Method and system that measures and reports computational-resource usage in a data center

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9953276-B2
Application number	US-201514603373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2015
Priority date	Oct 29, 2014
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure describes methods and systems that monitor the utilization of computational resources. In one implementation, a system periodically measures the utilization of computational resources, determines an amount of computational-resource wastage, identifies the source of the wastage, and generates recommendations that reduce or eliminate the wastage. In some implementations, recommendations are generated based on a cost of the computational-resource wastage. The cost of computational-resource wastage can be determined from factors that include the cost of providing a computational resource, an amount of available computational resources, and the amount of actual computational-resource usage. Methods of presenting and modeling computational-resource usage and methods that associate an economic cost with resource wastage are presented.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for reporting utilization of a host computer system comprising:
determining an amount of wastage associated with a computational resource based on a measured utilization of the computational resource over a time period; and
determining whether the wastage is client-side wastage or host-side wastage;
when the wastage is client-side wastage, identifying a resource reservation associated with the wastage, and recommending that the resource reservation be modified; and
when the wastage is host-side wastage, determining a maximum utilization of the resource associated with the wastage over a plurality of past time periods, when the maximum utilization of the resource is less than a threshold, recommending that an amount of the computational resource be reduced, and when the maximum utilization of the resource is not less than the threshold, recommending that additional computational loads be hosted on the host computer system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the threshold represents less than 50 percent of the installed resources of the host computer system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the recommendation that the resource reservation be modified includes a recommendation that the resource reservation be converted to a soft reservation.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the resource reservation associated with the wastage excludes resource reservations that permit the associated computational resources to be reallocated when the reserved resources are not in use.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more computational resources comprises at least one resource selected from
processing resources,
memory resources,
storage resources,
local area network transfer resources,
Internet transfer resources, and
disk input/output resources.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
computing a total cost based on a number of periodic cost; and
reporting the total cost of resource wastage on the host computer system over a reporting period.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the amount of wastage includes:
determining an amount of client-side wastage caused by hard resource reservations;
determining an amount of host-side wastage; and
summing the amount of client-side wastage and the amount of host-side wastage to generate an amount of total wastage.

8. Non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions encoded thereon that when executed on a computer system perform the operations of:
measuring the utilization of the one or more available computational resources on the host computer system over a time period;
determining an amount of wastage for the one or more computational resources over the time period;
determining whether the wastage is client-side wastage or host-side wastage;
when the wastage is client-side wastage, identifying a resource reservation associated with the wastage, and recommending that the resource reservation be modified; and
when the wastage is host-side wastage, determining a maximum utilization of the resource associated with the wastage over a plurality of past time periods, when the maximum utilization of the resource is less than a threshold, recommending that the amount of the computational resource be reduced, and when the maximum utilization of the resource is not less than the threshold, recommending that additional computational loads be hosted on the host computer system.

9. The computer-readable media of claim 8 wherein identifying the resource reservation associated with the wastage excludes resource reservations that permit the associated computational resources to be reallocated when the reserved resources are not in use.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 8 further comprising:
reporting a total cost of resources wastage on the host computer system over a reporting period.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 8 wherein determining the amount of wastage includes:
determining an amount of client-side wastage caused by hard resource reservations;
determining an amount of host-side wastage; and
adding the amount of client-side wastage to the amount of host-side wastage.

12. A system for managing computational resources comprising:
one or more processors;
one or more data-storage devices; and
a routine stored in the one or more data-storage devices that when executed by the one or more processors controls the system to carry out
recording utilization of at least one computational resource in the one or more data-storage devices,
determining an amount of resource wastage of the at least one computational resource,
determining whether the wastage is client-side wastage or host-side wastage,
when the wastage is client-side wastage, identifying a resource reservation associated with the wastage, and recommending that the resource reservation be modified, and
when the wastage is host-side wastage, determining a maximum utilization of the resource associated with the wastage over a plurality of past time periods, when the maximum utilization of the resource is less than a threshold, recommending that the amount of the computational resource be reduced, and when the maximum utilization of the resource is not less than the threshold, recommending that additional computational loads be hosted on the host computer system.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the routine further includes:
generating resource-management recommendations based on the recorded utilization of the at least one computational resource.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein generating the resource-management recommendations includes identifying a computational-resource reservation that contributes to an amount of client-side wastage and recommending that the computational resource reservation be modified to reduce the amount of client-side wastage.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein generating the resource-management recommendations includes determining a peak resource utilization, and when the peak resource utilization is less than a lower threshold, generating a recommendation for reducing an amount of computational resources of a host computer system.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein when the peak resource utilization is less than an upper threshold, generating a recommendation for adding computational loads to the host computer system.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Gaurav Kumar
• Hingane Akhil Sadashiv
• Potluri Vijay

Classifications

• G06F9/50

  Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title

• G06F2209/5014

  Reservation · CPC title

• G06Q10/04 Primary

  Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" (market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202) · CPC title