Method and system for load balancing of computing resources

• US 8,219,998 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2008
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Taylor, Neil Allen, Holley, Adam R., Aggarwal, Vijay K., Kumhyr, David Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Adam
• Application Number:
  US12/152,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222647A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A load balancing method incorporates temporarily inactive machines as part of the resources capable of executing tasks during heavy process requests periods to alleviate some of the processing load on other computing resources. This method determines which computing resources are available and prioritizes these resources for access by the load balancing process. A snap shot of the resource configuration and made secured along with all data on this system such that no contamination occurs between resident data on that machine and any data placed on that machine as put of the load balancing activities. After a predetermined period of time or a predetermined event, the availability of the temporary resources for load balancing activities ends. At this point, the original configuration and data is restored to the computing resource such that no trace of use of the resource in load balancing activities is detected to the user.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing machines in the performance of the computing tasks and comprising the steps of:

identifying the temporarily inactive computing machines that may be available for load balancing operations;

determining which of the temporarily inactive computing machines quality for load balancing operations, by

determining an amount of continuous time each temporarily inactive computing machine will be inactive; and

determining a security level of each temporarily inactive computing machine, the security level being based on a sensitivity level of computing tasks performed on each temporarily inactive computing machine, a sensitivity level of data stored on each temporarily inactive computing machine and the function of a user of each temporarily inactive computing machine;

securing the current configuration of each temporarily inactive computing machine that qualifies for the load balancing operations;

prioritizing the qualifying computing machines for use during the load balancing operations;

managing a computing load of the prioritized computing machines on the computing system and assigning the computing tasks to the prioritized computing machines as part of the load balancing operations; and

installing the secured current configuration for each prioritized computing machine at the completion of the load balancing operations.

2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein said prioritizing step further comprises:

determining the priority level of a computing machine based on the level of a user having access to that computing machine users; and

assigning the determined priority level to the computing machine.

3. The method as described in claim 1 wherein said determining which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations step further comprises:

determining whether a particular computing machine has a security level in a predetermined range for the computing machine to be used in the load balancing operations; and

disqualifying a computing machine with a security level not in the range for use in the load balancing operations.

4. The method as described in claim 3 further comprising the step of tagging a temporarily inactive computing machine as available for use during the load balancing operations.

5. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising before the performance of the load balancing operations, the step of determining a maximum load capacity for a computing machine in the load balancing operations.

6. The method as described in claim 5 wherein said managing step further comprises the steps of:

detecting a request for a computing machine;

determining the resource capabilities necessary to execute a computing task that is the subject of the request;

identifying an available computing machine having the lowest priority; and

installing the task on that computing machine for execution.

7. The method as described in claim 6 further comprising the step of updating a capacity status of the computing machine in which the task was installed for execution to reflect the new load on that particular computing machine.

8. The method as described in claim 6 wherein said identifying step further comprises the step of determining whether a computing machine has a sufficient amount of continuous time to perform the requested task.

9. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising before said managing step, the step of configuring each temporarily inactive computing machine for use in the load balancing operations.

10. The method as described in claim 1 wherein said identifying step further comprises identifying all computing machines of the computing system that are available for the load balancing operations and wherein said determination of which computing machines qualify for load balancing operations further comprises determining which of all identified computing machines qualify for the load balancing operations.

11. The method as described in claim 1 wherein said managing step further comprises the steps of:

detecting a request for a computing machine;

determining the resource capabilities necessary to execute a computing task that is the subject of the request;

determining the order of use of all available computing machines as needed to perform the load balancing operations.

12. A system for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing devices in the performance of the computing tasks comprising:

primary computing devices initially designated for load balancing operations;

secondary computing devices determined to qualify for the load balancing operations by

determining an amount of continuous time each secondary computing device will be inactive;

determining a security level of each secondary computing device, the security level being based on a sensitivity level of computing tasks performed on each secondary computing device, a sensitivity level of data stored on each secondary computing device and the function of a user of each secondary computing device;

a software module for determining the availability of a computing device as a secondary computing device;

a storage device for storing the status of every computing device;

a software program for processing said primary and secondary computing devices used in the load balancing operations;

a software module for prioritizing the secondary computing devices;

a software module for securing and storing the current configuration of each secondary computing device;

a software module for installing the secured and stored current configuration of each secondary device;

a module for monitoring the load of the computing system;

a module for determining the availability of a computing device as a secondary computing device to execute a task and assigning the task to the secondary computing device to execute the task; and

a software program for balancing a computer load between the primary and secondary computing devices.

13. The system as described in claim 12 further comprising a system resource for determining which computing device is used first according to the need of the system for load balancing.

14. A computer system program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for load balancing of computing tasks in a computing system using temporarily inactive computing machines in the performance of the computing tasks and comprising instructions for:

identifying the temporarily inactive computing machines that may be available for load balancing operations;

determining which of the temporarily inactive computing machines qualify for the load balancing operations, by

determining an amount of continuous time each temporarily inactive computing machine will be inactive;

determining a security level of each temporarily inactive computing machine, the security level being based on a sensitivity level of tasks performed on each temporarily inactive computing machine, a sensitivity level of data stored on each temporarily inactive computing machine and the function of a user of each temporarily inactive computing machine;

securing a current configuration of each temporarily inactive computing machine that qualifies for the load balancing operations;

prioritizing the qualifying computing machines for use during the load balancing operations;

managing the load of the prioritized computing machines on the computing system and assigning tasks to the prioritized computing machines as part of the load balancing operations; and

installing the secured current configuration for each prioritized computing machine at the completion of the load balancing operations.

15. The computer system program as described in claim 14 wherein said prioritizing instructions further comprise instructions for:

determining the priority level of a computing machine based on the level of a user having access to that computing machine users; and

assigning the determined priority level to the computing device.

16. The computer system program as described in claim 14 wherein said managing step further comprises the steps of:

detecting a request for a computing machine;

determining the resource capabilities necessary to execute a computing task that is the subject of the request;

identifying an available computing machine having the lowest priority; and

installing the computing task on that computing machine for execution.