System and method for replacing an inoperable master workload management process

1. A method, comprising:

executing respective workload management processes within a plurality of computing compartments to allocate at least processor resources to applications executed within said plurality of computing compartments;

selecting a master workload management process to reallocate processor resources between said plurality of computing compartments in response to requests from said workload management processes to receive additional resources;

monitoring operations of said master workload management process by the other workload management processes, wherein said monitoring comprises determining whether said master workload management process performs a method call to said other workload management processes and wherein said method call is a method call to obtain information associated with reallocation decisions to be made by said master workload management process;

detecting, by the other workload management processes, when said master workload management process becomes inoperable; and

selecting a replacement master workload management process by the other workload management processes in response to said detecting, wherein the selecting of said replacement master workload management process includes each of the other workload management processes communicating a vote to each other.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said monitoring comprises:

determining whether said master workload management process fails to respond to said method call.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

operating a timer associated with a last detected operation of said master workload management process.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said other workload management processes transitions to a non-member state in response to said detecting.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein each of said other workload management processes communicate with each other to determine whether each of said other workload management processes have reached said non-member state before performing said selecting a replacement.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reestablishing operation of a previous master workload management process;

generating an exception when said previous master workload management process attempts to perform an operation associated with reallocation of processing resources after said selecting a replacement has been performed; and

joining, by said previous master workload management process, said other workload management processes as a member process.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said computing compartments are virtual partitions.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating an identifier to identify a current master workload management process.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said current master workload management process passes said identifier to methods that perform allocation of resources between said plurality of computing compartments.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code stored thereon for causing a computer system to execute computer executable code, said computer executable code comprising:

code for creating respective workload management processes for each of a plurality of computing compartments, wherein said workload management processes send requests to obtain additional resources to a master workload management process of said workload management processes;

code for monitoring operations of said master workload management process;

code for detecting when said master workload management processes becomes inoperable;

code for selecting a replacement master workload management process by the other workload management processes in response to said detecting, wherein the selecting of said replacement master workload management process includes each of the other workload management processes communicating a vote to each other; and

code for generating an exception when a previous master workload process attempts to perform an operation associated with reallocation of processing resources after a replacement has been selected.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein said code for monitoring is operable to determine whether said master workload management process has performed a method call to said other workload management processes.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein said method call is a method call to obtain information associated with reallocation decisions to be made by said master workload management process.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 further comprising:

code for maintaining a timer associated with a last detected operation of said master workload management process.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 further comprising:

code for communicating between each of said plurality of other workload management processes to determine whether each of said other workload management processes have detected that said master workload management process has become inoperable.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein said code for selecting a replacement is operable only after each of said other workload management processes have detected that said master workload management process has become inoperable.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein said previous master workload management process calls a method to re-associate with said other workload management processes after receiving said exception.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 further comprising:

code for generating an identifier to identify a current master workload management process.