Managing a workload in an environment

• US 9,645,852 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2014
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Jason L., Boss, Gregory J., Coveyduc, Jeffrey L., Hately, Andrew D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough, H S
• Assistant Examiner(s): JORDAN, KIMBERLY L
• Application Number:
  US14/488,914
• Publication Number:
  US 20160077881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 718104, 718105, 709226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals

Abstract

A system and computer-implemented method for managing a workload in an environment is disclosed. The method may include establishing a shadow workload on a shadow computer environment, wherein the shadow workload is a copy of an original workload. The method may include communicating a shadow input for the shadow workload, wherein the shadow input is a copy of an original input for the original workload. The method may also include collecting an original output from the original workload and a shadow output from the shadow workload. The method may also include determining, by comparing the original output from the original workload with the shadow output from the shadow workload, whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for testing a set of alternative environments for running a set of workloads including an original workload of an original computer environment, the method comprising:

establishing a shadow workload on a shadow computer environment, wherein the shadow workload includes a copy of the original workload, wherein the original workload comprises a database program, wherein establishing the shadow workload further comprises;

assigning, to a set of cloud nodes of the shadow computer environment, a workload resource usage estimation comprising an estimated memory usage, a central processing unit (CPU) load, a graphics processing unit (GPU) load, a network traffic activity level, and a power consumption, wherein the workload resource usage estimation is based on resource usage statistics for the original workload;

allocating, based on the workload resource usage estimation, a portion of system resources of the set of cloud nodes for the shadow workload; and

processing, by the set of cloud nodes, a set of original workload instructions for the portion of system resources for the shadow workload;

communicating, for the shadow workload, a shadow input that includes a copy of an original input for the original workload, wherein the original input comprises a password verification request submitted to the original workload by a user attempting to access the database;

collecting an original output from the original workload and a shadow output from the shadow workload; and

determining, by comparing the original output from the original workload with the shadow output from the shadow workload, whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload, wherein determining whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload further comprises;

performing one or more integrity tests on the shadow computer environment, the integrity tests comprising a port isolation test, wherein the integrity tests are performed in response to detecting that a network activity value has decreased below a network activity threshold, wherein the network activity threshold comprises a data per time value, wherein the data per time value comprises 50 megabits per second;

calculating a percentage difference between the original output and the shadow output by comparing respective data packets of the original output with respective data packets of the shadow output;

comparing the percentage difference to a correspondence threshold;

in response to the percentage difference being at least the correspondence threshold, determining the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload; and

in response to the percentage difference being less than the correspondence threshold, determining the shadow computer environment is not configured to operate the original workload.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing another shadow workload on another shadow computer environment, wherein the another shadow workload includes the copy of the original workload;

communicating another shadow input for the another shadow workload, wherein the another shadow input includes the copy of the original input for the original workload;

collecting the original output from the original workload and another shadow output from the another shadow workload, wherein the original output comprises a granting of the password verification request, wherein the another shadow output comprises an error event; and

determining, by identifying a difference between the original output and the another shadow output, that the shadow computer environment is not configured to operate the original workload.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the original workload is a multi-tiered workload having a virtual environment logical partition.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a middleware architecture is running on the virtual environment logical partition, the middleware architecture configured to receive the original input and transmit the original output.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload further comprises matching a first result feature of the original output with a second result feature of the shadow output.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the correspondence threshold comprises 95%.

7. A system for testing a set of alternative environments for running a set of workloads including an original workload of an original computer environment, the system comprising a memory and a processor configured to:

establish a shadow workload on a shadow computer environment, wherein the shadow workload includes a copy of the original workload wherein the original workload comprises a database program, wherein to establish the shadow workload the processor is further configured to;

assign, to a set of cloud nodes of the shadow computer environment, a workload resource usage estimation comprising an estimated memory usage, a central processing unit (CPU) load, a graphics processing unit (GPU) load, a network traffic activity level, and a power consumption, wherein the workload resource usage estimation is based on resource usage statistics for the original workload;

allocate, based on the workload resource usage estimation, a portion of system resources of the set of cloud nodes for the shadow workload; and

process, by the set of cloud nodes, a set of original workload instructions for the portion of system resources for the shadow workload;

communicate a shadow input for the shadow workload, wherein the shadow input includes a copy of an original input for the original workload, wherein the original input comprises a password verification request submitted to the original workload by a user attempting to access the database;

collect an original output from the original workload and a shadow output from the shadow workload; and

determine, by comparing the original output from the original workload with the shadow output from the shadow workload, whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload, wherein the processor configured to determine whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload is further configured to;

perform one or more integrity tests on the shadow computer environment, the integrity tests comprising a port isolation test, wherein the integrity tests are performed in response to detecting that a network activity value has decreased below a network activity threshold, wherein the network activity threshold comprises a data per time value, wherein the data per time value comprises 50 megabits per second;

calculate a percentage difference between the original output and the shadow output by comparing respective data packets of the original output with respective data packets of the shadow output;

compare the percentage difference to a correspondence threshold;

in response to the percentage difference being at least the correspondence threshold, determine the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload; and

in response to the percentage difference being less than the correspondence threshold, determine the shadow computer environment is not configured to operate the original workload.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the original workload is a multi-tiered workload having a virtual environment logical partition configured to operate a middleware infrastructure for receiving the original input and transmitting the original output.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

establish a second shadow workload on a second shadow computer environment and a third shadow workload on a third shadow computer environment, wherein the second shadow workload and the third shadow workload are copies of the original workload;

communicate a second shadow input for the second shadow workload and a third shadow input for the third shadow workload, wherein the second shadow input and the third shadow input include the copy of the original input for the original workload;

collect an original output from the original workload comprising a granting of the password verification request, a second shadow output from the second shadow workload comprising a granting of the password verification request, and a third shadow output from the third shadow workload comprising an error event; and

determine that the second shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload based on the original output matching the second shadow output and the original output not matching the third shadow output.

10. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a first computing device, causes the first computing device to:

establish a shadow workload on a shadow computer environment, wherein the shadow workload includes a copy of an original workload, wherein the original workload comprises a database program, wherein to establish the shadow workload the computing device is further configured to;

assign, to a set of cloud nodes of the shadow computer environment, a workload resource usage estimation comprising an estimated memory usage, a central processing unit (CPU) load, a graphics processing unit (GPU) load, a network traffic activity level, and a power consumption, wherein the workload resource usage estimation is based on resource usage statistics for the original workload;

allocate, based on the workload resource usage estimation, a portion of system resources of the set of cloud nodes for the shadow workload; and

process, by the set of cloud nodes, a set of original workload instructions for the portion of system resources for the shadow workload;

communicate a shadow input for the shadow workload, wherein the shadow input includes a copy of an original input for the original workload, wherein the original input comprises a password verification request submitted to the original workload by a user attempting to access the database;

collect an original output from the original workload and a shadow output from the shadow workload; and

determine, by comparing the original output from the original workload with the shadow output from the shadow workload, whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload, wherein to determine whether the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload, the computing device is further configured to;

perform one or more integrity tests on the shadow computer environment, the integrity tests comprising a port isolation test, wherein the integrity tests are performed in response to detecting that a network activity value has decreased below a network activity threshold, wherein the network activity threshold comprises a data per time value, wherein the data per time value comprises 50 megabits per second;

calculate a percentage difference between the original output and the shadow output by comparing respective data packets of the original output with respective data packets of the shadow output;

compare the percentage difference to a correspondence threshold;

in response to the percentage difference being at least the correspondence threshold, determine the shadow computer environment is configured to operate the original workload; and

in response to the percentage difference being less than the correspondence threshold, determine the shadow computer environment is not configured to operate the original workload.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the original workload is a multi-tiered workload having a virtual environment logical partition configured to operate a middleware infrastructure for receiving the original input and transmitting the original output.