Dynamic management of computing platform resources

• US 10,176,020 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2015
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Challa, Narsimha R., Stallman, Adam T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US14/839,318
• Publication Number:
  US 20160277311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/503 Resource availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide for methods for management of logically partitioned computing resources of a data processing system configured with hypervisors that each manages one or more logical partitions of the computing resources. The data processing system is configured with domains, and allocated to each domain are one or more hypervisors and logical partitions managed thereby. For a first domain, a token is received from a second domain. The token identifies available computing resources of the second domain that are available for temporary allocation. The data processing system determines whether the available computing resources of the second domain are needed by the first domain based at least in part on the received token. Responsive to determining that the available computing resources are needed by the first domain, the available computing resources are temporarily allocated to the first domain for use thereby.

Claims

1. A method for managing a pool of logically partitioned computing resources of a data processing system, wherein the pool of logically partitioned computing resources are distributed among a plurality of processing nodes on a plurality of servers, and wherein the data processing system is configured with a plurality of hypervisors that execute on the plurality of servers and that each manage one or more logical partitions, the method comprising:

allocating each hypervisor and logical partition managed thereby to a domain among the plurality of domains, including allocating to at least one of the plurality of domains a plurality of hypervisors, wherein allocating the plurality of the hypervisors to the plurality of domains allocates each logical partition that is managed by each hypervisor and isolates each logical partition managed by each hypervisor from those managed by hypervisors allocated to other domains;

for a first domain of the plurality of domains, receiving a token from a second domain that identifies an amount and type of available computing resources of the second domain that are available for temporary allocation;

determining whether the available computing resources of the second domain are needed by the first domain based at least in part on the received token; and

in response to determining that the available computing resources are needed by the first domain, temporarily allocating the available computing resources to the first domain for use thereby.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the first domain, processing the token to update a computing resource map associated with the first domain based on the token to indicate the amount and type of computing resources of the second domain that are available for temporary allocation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a management hypervisor for the first domain from the one or more hypervisors allocated to the first domain based at least in part on availability of logical partitions managed by the one or more hypervisors, wherein the management hypervisor of the first domain is configured to receive the token.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a management hypervisor for the second domain from the one or more hypervisors allocated to the second domain based at least in part on availability of logical partitions managed by the one or more hypervisors;

analyzing, with the management hypervisor, computing resource availability for the one or more hypervisors and the logical partitions allocated to the second domain; and

generating, with the management hypervisor, the token based at least in part on the determined computing resource availability.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating a computing resource map associated with the second domain based at least in part on the determined computing resource availability.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the token includes a domain identifier associated with the second domain and a time limit associated with the temporary allocation of the available computing resources.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

encrypting the token at the management hypervisor of the second domain; and

decrypting the token at a management hypervisor of the first domain.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the computing resources available for temporary allocation are needed by the first domain, communicating a request from the first domain to the second domain.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to receiving the request at the second domain, determining whether to permit the temporary allocation of the available computing resources based at least in part on a security policy associated with the second domain and a security policy associated with the first domain.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the available computing resources of the second domain are needed by the first domain based at least in part on the received token, and temporarily allocating the available computing resources to the first domain for use thereby are performed in response to determining that additional computing resources are needed by the first domain.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the data processing system includes, for each hypervisor of the plurality of hypervisors, an associated memory that stores a primary domain identifier and an owning domain identifier, the available computing resources temporarily allocated to the first domain includes a particular hypervisor, the method further comprising:

in response to temporarily allocating the available computing resources to the first domain, setting the owning domain identifier of the particular hypervisor to identify the first domain.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

in response to a time limit expiring for the temporary allocation of the available computing resources, setting the owning domain identifier of the particular hypervisor to identify the second domain.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the temporarily allocated available computing resources at the first domain to perform at least one operation.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the first domain, a second token from a third domain of the plurality that indicates an amount and type of available computing resources that are available for temporary allocation from the third domain.