Patents by Inventor James L. Wooldridge

James L. Wooldridge has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9733963
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for optimizing virtual graphics processing unit utilization. Embodiments include assigning a computing intensity level to each virtual machine of a plurality of virtual machines; assigning a priority level to each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines; determining for each server of a plurality of servers whether the server includes a virtual graphics processing unit (VGPU) that is available to perform compute intensive tasks for the plurality of virtual machines; and assigning one or more VGPUs to a virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines in dependence upon the computing intensity level and the priority level of the virtual machine and the number of VGPUs available to perform the compute intensive tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Nils P. Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 9727360
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for optimizing virtual graphics processing unit utilization. Embodiments include assigning a computing intensity level to each virtual machine of a plurality of virtual machines; assigning a priority level to each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines; determining for each server of a plurality of servers whether the server includes a virtual graphics processing unit (VGPU) that is available to perform compute intensive tasks for the plurality of virtual machines; and assigning one or more VGPUs to a virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines in dependence upon the computing intensity level and the priority level of the virtual machine and the number of VGPUs available to perform the compute intensive tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Nils P. Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 9430481
    Abstract: In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, methods and systems disclosed herein provide for storage disk file and defect management. According to an aspect, a method includes communicating, to a first computing device, an identifier associated with a storage device. The method also includes receiving, from the first computing device, maintenance information associated with the identifier. Further, the method also includes implementing a storage disk file management policy at the storage device based on the maintenance information. Maintenance or defect information may be provided, for example, for a disk subsystem comprised within a storage device. A disk subsystem with an identified potential defect, even though potential defect is latent, creates a risk to the software workloads running on the IT resource and a potential hazard in a datacenter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: LENOVO ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.
    Inventors: David W. Archer, Nils P. J. Hansson, Paul A. Skoglund, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 9348653
    Abstract: Virtual machine management among networked servers coupled for data communications with a data communications network that includes a network device and a Virtual Machine Management Module (‘VMMM’), where VM management includes: monitoring, by the network device, network traffic of applications executing in virtual machines of the servers; determining, in dependence upon the monitored network traffic, whether a particular application's network traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold, the particular application executing in a particular virtual machine of a particular server; if the particular application's network traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold, allocating, by the VMMM, an additional virtual machine in a different server; and instantiating, by the VMMM, in the additional virtual machine at least one application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils P. Hansson, Bruce A. Smith, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 9342373
    Abstract: Virtual machine management among networked servers coupled for data communications with a data communications network that includes a network device and a Virtual Machine Management Module (‘VMMM’), where VM management includes: monitoring, by the network device, network traffic of applications executing in virtual machines of the servers; determining, in dependence upon the monitored network traffic, whether a particular application's network traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold, the particular application executing in a particular virtual machine of a particular server; if the particular application's network traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold, allocating, by the VMMM, an additional virtual machine in a different server; and instantiating, by the VMMM, in the additional virtual machine at least one application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils P. Hansson, Bruce A. Smith, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 9170840
    Abstract: Duration sensitive scheduling in a computing environment, the computing environment including a computer configured to support a virtual machine, including: identifying, by a duration sensitive scheduler, a processing job to be executed by the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine includes an entitlement specification that identifies physical resources of the computer that are designated for exclusive use by the virtual machine; determining, by the duration sensitive scheduler, a duration required to complete the processing job; identifying, by the duration sensitive scheduler, a time slot at which the physical resources of the computer that are identified in the entitlement specification are available for use by the virtual machine; scheduling, by the duration sensitive scheduler, the processing job for execution on the virtual machine during the time slot at which the physical resources of the computer that are identified in the entitlement specification are available for use by the virtual machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Lenova Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Nils P. Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 9003407
    Abstract: Virtual machines are managed on the basis of data obtained from a management information database of a network switch having a plurality of Ethernet links coupled to compute nodes running a plurality of virtual machines. A management entity, such as a provisioning manager, determines the amount of network bandwidth being utilized through each of the Ethernet links. Accordingly, an additional virtual machine may be provisioned to the compute node that is coupled to an Ethernet link identified as having the greatest amount of unutilized network bandwidth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Bruce A. Smith, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8903556
    Abstract: Managing waste water discharge of a computing system, the computing system including one or more evaporative coolers, including: determining, by a waste water management module, a waste water discharge limit, wherein the waste water discharge limit specifies the amount of waste water that can be discharged within a period of time; determining, by the waste water management module, the amount of waste water that has been discharged during a current measurement period; and updating, by the waste water management module, operating parameters for the computing system in dependence upon the amount of waste water that has been discharged during the current measurement period and the waste water discharge limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David W. Archer, James J. Bozek, Nils P. Hansson, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8903557
    Abstract: Managing waste water discharge of a computing system, the computing system including one or more evaporative coolers, including: determining, by a waste water management module, a waste water discharge limit, wherein the waste water discharge limit specifies the amount of waste water that can be discharged within a period of time; determining, by the waste water management module, the amount of waste water that has been discharged during a current measurement period; and updating, by the waste water management module, operating parameters for the computing system in dependence upon the amount of waste water that has been discharged during the current measurement period and the waste water discharge limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David W. Archer, James J. Bozek, Nils P. Hansson, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8825863
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and computer program products for the placement of a virtual machine within a plurality of cache-coherent NUMA servers. According to an aspect, an example method includes determining a resource requirement of the virtual machine. The example method may also include determining a resource availability of one or more nodes of the plurality of servers. Further, the example method may include selecting placement of the virtual machine within one or more nodes of the plurality of cache-coherent NUMA servers based on the determined resource requirement and the determined resource availability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils Peter Joachim Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge, Brian You
  • Patent number: 8789048
    Abstract: Virtual machines having a high amount of identical memory pages are grouped under a common hypervisor to enable greater memory savings as the result of transparent page sharing. One method comprises analyzing the software image content of a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of hypervisors in a common migration domain, identifying two or more of the virtual machines having greater than a threshold amount of common memory pages, placing the two or more virtual machines under a common hypervisor, and sharing the common memory pages among the two or more virtual machines. Optionally, the identifying of two or more of the virtual machines may include identifying two or more of the virtual machines having the same software image content classifications; thereby, identifying images with a greater affinity for common memory pages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Nils Peter Joachim Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8612480
    Abstract: Permitting utilization of computer system resources in accordance with the licensing thereof is disclosed. A method includes conducting an inventory of the resources of a computer system. The method determines which of the resources of the computer system are licensed for current usage, and permits utilization of these resources. Other resources of the computer system that are not licensed for usage are prevented from being used. The method may include determining which resources are licensed for usage with metering. The method permits the utilization of such resources, and tracks utilization availability of these resources. The method may further include determining which resources are licensed for periodic usage. Once the method receives indication to allow the periodic usage of these resources, the method permits their utilization, and tracks their utilization availability as needed. Preferably, the method performs its functionality without rebooting or restarting the computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James L. Wooldridge, James J. Bozek, Robert E. Stephens
  • Patent number: 8566825
    Abstract: A system includes a number of server computing devices and a management server computing device. Each server computing device has a virtual host computer program running thereon to support one or more virtual machine computer programs. Each virtual machine computer program is able to execute an instance of an operating system on which application computer programs are executable. The management server computing device monitors the server computing devices, and causes the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of a first server computing device to dynamically migrate to the virtual host computer program of a second server computing device, upon one or more conditions being satisfied. The conditions may include the first server being predicted as failure prone, the first server consuming power less than a threshold, and the first server having resource utilization less than a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Robert E. Stephens, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8495208
    Abstract: Migrating virtual machines among networked servers, the servers coupled for data communications with a data communications network that includes a networking device, where migrating includes: establishing, by a virtual machine management module (‘VMMM’), one or more virtual machines on a particular server; querying, by the VMMM, the networking device for link statistics of a link coupling the network device to the particular server for data communications; determining, by the VMMM in dependence upon the link statistics, whether the link coupling the network device to the particular server is degrading; and if the link coupling the network device to the particular server is degrading, migrating a virtual machine executing on the particular server to a destination server. In some embodiments, migrating occurs is carried out only if non-degrading link is available. If no non-degrading links are available, the network device, rather than the link, may be failing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils P. Hansson, Bruce A. Smith, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8490091
    Abstract: Virtual machines having a high amount of identical memory pages are grouped under a common hypervisor to enable greater memory savings as the result of transparent page sharing. One embodiment provides a computer program product including computer usable program code for performing a method that comprises analyzing the software image content of a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of hypervisors in a common migration domain, identifying two or more of the virtual machines having greater than a threshold amount of common memory pages, placing the two or more virtual machines under a common hypervisor, and sharing the common memory pages among the two or more virtual machines. Optionally, the identifying of two or more of the virtual machines may include identifying two or more of the virtual machines having the same software image content classifications; thereby, identifying images with a greater affinity for common memory pages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Nils Peter Joachim Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8478961
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method comprises obtaining a cache hit ratio for each of a plurality of virtual machines, and identifying, from among the plurality of virtual machines, a first virtual machine having a cache hit ratio that is less than a threshold ratio. The identified first virtual machine is then migrated from the first physical server having a first cache size to a second physical server having a second cache size that is greater than the first cache size. Optionally, a virtual machine having a cache hit ratio that is less than a threshold ratio is identified on a class-specific basis, such as for L1 cache, L2 cache and L3 cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Nils Peter Joachim Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Publication number: 20130144434
    Abstract: Managing waste water discharge of a computing system, the computing system including one or more evaporative coolers, including: determining, by a waste water management module, a waste water discharge limit, wherein the waste water discharge limit specifies the amount of waste water that can be discharged within a period of time; determining, by the waste water management module, the amount of waste water that has been discharged during a current measurement period; and updating, by the waste water management module, operating parameters for the computing system in dependence upon the amount of waste water that has been discharged during the current measurement period and the waste water discharge limit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2011
    Publication date: June 6, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: David W. Archer, James J. Bozek, Nils P. Hansson, James L. Wooldridge
  • Publication number: 20130139896
    Abstract: Managing waste water discharge of a computing system, the computing system including one or more evaporative coolers, including: determining, by a waste water management module, a waste water discharge limit, wherein the waste water discharge limit specifies the amount of waste water that can be discharged within a period of time; determining, by the waste water management module, the amount of waste water that has been discharged during a current measurement period; and updating, by the waste water management module, operating parameters for the computing system in dependence upon the amount of waste water that has been discharged during the current measurement period and the waste water discharge limit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2012
    Publication date: June 6, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: David W. Archer, James J. Bozek, Nils P. Hansson, James L. Wooldridge
  • Publication number: 20130111470
    Abstract: Duration sensitive scheduling in a computing environment, the computing environment including a computer configured to support a virtual machine, including: identifying, by a duration sensitive scheduler, a processing job to be executed by the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine includes an entitlement specification that identifies physical resources of the computer that are designated for exclusive use by the virtual machine; determining, by the duration sensitive scheduler, a duration required to complete the processing job; identifying, by the duration sensitive scheduler, a time slot at which the physical resources of the computer that are identified in the entitlement specification are available for use by the virtual machine; scheduling, by the duration sensitive scheduler, the processing job for execution on the virtual machine during the time slot at which the physical resources of the computer that are identified in the entitlement specification are available for use by the virtual machine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2011
    Publication date: May 2, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: James J. Bozek, Nils P. Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge
  • Patent number: 8418185
    Abstract: A computer implemented method is provided, including monitoring the utilization of resources available within a compute node, wherein the resources include an input/output capacity, a processor capacity, and a memory capacity. The method further comprises allocating virtual machines to the compute node to maximize use of a first one of the resources; and then allocating an additional virtual machine to the compute node to increase the utilization of the resources other than the first one of the resources without over-allocating the first one of the resources. In a web server, the input/output capacity may be the resource to be maximized. However, unused memory capacity and/or processor capacity of the compute node may be used more effectively by identifying an additional virtual machine that is memory intensive or processor intensive to be allocated or migrated to the compute node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Pamela C. Durham, Nils Peter Joachim Hansson, Edward S. Suffern, James L. Wooldridge