not to assign the additional resources for the proposed configuration, based at least in part on the sum in verifying effects on other task applications, and

wherein in an event that the resource management system deciding not to assign the additional resources for the proposed configuration as a result of the sum in verifying effects on other task applications, the effected range investigation unit is configured to perform the obtaining and summing, and the resource management system is configured to perform the deciding, for another proposed configuration.

2. The resource management system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a policy control unit in at least one of the computer systems, for changing an assignment of the additional resources for the proposed configuration based on a policy action when the result of the sum in verifying effects on other task applications indicates a utilization rate of the each resource of the computer systems, is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value and requirements of a Service Level Agreement are achieved, based on the policy action which is included in policy information,

wherein the storage further stores a plurality of policy information which includes the policy action which is information defining a change of the assignment of resources of the computer systems for the task applications.

3. The resource management system according to claim 2, wherein the policy control unit updates information, which is included in the resource utilization rate information, for identifying the computer systems which execute the task applications, respectively, based on the policy action, when the assignment of any resource is changed.

4. The resource management system according to one of claims 1 and 2, further comprising a utilization rate collection unit, in at least one of the computer systems, which updates utilization rates included in the resource utilization rate information by obtaining a utilization rate of each resource of the computer systems.

5. The resource management system according to claim 4, wherein the utilization rate collection unit obtains the utilization rate of the each resource of the computer systems before the effected range investigation unit utilizes the resource utilization rate information.

6. The resource management system according to claim 4, wherein when there is a utilization rate which is larger than the predetermined threshold value with respect to the utilization rate of the each resource of the computer systems in the policy information, the policy control unit selects a policy action which is configured to solve problems to be caused by the utilization rate which is larger than the predetermined threshold value.

7. The resource management system according to claim 4, wherein the resource utilization rate information includes a defined utilization rate of each resource and an obtained utilization rate of each resource obtained by the utilization rate collection unit,

wherein the effected range investigation unit uses the defined utilization rate until a processing number of the system reaches a given number;

and uses the obtained utilization rate after the given number.

8. The resource management system according to claim 2, which is configured to sum all utilization rates of each resource of newly configured computer systems by the effected range investigation unit, and evaluates whether or not the all utilization rate are equal to or less than the predetermined value;

and obtains information of a network configuration for executing the task applications assigned to the computer systems, then, determines a computer system executing a load dispersion processing as a policy action target.

9. A resource management method including a plurality of computer systems and providing services through operations of task applications by utilizing resources of the plurality of the computer systems, the resource management method comprising:

storing, in a storage which is included in at least one of the computer systems, information for identifying the computer systems which execute the task applications, respectively, and resource utilization rate information which includes utilization rates of resources configuring the respective computer systems, wherein the resources are shared by the task applications; and

conducting an effected range investigation by obtaining, responsive to information that a task application requires additional resources of the computer systems and prior to deciding assignment of the additional resources of a proposed configuration;

obtaining expected utilization rates of the additional resources required by the task application in the proposed configuration, from the resource utilization rate information, and existing utilization rates of the resources which are being used at a time when the additional resources are requested, and

summing the expected utilization rates of the additional resources of the proposed configuration together with the existing utilization rates of the resources which are being used at the time,

deciding whether or not to assign the additional resources for the proposed configuration, based at least in part on the sum in verifying effects on other task applications, and

wherein in an event of deciding not to assign the additional resources for the proposed configuration as a result of the sum in verifying effects on other task applications, performing the obtaining, summing, and deciding, for another proposed configuration.

10. The resource management method according to claim 9, further comprising:

storing policy information which includes a policy action which is information defining a change of an assignment of at least one resource of the computer systems for the task applications in the storage of the resource management system,

performing the summing for the proposed configuration based on the policy action included in the policy information; and

changing the assignment of the additional resources for the proposed configuration based on the policy action when the result of the sum in verifying effects on other task applications indicates a utilization rate of the each resource of the computer systems, is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value and requirements of a Service Level Agreement are achieved.

11. The resource management method according to claim 10,

wherein when there is a change of an assignment of any resource, the resource management method comprises:

updating information, which is included in the resource utilization rate information, for identifying the computer systems now executing the respective task applications based on the task application.

12. The resource management method according to claim 9,

wherein the resource management method comprises:

updating a resource utilization rate included in the resource utilization rate information, by obtaining the resource utilization rate of each resource from the computer systems.

13. The resource management method according to claim 12,

wherein the resource management method comprises:

obtaining the resource utilization rate of the each resource from the computer systems, before utilizing the resource utilization rate information.

14. The resource management method according to claim 12,

wherein when there is a utilization rate which is larger than the predetermined threshold value with respect to the utilization rate of each resource of the computer systems in the policy information, the resource management method comprises:

selecting a policy action configured to solve problems to be caused by the utilization rate which is larger than the predetermined threshold value.

15. The resource management method according to claim 12,

wherein the resource management method includes a defined utilization rate of each resource and an obtained utilization rate of each resource in the resource utilization rate information, and the method comprises:

using the defined utilization rate until a processing number of the method reaches a given number; and

uses the obtained utilization rate after the given number.