Dynamically balancing resources in a server farm

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9288147-B2
Application number	US-201313851227-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2013
Priority date	Aug 25, 2009
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

Dynamically balancing resources in a server farm, where the server farm includes servers organized in functional server groups with the servers in each functional server group assigned a same type of data processing task, the servers operatively coupled to data storage through a packet switching fabric, the servers operatively coupled to a system management server, and the balancing of resources includes: monitoring, by a resource balancing module of the system management server, CPU utilization in at least one of the functional server groups; identifying, by the resource balancing module in dependence upon the monitored CPU utilization, an overburdened functional server group, the overburdened functional server group's CPU utilization exceeding a CPU overburden threshold; and increasing, by the resource balancing module, CPU resources of the overburdened functional server group, including moving a transfer server from a source functional server group into the overburdened functional server group.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of dynamically balancing data processing resources in a server farm, the server farm comprising a plurality of hardware servers organized in functional server groups with the hardware servers in each functional server group assigned a same type of data processing task, the servers operatively coupled to data storage through a packet switching fabric, the hardware servers operatively coupled to a system management server via an in-band local area network (LAN) and an out-of-band network, the method comprising:
monitoring, by a resource balancing module of the system management server, CPU utilization in hardware of at least one of the functional server groups, wherein monitoring CPU utilization comprises monitoring CPU utilization by out-of-band network data communications directly between the system management server and the hardware servers;
identifying, by the resource balancing module in dependence upon the monitored CPU utilization, an overburdened functional server group, the overburdened functional server group's CPU utilization exceeding a CPU overburden threshold, the overburdened functional server group comprising a plurality of data processing tasks executing in a plurality of logical partitions on each of the hardware servers in the overburdened functional server group;
increasing, by the resource balancing module, CPU resources of the overburdened functional server group using the in-band LAN, including moving a transfer hardware server from a source functional server group into the overburdened functional server group, the transfer hardware server including a plurality of data processing tasks executing in a plurality of logical partitions on the transfer hardware server;
moving the data processing tasks from the transfer hardware server to other logical partitions on one or more other hardware servers in the source functional server group; and
installing two or more instances of data processing tasks associated with the overburdened functional server group into logical partitions in the transfer hardware server.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the transfer hardware server at random from an underutilized server group.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting as the transfer hardware server a hardware server in the source functional server group having a lowest CPU utilization among the hardware servers in the source functional server group.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing CPU resources of the overburdened functional server group further comprises increasing CPU resources periodically according to a predetermined schedule.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exposing by the resource balancing module a user interface providing user access to the functions of:
assigning hardware servers in the server farm to the functional server groups;
specifying functional server groups to be monitored; and
assigning server addresses and LUNs to hardware servers in the server farm.

6. An apparatus for dynamically balancing data processing resources in a server farm, the server farm comprising a plurality of hardware servers organized in functional server groups with the servers in each functional server group assigned a same type of data processing task, the hardware servers operatively coupled to data storage through a packet switching fabric, the hardware servers operatively coupled to a system management server via an in-band local area network (LAN) and an out-of-band network, the apparatus comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:
monitoring, by a resource balancing module of the system management server, CPU utilization in hardware of at least one of the functional server groups, wherein monitoring CPU utilization comprises monitoring CPU utilization by out-of-band network data communications directly between the system management server and the hardware servers;
identifying, by the resource balancing module in dependence upon the monitored CPU utilization, an overburdened functional server group, the overburdened functional server group's CPU utilization exceeding a CPU overburden threshold, the overburdened functional server group comprising a plurality of data processing tasks executing in a plurality of logical partitions on each of the hardware servers in the overburdened functional server group;
increasing, by the resource balancing module, CPU resources of the overburdened functional server group using the in-band LAN, including moving a transfer hardware server from a source functional server group into the overburdened functional server group, the transfer hardware server including a plurality of data processing tasks executing in a plurality of logical partitions on the transfer hardware server;
moving the data processing tasks from the transfer hardware server to other logical partitions on one or more other hardware servers in the source functional server group; and
installing two or more instances of data processing tasks associated with the overburdened functional server group into logical partitions in the transfer hardware server.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein increasing CPU resources of the overburdened functional server group further comprises increasing CPU resources periodically according to a predetermined schedule.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the computer memory further includes instructions for exposing by the resource balancing module a user interface providing user access to the functions of:
assigning hardware servers in the server farm to the functional server groups;
specifying functional server groups to be monitored; and
assigning server addresses and LUNs to hardware servers in the server farm.

9. A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium for dynamically balancing data processing resources in a server farm, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is not a signal, the server farm comprising a plurality of hardware servers organized in functional server groups with the servers in each functional server group assigned a same type of data processing task, the hardware servers operatively coupled to data storage through a packet switching fabric, the hardware servers operatively coupled to a system management server via an in-band local area network (LAN) and an out-of-band network, the computer program product comprising:
computer program instructions for monitoring, by a resource balancing module of the system management server, CPU utilization in hardware of at least one of the functional server groups, wherein monitoring CPU utilization comprises monitoring CPU utilization by out-of-band network data communications directly between the system management server and the hardware servers;
computer program instructions for identifying, by the resource balancing module in dependence upon the monitored CPU utilization, an overburdened functional server group, the overburdened functional server group's CPU utilization exceeding a CPU overburden threshold, the overburdened functional server group comprising a plurality of data processing tasks executing in a plurality of logical partitions on each of the hardware servers in the overburdened functional server group;
computer program instructions for increasing, by the resource balancing module, CPU resources of the overburdened functional server group using the in-band LAN, including moving a transfer hardware server from a source functional server group into the overburdened functional serve

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kern Eric R
• Pagan William G

Classifications

• G06F9/5083 Primary

  Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system · CPC title

• H04L47/125 Primary

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title