Patent ID: 8457944

Claim:
A method for determining requirement parameters for at least one physical hardware unit of a physical computer system with a plurality of hardware units, wherein a performance characteristic of the physical hardware unit resulting from operating parameters is to correspond to a predefined performance characteristic, the method comprising: simulating the physical hardware unit as a virtual hardware unit for embodying at least one part of a virtual computer system corresponding to the physical computer system; assigning at least one operating parameter profile to the virtual hardware unit, said profile comprising at least one operating parameter; executing the specified program flow using the virtual hardware unit; varying the operating parameter profile of the virtual hardware unit during the execution of the program flow, including varying an operating parameter of a first hardware component as a function of a corresponding operating parameter of a different, second hardware component; monitoring the performance characteristic of the virtual computer system during execution of the program flow both before and after the varying of the operating parameter profile; and determining the requirement parameters as a function of the monitored performance characteristic of the virtual computer system both before and after the varying of the operating parameter profile, wherein the requirement parameters correspond to operating parameters of the physical hardware unit which ensure predefined performance results regarding the specified program flow.