Abstract: Approving a group purchase request for a group of articles. A sub-group of articles is selected, wherein a unique article approval index is assigned to each of the articles and a highest article approval index is determined among the unique article approval indexes of the articles of the group, wherein the article of the group is selected into the sub-group if the article of the group complies with at least one of following article selection criteria: the unique article approval index of the article of the group is above a predetermined approval index threshold and the unique approval index of the article of the group is equal to the highest article approval index; approving the group purchase request for the group if the group purchase request for the sub-group is approved; and rejecting the group purchase request for the group if the group purchase request for the sub-group is rejected.

Abstract: A virtual machine (VM) migration from a source virtual machine monitor (VMM) to a destination VMM on a computer system. Each of the VMMs includes virtualization software, and one or more VMs are executed in each of the VMMs. The virtualization software allocates hardware resources in a form of virtual resources for the concurrent execution of one or more VMs and the virtualization software. A portion of a memory of the hardware resources includes hardware memory segments. A first portion of the memory segments is assigned to a source logical partition and a second portion is assigned to a destination logical partition. The source VMM operates in the source logical partition and the destination VMM operates in the destination logical partition. The first portion of the memory segments is mapped into a source VMM memory, and the second portion of the memory segments is mapped into a destination VMM memory.

Abstract: Creating an operating system dump. A main memory of a computer system is divided into at least three contiguous memory areas, comprising a primary memory area, a secondary memory area and a data memory area. A first instance of an OS (operating system) is booted into the main memory, a second instance of the operating system is loaded into the secondary memory area using the active first instance of the operating system, execution of the first active instance of the OS is stopped if a critical execution error occurs, and the computer system is re-started using the loaded second instance of the operating system which becomes the active instance of the OS. A dump of the primary memory area is created, and a third instance of the operating system is loaded into the primary memory area.

Abstract: Replacing a source hypervisor by a target hypervisor in a system having a first level hypervisor managing multiple logical partitions to share a set of resources of a server. The source hypervisor enabling at least one source virtual machine to share resources that are assigned to a source logical partition of the multiple logical partitions where the source hypervisor runs, the target hypervisor enabling at least one target virtual machine to share resources that are assigned to a target logical partition of the multiple logical partitions where the target hypervisor runs, wherein memory segments of a physical memory of the server are assigned to the at least one source virtual machine.

Abstract: Managing a virtual computer resource on at least one virtual machine. The managing of the virtual computer resource on the at least one virtual machine is by controlling execution of the virtual computer resource on the at least one virtual machine by a virtual machine instance, such as a firmware facility, of a trusted part of a computer system. The virtual machine instance is unique in the computer system.

Abstract: In one aspect, a technique for restarting a software system on a computer platform after an unintentional software system shutdown. The technique includes, for instance, generating a core dump file on the computer platform when the software system shuts down unintentionally, restarting the software system, using a library for copying software system related data from the core dump file to the software system, and continuing execution of the software system.

Abstract: Replacing a computer program with a replacement version concurrently with its execution by a first instance of an operating system in a computer system, wherein a persistent memory area in the computer system is used to store selected data from the first instance. A snapshot image of a second instance of the operating system, wherein in the second instance the replacement version was executed instead of the computer program, is provided to the computer system. The execution of the first instance is suspended and the first instance is replaced with data from the snapshot image while preserving the persistent memory area. The execution of the first instance is resumed and data from the persistent memory area is restored in the first instance.

Abstract: Processing is provided for operating an in-memory database, wherein transaction data is stored by a persistence buffer in an FIFO queue, and update processor subsequently: waits for a trigger; extracts the last transactional data associated with a single transaction of the in-memory database from the FIFO memory queue; determines if the transaction data includes updates to data fields in the in-memory database which were already processed; and if not, then stores the extracted transaction data to a store queue, remembering the fields updated in the in-memory database, or otherwise updates the store queue with the extracted transaction data. The process continues until the extracting is complete, and the content of the store queue is periodically written into a persistent storage device.

Abstract: An improved computer system comprising a first storage area accessible by an operating system and a second storage area which is accessible by authorized functions only is disclosed. According to the invention at least one protected storage area is implemented into the second storage area, wherein the operating system installs at least one secret key and/or at least one customized processing function into regions of the at least one protected storage area, wherein the operating system transfers data, and/or parameters to process into regions of the at least one protected storage area, wherein the operating system selects one of the customized processing functions to execute, wherein the selected customized processing function is executed and accesses storage regions of the at least one protected storage area to process the data and/or the parameters, and wherein resulting process data is read from the at least one protected storage area.

Abstract: A method and data processing system are disclosed for concurrently loading a plurality of new modules while code of a plurality of modules of an original (i.e., currently running) computer program is loaded and executed on a computer system. The method may comprise allocating a module TLS block for each thread within an initial computer program, wherein the allocated module TLS blocks are large enough to hold all module thread variables that are loaded or to be loaded. The method further may comprise providing constant offsets between module TLS block pointers corresponding to the module TLS blocks and the module thread variables for all of the threads. The disclosed method may be used to add modules to the original computer program and/or to apply a concurrent patch by replacing one or more of the plurality of original computer program modules.