Abstract: A service controller for providing centralized service management, control and placement, as well as guaranteed failover, in a dynamic and distributed computing environment. The service controller works in conjunction with a computing resource supply manager, which supplies the required resources so that the service controller can run the service on the allocated resources. The number of active service instances may dynamically increase or decrease in accordance with changing availability of or demand for resources. The service controller monitors the service instances and takes appropriate action in the event of service instance failures. The service controller is provided with a service director component, which records and tracks, for each service instance which has been started on a particular resource/host, the IP address of such host, through a name location service, thus allowing end-users to locate the service regardless of where the service instances are physically running.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for a distributed computing system having a service-oriented architecture. The system is configured to receive workloads from client applications and to execute workloads on service hosts. The distributed computing system dynamically assigns the workloads to the applications running on the service hosts, with the workloads being assigned according to the service needs and the availability of service hosts and other resources on the system. The presently disclosed systems and methods provide for high-throughput communications through an asynchronous binary or a synchronous binary communications protocol. Further disclosed embodiments include flexible failover and upgrade techniques, isolation between execution users of the system, virtualization through mobility and the ability to grow and shrink assigned resources, and for a software development kit adapted for the present architecture.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are embodiments of a method and system for facilitating the exchange of information between interconnected processors in environments requiring high performance and high reliability. In an exemplary embodiment, the source sends input to the target and expects output from the target in return. A manager in communication with both the source and the target receives and initiates a storage of the information in nonvolatile memory. The manager concurrently forwards the information to its proper destination. If the manager receives output from the target before completion of the input storage, the manager cancels the input storage because it is no longer needed to ensure system reliability. If the manager receives acknowledgement from the source that the target output has been received before completion of the output storage, the manager cancels the output storage because it is no longer needed to ensure system reliability. Related embodiments are also described.

Abstract: Systems and methods for scheduling jobs in a networked computing grid having job service components for creating jobs having certain resource requirements are described. One embodiment includes resource manager components communicatively linked with the job service components, each resource manager component being configured to manage a plurality of resources. Such a system further includes information components communicatively linked with the job service components and the resource manager components, the information components being configured to aggregate resource data obtained from the resource manager components. The jobs include a scheduling mechanism for querying the information components for resource data, comparing the resource data against the resource requirements and independently scheduling the job to the resource manager components. A resource reservation is also provided for reserving resources for the jobs.

Abstract: A method for scheduling jobs in a networked computing grid is described. The method includes scheduling jobs to meet goals related to execution of the jobs within the computing grid. The jobs may be scheduled by evaluating job execution goals against available resource slots provided by the computing grid. Also disclosed are related methods for scheduling jobs in which the jobs are submitted to service classes having defined job execution goals, and wherein the jobs are scheduled according to the job execution goals of the service classes.

Abstract: Presented herein are systems and methods for checking the integrity of data transmissions between or within one or more digital processing systems by identifying a data characteristic that is likely to change if there is an error in transmission. According to one embodiment, data messages are modified to achieve a selected characteristic according to a predetermined protocol, and changes to the data are recorded in a longitudinal check code (LCC) word, which is used by the receiver to decode the data message and restore the original data.

Abstract: Presented herein are systems, methods, and devices for transmitting data comprising by comparing a new message with a buffered message representative of a previous message, recording an integer number of differences between the new message and the buffered message, generating a diff-word representative of the integer number of differences between the new message and the buffered message, appending the diff-word to the new message, and sending the new message with the diff-word to a receiver. The diff-word is used by the receiver to determine whether a received new message has the expected number of differences, and to determine whether to accept the new message.

Abstract: Presented herein are systems and methods for checking the integrity of data transmissions between or within one or more digital processing systems by identifying a data characteristic that is likely to change if there is an error in transmission. According to one embodiment, data messages are modified to achieve a selected characteristic according to a predetermined protocol, and changes to the data are recorded in a longitudinal check code (LCC) word, which is used by the receiver to decode the data message and restore the original data.

Abstract: Systems and methods for scheduling jobs in a multiprocessor machine are disclosed. The status of resources in the multiprocessor machine is periodically determined. The status indicates the resources available to execute jobs. This information is accumulated by the topology-monitoring unit and provided to the topology library. The topology library also receives a candidate host list which lists all resources available to execute the job being scheduled based on non-trivial scheduling. The topology library unit generates a free map F indicating the interconnection of the resources available to execute the job. The topology monitoring unit matches jobs to the resources available to execute the jobs, based on resource requirements including shape requirements indicative of interconnections of resources required to execute the job. The topology monitoring unit dispatches the job to the portion of the free map F which matches the shape requirements of the job.

Abstract: An application manager for enabling multiple applications to share resources in a shared and distributed computing environment. The disclosed system provides for the specification, representation and automatic analysis of resource requirements of applications in a shared and distributed computing environment. The application manager is provided with service specifications for each application, which defines the resource requirements necessary or preferred to run said application (or more precisely, its constituent application components). In addition, the resources may be required to have certain characteristics and constraints may be placed on the required resources. The application manager works in conjunction with a resource supply manager and requests the required resources be supplied for the application. If there are appropriate and sufficient available resources to meet the particular resource requirements, then the resources are allocated, and the application components mapped thereon.

Abstract: A system for performing autonomic monitoring in a computing grid is described. The system includes a plurality of modules, which when implemented into a computing grid, are operable to analyze objects of the grid and identify exception conditions associated with the objects. The system includes a configuration module for receiving information on specified objects to be monitored and exception conditions for the objects, an information collection module to collect job execution data associated with the objects, and an exception module to evaluate the job execution data associated with the objects and identify existing exception conditions. Related methods of performing autonomic monitoring in a grid system are also described.

Abstract: Parallel jobs comprise multiple tasks that can be executed in parallel by separate resources to produce an exit status for each task. The resource manager receives the jobs and dispatches the parallel tasks of the job together with task starters to a job launcher unit. The job launcher unit starts the task starters on the selected resources. Each task starter is associated with a task and commences execution of the task on the selected resource. At commencement of a task, the task starter sends the host and process identifier to the resource manager. At completion of the task, the task starters collect the exit status of the task from the associated resource and send the exit status of the task back to the resource manager. An external event unit associated with the resource manager receives the process identifier and exit status of the tasks from the task starter.

Abstract: A method for scheduling jobs in a networked computing grid is described. The method includes scheduling jobs to meet goals related to execution of the jobs within the computing grid. The jobs may be scheduled by evaluating job execution goals against available resource slots provided by the computing grid. Also disclosed are related methods for scheduling jobs in which the jobs are submitted to service classes having defined job execution goals, and wherein the jobs are scheduled according to the job execution goals of the service classes.

Abstract: A system for performing autonomic monitoring in a computing grid is described. The system includes a plurality of modules, which when implemented into a computing grid, are operable to analyze objects of the grid and identify exception conditions associated with the objects. The system includes a configuration module for receiving information on specified objects to be monitored and exception conditions for the objects, an information collection module to collect job execution data associated with the objects, and an exception module to evaluate the job execution data associated with the objects and identify existing exception conditions. Related methods of performing autonomic monitoring in a grid system are also described.

Abstract: A system for scheduling jobs in a networked computing grid having one or more job service components for creating one or more jobs having certain resource requirements is described. The system includes a plurality of resource manager components communicatively linked with the one or more job service components, each resource manager component being configured to manage a plurality of resources. The system further includes one or more information components communicatively linked with the one or more job service components and the plurality of resource manager components, the one or more information components being configured to aggregate resource data obtained from the resource manager components. The one or more jobs include a scheduling mechanism for querying the one or more information components for resource data, comparing the resource data against the resource requirements and independently scheduling the job to one or more of the plurality of resource manager components.

Abstract: A system and method for balancing loads in a computer system is disclosed. The system and method assess the health of various paths in a computer system by determining the health or status of at least two layers on each path. A health or status of the paths is then determined based on the information of the health of each layer in the path. A load balancing device routes information for processing to the various paths based on the determined health of the paths. To better estimate the health of a path, algorithms which weight the health signals for each layer are used giving greater weight to layers of greater importance. The system and method can also add or remove additional paths if the combined health of the existing paths is determined to be above or below a predetermined value. In addition, the weight of certain layers can be locked in to provide for updating of specific layers.