Allocating computing resources in a distributed environment

• US 20050050545A1
• Filed: 08/29/2003
• Published: 03/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Moakley, George P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/503 Resource availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

In one embodiment of the present invention, a computing system includes a plurality of systems coupled in a distributed infrastructure, and a resource allocator to allocate activities of an application to at least two of the systems. The distributed infrastructure may be a tightly coupled infrastructure and may include a virtualized application environment that emulates a runtime environment of the application, in such an embodiment.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a plurality of systems coupled in a distributed infrastructure; and

a resource allocator to allocate activities of an application to at least two of the plurality of systems.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the distributed infrastructure comprises a virtualized application environment to emulate a runtime environment of the application.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the virtualized application environment comprises a resource emulator to make resources of the systems available to the application.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the resource allocator comprises a tracker to track availability of resources of the plurality of systems.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein the tracker is programmed to detect inclusion or exclusion of a system with regard to the plurality of systems.

6. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the resource allocator is programmed to recover work from one of the systems if the system is removed from the virtualized application environment.

7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of systems comprises server computers.

8. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the virtualized application environment comprises an emulated computational environment mapped to the distributed infrastructure.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the distributed infrastructure is a tightly coupled distributed infrastructure.

10. A method comprising:

allocating portions of an application program to a plurality of computers in a distributed environment;

executing the portions on the plurality of computers; and

tracking progress of the portions.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating a checkpoint corresponding to at least one of the portions.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising allocating one of the portions to a different computer in the distributed environment if the checkpoint indicates no progress.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising virtualizing the distributed environment into a virtual application environment.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the application program is written for a single processor.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising emulating a computational environment mapped to the distributed environment.

16. An article comprising a machine-readable medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

allocate portions of an application program to a plurality of computers in a distributed environment; and

track progress of the portions on the plurality of computers.

17. The article of claim 16, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to recover one of the portions from one of the computers if the computer is removed from the distributed environment.

18. The article of claim 17, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to allocate the recovered portion to a different computer in the distributed environment.

19. The article of claim 16, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to allocate the portions based on localities of references of the application program.

20. The article of claim 16, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to provide state information to the plurality of computers with the portions.

21. The article of claim 20, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to synchronize the state information between the portions.