Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. The model includes four distinct levels: fabric, domains, tiers and nodes that provide for the logical abstraction and containment of the physical components as well as system and service application software of the enterprise. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node detects the addition of a node added to the network and automatically identifies attributes for the detected node.

Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules. A pluggable, application-specific application matrix is selected and installed within the control node. The application matrix contains a logical definition of the applications, and parameters for controlling the deployment of the applications within the distributed computing system.

Abstract: In general, this disclosure describes techniques of managing resources in a service-oriented distributed computing system. As described in this disclosure, a control node automatically manages the system such that the system has sufficient capacity to satisfy an agreement to provide a given level of a service. In order to automatically manage the system, the control node evaluates the current capacity levels of resources in the system. The current capacity levels are indicative the capacity of resources to perform certain acts. The capacity of the resources to perform these acts may be indicative of whether the system is able to provide the given level of the service. Because resources may be deployed in chains, the capacities of resources to perform the certain acts may be defined to be dependent on the capacities of other resources to perform other acts.

Abstract: A distributed processing system is described that employs “role-based” computing. In particular, the distributed processing system is constructed as a collection of computing nodes in which each computing node performs a particular processing role within the operation of the overall distributed processing system. Each of the computing nodes includes a conventional operating system, such as the Linux operating system, and includes a plug-in software module to provide a distributed memory operating system that employs the role-based computing techniques. The plug-in module provides seamless inter-process communication mechanisms and a distributed file system within the operating system services provided by each of the computing nodes, thereby allowing the computing nodes to cooperate and implement processing services of the overall distributed processing system.

Abstract: In general, the invention is directed to software image management within a distributed computing system. The distributed computing system includes a plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network, and an image repository storing a plurality of pre-generated software image instances. A control node may pre-assign a network address to each of the image instances stored within the image repository, and assigns the network addresses of the image instances to the application nodes upon subsequent deployment of the software images to the application nodes.

Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules. A pluggable, application-specific application governor is selected and installed within the control node to provide an application-independent interface through which the rule engines interact to control the deployment, execution and monitoring of the applications within the distributed computing system.

Abstract: In general, this disclosure describes techniques of managing resources in a service-oriented distributed computing system. As described in this disclosure, one or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of resources within the distributed computing system. In order to provide automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources, a control node uses a set of governors. This set of governors includes a set of service governors to govern services used in the distributed computing system. The set of governors also includes a set of resource governors that govern individual resources of the services in the distributed computing system. The service governors and the resource governors may be implemented using finite state machines.

Abstract: In general, this disclosure describes techniques of managing resources in a service-oriented distributed computing system. As described in this disclosure, one or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of resources within the distributed computing system. In order to provide automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources, a control node uses a set of governors. This set of governors includes a set of service governors to govern services used in the distributed computing system. The set of governors also includes a set of resource governors that govern individual resources of the services in the distributed computing system. The service governors and the resource governors may be implemented using finite state machines.

Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules. For example, the rules may define sensors or methods of configuring the distributed computing system. More specifically, the sensor rules define the conditions under which the automation subsystem may update a model of the distributed computing system based on data received from the distributed computing system.

Abstract: A distributed computing system contains one or more application nodes. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem that provides autonomic power control for the application nodes, regardless of which vendor manufactured the application nodes. For power controllers not specifically supported by the distributed computing system, a universal power controller responds to power down instructions by causing a targeted application node to execute an idle software image and reports that the application node has been successfully powered down.

Abstract: In general, the techniques of this invention are directed to determining whether a component failure in a distributed computing system is genuine. In particular, embodiments of this invention analyze monitoring data from other application nodes in a distributed computing system to determine whether the component failure is genuine. If the component failure is not genuine, the embodiments may adjust a fault tolerance parameter that caused the component failure to be perceived.

Abstract: In general, the techniques of this invention are directed to autonomic management of autonomic management systems. In particular, the embodiments of this invention use a measure, analyze, and respond model to autonomically manage one or more autonomic management systems. By understanding specific state information of these autonomic management systems, embodiments of the invention may achieve target performance for the autonomic management systems through operations monitoring, analyzing current system state against target state, and modifying the configurations or resources of the autonomic management systems.

Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. For instance, a distributed computing system comprises a plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network. In addition, the distributed computing system includes a software image repository storing: (i) one or more image instances of a virtual machine manager that is executable on the application nodes, wherein when executed on the applications nodes, the image instances of the virtual machine manager provide one or more virtual machines, and (ii) one or more image instances of one or more software applications that are executable on the virtual machines.

Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules. A pluggable, application-specific application governor is selected and installed within the control node to provide an application-independent interface through which the rule engines interact to control the deployment, execution and monitoring of the applications within the distributed computing system.

Abstract: A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules. A pluggable, application-specific application governor is selected and installed within the control node to provide an application-independent interface through which the rule engines interact to control the deployment, execution and monitoring of the applications within the distributed computing system.

Abstract: The invention is directed to techniques of extensible power control for an autonomically controlled distributed computing system. In particular, control nodes of the distributed computing system utilize software power control modules to communicate with hardware power controllers within the distributed computing system. The power control modules are discrete software units that may be easily deployed and un-deployed while software on the control node is executing. Further, each power control module corresponds to one or more firmware versions of one or more types of hardware power controller. The power control modules are each implementations of a software interface common to every power control module. Because the power control modules share a common interface, the software on the control node that autonomically controls the distributed computing environment does not need to consider differences among types of hardware power controllers and versions of firmware installed on the hardware power controllers.

Abstract: A method discovers whether network interfaces associated with a device are capable of being channel bonded. In particular, each network interface associated with a device broadcasts a message on a network that other network interfaces can identify as having originated on the sending network interface. If a second network interface associated with the device receives a message and identifies the message as having originated on a first network interface associated with the same device, the first and second network interfaces can be channel bonded.

Abstract: A distributed computing system contains one or more application nodes. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem that provides autonomic power control for the application nodes, regardless of which vendor manufactured the application nodes. For power controllers not specifically supported by the distributed computing system, a universal power controller responds to power down instructions by causing a targeted application node to execute an idle software image and reports that the application node has been successfully powered down.

Abstract: A reporting system comprises a plurality of reporting modules and a reporting server. Each reporting module comprises an executable data gatherer and an executable registration portion that dynamically registers the reporting module with the reporting server. The reporting server generates reports by invoking the data gatherers associated with registered reporting modules. The data gatherers generate self-describing report documents that contain data description information in addition to the report data. The reporting server encapsulates the report documents within events and stores the events in an event log along with other types of events related to the computing system. A user interface displays the report data using data description information contained in the report documents.

Abstract: A distributed processing system is described that employs “application-based” specialization. In particular, the distributed processing system is constructed as a collection of computing nodes in which each computing node performs a particular processing role within the operation of the overall distributed processing system. Each of the computing nodes includes an operating system, such as the Linux operating system, and includes a plug-in software module to provide a distributed memory operating system that employs the role-based computing techniques. An administration node maintains a database that defines a plurality of application roles. Each role is associated with a software application, and specifies a set of software components necessary for execution of the software application. The administration node deploys the software components to the application nodes in accordance with the application roles associates with each of the application nodes.