Enhancing initial resource allocation management to provide robust reconfiguration

• US 9,864,634 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2012
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beijing Zitiao Network Technology Company Limited (ByteDance Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kenkre, Sreyash D., Mehta, Sameep, Narayanam, Krishnasuri, Pandit, Vinayaka D., Soni, Soujanya
• Primary Examiner(s): Abedin, Normin
• Application Number:
  US13/366,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204983A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,164 Days
• Field of Search: 709220, 709223, 709224, 709225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]

Abstract

A description of a resource associated with a service of an entity can be captured. The service can be associated with one or more resources, a constraint, and a demand. The resource can be associated with one or more characteristics including a utility, a limited availability, and a consumption rate. The entity can be an organization or a system. An initial allocation problem associated with the resource can be formulated as a two phase problem. The first phase can be an optimization problem and the second phase can be a restricted allocation problem. The initial allocation problem can be associated with reconfiguring a previously established allocation of a baseline scenario. The optimization problem can be solved optimally or approximately to establish a favorable allocation. The favorable allocation can minimizes the reconfiguration cost of the reconfiguring. The baseline scenario can be a normal operation of the service.

Claims

1. A method for reconfiguration aware initial allocation comprising:

capturing, by a computer, a description of one or more resources associated with a service of an entity, wherein the service is associated with at least one of the one or more resources, a constraint, and a demand, wherein each of the one or more resources is associated with at least three characteristics comprising a utility, a limited availability, and a consumption rate, wherein the entity is at least one of an organization and a system;

formulating, by the computer using an algorithm, an initial allocation problem associated with the one or more resources as a two phase problem, wherein the first phase is an optimization problem and the second phase is a restricted allocation problem, wherein the initial allocation problem is associated with reconfiguring a previously established allocation of a baseline scenario; and

solving, by the computer, the optimization problem to establish an allocation, wherein the favorable allocation minimizes the reconfiguration cost of the reconfiguring, wherein the baseline scenario is a normal operation of the service;

wherein a reconfiguration cost is a network utilization overhead associated with a session initiation setup; and

wherein the initial allocation comprises a reconfiguration capable allocation of resources including an allocation associated with one or more resources and a metric;

wherein the initial allocation decreases reconfiguration time of a service from approximately three minutes twenty seconds to approximately two minutes resulting in a time savings of approximately one minute twenty seconds;

wherein the initial allocation reduces reconfiguration costs while maintaining a minimum level of service by service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the formulating the optimization problem is associated with a Centroid cost and a Median cost;

and

wherein the algorithm performs a minimization of the maximum cost or a minimization of the average cost corresponding to a Centroid cost and a Median cost;

wherein the algorithm establishes k types of resources for an organization;

wherein each resource of type i has N_i resources denoted by T(i,N_i).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the solving minimizes at least one of the maximum reconfiguration cost and the average reconfiguration cost;

wherein the service is a Web service for handling Session Initiated Protocol communication having one or more demand points requiring service availability; and

wherein the service is specified by a k-tuple and a set of constraints.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is at least one of an economic resource, a biological resource, a computer resource, a land management resource, and a human resource, wherein the computing is performed when the configuration cost is unknown;

wherein when a cost function is unknown, the algorithm determines a cost by the number of resources to be reallocated.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing the reconfiguration of the service associated with the favorable allocation for a contingency scenario; and

associating the reconfiguration with the service when at least one of a plurality of contingency scenarios occur.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting at least one of the baseline allocation and a contingency allocation within a user interface, wherein the baseline allocation is associated a baseline scenario, wherein the contingency allocation is associated with a contingency scenario.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting overlays the contingency allocation upon a graph of at least one of the entity, the service, and the resource.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the solving utilizes a greedy heuristic.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is at least one of a public service, a private service, and a computer service.

10. A system for reconfiguration aware initial allocation comprising:

at least one processor connected to at least one non-transitory storage medium;

a reconfiguration engine stored in the at least one non-transitory storage medium configured to cause the processor to establish an initial allocation associated with one or more resources of a service, wherein the initial allocation is associated with at least one of a reconfiguration setting and a reconfiguration cost, wherein the service is associated with at least one of the one or more resources, a constraint, and a demand, wherein the resource is associated with at least three characteristics comprising a utility, a limited availability, and a consumption rate, wherein the entity is at least one of an organization and a system; and

a data store configured to persist at least one of a reconfiguration mapping and an action plan associated with the service;

wherein the reconfiguration engine computes the configuration cost required to change service configuration from a contingency scenario to another contingency scenario; and

wherein the initial allocation comprise a reconfiguration capable allocation of resources including an allocation associated with one or more resources and a metric;

wherein the initial allocation decreases reconfiguration time of a service from approximately three minutes twenty seconds to approximately two minutes resulting in a time savings of approximately one minute twenty seconds;

wherein the initial allocation reduces reconfiguration costs while maintaining a minimum level of service by service.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a resource handler stored in the at least one non-transitory storage medium configured to cause the processor to identify the resource associated with the service and determine a resource description, wherein the resource description is at least one of a dependency information, an access information, and an availability information, wherein the resource handler automatically determines junctions with critical path properties and determine resource limitations that produce service level constraints;

an optimization component stored in the at least one non-transitory storage medium configured to cause the processor to determine the initial allocation for the resource; and

a reconfiguration element stored in the at least one non-transitory storage medium configured to cause the processor to determine at least one reconfiguration setting associated with the initial allocation of the resource;

wherein the action plan comprises a set of scenarios associated with a number of allocations wherein each scenario includes allocation information for each baseline scenario and/or contingency scenario and each allocation represents a computer configuration as an arrangement of functional units, including a computer file, a service, a computing resource, and a database record;

wherein the reconfiguration cost comprises a temporal cost, a resource cost, a human resource cost, and a monetary cost; and

wherein the initial allocation comprises a portion of a reconfiguration mapping.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the reconfiguration engine is associated with a minimization algorithm, wherein the minimization algorithm is configured to minimize the maximum reconfiguration cost.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the reconfiguration engine is associated with a minimization algorithm, wherein the minimization algorithm is configured to minimize the average reconfiguration cost.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the reconfiguration engine utilizes a greedy heuristic to solve an optimization problem associated with a reconfiguration of a resource associated with the service.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the service is at least one of a public service, a private service, and a computer service.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the reconfiguration engine determines the initial allocation when the reconfiguration cost associated with the service is unknown.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the service is reconfigured utilizing a reconfiguration setting responsive to a disruption of the service, wherein the disruption is at least one of a planned event and an unplanned event.

18. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code stored in a non-transitory storage medium, executable a processor to capture a description of one or more resources associated with a service of an entity, wherein the service is associated with at least one of the one or more resources, a constraint, and a demand, wherein each of the one or more resources is associated with at least three characteristics comprising a utility, a limited availability, and a consumption rate, wherein the entity is at least one of an organization and a system;

computer usable program code stored in the non-transitory storage medium, executable by the processor to formulate an initial allocation problem associated with the resource as a two phase problem, wherein the first phase is an optimization problem and the second phase is a restricted allocation problem, wherein the initial allocation problem is associated with reconfiguring a previously established allocation of a baseline scenario; and

computer usable program code stored in the non-transitory storage medium, executable by a processor to solve the optimization problem optimally or approximately to establish a favorable allocation, wherein the favorable allocation minimizes the reconfiguration cost of the reconfiguring, wherein the baseline scenario is a normal operation of the service;

wherein the reconfiguration engine computes the configuration cost required to change service configuration from a contingency scenario to another contingency scenario; and

wherein the initial allocation comprises a reconfiguration capable allocation of resources including an allocation associated with one or more resources and a metric;

wherein the initial allocation decreases reconfiguration time of a service from approximately three minutes twenty seconds to approximately two minutes resulting in a time savings of approximately one minute twenty seconds;

wherein the initial allocation reduces reconfiguration costs while maintaining a minimum level of service by service.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the functionality of the computer program product is encapsulated within an Application Programming Interface;

wherein the action plan comprises a set of scenarios associated with a number of allocations wherein each scenario includes allocation information for each baseline scenario and/or contingency scenario and each allocation represents a computer configuration as an arrangement of functional units, including a computer file, a service, a computing resource, and a database record;

wherein the reconfiguration cost comprises a temporal cost, a resource cost, a human resource cost, and a monetary cost; and

wherein the initial allocation comprises a portion of a reconfiguration mapping.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the functionality of the computer program product is encapsulated within a Software-as-a-Service.