Apparatus and method for managing a distributed data processing system workload according to a plurality of distinct processing goal types

A method for managing a workload comprising work units distributed across a plurality of data processing systems in accordance with a common performance standard, said common performance standard comprising at least one user specified performance goal, each of said systems having access to a stored representation of said performance standard and performing assigned work units in accordance with one or more system control parameters, said method comprising the steps, performed on each of said systems, of:

• a) measuring performance goal achievement of the work units on said system to create local performance goal achievement data;
• b) sending said local performance goal achievement data to at least one other system in said plurality of systems;
• c) receiving performance goal achievement data from at least one other system in said plurality of systems to create remote performance goal achievement data;
• and
• d) adjusting at least one of said system control parameters in response to said local and remote performance goal achievement data to modify the performance of said work units on said system to achieve said common performance standard.

An apparatus for managing a distributed data processing system workload having a common set of user specified performance goals across a plurality of independent and cooperating data processing systems according to one or more distinct performance goal types, said data processing system workload comprising work units organized into one or more performance goal classes, each of said classes having a performance goal from said common set of performance goals falling into one of said performance goal types, each of said data processing systems having access to a stored representation of said user specified performance goals and said apparatus comprising, on each of said data processing systems,

• a) workload manager means for accessing said common set of user specified performance goals and creating system control data within a class table means for defining said performance goal classes;
• and
• b) system resource manager means for managing system resources according to said common set of performance goals, said system resource manager means comprising:
• i) sampler means for sampling states of said work units and creating sample data representative of local performance goal achievement;
• ii) send data means for sending local performance goal achievement data to at least one other system in said plurality of data processing systems;
• iii) remote data receiver means for receiving performance goal achievement data from at least one other system in said plurality of data processing systems;
• and
• iv) multi-system goal driven performance controller means responsive to said sample data, said performance goal achievement data from said at least one other system and said system control data for adjusting at least one system control parameter to cause a change to the performance of said work units to achieve said common set of performance goals.

A method for managing a distributed data processing system workload having a common set of user specified performance goals across a plurality of independent and cooperating data processing systems according to one or more distinct performance goals type, said data processing system workload comprising work units organized into one or more performance goals classes, each of said classes having a performance goal from said common set of user specified performance goals falling into one of said performance goal types, each of said data processing systems comprising a stored representation of said common set of performance goals and said method comprising the steps of:

• a) accessing said common set of user specified performance goals by each system and creating system control data;
• and
• b) managing system resources according to said common set of performance goals by:
• i) periodically sampling states of said work units and creating sample data representative of local performance goal achievement;
• ii) sending performance goal achievement data to at least one system in said plurality of data processing system;
• iii) receiving performance goal achievement data from at least one system in said plurality of data processing systems;
• iv) adjusting at least one system control parameter in response to said sample data and said system control data to change the performance of said work units so as to achieve said common set of performance goals for said particular ones of said work units.

A method for obtaining multi-system performance goal achievement indexes of user specified performance goals for a distributed data processing system workload comprising the steps of:

• a) determining if a goal class has a user specified response time goal;
• b) if said class has said response time goal:
• i) obtaining multi-system response time data;
• ii) obtaining local response time data;
• and
• iii) from multi-system response time data and local response time data determining multi-system performance indexes;
• and
• c) determining whether a goal class has a user specified execution velocity goal;
• d) if said goal class has said execution velocity goal:
• i) obtaining multi-system velocity data;
• ii) obtaining local velocity data;
• and
• iii) from said multi-system velocity data and said local velocity data, determining multi-system performance goal achievement indexes.