Abstract: Combining different resource types into a single logical resource can provide a perspective more suitable for managing a given computer program. Resources of different types that have similar characteristics are combined as a single resource type. Resource management policies are applied against the different resource types via the single combination resource type, wherein on a single computer or applied against a cluster of computers.

Abstract: Providing an intermediate isolate, referred to as a dispenser, to handle resource requests allows for monitoring and controlling of resource consumption separate from an operating system. Resources are characterized with a set of common attributes, separate from their specific implementation. The dispenser invokes computations that provide policy decisions corresponding to a resource request. The dispenser provides the requesting isolate a response based at least in part on the policy decisions. Separating management of resources from the operating system facilitates implementation of a dispenser in a safe language and management of a broad range of resources by the dispenser.

Abstract: An infrastructure including a cluster-global dispenser that evaluates resource consume requests against cluster-global resource management policies facilitates flexible and extensible monitoring and/or control of resource consumption for multiple and/or multi-component applications on a cluster of interconnected computers. Such an infrastructure facilitates application of comprehensive resource management to cluster computing, and compatibility with the level of abstraction offered by modern object-oriented languages. Such an infrastructure also maintains backwards-compatibility. Building on the foundation of a well-defined isolated component, the resulting resource management framework is capable of supporting a rich collection of resources and of defining policies. The notion of a cluster-global resource naturally captures the aggregation of node-local resource. This applies the familiar “single system image” attribute of cluster systems to the area of resource management.

Abstract: Controlling rate of resource consumptions improves manageability of resources in relation to the entities consuming the resource. A consumer's resource consumption behavior can be controlled with a mechanism that throttles its resource requests to conform to a threshold rate, such as a resource consumption rate. A set of one or more computations tracks a consumption measurement variable over a given time interval, such as number of resource requests for a given resource within the last 5 seconds. When a resource request is received, the set of computations determine whether servicing the resource request would exceed the threshold rate. If the threshold rate would be exceeded, then the computations sleep until servicing the resource request would not exceed the threshold rate.

Abstract: Providing a resource domain structure allows flexible management of resources. With flexible management, computations, such as threads and processes, do not have to be related to be bound to the same resource domain. Since resource domains do not require the parent-child relationship, unrelated computations can bind each other to their resource domains. A data structure identifies a resource domain, the resource of the domain, and implementation of a resource management policy. The implementation of the resource management policy includes policy action, which when executed invoke policy imposing isolates. The resource domain data structure also indicates availability of usage of the resource.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for recovering a process that is multi-threaded from checkpoint information that was previously stored for the process. During a recovery operation, the system first retrieves the checkpoint information for the process. Next, the system extracts an identifier for a program being run by the process as well as parameters of the program from the checkpoint information. The system also extracts thread identifiers for threads associated with the process from the checkpoint information. Next, the system modifies the program so that executing the program will cause threads associated with the process to be restored. The system then creates a replacement process to replace the process, and causes the replacement process to execute the modified program so that the threads are reconstituted within the replacement process.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for recovering a process that is multi-threaded from checkpoint information that was previously stored for the process. During a recovery operation, the system first retrieves the checkpoint information for the process. Next, the system extracts an identifier for a program being run by the process as well as parameters of the program from the checkpoint information. The system also extracts thread identifiers for threads associated with the process from the checkpoint information. Next, the system modifies the program so that executing the program will cause threads associated with the process to be restored. The system then creates a replacement process to replace the process, and causes the replacement process to execute the modified program so that the threads are reconstituted within the replacement process.

Abstract: A global mount mechanism capable of maintaining a consistent global name space in a distributed computing system including a plurality of nodes interconnected by a communications link is herein disclosed. The global mount mechanism mounts a new file system resource into the global name space in a coherent manner such that the new file system resource is mounted at the same mount point concurrently in each node. The global mount mechanism accommodates mount or unmount requests initiated from a requesting node for a resource located in a remote node. The global mount mechanism is also used to unmount a file system resource from the global name space. The global mount mechanism also includes an initialization procedure that is used to generate the global name space initially by providing each local mount point with a global locking capability.