Patent Application
20140074872
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The invention generally relates to processes, tools and methods for establishing and maintaining computer systems highly optimized for specifici workloads.
Workload Optimized Systems (WOS), such as International Business Machine's™ (IBM's) Smart Analytics System™ and Oracle's ExaData™ are highly integrated and optimized computing systems for specific workloads. A workload, in this context, refers to the type of computing application or applications which will be executed and performed by the WOS, such as a banking workload, an airline scheduling workload, a stock trading workload, or a web page serving workload.
WOS systems seek to reduce inefficiencies in each workload which arise from the use of general purpose computing hardware, operating systems and application programs, by applying specific computing hardware, optimized operating systems and deeply integrated application programs. For example, the most common processor used in a personal computer, which may also be used in higher-end blade servers, may not be the optimal computing engine for a particular banking operation. As such, implementing a large enterprise level of the banking application on such a general purpose processor may seem like a good choice at first glance, but the inefficiencies accumulate over hundreds of instances of processors, operating systems, and application programs to create massive extra costs, power consumption, and complexity.
A WOS, on the other hand, seeks to select the best choice of processor, memory architecture, bus structure, operating system components and configuration, and highly optimized applications to “tune” the entire system to the specific workload it will perform. In WOS terminology, we refer to “stacks”, which may be horizontal or vertical. A vertical stack is the set of hardware resources (processor, memory, busses, etc.), through the operating system, up to the applications (databases, web servers, etc.). A horizontal stack is a group of homogenous or heterogeneous computing platforms, for example 20 platforms of one hardware architecture coupled to 10 platforms of another hardware architecture running a variety of operating systems. Optimization in a WOS is applied both to the vertical stacks and the horizontal stacks of computing resources.
At a massive computing system level, one might compare a WOS to general purpose enterprise servers in the same way that, at the processor level, special-purpose processors (digital signal processors, graphics accelerators, encryption/decryption engines, etc.) compare to general purpose processors (ARM, SPARC, RISC, x86, PowerPC, etc.). The primary difference between the comparison present here, however, is that the WOS includes many layers of software such as the drivers, operating systems, middleware, database servers, application programs, etc., whereas the comparison at the processor level is primarily an electronic hardware circuitry comparison.
As such, the key goal of designing a workload optimized computing system is on full stack optimization. This requires optimal configuration of hardware (circuitry, processor, memory architecture, bus structures, DMA methods, etc.), firmware (device drivers, communications protocols, embedded processes, etc.), one or more Operating Systems, middleware and application programs.
Relational database modeling and triggers are employed and coordinated to maintain and manage tunable parameters and characteristics of a Workload Optimized System. The database model is initialized with pre-defined values as per definition of Workload Optimized Systems, which models the optimal configuration of the workload-optimized system, capturing various performance configurations, security and other related system and software configuration. The values present the optimal values for the entire solution. A daemon is run to monitor for changes in the tunable configuration settings, which also updates the current values of the configuration parameters on the RDBMS. SQL Triggers are implemented on the database to identify cases where corrective actions are required to the configuration parameters.
The description set forth herein is illustrated by the several drawings.
a-2d illustrate system component interactions according to the present invention.
The inventors of the present and the related invention have recognized problems not yet recognized by those skilled in the relevant arts regarding the design, configuration, implementation and continued optimization of Workload Optimized Systems. Correct functioning of the overall solution requires all the configuration elements across the stack (hardware, firmware, OS and application) to be validated and optimal at all times. Any incorrect or non-optimal settings or configuration anywhere on the stack will result in failure, incorrect functionality, or degraded functionality, thereby negatively affecting performance, security, etc.
Further, these configuration settings do not remain static over time after they are initially established at the time of installation and deployment of the system. Rather, they change over time due to changing system characteristics (e.g. expanding memory, upgrading communications bandwidth, etc.), which induces new scenarios and effects on other dependent components.
For example, Workload Optimized Systems like the aforementioned IBM Smart Analytics™ system, have lot of performance “tunables” and security configuration options that are pre-defined at the solution (workload-specific, workload-optimized) level. Some of the Operating System Device tunables are, for example:
And, some examples of the input/output (IO) tunables are:
Some of the Network communications tunables are:
Any change of these configuration parameters from their optimized values for a particular workload will possibly result in degraded performance of workload optimized system, and may defeat the basic purpose of integrated Workload Optimized Systems. In many cases, the allowed values can be within a range rather than an absolute value, also modifying one configuration parameter also results in modifying other applicable configuration parameters, thereby complicating the impact (and potential degradation) on the WOS.
Hence, the present inventors have recognized that there is a need within Systems Management products, such as IBM Systems Director™ product or similar products, to monitor and manage the configuration of servers, operating systems and hardware devices which constitute stacks in Workload Optimized Systems. IBM Systems Director is systems management tool that is used to monitor and manage servers, operating systems and hardware devices. While the following description will be given according to an exemplary embodiment utilizing the IBM Systems Director™ product for the IBM Smart Analytics System™, it should be understood by those skilled in the relevant arts that the present invention is not limited to these particular embodiment and implementation details.
Embodiments according to the present invention use relational database modeling and triggers to maintain and manage Operating System and software configuration options, values, settings, and choices in a Workload Optimized System. In one embodiment, a plugin is added to IBM Systems Director to manage system configuration, which we will refer to as “System and Software Configuration Manager” (SSCM). A relational database, such as DB2, Apache Derby, etc., is initialized with pre-defined values as per definition of Workload Optimized Systems.
Relational Database Systems (RDBS) are used to model the configuration of the workload optimized system. Tables are designed to capture the various performance configurations, security and other related system and software configuration. A database instance is created with standard pre-defined/threshold values (including ranges) for a particular workload optimized system. The values present the optimal values for the entire solution.
Next, a daemon is run on the Operating System, preferably on the same computing platform where the Systems Director server is running, to monitor for changes in the configuration settings. The daemon will update the current values of the configuration parameters on the RDBMS.
And, Structured Query Language (SQL) Triggers are implemented on the database server to identify cases where corrective actions are required to the configuration parameters. For example, the following trigger is used when no_sb_max (maximum number of socket buffers per socket queue) is not within the predefined range. The SQL trigger can invoke a stored procedure or any other script which can be used to perform corrective action, as such for example:
In this example trigger, the network communications configuration is checked by examining each row of the RDBMS records which constitute a model of the workload-optimized system. If, in this example, the maximum number of pages to be read ahead when processing a sequentially accessed file on Enhanced JFS is checked to see if it is out of range (less than 512 or more than 756). If so, a procedure “analyzeandreset” is called on that tunable to implement a corrective action.
Another example of an appropriate SQL Trigger is, when a particular configuration option is changed and it has dependency on other configuration parameters and hence it has to be changed as well, then a stored procedure can calculate the changes required and apply them. Preferably, Systems Director administrators can add their own customer triggers on top of any pre-defined triggers provided with the plugin, in at least one embodiment.
In a more specific example, in an IBM Smart Analytics™ System I/O performance tuning for maximum throughput, the following tunable is set for all the AIX-based IOO_J2_MAXPAGEREADAHEAD=512, which specifies the maximum number of pages to be read ahead when processing a sequentially accessed file on Enhanced JFS): In the RDBMS system performance model (set of records), the allowed range of threshold/optimal values are maintained, as shown in Table 1:
In this table, the tunable parameter IOO_J2_MAXPAGEREADAHEAD is allowed to be optimally set between 512 and 756, and it is currently set to 512 (within allowable range), and the tunable parameter IOO_J2_MINPAGEREADAHEAD is allowed to be optimally set between 32 and 64, which is currently set to 32.
Now, for the purposes of this example, assume that on server1, an administrator changes the value of tunable IOO_J2_MAXPAGEREADAHEAD from 512 to 1024. The monitoring daemon running on server1(or from other server) will be notified of this change via standard operating system event monitoring mechanisms, and the model in the RDBMS is appropriately updated:
Next, an SQL trigger associated with the RDBMS value IOO_J2_MAXPAGEREADAHEAD will cause an appropriate Stored Procedure to evaluate the impacts of this value change. Some example potential impacts which are evaluated in at least one embodiment are:
Solution performance may be lowered
Solution components may crash or die
Solution availability may be reduced
For the purposes of this example, assume that the impact of the change is determined to be reduced performance, such as increased time to process and online transaction (OLTP). Based on the impacts to the solution, stored procedure finds a suitable corrective action. For example, the corrective actions could be:
In this particular example, we will presume that the appropriate corrective action is to reset the tunable IOO_J2_MAXPAGEREADAHEAD to a value within its range. It could be set to a value in the center of the range, or because the attempted change was beyond the maximum value of the allowable optimized range, it could be set to the maximum allowable value. Once the corrective action is taken, solution is monitored again for more changes.
If there are more than 1 change to the solution, multiple stored procedure are triggered and placed on a queue. Overall system impact will be impacted only after impact analysis of all the changes is done. This will allow a full impact analysis at system level.
In
Turning to
Referring now to
Upon detection of a change in a tunable value, and as shown in
d shows an embodiment in which the monitoring daemon (200) is incorporated into an IBM Smart Analytics™ system as a plug-in to the IBM Systems Director (210).
Suitable Computing Platform.
The preceding paragraphs have set forth example logical processes according to the present invention, which, when coupled with processing hardware, embody systems according to the present invention, and which, when coupled with tangible, computer readable memory devices, embody computer program products according to the related invention.
Regarding computers for executing the logical processes set forth herein, it will be readily recognized by those skilled in the art that a variety of computers are suitable and will become suitable as memory, processing, and communications capacities of computers and portable devices increases. In such embodiments, the operative invention includes the combination of the programmable computing platform and the programs together. In other embodiments, some or all of the logical processes may be committed to dedicated or specialized electronic circuitry, such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits or programmable logic devices.
The present invention may be realized for many different processors used in many different computing platforms.
Many such computing platforms, but not all, allow for the addition of or installation of application programs (501) which provide specific logical functionality and which allow the computing platform to be specialized in certain manners to perform certain jobs, thus rendering the computing platform into a specialized machine. In some “closed” architectures, this functionality is provided by the manufacturer and may not be modifiable by the end-user.
The “hardware” portion of a computing platform typically includes one or more processors (504) accompanied by, sometimes, specialized co-processors or accelerators, such as graphics accelerators, and by suitable computer readable memory devices (RAM, ROM, disk drives, removable memory cards, etc.). Depending on the computing platform, one or more network interfaces (505) may be provided, as well as specialty interfaces for specific applications. If the computing platform is intended to interact with human users, it is provided with one or more user interface devices (507), such as display(s), keyboards, pointing devices, speakers, etc. And, each computing platform requires one or more power supplies (battery, AC mains, solar, etc.).
Conclusion. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof, unless specifically stated otherwise.
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
It should also be recognized by those skilled in the art that certain embodiments utilizing a microprocessor executing a logical process may also be realized through customized electronic circuitry performing the same logical process(es).
It will be readily recognized by those skilled in the art that the foregoing example embodiments do not define the extent or scope of the present invention, but instead are provided as illustrations of how to make and use at least one embodiment of the invention. The following claims define the extent and scope of at least one invention disclosed herein.
