Method and apparatus for grid enabling standard applications

• US 8,683,475 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2008
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rodriguez, Peter P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Anya, Charles E
• Application Number:
  US12/173,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20080276263A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,079 Days
• Field of Search: 718/104, 719/328
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

Disclosed are a method of and system for adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols. The method comprises the steps of providing a profile of the computer program; and providing a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system using said one or more of said grid protocols. The profile is used to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system.

Claims

1. A method of adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources to share distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system among a plurality of locations, organizations, machine-architectures and software boundaries, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols, the method comprising:

using a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system by enabling and adapting the computer program to access the distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system of resources and services using said one or more of said grid protocols, including

generating a profile of the computer program by determining a plurality of specified characteristics of the computer program, wherein the profile is used to determine areas of the computer program that are candidates of grid enablement, including using the grid adapter to provide a view into resource requirements of the computer program by running the computer program for a period of time; and

said grid adapter using said profile, including one or more of the specified characteristics, to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system and to allocate one or more resources of the grid based system to the application program; and

wherein the grid adapter transparently interfaces said computer program to the grid based system of resources, wherein when the computer program requires resources, the grid adapter determines, transparent to the computer program, to allocate resources to the computer program either locally or from the grid based system of resources.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the grid adapter provides an environment to execute one or more given computer codes.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said allocated resources are allocated either locally or by grid enabled means.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the grid adapter determines to enable a calculated percentage of the resources required from the grid based system.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of using said profile includes the step of the grid adapter determining a threshold value as optimal performance considerations for enabling a certain percentage of any given application to be grid enabled.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the using the grid adapter includes using said profile to determine areas of the computer program that are candidates to be enabled to access the resource and services of the grid based system.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the using the grid adapter to provide a view into the resource requirements of the computer program includes using the grid adapter to provide the view into the resource requirements of the computer program by instrumenting the computer program with monitors and running the computer program for said period of time under loading conditions.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the profile is pre-generated before one or more resources of the grid based system are allocated to the application program;

the grid adapter determines to enable a specified percentage of the program to be enabled to receive resources from the grid based system; and

the generating a profile includes generating a scoring table for determining the areas of the computer program that are candidates for grid enablement.

9. A system for adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources to share distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system among a plurality of locations, organization, machine-architectures and software boundaries, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols, the system comprising:

one or more processing units configured for;

implementing a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system by enabling and adapting the computer program to access the distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system of resources and services using said one or more of said grid protocols; and

generating a profile of the computer program by determining a plurality of specified characteristics of the computer program, wherein the profile is used to determine areas of the computer program that are candidates of grid enablement, including using the grid adapter to provide a view into resource requirements of the compute program by running the computer program for a period of time; and

said grid adapter using said profile, including one or more of the specified characteristics, to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system and to allocate one or more resources of the grid based system to the application program; and

wherein the grid adapter transparently interfaces said computer program to the grid based system of resources, wherein when the computer program requires resources, the grid adapter determines, transparent to the computer program, to allocate resources to the computer program either locally or from the grid based system of resources.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the grid adapter provides an environment to execute one or more given computer codes.

11. A system according to claim 9, wherein said allocated resources are allocated either locally or by grid enabled means.

12. A system according to claim 9, wherein the grid adapter determines to enable a calculated percentage of the resources required from the grid based system.

13. A system according to claim 9, wherein the grid adapter using said profile includes determining a threshold value as optimal performance considerations for enabling a certain percentage of any given application to be grid enabled.

14. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources to share distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system among a plurality of locations, organization, machine-architectures and software boundaries, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols, said method steps comprising:

using a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system by ending and adapting the computer program to access the distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system of resources and services using said one or more of said grid protocols;

including generating a profile of the computer program by determining a plurality of specified characteristics of the computer program, wherein the profile is used to determine areas of the computer program that are candidates of grid enablement, including using the grid adapter to provide a view into resource requirements of the compute program by running the computer program for a period of time;

said grid adapter using said profile, including one or more of the specified characteristics, to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system and to allocate one or more resources of the grid based system to the application program; and

wherein the grid adapter transparently interfaces said computer program to the grid based system of resources, wherein when the computer program requires resources, the grid adapter determines, transparent to the computer program, to allocate resources to the computer program either locally or from the grid based system of resources.

15. A program storage device according to claim 14, wherein the grid adapter provides an environment to execute one or more given computer codes.

16. A program storage device according to claim 14, wherein said allocated resources are allocated either locally or by grid enabled means.

17. A program storage device according to claim 14, wherein the grid adapter determines to enable a calculated percentage of the resources required from the grid based system.

18. A method of providing end-to-end grid services, from a grid of computer services, to a computer program to share distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system among a plurality of locations, organization, machine-architectures and software boundaries, the method comprising the steps of:

using a utility application to execute the computer program;

using a result of said execution of the computer program to identify specific performance requirements of the computer program;

using a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid of computer services by enabling and adapting the computer program to access the distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system of resources and services using said one or more of said grid protocols;

including generating a profile of the computer program by determining a plurality of specified characteristics of the computer program, wherein the profile is used to determine areas of the computer program that are candidates of grid enablement, including using the grid adapter to provide a view into resource requirements of the compute program by running the computer program for a period of time;

said grid adapter using said determined profile, including one or more of the identified performance requirements, to select and to allocate grid services, from said grid, for the computer program;

providing the computer program with the allocated grid services; and

wherein the grid adapter transparently interfaces said computer program to the grid based system of resources, wherein when the computer program requires resources, the grid adapter determines, transparent to the computer program, to allocate resources to the computer program either locally or from the grid based system of resources.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein said computer services includes:

computational resources, storage resources, networks, programs, databases, internal I/O services, and external I/O services.

20. A method of adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources to share distributed heterogeneous resources and services of the grid based system among a plurality of locations, organization, machine-architectures and software boundaries, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols, the method comprising:

generating a profile of the computer program by determining a plurality of specified characteristics of the computer program;

using a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system using said one or more of said grid protocols to adapt the computer program to access the distributed heterogeneous resources of the grid based system of resources and services, wherein the grid adapter transparently interfaces said computer program to the grid based system of resources, wherein when the computer program requires resources, the grid adapter determines, transparent to the computer program, to allocate resources to the computer program either locally or from the grid based system of resources; and

said grid adapter using said profile, including one or more of the specified characteristics, to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system and to allocate one or more resources of the grid based system to the application program; and

wherein the using the grid adapter includes using the grid adapter to provide a view into the resource requirements of the computer program by instrumenting the computer program with monitoring hooks, running the computer program for a period of time under loading conditions, to understand size and memory requirements of the computer program, I/O and CPU resource usage.