Thinning operating systems

• US 9,244,736 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Huscroft, Carey B., Osecky, Benjamin D., Adams, Aland B., Morris, Dale C., Lyle, Stephen B.
• Primary Examiner(s): CAO, DIEM K
• Application Number:
  US13/751,886
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215468A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44594 Unloading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5022 Mechanisms to release resources

Abstract

Thinning operating systems can include monitoring a number of functionalities of an operating system, the number of functionalities of the operating system being provided by a number of computing components loaded thereon. Thinning operating systems can include automatically identifying an undesired functionality of the number of functionalities during runtime and removing from the operating system at least one of the number of computing components providing the undesired functionality as a result of the automatic identification to thin the OS.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

recording state information that provides a record of a number of computing components loaded on an operating system (OS) at a time of an event and a record and tunable parameters associated with the number of computing components at the time of the event, wherein the event includes addition or removal of one of the number of computing components or the modification of a number of tunable parameters,

predicting a computing component of the number computing components that is to be removed based on the recorded state information, wherein the predicting uses an optimizing model corresponding to a number of optimization criteria;

partially removing the computing component from the OS as a result of the prediction to thin the OS and retain registry information associated with the computing component; and

removing the registry information from the OS when the registry information remains unused for a threshold amount of time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein removing includes automatically removing at least one of the number of computing components completely from the OS during runtime.

3. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of computer executable instructions, which if executed by a computer cause the computer to:

record state information that provides a record of a number of computing components loaded on an operating system (OS) at a time of an event and a record and tunable parameters associated with the number of computing components at the time of the event, wherein the event includes addition or removal of one of the number of computing components or the modification of a number of tunable parameters,

predict a computing component of the number computing components that is to be removed based on the recorded state information, wherein the predict uses an optimizing model corresponding to a number of optimization criteria;

partially remove the computing component from the OS during runtime as a result of the prediction to thin the OS and retain registry information associated with the removed computing component, wherein the registry information is removed from the OS when the registry information remains unused for threshold amount of time; and

automatically add an additional computing component to provide an additional functionality to the OS during runtime in response to a request for a functionality not loaded thereon.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions to add include instructions to add the additional computing component that provides the additional functionality without initiating an interrupt response.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3,

wherein the recorded state information is stored in a storage resource and includes a record of the number of computing components loaded on the OS at a time of an event and a record of tunable parameters associated therewith.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions to record state information include instructions to restore the state information to a recorded state associated with an event.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions to predict include instructions to predict the computing component of the number of computing components that is to be removed based on a priori knowledge, where the a priori knowledge includes knowledge contained in a service level agreement.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions to predict include instructions to predict the computing component of the number of computing components that is to be removed based on logic.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, where the number of optimization criteria include a time to solution, where the time to solution refers to a comparatively reduced time to solution.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, where the number of optimization criteria include a response time, where the response time refers to a comparatively reduced response time for an application.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, where the number of optimization criteria include a latency time criteria, where the latency time criteria refers to a comparatively reduced latency time of an application.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, where the number of optimization criteria include a memory use criteria, where the memory use criteria refers to a comparatively reduced memory use associated with an application.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, where the number of optimization criteria include an application availability criteria, where the application availability criteria refers to a comparatively increased availability of an application.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, where the number of optimization criteria include an application performance criteria, where the application performance criteria refers to a comparatively increased speed of an application.

15. A system, comprising:

a processing resource;

a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions thereon, which if executed by the processing resource cause the system to;

record state information that provides a record of a number of computing components loaded on an operating system (OS) at a time of an event and a record and tunable parameters associated with the number of computing components at the time of the event, wherein the event includes addition or removal of one of the number of computing components or the modification of a number of tunable parameters,

predict a computing component of the number computing components that is to be removed based on the recorded state information, wherein the predict uses an optimizing model corresponding to a number of optimization criteria;

partially remove the computing component from the OS as a result of the prediction to thin the OS and retain registry information associated with the removed computing component, wherein the registry information is removed from the OS when the registry information remains unused for threshold amount of time; and

automatically add an additional computing component to provide at least one additional functionality to the OS during runtime in response to a request for a functionality not loaded thereon; and

a storage resource to receive the instructions including instructions to store the removed computing component in the storage resource.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions to add the additional computing component include instructions to add at least one of the number computing components stored in the storage resource.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions to add include instructions to add a functionality that satisfies the request for a functionality.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing components include of at least one of software or firmware stored on the OS.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing components include at least one of kernels, OS services, applications, applets, commands, or utilities stored on the OS.