Managing job execution

• US 8,713,578 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cardelli, Marco, Iannucci, Pietro, Perticara', Valeria, Salem, Randa
• Primary Examiner(s): Faherty, Corey S
• Application Number:
  US12/415,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20100251241A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,855 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4887 involving deadlines, e.g. rate based, periodic
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

This disclosure describes monitoring the execution of jobs in a work plan. In an embodiment, a system maintains a risk level associated with the critical job to represent whether the execution of a job preceding the critical job has a problem, and it maintains the list associated with the critical job so as to quickly identify the preceding job which may cause a delay to the critical job execution.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code including;

computer program instructions for receiving a workload plan of jobs, wherein the workload plan of jobs includes a critical job and a predecessor job, wherein the predecessor job must complete execution before the critical job can begin execution, and wherein the critical job must be completed by a deadline;

computer program instructions for monitoring execution of jobs in the workload plan;

computer program instructions for determining an ability of the critical job to complete its execution before the deadline based on an execution status of the predecessor job; and

computer program instructions for updating a risk level assigned to the critical job based on the determination;

wherein said risk level is updated before execution of the critical job begins.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising computer program instructions for associating an estimated end time, a deadline, and a risk level with the critical job.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising computer program instructions for receiving the execution status of the predecessor job.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, further comprising computer program instructions for associating the predecessor job, the execution status of the predecessor job, and a latest start time of the predecessor job with the critical job.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, further comprising computer program instructions for recomputing the latest start time of the predecessor job based on the execution status of the predecessor job.

6. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the execution status of the predecessor job corresponds to at least one of a job event or an infrastructure event.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising computer program instructions for associating a first directed graph of jobs with the critical job, wherein each job of the first directed graph of jobs is associated with an estimated execution duration.

14. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the deadline is a first deadline and a scheduled time for completing the predecessor job is a second deadline, and wherein the workload plan of jobs includes critical path comprising the critical job and the predecessor job, the computer usable program code further comprising:

determining that the predecessor job will not be completed by the second deadline;

wherein the predecessor job must be completed by at least a latest successor job start time of the predecessor job'"'"'s direct successor in order for the critical job to be completed by the first deadline.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, the computer usable program code further comprising:

creating an updated second deadline based on a new completion estimate for the predecessor job;

wherein the updating of the risk level assigned to the critical job is based on the determination and the updated second deadline.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the risk level indicates a risk of the critical job not completing execution by the first deadline, the risk level being based on the execution status of the predecessor job;

and

wherein the first deadline is based on a service level agreement (SLA) negotiated with customers.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer memory operatively coupled to the processor, the computer memory having disposed within it;

computer program instructions for receiving a workload plan of jobs, wherein the workload plan of jobs includes a critical job and a predecessor job, wherein the predecessor job must complete execution before the critical job can begin execution, and wherein the critical job must be completed by a deadline;

computer program instructions for monitoring execution of jobs in the workload plan;

computer program instructions for determining an ability of the critical job to complete its execution before the deadline based on an execution status of the predecessor job; and

computer program instructions for updating a risk level assigned to the critical job based on the determination;

wherein said risk level is updated before execution of the critical job begins.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising computer program instructions for associating an estimated end time, a deadline, and a risk level with the critical job.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising computer program instructions for receiving the execution status of the predecessor job.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising computer program instructions for associating the predecessor job, the execution status of the predecessor job, and a latest start time of the predecessor job with the critical job.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising computer program instructions for recomputing the latest start time of the predecessor job based on the execution status of the predecessor job.

13. The system of claim 8, further comprising computer program instructions for associating a first directed graph of jobs with the critical job, wherein each job of the first directed graph of jobs is associated with an estimated execution duration.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the deadline is a first deadline and a scheduled time for completing the predecessor job is a second deadline, and wherein the workload plan of jobs includes critical path comprising the critical job and the predecessor job, the computer memory further having disposed within it:

computer program instructions for determining that the predecessor job will not be completed by the second deadline;

wherein the predecessor job must be completed by at least a latest successor job start time of the predecessor job'"'"'s direct successor in order for the critical job to be completed by the first deadline.

17. The system of claim 16, the computer memory further having disposed within it:

computer program instructions for creating an updated second deadline based on a new completion estimate for the predecessor job;

wherein the updating of the risk level assigned to the critical job is based on the determination and the updated second deadline.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the risk level indicates a risk of the critical job not completing execution by the first deadline, the risk level being based on the execution status of the predecessor job;

and

wherein the first deadline is based on a service level agreement (SLA) negotiated with customers.