Using observed thread activity to dynamically tune a virtual machine for responsiveness

• US 8,533,710 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Long, Dean R. E., Lam, Yin Zin Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, TAMMY EUNHYE
• Application Number:
  US11/514,550
• Time in Patent Office: 2,567 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• 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 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses observed thread activity to dynamically tune a virtual machine for responsiveness and/or throughput. During operation, the system observes the activity of a thread to determine whether the thread needs responsiveness and/or throughput. Next, the system gathers statistics for the thread based on these observations of thread activity, and then uses these statistics to dynamically tune a virtual machine upon which the thread will execute.

Claims

1. A method for using observed thread activity to dynamically tune a virtual machine for responsiveness or throughput, comprising:

in a computer system, performing the operations of;

observing the activity of a thread in a set of threads to determine whether the thread needs at least one of responsiveness or throughput, wherein observing the activity of a thread involves identifying a priority for the thread, wherein if the thread is a high-priority thread, the thread is categorized as needing responsiveness;

gathering statistics for the thread from the observations of thread activity to determine a level of responsiveness needed by the thread, wherein gathering the statistics comprises tracking at least one of frequency of context switches of high-priority threads and intervals between the execution of high-priority threads, and maintaining a set of measured values corresponding to the level of responsiveness, the measured values being decayed over time to ensure that the measured values reflect recent behavior; and

dynamically tuning a virtual machine upon which the thread will execute based on the gathered statistics and the level of responsiveness.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the statistics for the thread involves:

translating the set of measured values into a set of configuration parameters for the virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein dynamically tuning a virtual machine involves dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine behavior or priorities;

and

wherein dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine behavior can involve dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine runtime components including;

a garbage-collector;

a just-in-time compiler; and

/or

a thread-synchronization system.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein observing the activity of the thread involves instrumenting a system scheduler to track priorities when switching threads;

and

wherein tracking priorities assists in determining the responsiveness needed by the thread.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the statistics further comprises observing a population of objects being instantiated.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein gathering statistics involves tracking a set of access patterns for the set of threads;

and

wherein tracking the set of access patterns includes tracking a frequency of context switches of high-priority threads and an interval between the execution of high-priority threads.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein observing the activity of the thread includes observing inter-thread synchronization mechanisms;

and

wherein inter-thread synchronization mechanisms include notify-wait operations and locking mechanisms.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for using observed thread activity to dynamically tune a virtual machine for responsiveness or throughput, the method comprising:

observing the activity of a thread in a set of threads to determine whether the thread needs at least one of responsiveness or throughput, wherein observing the activity of a thread involves identifying a priority for the thread, wherein if the thread is a high-priority thread, the thread is categorized as needing responsiveness;

gathering statistics for the thread from the observations of thread activity to determine a level of responsiveness needed by the thread, wherein gathering the statistics comprises tracking at least one of frequency of context switches of high-priority threads and intervals between the execution of high-priority threads, and maintaining a set of measured values corresponding to the level of responsiveness, the measured values being decayed over time to ensure that the measured values reflect recent behavior; and

dynamically tuning a virtual machine upon which the thread will execute based on the gathered statistics and the level of responsiveness.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein gathering the statistics for the thread involves:

translating the set of measured values into a set of configuration parameters for the virtual machine.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8,

wherein dynamically tuning a virtual machine involves dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine behavior or priorities;

and

wherein dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine behavior can involve dynamically changing or reconfiguring virtual machine runtime components including;

a garbage-collector;

a just-in-time compiler; and

/or

a thread-synchronization system.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein observing the activity of the thread involves instrumenting a system scheduler to track priorities when switching threads;

and

wherein tracking priorities assists in determining the responsiveness needed by the thread.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8,

wherein gathering statistics involves tracking a set of access patterns for the set of threads;

and

wherein tracking the set of access patterns includes tracking a frequency of context switches of high-priority threads and an interval between the execution of high-priority threads.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8,

wherein observing the activity of the thread includes observing inter-thread synchronization mechanisms;

and

wherein inter-thread synchronization mechanisms include notify-wait operations and locking mechanisms.

14. A computing device that includes a processor that uses observed thread activity to dynamically tune a virtual machine for responsiveness and/or throughput, wherein the processor comprises:

an observation mechanism that observes the activity of a thread in a set of threads to determine whether the thread needs at least one of responsiveness or throughput, wherein the observation mechanism is further configured to identify a priority for the thread, and wherein if the thread is identified as a high-priority thread, the thread is categorized as needing responsiveness;

a gathering mechanism that gathers statistics for the thread from the observations of thread activity to determine a level of responsiveness needed by the thread, wherein gathering the statistics comprises tracking a set of access patterns comprises tracking at least one of frequency of context switches of high-priority threads and intervals between the execution of high-priority threads, and maintaining a set of measured values corresponding to the level of responsiveness, the measured values being decayed over time to ensure that the measured values reflect recent behavior; and

a tuning mechanism configured to dynamically tune a virtual machine upon which the thread will execute based on the gathered statistics and the level of responsiveness.

15. The apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the gathering mechanism is further configured to translate the set of measured values into a set of configuration parameters for the virtual machine.

16. The apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the tuning mechanism is further configured to dynamically change or re-configure virtual machine behavior or priorities;

and

wherein dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine behavior can involve dynamically changing or re-configuring virtual machine runtime components including;

a garbage-collector;

a just-in-time compiler; and

/or

a thread-synchronization system.

17. The apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the gathering mechanism is further configured to track a set of access patterns for the set of threads, and

wherein tracking the set of access patterns includes tracking a frequency of context switches of high-priority threads and an interval between the execution of high-priority threads.

18. The apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the observation mechanism is further configured to observe inter-thread synchronization mechanisms;

and

wherein inter-thread synchronization mechanisms include notify-wait operations and locking mechanisms.