Method of managing workloads

1. A method of managing software application workloads, the method comprising:

starting a software application from a startup script on a machine, said startup script including a set of startup tasks, said machine including an operating system, said operating system including a kernel;

receiving an application group identifier from said kernel;

associating each of said startup tasks with said application group identifier until said startup script ends;

associating the application group identifier with processes that are forked off during the running of the startup script;

requesting application group identifiers from said kernel at startup of workload management processing;

determining a correspondence between the application group identifiers returned from said kernel and one or more workloads;

if said application group identifier is equal to a workload, requesting said kernel to aggregate usage data for said application group identifier;

if said application group identifier is not equal to a workload, determining a set of application group identifiers that comprise a workload, and request said kernel to aggregate usage data for said set of application group identifiers, wherein the workload is identified by a set of application group identifiers when the application group identifier is not equal to a workload;

receiving said aggregated usage data from said kernel; and

processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether business goals for running mission-critical applications are being met.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether system resources available are sufficient to meet the business demands.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to identify bottlenecks and other performance related issues.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a default aggregation wherein the workload management processing requests data for named processes or threads.

6. A method of managing software application workloads, the method comprising:

starting a software application from startup script on a machine, said startup script including a set of startup tasks, said machine including an operating system, said operating system having a kernel;

receiving an application group identifier from said kernel;

associating each of said startup tasks with said application group identifier until said startup script ends;

associating the application group identifier with processes that are forked off during the running of the startup script; and

managing workloads on the machine using the application group identifier, wherein a workload is identified by a set of application group identifiers when the application group identifier is not equal to a workload, wherein said managing workloads includes:

requesting application group identifiers from said kernel at startup of workload management processing;

determining a correspondence between the application group identifiers returned from said kernel and one or more workloads; and

if said application group identifier is equal to a workload, requesting said kernel to aggregate usage data for said application group identifier.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising:

receiving said aggregated usage data from said kernel; and

processing said aggregated usage data to manage said workload, wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises at least one of processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether business goals for running mission-critical applications are being met; processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether system resources available are sufficient to meet the business demands; and processing the received aggregated usage data to identify bottlenecks and other performance related issues.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising:

if said application group identifier is not equal to a workload, determining a set of application group identifiers that comprise a workload, and requesting said kernel to aggregate usage data for said set of application group identifiers.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising:

receiving said aggregated usage data from said kernel; and

processing said aggregated usage data to manage said workload.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether business goals for running mission-critical applications are being met.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether system resources available are sufficient to meet the business demands.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to identify bottlenecks and other performance related issues.

13. The method of claim 6 , further comprising providing a default aggregation wherein the workload management processing requests data for named processes or threads.

14. A machine comprising a central processing unit, a memory, an operating system that includes a kernel and workload management software, wherein the OS and workload management software both execute on the CPU to:

start a software application from a startup script on the machine, said startup script including a set of startup tasks;

receive an application group identifier from said kernel;

associate each of said startup tasks with said application group identifier until said startup script ends;

associate the application group identifier with processes that are forked off during the running of the startup script;

request application group identifiers from said kernel at startup of workload management processing;

determine a correspondence between the application group identifiers returned from said kernel and one or more workloads;

if said application group identifier is equal to a workload, request said kernel to aggregate usage data for said application group identifier;

if said application group identifier is not equal to a workload, determine a set of application group identifiers that comprise a workload, and request said kernel to aggregate usage data for said set of application group identifiers, wherein the workload is identified by a set of application group identifiers when the application group identifier is not equal to a workload;

receive said aggregated usage data from said kernel; and

process the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload.

15. The machine of claim 14 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether business goals for running mission-critical applications are being met.

16. The machine of claim 14 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to determine whether system resources available are sufficient to meet the business demands.

17. The machine of claim 14 , wherein processing the received aggregated usage data to manage said workload comprises processing the received aggregated usage data to identify bottlenecks and other performance related issues.

18. The machine of claim 14 , the workload management software further executing on the CPU to provide a default aggregation wherein the workload management processing requests data for named processes or threads.