Information-technology workflows using executable tiles distributed between workflow instances

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018165124-A1
Application number	US-201715458818-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 14, 2017
Priority date	Dec 9, 2016
Publication date	Jun 14, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A workflow is expressed as an arrangement of a set of executable tile. In some embodiments, the tiles include operations expressed in different programming languages. A tile can include a declarative specification of datatypes so that external agents, e.g., workflow services, can identify the datatypes and schemas required as arguments and produced as result; this simplifies the defining of a workflow, e.g., by a workflow coder. A tile can have zero, one, or plural user interfaces; selection of a user interface from plural user interfaces can be based on a user selection, on user roles, or on tile lifecycle stage. Workflow services can communicate with each other so that workflows can be distributed and shifted among processor nodes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A process comprising:
executing a first tile, the first tile being a member of a first set of tiles on a first processor node and arranged into a first workflow instance; transferring a first result from the first tile to the second processor node; and using the results as an argument to a counterpart of a second tile of the first set, executing the counterpart of the second tile to yield a second result that is a function of the first result.

2 . The process of claim 1 further comprising:
during execution of the first tile, not executing a counterpart to the first tile, the counterpart to the first tile being on the second processor node; and
during execution of the counterpart to the second tile, not executing the second tile.

3 . The process of claim 1 wherein workflow services executing on the first processor node and workflow services executing on the second processor node coordinate with each other to effect the transferring.

4 . The process of claim 1 further comprising:
monitoring the first processor node to obtain metrics, the metrics including performance metrics or utilization metrics; and
making a determination to perform the transferring based on the metrics.

5 . The process of claim 4 wherein the determination is made while the first tile is executing.

6 . The process of claim 4 wherein the determination is made before the first tile is executing, the transferring being scheduled based at least in part on trends or patterns in the metrics.

7 . A system comprising non-transitory media encoded with code that, when executed by hardware, implements a process including:
executing a first tile, the first tile being a member of a first set of tiles on a first processor node and arranged into a first workflow instance; transferring a first result from the first tile to the second processor node; and using the results as an argument to a counterpart of a second tile of the first set, executing the counterpart of the second tile to yield a second result that is a function of the first result.

8 . The system of claim 7 further comprising:
during execution of the first tile, not executing a counterpart to the first tile, the counterpart to the first tile being on the second processor node; and
during execution of the counterpart to the second tile, not executing the second tile.

9 . The system of claim 7 wherein workflow services executing on the first processor node and workflow services executing on the second processor node coordinate with each other to effect the transferring.

10 . The system of claim 7 further comprising:
monitoring the first processor node to obtain metrics, the metrics including performance metrics or utilization metrics; and
making a determination to perform the transferring based on the metrics.

11 . The system of claim 10 wherein the determination is made while the first tile is executing.

12 . The system of claim 10 wherein the determination is made before the first tile is executing, the transferring being scheduled based at least in part on trends or patterns in the metrics.

13 . The system of claim 7 further comprising the hardware.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Sinha Rakesh
• Nagaraja Vishwas
• Pendyala Nagaraju
• Dube Arjun

Classifications

• G06F8/36

  Software reuse · CPC title

• G06F8/20

  Software design · CPC title

• G06F8/70

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F8/60 Primary

  Software deployment · CPC title