Coordinating parallel execution of processes using agents

• US 9,063,783 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2008
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Drepper, Ulrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Wai, Eric C
• Application Number:
  US12/276,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20100131956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,402 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/503 Resource availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing program-level parallelism in a multi-core processor environment are provided. The methods for managing parallel execution of processes associated with computer programs include providing an agent process in an application space, which is operatively coupled to an operating system having a kernel configured to determine processor configuration information. The application space may be a runtime environment or a user space of the operating system, and has a lower privilege level than the kernel. The agent process retrieves the processor configuration information from the kernel, and after receiving a request for the processor configuration information from application processes running in the application space, the agent process provides a response to the requesting application process. The agent process may also generate resource availability data based on the processor configuration information, and the application processes may initiate a thread based on the resource availability data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

executing, by a processor of a computer system, an agent process that resides in an application space of the computer system and not in a kernel space of the computer system;

obtaining from an operating system of the computer system, by the agent process, processor configuration information for a set of one or more processors comprising the processor, wherein the agent process generates resource availability data in view of the processor configuration information;

intercepting, by the agent process, a request for the processor configuration information that is submitted to the operating system by an application process that resides in the application space of the computer system;

providing to the application process, by the agent process, the processor configuration information;

intercepting, by the agent process, a resource request from the application process that is submitted to the operating system; and

allocating one or more resources to the application process in view of the resource request and the resource availability data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application process initiates a thread in view of the resource availability data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor is a multi-core processor, and wherein allocating one or more resources comprises:

assigning an execution core to the application process.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the resource availability data in view of the one or more resources allocated to the application process.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent process monitors for a change in the processor configuration information and updates the processor configuration information after detecting the change.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor configuration information comprises at least one of a number of processors, communication capability between the processors, a number of execution cores in each of the processors, memory available to each of the processors, or a processing capability of each of the processors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the application space is one of a runtime environment and a user space of the operating system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor configuration information is provided via an inter-process communication protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

intercepting, by the agent process, a second resource request from a second application process executing in the application space;

determining an order of priority of the resource request and the second resource request in view of the resource availability data; and

allocating one or more resources to the application process and one or more resources to the second application process in view of the order of priority.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource availability data comprises at least one of a number of new execution contexts that can be initiated, available execution cores for running an execution context, an amount and type of memory accessible to the available execution cores, or a number of execution contexts running in the application space.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining from an operating system of the computer system, by the agent process, a system workload; and

generating, by the agent process, resource availability data in view of the processor configuration information and the system workload.

11. A computer system comprising:

a memory to store an application space and a kernel space; and

a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, to;

execute an operating system that resides in the kernel space,

execute an agent process that resides in the application space and not in the kernel space,

obtain from the operating system, via the agent process, processor configuration information for a set of one or more processors comprising the processor, wherein the agent process generates resource availability data in view of the processor configuration information,

intercept, by the agent process, a request for the processor configuration information that is submitted to the operating system by a first application process executing in the application space,

provide, via the agent process, the processor configuration information to the first application process,

intercept, by the agent process, a resource request from a second application process that is submitted to the operating system, and

allocate one or more resources to the second application process in view of the resource request and the resource availability data.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the first application process initiates an execution context in view of the resource availability data.

13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the processor is also to:

assign one of a plurality of execution cores of the set of one or more processors to the second application process in view of the resource request and the resource availability data.

14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the application space is one of a runtime environment and a user space of the operating system.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause a processor to:

execute an operating system that resides in a kernel space;

execute, by the processor, an agent process that resides in an application space and not in the kernel space;

obtain from the operating system, via the agent process, processor configuration information for a set of one or more processors comprising the processor, wherein the agent process generates resource availability data in view of the processor configuration information;

intercept, by the agent process, a request for the processor configuration information that is submitted to the operating system by a first application process executing in the application space;

provide, via the agent process, the processor configuration information to the first application process;

intercept, by the agent process, a resource request from a second application process that is submitted to the operating system; and

allocate one or more resources to the second application process in view of the resource request and the resource availability data.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the application space is one of a runtime environment and a user space of the operating system.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the second application process initiates a thread in view of the resource availability data.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the processor is a multi-core processor, and wherein allocate one or more resources comprises:

assign an execution core to the second application process.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the processor configuration information comprises at least one of a number of processors, communication capability between the processors, a number of execution cores in each of the processors, memory available to each of the processors, or a processing capability of each of the processors.