Method and system for modeling and analyzing computing resource requirements of software applications in a shared and distributed computing environment

• US 20080244600A1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Platform Computing Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Wai Ming, Hui, Michael C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,584,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5022 Mechanisms to release resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5033 considering data affinity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• 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: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation

Abstract

An application manager for enabling multiple applications to share resources in a shared and distributed computing environment. The disclosed system provides for the specification, representation and automatic analysis of resource requirements of applications in a shared and distributed computing environment. The application manager is provided with service specifications for each application, which defines the resource requirements necessary or preferred to run said application (or more precisely, its constituent application components). In addition, the resources may be required to have certain characteristics and constraints may be placed on the required resources. The application manager works in conjunction with a resource supply manager and requests the required resources be supplied for the application. If there are appropriate and sufficient available resources to meet the particular resource requirements, then the resources are allocated, and the application components mapped thereon. The disclosed system can enable the sharing of resources among multiple heterogeneous applications. The systems can allow resource sharing without application source code access or any knowledge of the internal design of the application. Integration of an application can be re-used for other similar applications. Furthermore, the disclosed system enables the dynamic and efficient management of shared resources, providing an agile resource infrastructure adaptive to dynamic changes and failures.

Claims

1. A system for managing a plurality of applications in a shared computing environment, each application comprising a plurality of application components, the system comprising:

a) an application manager operable to receive or define a service specification for a first application that defines a set of required computing resources that are necessary to run each application component of the first application; and

b) a resource supply manager in communication with the application manager and operable to manage the supply of a plurality of computing resources in the shared computing environment;

wherein the application manager is operable to request the set of required computing resources from the computing resource supply manager, and wherein the resource supply manager determines the availability of the required computing resources within the shared computing environment according to resource allocation policies and provides allocated computing resources to the application manager, thereby allowing each application component of the first application to be run on the allocated computing resources.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of applications are generally of heterogeneous types.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the service specification also defines a set of constraints for the required computing resources, and wherein the application manager takes the constraints into account when requesting the set of computing resources from the resource supply manager.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the constraints defines what computing resources can or cannot be allocated to the application manager to run the application components of the first application.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the application manager can take into account the constraints of the first application in relation to the constraints of each other application when requesting the set of required computing resources from the resource supply manager.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the constraints define the required computing resources in such a fashion that the application does not have a single point of failure.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the service specification defines a priority for one or more of the plurality of applications, and wherein the application manager manages the plurality of applications taking into account said priorities.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the service specification defines an acceptable range for the number of instances for at least one of the plurality of application components.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in response to changing conditions while the application is being run.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in accordance with changes in supply of and demand for computing resources in the shared computing environment.

11. An application manager for managing a plurality of applications in a shared computing environment, each application comprising a plurality of application components, the shared computing environment having a resource supply manager for managing the supply of computing resources in the shared computing environment, wherein the application manager is operable to receive or define a service specification for a first application that defines a set of required computing resources that are necessary to run each application component of the first application and wherein the application manager requests the set of required computing resources from the resource supply manager, and wherein the resource supply manager determines the availability of the required computing resources in accordance with resource allocation policies and provides allocated computing resources to the application manager, thereby allowing each application component of the first application to be run on the allocated computing resources.

12. The application manager of claim 11, wherein the plurality of applications are generally of heterogeneous types.

13. The application manager of claim 11, wherein the service specification also defines a set of constraints for the required computing resources, and wherein the application manager takes the constraints into account when requesting the set of computing resources from the resource supply manager.

14. The application manager of claim 13, wherein the set of constraints defines what computing resources can or cannot be allocated to the application manager to run the application components of the first application.

15. The application manager of claim 11, wherein the service specification defines a priority for one or more of the plurality of applications, and wherein the application manager manages the plurality of applications taking into account said priorities.

16. The application manager of claim 11, wherein the service specification defines an acceptable range for the number of instances for at least one of the plurality of application components.

17. The application manager of claim 16, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in response to changing conditions while the application is being run.

18. The application manager of claim 16, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in accordance with changes in supply of and demand for computing in the shared computing environment.

19. The application manager of claim 11, wherein the plurality of applications are adaptive for running in a heterogeneous resource environment.

20. A method for managing a plurality of applications in a shared computing environment having a share pool of computing resources, each application comprising a plurality of application components, the method comprising the steps of:

a) receiving at an application manager a service specification for a first application wherein the service specification defines a set of required computing resources that are necessary to run the first application;

b) requesting the required computing resources through a resource supply manager, wherein the availability of the required computing resources within the shared computing environment is determined and allocated according to resource allocation policies, and each of the application components for the first application are mapped to a corresponding allocated computing resource where the required computing resources are determined to be available;

c) preparing each corresponding allocated computing resource for running the respective application components of the first application;

d) running the first application on the allocated computing resources by deploying each application component of the first application on the corresponding allocated computing resource;

e) repeating steps a) to d) for each successive one of the plurality of applications.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising the additional steps of terminating at least one of the plurality of applications by terminating each instance of the corresponding application components for said application and releasing the allocated computing resources to the share pool of computing resources of the shared computing environment.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of applications are generally of heterogeneous types.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the service specification also defines a set of constraints for the required computing resources, and wherein the application manager takes the constraints into account when requesting the set of computing resources from the resource supply manager.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the constraints define what computing resources can or cannot be allocated to the application manager to run the application components of the first application.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the service specification defines a priority for one or more of the plurality of applications, and wherein the application manager manages the plurality of applications taking into account said priorities.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the service specification defines an acceptable range for the number of instances for at least one of the plurality of application components.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in response to changing conditions while the application is being run.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in accordance with changes in supply of and demand for computing resources in the shared computing environment.

29. The method of claim 20, comprising the additional steps of the application manager monitoring for instances of failure the status of the allocated computing resources on which each application component is running, and where there is an instance of failure, restarting the application component that has failed on the corresponding allocated computing resource.

30. The method of claim 20, comprising the additional steps of the application manager monitoring for instances of failure the status of the allocated computing resources on which each application component is running, and where there is an instance of failure, requesting a replacement computing resource from the resource supply manager and restarting the application component that has failed on the corresponding replacement computing resource.

31. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of applications are adaptive for running in a heterogeneous resource environment.

32. A method for managing a plurality of applications in a shared computing environment having a share pool of computing resources, each application comprising a plurality of application components, the method comprising the steps of:

a) receiving at an application manager a service specification for a first application wherein the service specification defines a set of required computing resources that are necessary to run the application components of the first application;

b) for each respective application component of the first application,

i) requesting a corresponding required computing resource through a resource supply manager, wherein the availability of the corresponding required computing resource within the shared computing environment is determined and allocated according to resource allocation policies;

ii) where the corresponding required computing resource is determined to be available, mapping the application component of the first application to a corresponding allocated computing resource;

iii) preparing the corresponding allocated computing resource for running the respective application component of the first application; and

iv) deploying the respective application component of the first application on the corresponding allocated computing resource;

and

c) repeating steps a) to b) for each successive one of the plurality of applications.

33. The method of claim 32, comprising the additional steps of terminating at least one of the plurality of applications by terminating each corresponding instance of the respective application components for said application and releasing each allocated computing resource to the share pool of computing resources of the shared computing environment.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the plurality of applications are generally of heterogeneous types.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the service specification also defines a set of constraints for the required computing resources, and wherein the application manager takes the constraints into account when requesting the set of computing resources from the resource supply manager.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the constraints define what computing resources can or cannot be allocated to the application manager to run each application component of the first application.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein the service specification defines a priority for one or more of the plurality of applications, and wherein the application manager manages the plurality of applications taking into account said priorities.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the service specification defines an acceptable range for the number of instances for at least one of the plurality of application components.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in response to changing conditions while the application is being run.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the number of active instances of the at least one of the plurality of application components is permitted to be dynamically adjusted within the acceptable range, in accordance with changes in supply of and demand for computing resources in the shared computing environment.

41. The method of claim 32, comprising the additional steps of the application manager monitoring for instances of failure the status of the allocated computing resources on which each application component is running, and where there is an instance of failure, restarting the application component that has failed on the corresponding allocated computing resource.

42. The method of claim 32, comprising the additional steps of the application manager monitoring for instances of failure the status of the allocated computing resources on which each application component is running, and where there is an instance of failure, requesting a replacement computing resource from the resource supply manager and restarting the application component that has failed on the corresponding allocated resource.

43. The method of claim 32, wherein the plurality of applications are adaptive for running in a heterogeneous resource environment.