Expert system and visualization for multi-server capacity management

• US 8,112,366 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hollingsworth, Matt, Hamilton, Colleen, Oslake, John M., Bice, Shawn
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Li-Wu
• Application Number:
  US12/242,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/023 Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as alphanumeric codes, operand codes or instruction codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

A system is disclosed that includes an interface to receive a resource governance rule applicable to one or more hardware resources supporting a monitored software application. The system includes utilization logic to measure usage of a particular hardware resource by the monitored software application. An available utilization of the particular hardware resource is determined based on the resource governance rule, and a total utilization of the particular hardware resource is also determined. One or more utilization metrics are determined based on historical usage of the particular hardware resource as compared to a governed capacity and a non-governed capacity available to the particular hardware resource. The system also includes recommendation logic to determine a recommended action to be taken with respect to the monitored software application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor including an interface to receive a resource governance rule applicable to one or more hardware resources supporting a monitored software application;

utilization logic to;

measure usage of a particular hardware resource by the monitored software application;

determine an available utilization of the particular hardware resource based on the resource governance rule;

determine a total utilization of the particular hardware resource; and

determine one or more utilization metrics based on a historical usage of the particular hardware resource as compared to a governed capacity available to the particular hardware resource and a non-governed capacity available to the particular hardware resource;

recommendation logic to determine a recommended action to be taken with respect to the monitored software application based on one or more rules; and

prediction logic to estimate a predicted impact of executing the recommended action.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface to display the one or more utilization metrics and the recommended action.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more utilization metrics includes a resource governed utilization of the particular hardware resource, and wherein the user interface displays the resource governed utilization of the particular hardware resource.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the user interface further displays a contribution of each of one or more consumers of the particular hardware resource relative to the total utilization of the particular hardware resource and the resource governed utilization of the particular hardware resource.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules include one or more deployment configuration constraints and one or more resource allocation best practices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommended action includes one or more of re-allocating hardware resources of a first computer system, moving the files associated with the software application to a different storage system location, and moving the software application to a second computer system.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the user interface further displays a predicted utilization view of related hardware resources and software applications of the system based on the predicted impact of executing the recommended action.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the utilization logic detects a usage of the monitored software application that approaches a hardware resource limit, the violation of a deployment configuration constraint, or the violation of a resource allocation best practice before the usage exceeds the hardware resource limit the constraint or the best practice, and wherein the recommendation logic automatically executes the recommended action.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein automatically executing the recommended action includes one or more of re-allocating hardware resources of a first computer system, moving the files associated with the software application to a different storage system location, and moving the software application to a second computer system.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the user interface includes a graphical user interface and a command line interface.

11. A method, comprising:

identifying consumers of a resource;

monitoring usage of the resource by each of the consumers of the resource;

determining a total utilization of the resource by each of the consumers of the resource based on a model of the resource and of a computer system;

determining a resource governed utilization of the resource by each of the consumers of the resource based on the model of the resource and of the computer system;

displaying the total utilization of the resource and the resource governed utilization of the resource for each of the consumers of the resource in a single view; and

determining a recommended action to be taken with respect to the resource in response to the resource governed utilization and the total utilization of the resource and determining a predicted impact of executing the recommended action on one or more elements of the computer system.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying a modified total utilization of the particular resource and a modified resource governed utilization of the particular resource for each of the consumers of the particular resource in the single view and displaying information that illustrates the predicted impact on the one or more elements of the computer system.