Abstract: To achieve consistent health service measures, a method and an apparatus combine various metrics from both internal sources and external sources that relate to the service under observation. This service health information is generated independently from specific provider applications and performance monitoring tool sets, thereby allowing shorter time-to-market for service management solutions. The output of the method may be in the form of a programmatic or scriptable interface to be used by high-level performance monitoring tools that are capable of reporting status of many disparate computer services. The performance monitoring tools may reside on different systems and architectures and may be supplied by different vendors. As a result, the programmatic or scriptable interfaces are designed to be generic and flexible.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method for managing allocation of a computer resource to at least one partition of a plurality of partitions of a multiple partition computer system, the system comprising: a plurality of work load managers, with one work load manager associated with each partition of the plurality of partitions, wherein each work load manager determines a resource request value for the computer resource based on at least one priority assigned to its partition associated with the computer resource; and a partition load manager that is operative to form an allocation value for each respective partition based on a respective resource request value; wherein the system apportions the computer resource among the plurality of partitions based on the allocation values.

Abstract: A method for the automatic selection of computer system parameter values to improve system performance as workload on the system changes. Methods are disclosed for automatically making minor adjustments to computer system parameters and comparing long-term associated performance changes in order to set parameter values so as to obtain improved system performance. The time frame over which a change in a system parameter and the associated system performance change is averaged is adjustable, thus permitting evaluation over shorter or longer periods of times as deemed appropriate. An objective measure of system performance is defined prior to implementation of the present methods. For transaction based systems, average system response-time for a given demand on the system could be, for example, such a measure. For systems executing batch-type workloads, system throughput may be used as the indicator of how well the system is performing.

Abstract: A server and method of its operation adapt the number of server applications within the server. The server is connected to a computer network. The server comprises one or more active server applications, a load detector, an inactive additional server application and an allocator. The load detector, which may be part of a load balancer, is connected to the one or more server applications and the computer network. The allocator is connected to the load detector and the additional server application. The allocator causes the additional server application to activate in response to a load condition. The method measures a load on the server, detects when the load exceeds a threshold and, in response thereto, activates an additional server application on the server. Optionally, the method also detects when the load is less than a deactivation threshold, and in response thereto, deactivates the additional server application.

Abstract: A method for the automatic selection of computer system parameter values to improve system performance as workload on the system changes. Methods are disclosed for automatically making minor adjustments to computer system parameters and comparing long-term associated performance changes in order to set parameter values so as to obtain improved system performance. The time frame over which a change in a system parameter and the associated system performance change is averaged is adjustable, thus permitting evaluation over shorter or longer periods of times as deemed appropriate. An objective measure of system performance is defined prior to implementation of the present methods. For transaction based systems, average system response-time for a given demand on the system could be, for example, such a measure. For systems executing batch-type workloads, system throughput may be used as the indicator of how well the system is performing.

Abstract: A method for the automatic selection of computer system parameter values to improve system performance as workload on the system changes. Methods are disclosed for automatically making minor adjustments to computer system parameters and comparing long-term associated performance changes in order to set parameter values so as to obtain improved system performance. The time frame over which a change in a system parameter and the associated system performance change is averaged is adjustable, thus permitting evaluation over shorter or longer periods of times as deemed appropriate. An objective measure of system performance is defined prior to implementation of the present methods. For transaction based systems, average system response-time for a given demand on the system could be, for example, such a measure. For systems executing batch-type workloads, system throughput may be used as the indicator of how well the system is performing.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method for managing allocation of a computer resource to at least one partition of a plurality of partitions of a multiple partition computer system, the system comprising: a plurality of work load managers, with one work load manager associated with each partition of the plurality of partitions, wherein each work load manager determines a resource request value for the computer resource based on at least one priority assigned to its partition associated with the computer resource; and a partition load manager that is operative to form an allocation value for each respective partition based on a respective resource request value; wherein the system apportions the computer resource among the plurality of partitions based on the allocation values.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for providing user-requested content through an alternate network service when the preferred network service is unavailable. The apparatus is preferably embodied in computer readable program code. The invention may comprise assessing the availability of the user-requested content from the preferred network service; selecting an alternate network service providing substantially similar content to the user-requested content when the user-requested content is unavailable from the preferred network service; and linking to the alternate network service when the user-requested content is unavailable from the preferred network service. In addition, the invention preferably comprises assessing the availability of the substantially similar content from the alternate network service.

Abstract: To achieve consistent health service measures, a method and an apparatus combine various metrics from both internal sources and external sources that relate to the service under observation. This service health information is generated independently from specific provider applications and performance monitoring tool sets, thereby allowing shorter time-to-market for service management solutions. The output of the method may be in the form of a programmatic or scriptable interface to be used by high-level performance monitoring tools that are capable of reporting status of many disparate computer services. The performance monitoring tools may reside on different systems and architectures and may be supplied by different vendors. As a result, the programmatic or scriptable interfaces are designed to be generic and flexible.