Apparatus, method and system for aggregating computing resources

• US 7,934,035 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Marinov, Borislav S., Hester, Becky L., Nickolov, Peter, Miloushev, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): Dang; Khanh
• Application Number:
  US12/149,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20090037585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 710 36- 38, 710/316, 710/317, 710/220, 710/224, 718/100, 718/104, 718/107, 718/108, 712/28, 711/118, 711/125, 711/130, 711/135
• US Class Current: 710/244
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/542 Intercept
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system for executing applications designed to run on a single SMP computer on an easily scalable network of computers, while providing each application with computing resources, including processing power, memory and others that exceed the resources available on any single computer. A server agent program, a grid switch apparatus and a grid controller apparatus are included. Methods for creating processes and resources, and for accessing resources transparently across multiple servers are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for accessing resources in a distributed computing system, the system comprising a plurality of servers, each server having a plurality of resources, each server having a plurality of threads, and each server detecting occasions on which a thread needs access to a resource residing on a different server, the method comprising the steps of:

a. on a first said occasion, hopping the thread execution to the server where a needed resource is located;

b. on a second said occasion, reassigning the resource to the server on which the thread resides, wherein reassigning the resource further comprises;

deleting the resource from the server where the resource is initially located;

recreating the resource at the server where the thread resides; and

transferring the state of the resource; and

c. on a third said occasion, caching the resource to the server on which the thread resides.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising suspending the thread execution until the needed resource becomes available.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein hopping the thread execution further comprises:

packaging a context associated with the thread;

sending the thread context to the server where the needed resource is located;

restoring the thread context to a new thread on the server where the needed resource is located; and

executing the new thread.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein caching the resource further comprises marking the resource as read-only on any servers on which it is cached.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein caching the resource further comprises revoking the resource that is cached if any thread attempts to modify the resource.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first said occasion comprises an attempt to access a resource that is frequently modified.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second said occasion comprises an attempt to access a resource that is exclusively accessed by the thread.