Methods and apparatus for load balancing processing of management information

A computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• a communications interface;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;
• wherein the memory is encoded with a load manager application that when performed on the processor, provides a load manager process for processing information in a management application, the load manager process causing the computer system to perform the operations of:
• receiving at least one first store assignment request from at least one first agent that has an agent transaction to perform with a store process from a plurality of store processes, the agent transaction for processing management data via a store process assigned to the agent transaction in order to convert the management data into a managed data object, the management data collected by the first agent;
• determining an existence of a non-available store condition in which received load information from each store process in a plurality of store processes is not within an acceptable threshold load factor range, the load information received from each store process indicating a relative processing load for the store process;
• in response to determining the existence of the non-available store condition, maintaining an agent wait table containing an agent entry for each agent sending store assignment requests during the non-available store condition, each agent entry identifying a wait threshold time specific to a corresponding agent and further identifying the store assignment request associated with the corresponding agent;
• assigning a first store process from the plurality of store processes for the first agent to use to perform the agent transaction based on a store process availability of the first store process;
• after assignment of the first store process for the first agent, establishing a recently assigned agent condition associated with the first store process, the recently assigned agent condition defining an acceptable number of agents assigned to the first store process during a predetermined agent assignment interval, whereby:
• if the recently assigned agent condition associated with first store process equals the acceptable number of agents during the predetermined agent assignment interval, selecting a store process from the plurality of store processes for processing a second agent transaction other than the first store process to which the recently assigned agent condition applies;
• and
• clearing the recently assigned agent condition after the predetermined agent assignment interval has elapsed.

A computer program product having a computer readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that, when executed on a computer system provides a method for processing information in a management application by causing the computer system to perform the operations of:

• receiving at least one first store assignment request from at least one first agent that has an agent transaction to perform with a store process from a plurality of store processes, the agent transaction for processing management data via a store process assigned to the agent transaction in order to convert the management data into a managed data object, the management data collected by the first agent;
• determining an existence of a non-available store condition in which received load information from each store process in a plurality of store processes is not within an acceptable threshold load factor range, the load information received from each store process indicating a relative processing load for the store process;
• in response to determining the existence of the non-available store condition, maintaining an agent wait table containing an agent entry for each agent sending store assignment requests during the non-available store condition, each agent entry identifying a wait threshold time specific to a corresponding agent and further identifying the store assignment request associated with the corresponding agent;
• assigning a first store process from the plurality of store processes for the first agent to use to perform the agent transaction based on a store process availability of the first store process;
• after assignment of the first store process for the first agent, establishing a recently assigned agent condition associated with the first store process, the recently assigned agent condition defining an acceptable number of agents assigned to the first store process during a predetermined agent assignment interval, whereby:
• if the recently assigned agent condition associated with first store process equals the acceptable number of agents during the predetermined agent assignment interval, selecting a store process from the plurality of store processes for processing a second agent transaction other than the first store process to which the recently assigned agent condition applies;
• and
• clearing the recently assigned agent condition after the predetermined agent assignment interval has elapsed.