Method to effectively collect data from systems that consists of dynamic sub-systems

• US 8,990,377 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2004
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lake, John Michael, Qiao, Wenjian, Rangaswamy, Srinivasan K., Vignola, Christopher Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hussain, Farrukh
• Application Number:
  US11/005,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20060168194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,760 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 718/105
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer instructions are provided to improve the push/pull workload management model with intelligent routing to effectively collect data from systems that consist of dynamic sub-systems. The invention improves the push/pull model of the referenced invention with intelligent request routing to solve the above problem. An API is exposed in the workload manager enabling its request router to decline requests to route to idle sub-systems. This allows the monitoring agent to avoid sending a pull request to an idle sub-system. Each sub-system will push the data to the agent as it enters the idle state. The agent caches the data it receives from idle sub-systems and combines it with data it pulls from active and stopped sub-systems.

Claims

1. A method in a data processing system for improving workload management of a computer system comprising a plurality of sub-systems, the method comprising:

receiving a status of at least one sub-system of the computer system, wherein the status of the at least one sub-system is one of active and inactive;

receiving a request for an overall state of the computer system;

responsive to the received request, retrieving latest performance data for one or more sub-systems having an active status and includes sending a pull request only to the one or more sub-systems having the active status; and

determining the overall state of the computer system based upon the latest performance data for the one or more sub-systems having the active status and previously stored performance data for one or more sub-systems, of the computer system, with an inactive status.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the inactive status of the at least one sub-system is one of idle, stopping or stopped.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for the one or more sub-system having the active status includes:

receiving the latest performance data from the one or more sub-systems having the active status; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for an idle sub-system includes:

determining if the status of the idle sub-system has changed;

in response to no status change, retrieving the latest performance data for the idle sub-system from a buffer; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

5. The method of claim 4, in response to a status change, notifying a monitoring agent of the status change.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for a stopping or stopped sub-system includes:

retrieving the latest performance data for the stopping or stopped sub-system from a buffer; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the overall state of the computer system includes:

calculating the overall state of the system by adding the latest performance data from each of the at least one sub-system together.

8. A data processing system for improving workload management of a computer system comprising a plurality of sub-systems, comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system connected to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes a set of instructions; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to

receive a status of at least one sub-system, wherein the status of the at least one sub-system is one of active and inactive;

receiving a request for an overall state of the computer system;

responsive to the received request, retrieve latest performance data for one or more sub-systems having an active status and includes sending a pull request only to the one or more sub-systems having the active status; and

determine the overall state of the computer system based upon the latest performance data for the one or more sub-systems having the active status and previously stored performance data for one or more sub-systems, of the computer system, with an inactive status.

9. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the inactive status of the at least one sub-system is one of idle, stopping or stopped.

10. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for the one or more sub-system having the active status includes:

receiving the latest performance data from the one or more sub-systems having the active status; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

11. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for an idle sub-system includes

determining if the status of the idle sub-system has changed;

in response to no status change, retrieving the latest performance data for the idle sub-system from a buffer; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

12. The data processing system of claim 11, in response to a status change, notifying a monitoring agent of the status change.

13. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for a stopping or stopped sub-system includes:

retrieving the latest performance data for the stopping or stopped sub-system from a buffer; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

14. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein the determining the overall state of the computer system includes:

calculating the overall state of the system by adding the latest performance data from each of the at least one sub-system together.

15. A computer program product including a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied therein instructions for improving workload management of a computer system comprising a plurality of sub-systems, the instructions, when executed on a data processing system, causing the data processing system to perform the steps of:

receiving a status of at least one sub-system of the computer system, wherein the status of the at least one sub-system is one of active and inactive;

receiving a request for an overall state of the computer system;

responsive to the received request, retrieving latest performance data for one or more sub-systems having an active status and includes sending a pull request only to the one or more sub-systems having the active status; and

determining the overall state of the computer system based upon the latest performance data for the one or more sub-systems having the active status and previously stored performance data for one or more sub-systems, of the computer system, with an inactive status.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the inactive status of the at least one sub-system is one of idle, stopping or stopped.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for the one or more sub-system having the active status includes:

receiving the latest performance data from the one or more sub-systems having the active status; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for an idle sub-system includes:

determining if the status of the idle sub-system has changed;

in response to no status change, retrieving the latest performance data for the idle sub-system from a buffer; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, in response to a status change, notifying a monitoring agent of the status change.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the retrieving the latest performance data for a stopping or stopped sub-system includes:

retrieving the latest performance data for the stopping or stopped sub-system from a buffer; and

passing the latest performance data to an aggregator.

21. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the determining the overall state of the computer system includes:

calculating the overall state of the system by adding the latest performance data from each of the at least one sub-system together.