Adaptive shared computing infrastructure for application server-based deployments
View Patent ↗An adaptive system for dynamically provisioning a shared computing infrastructure among a plurality of software applications and a plurality of types of software application servers providing run-time environments for the software applications. The system includes computing engines assigned to execute instances of the software applications, clients accessing the computing engines to request and receive services from the software applications, and a broker device that dynamically allocates engines domains for executing the software applications. The broker device includes an optimization module for allocating the computing engines to the domains, and a configuration manager for configuring the engines. The configuration manager reconfigures a computing engine by halting a current instance of a first software application, and by loading and starting an instance of a second software application. The system is capable of reconfiguring software applications running in environments provided by different types of software application servers.
1. A system for provisioning a shared computing infrastructure that supports a plurality of software applications and a plurality of types of software application servers, each type of software applications server creating a run-time environment for executing at least one of the plurality of software applications on a grid of computing resources, the system comprising:
at least one grid node, each grid node comprising at least one host computer;
a first type of software application server and a second type of software application server, wherein the first and second types of software application servers are software programs and are of different types;
two or more computing engines each assigned to execute an instance of one of the plurality of software applications in a run-time environment created by one of the plurality of types of software application servers on the at least one host computer of the at least one grid node;
two or more clients each accessing one of the two or more computing engines to execute the software application assigned to the one computing engine;
and a broker including:
an optimization module for periodically determining an optimal allocation of the plurality of software applications and software application servers among the two or more computing engines;
and a configuration manager, responsive to the determinations by the optimization module, for instructing one of the two or more computing engines to reconfigure its run-time environment, the configuration manager instructions causing a given computing engine to reconfigure by halting a current instance of a software application of a first type executing in a run-time environment created by the software application server of the first type, and by loading and starting an instance of a software application of a second type within a run-time environment created by the software application server of the second type on said given computing engine,
wherein the halting is to reallocate resources based on the optimal allocation among the two or more computing engines.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broker further includes an engine allocation module for providing each of the two or more clients with an engine proxy for accessing its assigned computing engine.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a router that routes service requests from the two or more clients to the two or more computing engines, the router being operative to balance at least one of a number of service requests initiated by the two or more clients and a service load resulting from the requests among the two or more computing engines.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the broker further includes:
a monitor for collecting statistical information from at least one of the two or more clients, the two or more engines and the router,
wherein the optimization module periodically determines the optimal allocation based on the statistical information collected by the monitor and a defined policy.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the optimization module further includes a policy manager for determining rules associated with the defined policy, and a rules engine for capturing the determined rules.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broker further includes a software distribution module for distributing and loading instances of the two or more software application servers and instances of the two or more software applications on ones of the two or more computing engines.
7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising an archival database for storing components of the two or more software application servers and the two or more software applications for retrieval by the software distribution module.
8. The system of claim 5 , further comprising an administrative interface for performing at least one function selected from the group consisting of creating and editing software applications, selecting software application servers for software applications, creating and editing policies for software applications, testing software applications and generating reports based on the statistical information.
9. A method for provisioning a shared computing infrastructure that supports a plurality of software applications and a plurality of types of software application servers among two or more clients, each type of software application server creating a run-time environment for executing at least one of the plurality of software applications on a grid of computing resources, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a broker having a CPU and at least one grid node comprising at least one host computer having a CPU and a first type of software application server and a second type of software application server, each of the first and second types of software application servers are software programs and are of different types;
using the broker, assigning a each of two or more computing engines to execute an instance of one of the plurality of software applications in a run-time environment created by one of the plurality of types of software application servers on the at least one host computer of the at least one grid node, where the two or more clients each access one of the two or more computing engines to execute the software application assigned to the respective computing engine; and
periodically determining an optimal allocation of the plurality of software applications and software application servers among the two or more computing engines using an optimization module included in the broker;
using a configuration manager included in the broker, instructing one of the two or more computing engines to reconfigure its run-time environment in response to the determinations by the optimization module, the instructing step causing a given computing engine to reconfigure by halting a current instance of a software application of a first type executing in a run-time environment created by the software application server of the first type, and by loading and starting an instance of a software application of a second type within a run-time environment created by the software application server of the second type on said given computing engine
wherein the halting is to reallocate resources based on an optimal allocation among the two or more computing engines.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the step of: providing at least one of the two or more clients, with an engine proxy for accessing one of the two or more computing engines.
11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the steps of:
routing service requests from the two or more clients via a gateway router to the two or more computing engines, the gateway router being operative to balance at least one of a number of service requests and a service load among the two or more computing engines.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the steps of collecting statistical information from at least one of the two or more clients, the two or more engines and the router, and
periodically determining the optimal allocation of the plurality of software applications and software application servers among the two or more computing engines, based on the collected statistical information and a defined policy.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the defined policy includes at least one of a minimum number of the two or more computing engines to be assigned to one of the plurality of software applications and a maximum number of the two or more computing engines to be assigned to one of the plurality of software applications.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the defined policy includes a policy schedule having one or more time of day policies.
15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the steps of:
storing components of the two or more software application servers and the plurality of software applications in an archival database;
retrieving components from the archive database that define the software group consisting of service domains, web domains and data domains, the software application of the second type and the software application server of the second type, the retrieved components to be loaded by the one or more computing engines; and
registering the software application of the second type and the software application serve of the second type in association with a domain.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the domain has a domain type selected from the group consisting of service domains, web domains and data domains.
17. The system of claim 4 , wherein the optimization module determines the optimal allocation based further on priorities assigned to each of the plurality of software applications.
18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the optimal allocation is further based further on priorities assigned to each of the plurality of software applications.