Patent ID: 6442583
Filing Date: 2002-08-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An apparatus for managing processor resources of a distributed data processing system, said distributed data processing system comprising a plurality of independent and cooperating data processing systems, said apparatus comprising:a) at least two data processing systems of said plurality of independent and cooperating data processing systems executing a workload of said distributed data processing system, each data processing system of said at least two data processing systems comprising an instance of an operating system, said workload comprising a plurality of work units, at least a portion of said plurality of work units being organized into one or more resource groups, wherein at least one resource group of said one or more resource groups has associated therewith at least one processor consumption maximum accessible by and common to said at least two data processing systems, and wherein at least one work unit of said plurality of work units has at least one importance level associated therewith; and b) system resource manager means for managing system resources across said at least two data processing systems according to said at least one processor consumption maximum and said at least one importance level, said system resource manager means comprising: i) means for determining, by one or more data processing systems of said at least two data processing systems, local processor consumption data of work units executing on said one or more data processing systems, wherein said means for determining provides local processor consumption data for each data processing system of said one or more data processing systems based on one or more resource groups associated with work units executing on that data processing system and one or more importance levels within the one or more resource groups; ii) remote data receiver means for receiving, by said one or more data processing systems, remote processor consumption data from at least one data processing system other than the data processing system receiving the data, wherein said remote processor consumption data is based on one or more resource groups associated with work units executing on said at least one data processing system and one or more importance levels within the one or more resource groups; iii) multi-system goal driven performance controller means, responsive to the remote processor consumption data and said local processor consumption data, for adjusting at least one system control parameter on at least one data processing system of said one or more data processing systems to cause a change to processor consumption of one or more work units executing on the at least one data processing system; and iv) capping means, responsive to the at least one adjusted system control parameter, for capping on said at least one data processing system processor consumption of the one or more work units for a proportion of time, wherein the at least one processor consumption maximum is not exceeded by processor consumption of an aggregate of one or more work units, associated with said at least one processor consumption maximum, executing across the at least two data processing systems.