Selective scheduling of cloud maintenance tasks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11086667-B2
Application number	US-201916437723-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2019
Priority date	Jun 11, 2019
Publication date	Aug 10, 2021
Grant date	Aug 10, 2021

Abstract

A method for selective scheduling and deployment of maintenance tasks in cloud computing environments is provided. The method determines a computing environment in which a maintenance task is to be performed. The computing environment has one or more environment characteristics. The method then determines one or more task characteristics for the maintenance task. Based on the one or more environment characteristics and the one or more task characteristics, the method determines a similarity between the maintenance task and one or more historical maintenance tasks. The method generates a completion indicator for the maintenance task based on the similarity between the maintenance task and the one or more historical maintenance tasks. Based on the completion indicator, the method schedules performance of the maintenance task.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining a computing environment in which a maintenance task is to be performed, the computing environment having one or more environment characteristics;
determining one or more task characteristics of the maintenance task;
based on the one or more environment characteristics and the one or more task characteristics, determining a similarity between the maintenance task and one or more historical maintenance tasks by generating a similarity score by calculating a ratio of numerical values for the one or more environment characteristics of the computing environment, the one or more task characteristics of the maintenance task, and one or more historical characteristics of the one or more historical maintenance tasks;
generating a completion indicator for the maintenance task based on the similarity between the maintenance task and the one or more historical maintenance tasks; and
based on the completion indicator, scheduling performance of the maintenance task for the computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the similarity score further comprises determining a summand for nonnumerical values of the one or more environment characteristics, the one or more task characteristics, and the one or more historical characteristics.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the similarity score further comprises combining the ratio of numerical values and the summand for nonnumerical values for the one or more environment characteristics, the one or more task characteristics, and the one or more historical characteristics.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the completion indicator further comprises:
estimating a total duration of the maintenance task based on the similarity score; and
estimating a likelihood of success of the maintenance task based on the similarity score and a historical success rate for the one or more historical maintenance tasks.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein scheduling performance of the maintenance task further comprises:
determining one or more available times for performing the maintenance task based on an event schedule for the computing environment and the total duration estimated for the maintenance task; and
reserving at least a portion of time of the one or more available times for performing the maintenance task.

6. A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a computer-readable storage medium, coupled to the one or more processors, storing program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining a computing environment in which a maintenance task is to be performed, the computing environment having one or more environment characteristics;
determining one or more task characteristics of the maintenance task;
based on the one or more environment characteristics and the one or more task characteristics, determining a similarity between the maintenance task and one or more historical maintenance tasks by generating a similarity score by calculating a ratio of numerical values for the one or more environment characteristics of the computing environment, the one or more task characteristics of the maintenance task, and one or more historical characteristics of the one or more historical maintenance tasks;
generating a completion indicator for the maintenance task based on the similarity between the maintenance task and the one or more historical maintenance tasks; and
based on the completion indicator, scheduling performance of the maintenance task for the computing environment.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein generating the similarity score further comprises determining a summand for nonnumerical values of the one or more environment characteristics, the one or more task characteristics, and the one or more historical characteristics.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein generating the similarity score further comprises combining the ratio of numerical values and the summand for nonnumerical values for the one or more environment characteristics, the one or more task characteristics, and the one or more historical characteristics.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein generating the completion indicator further comprises:
estimating a total duration of the maintenance task based on the similarity score; and
estimating a likelihood of success of the maintenance task based on the similarity score and a historical success rate for the one or more historical maintenance tasks.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein scheduling performance of the maintenance task further comprises:
determining one or more available times for performing the maintenance task based on an event schedule for the computing environment and the total duration estimated for the maintenance task; and
reserving at least a portion of time of the one or more available times for performing the maintenance task.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being executable by one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining a computing environment in which a maintenance task is to be performed, the computing environment having one or more environment characteristics;
determining one or more task characteristics of the maintenance task;
based on the one or more environment characteristics and the one or more task characteristics, determining a similarity between the maintenance task and one or more historical maintenance tasks by generating a similarity score by calculating a ratio of numerical values for the one or more environment characteristics of the computing environment, the one or more task characteristics of the maintenance task, and one or more historical characteristics of the one or more historical maintenance tasks;
generating a completion indicator for the maintenance task based on the similarity between the maintenance task and the one or more historical maintenance tasks; and
based on the completion indicator, scheduling performance of the maintenance task for the computing environment.

12. The computer program product of claimer 11 , wherein generating the similarity score further comprises determining a summand for nonnumerical values of the one or more environment characteristics, the one or more task characteristics, and the one or more historical characteristics.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein generating the completion indicator further comprises:
estimating a total duration of the maintenance task based on the similarity score; and
estimating a likelihood of success of the maintenance task based on the similarity score and a historical success rate for the one or more historical maintenance tasks.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein scheduling performance of the maintenance task further comprises:
determining one or more available times for performing the maintenance task based on an event schedule for the computing environment and the total duration estimated for the maintenance task; and
reserving at least a portion of time of the one or more available times for performing the maintenance task.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Sbriccoli Maria
• Martino Marco
• Ragusa Roberto
• Mascolo Montenero Pasquale Maria

Classifications

• H04L67/62

  Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests · CPC title

• G06F9/4881 Primary

  Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues · CPC title

• H04L67/10 Primary

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title