Method and system of configuring elements of a distributed computing system for optimized value

• US 20040221038A1
• Filed: 04/30/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stern, Edith H., Schaffa, Frank A., Herger, Lorraine M., Rosu, Marrcel-Catalin, Clarke, Edward P. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,968 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method and system for configuring elements of a distributed computing system based on evaluations of their value add and cost impact. The system and method for configuring elements of a distributed computing system comprises the steps of: determining one or more system metrics that relate to hardware and/or software elements of a configured distributed system; determining a system value in response to one or more system metrics, the value determined according to one or more value criteria; and, re-configuring elements of the distributed computing environment according to said determined system value. The re-configuring step further comprises steps of determining one or more potential changes in the distributed computing environment based on the system value determined, and, determining an alternate system value based on at least one potential change determined, the alternate value reflecting an economic consequence including but not limited to: increased revenue, or decreased cost resulting from a potential change.

Claims

1. A method for configuring elements of a distributed computing system comprising the steps of:

a) determining one or more system metrics that relate to elements of a configured distributed environment;

b) determining a system value in response to one or more system metrics, said value determined according to one or more value criteria; and

c) re-configuring elements of said distributed computing environment according to said determined system value.

2. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein step c) includes the step of determining one or more potential changes in the distributed computing environment based on said system value determined.

3. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein step c) further includes determining an alternate system value based on at least one potential change determined, said alternate value reflecting an economic consequence including but not limited to:

increased revenue, or decreased cost resulting from a potential change.

4. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 2, wherein a potential change include changes to a distributed computing workload.

5. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reconfiguring includes addition or deletion of particular application jobs at particular locations of said distributed computing environment.

6. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reconfiguring includes a configuration modification to the distributed computing environment.

7. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein the distributed computing environment is a grid.

8. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 7, wherein said reconfiguring includes a configuration modification including addition or removal of resources from said grid.

9. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 2, wherein the determining of a potential change is performed as a service by a third party.

10. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein a system metric represents information including one or more selected from the group of:

attributes of configuration, computing and data storage resources, performance, utilization, hardware and software activity profiles and utilization.

11. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein said value criteria comprises one or more data selected from the group comprising:

cost of hardware, software, network and management, value of current in-progress applications and other utilizations, external financial measurements including current interest rate, real estate costs, and labor rates, and, combinations thereof.

12. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 11, wherein said step b) of determining system value includes evaluating system return on investment.

13. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 11, wherein said distributed compute network is a corporate grid composed of one or more server and data storage resources, said step a) of determining one or more system metrics metric includes monitoring utilization of these server and data storage resources, and from the value of a currently running application, determining whether additional applications may be added into the corporate grid without affecting the results of the current applications being run.

14. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 11, wherein said step of re-configuring elements of said distributed computing environment according to said determined system value includes one or more selected from the group comprising:

terminating or initiating of applications;

configuration changes;

job queue changes;

migrating executing applications to other devices at a same or different location.

15. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of determining at least one system metric that relates to computing elements includes determining whether a system metric is observable from said system.

16. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of determining at least one system metric that relate to computing elements includes determining whether a system metric is derivable from said system.

17. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 16, wherein said metric may be derivable from one or more selected from the group comprising:

historical values, combining other metrics, inferring from other metrics, or inferring from other metrics combined with events.

18. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step b) of determining system value includes the steps of:

determining the value of applications in progress, with a current resource allocation;

determining cost associated with the operations of the in-progress applications,

wherein said system value is determined as the difference between the value of the applications in progress and the costs determined.

19. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 18, wherein said step of determining associated cost includes determining the cost of operating information technology (IT) infrastructure in use.

20. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 18, wherein said step of determining value of in-progress applications with current resource allocation includes the steps of:

determining whether the application under consideration is being executed on behalf of another entity for revenue as specified in a contract and assigning the contracted revenue for the application run as the value of the application.

21. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 18, wherein said step of determining value of in-progress applications with current resource allocation includes the steps of:

determining whether there is a value profile associated with the application and assigning the value for this application based on the value profile.

22. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 18, wherein said step of determining value of in-progress applications with current resource allocation further includes the steps of:

determining a value weighting based on one or more selected from the group comprising;

whether application is considered time critical, mission critical or both; and

the progression of the executing application; and

,

applying the weighting factors to the determined value.

23. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 22, wherein said step c) of determining potential changes to the environment comprises determining whether a potential change is based on one or more selected from the group comprising:

changes to the environment;

changes in the environment, and requests for resource or work received from internal or external sources; and

, for each of the potential changes determined;

the step of evaluating the cost of this change; and

,

evaluating the value of a new environment effecting the potential change.

24. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 2, wherein a potential change includes running a current application on a resource at a different location, said step b) of determining system value comprising evaluating a cost of running said current application at each location.

25. The method for configuring elements as claimed in claim 2, wherein said distributed computing system includes a network, said re-configuring including, changing elements of the network.

27. The system for configuring elements of a distributed computing system as claimed in claim 23, further comprising:

means for determining one or more potential changes in the distributed computing environment based on said system value determined.

28. The system for configuring elements of a distributed computing system as claimed in claim 27, wherein said means for determining a system value includes means for determining alternate system values based on at least one potential change determined, said alternate values reflecting an economic consequence including but not limited to:

increased revenue, or decreased cost resulting from a potential change, wherein said elements of said distributed computing environment are re-configured according to a desired alternate system value.

26. A system for configuring elements of a distributed computing system comprising:

means for determining one or more system metrics relating to hardware and software elements of a configured distributed system; and

,

means for determining a system value in response to one or more system metrics, said value determined according to one or more value criteria,

wherein said elements of said distributed computing environment are re-configured according to said determined system value.

29. A method of configuring system units of a distributed computing system, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a present metric value of at least one metric on at least one of the system units;

determining, based on said determined metric value and input values of financial data, a present system-value; and

,

determining an action that is operative on said distributed computing system for obtaining a desired system value.

30. The method of configuring system units as claimed in claim 29, further including the step of defining a desired system value based on potential changes to said distributed computing system, wherein said step of determining an action that is operative on said distributed computing system includes setting a corresponding metric value.

31. A method of configuring system units of a distributed computing system of another entity, the method comprising the steps of:

accessing at least one element of said distributed computing system;

determining a present metric value of at least one metric pertaining to at least one of the system units,

determining, based on said determined metric value and input values of financial data a present system-value,

determining an action that is operative on said distributed computing system for obtaining a desired system value by setting the corresponding metric to a corresponding metric value.

32. The method according to claim 31, further including the step of:

recommending to the another entity the determined action be performed.

33. A computer program device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for configuring elements of a distributed computing system, said method comprising the steps of:

a) determining one or more system metrics that relate to elements of a configured distributed environment;

b) determining a system value in response to one or more system metrics, said value determined according to one or more value criteria; and

c) re-configuring elements of said distributed computing environment according to said determined system value.

34. The computer program device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 33, wherein step c) includes the step of determining one or more potential changes in the distributed computing environment based on said system value determined.

35. The computer program device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 34, wherein step c) further includes determining an alternate system value based on at least one potential change determined, said alternate value reflecting an economic consequence including but not limited to:

increased revenue, or decreased cost resulting from a potential change.