JP7230375B2 - Information processing device and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device and program.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-200000 discloses that a request for securing or releasing resources is transmitted to a processing providing device that performs data processing in cooperation with an information processing device before data processing is started, thereby improving the response performance of the processing providing device. Disclosed is an information processing system adapted to allow

JP 2015-087935 A

An object of the present invention is to continuously receive and process a plurality of processing requests from a client device, even when executing control to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines that are activated to process the processing requests. To provide an information processing device and a program capable of reducing unnecessary increase/decrease processing of virtual machines compared to the case of securing the required number of virtual machines after receiving a processing request of .

[Information processing device]
The present invention according to claim 1 is characterized by receiving means for continuously receiving a plurality of processing requests from a client device,
a storage means for temporarily storing the processing request accepted by the acceptance means;
execution means for acquiring the processing request stored in the storage means and executing processing based on the acquired processing request;
Information generated by referring to the user's operation content before the processing request is accepted by the receiving means and before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the client device, and the user intends to execute the processing. Receive from the client device at least one of information on the type of data, information on the amount of data the user intends to process, and information on the type of processing content the user intends to execute. receiving means for
prediction means for sequentially predicting the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request using the information received by the reception means;
Securing the necessary number of virtual machines predicted by the prediction means when performing control to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated by the execution means according to the amount of processing requests waiting for execution stored in the storage means. and a control means for controlling the number of virtual machines so that the number of virtual machines is increased.

The present invention according to claim 2 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the prediction means re-predicts the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request when the information is updated. be.

In the present invention according to claim 3 , the control means is
a first calculation means for calculating an unused number, which is the number of unused virtual machines being activated, from the usage status of the virtual machines;
a second calculation means for calculating an excess or deficiency of virtual machines generated when the processing request is processed by subtracting the required number predicted by the prediction means from the unused number;
By controlling the number of virtual machines so as to eliminate the excess/deficiency of the virtual machines represented by the excess/deficiency number, the necessary number of virtual machines predicted by the prediction means is secured. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, which performs number control.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the control means does not execute control to reduce the number of virtual machines when the excess/deficiency number is less than one even if the unused number is one or more. 3. The information processing apparatus according to 3 above.

The present invention according to claim 5 is any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the receiving means receives the information from the client device before the processing request received by the receiving means is stored in the storing means. 1. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 .

[program]
The present invention according to claim 6 is a receiving step of continuously receiving a plurality of processing requests from a client device;
a storage step of temporarily storing the processing request received in the receiving step in a storage means;
an execution step of acquiring the processing request stored in the storage means and executing a process based on the acquired processing request in the execution means;
Information generated by referring to the user's operation content before the processing request is accepted in the receiving step and before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the client device, and the user intends to execute the processing. Receive from the client device at least one of information on the type of data, information on the amount of data the user intends to process, and information on the type of processing content the user intends to execute. a receiving step for
a prediction step of sequentially predicting the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request, using information capable of predicting the processing load of the processing request received in the receiving step;
Securing the necessary number of virtual machines predicted in the prediction step when performing control to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated by the execution means according to the amount of processing requests waiting to be executed stored in the storage means and a control step for controlling the number of virtual machines to be run.

According to the present invention of claim 1, when receiving and processing a plurality of processing requests from a client device in succession, control is executed to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated to process the processing requests. Even in such a case, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of reducing unnecessary increase/decrease processing of virtual machines compared to the case of securing the required number of virtual machines after accepting a processing request from a user. .

Further, according to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to predict the required number of virtual machines required to process a processing request even before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the client device. It is possible to provide a sophisticated information processing apparatus.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, even when the processing content of the processing request is changed by the client device, the necessary number of virtual machines necessary for processing the processing request of the changed processing content can be predicted. can provide an information processing apparatus capable of

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when continuously receiving and processing a plurality of processing requests from a client device, control is executed to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated to process the processing requests. Even in such a case, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of reducing unnecessary increase/decrease processing of virtual machines compared to the case of securing the required number of virtual machines after accepting a processing request from a user. .

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, even if one or more unused virtual machines are running, if the number of virtual machines is reduced, the number of virtual machines will be insufficient when processing requests received from now on. It is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of preventing the execution of control to reduce the number of virtual machines when it is predicted that the number of virtual machines will be reduced.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when continuously receiving and processing a plurality of processing requests from a client device, control is executed to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated to process the processing requests. Even in such a case, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of reducing unnecessary increase/decrease processing of virtual machines compared to the case of securing the required number of virtual machines after accepting a processing request from a user. .

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, when continuously receiving and processing a plurality of processing requests from a client device, control is executed to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated to process the processing requests. Even in this case, it is possible to provide a program capable of reducing unnecessary increase/decrease processing of virtual machines, compared to the case of securing the required number of virtual machines after receiving a processing request from a user.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to predict the required number of virtual machines required to process a processing request even before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the client device. program can be provided.

It is a figure showing the system configuration of the information processing system of one embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of a service providing device 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of a service providing device 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of an autoscale control unit 33; FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a setting example of the required number of virtual machines for each service type; FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a case where the required number of virtual machines for processing requests 1, 2, and 3 is predicted; 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of a calculation formula used when calculating the required number of virtual machines in the prediction unit 35; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43; FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a specific example of increase/decrease control of the number of virtual machines performed by a virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43; 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the service providing device 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a specific example of scale-in and scale-out; 4 is a sequence chart for explaining the operation of the service providing device 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention; 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a user selects an image on the operation panel 71 in order to use a certain service in the image forming apparatus 20; FIG.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the system configuration of an information processing system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a service providing device 10, an image forming device 20, a receipt storage server 61, a business card management server 62, and a data storage server 63. They are interconnected by a network 30 such as the Internet.

The image forming apparatus 20 is a so-called multifunction device having multiple functions such as a print function, a scan function, a copy function, and a facsimile function.

The service providing apparatus 10 performs various services such as OCR (Optical Character Reading) processing, translation processing, and storage processing on various image data such as document images read by the image forming apparatus 20. offers. The service providing device 10 cooperates with various server devices such as a receipt storage server 61, a business card management server 62, and a data storage server 63 operated by other companies to provide various services. there is

For example, the image forming apparatus 20 may transfer image data such as receipts read by the image forming apparatus 20 to the service providing apparatus 10, and after performing various processes on the image data, transfer the image data to the receipt saving server 61 for storage. Expense reimbursement service is realized by

Further, for example, by transferring image data obtained by reading a business card in the image forming apparatus 20 to the service providing apparatus 10, the image data is subjected to various processing, and then transferred to the business card management server 62 for storage. is realized.

FIG. 2 shows the hardware configuration of such a service providing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the service providing device 10 transmits and receives data to and from an external device or the like via a CPU 11, a memory 12, a storage device 13 such as a hard disk drive (HDD), and a network 30. It has a communication interface (IF) 14, a user interface (UI) device 15 including a touch panel or liquid crystal display and a keyboard. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 16 .

The CPU 11 executes predetermined processing based on control programs stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13 to control the operation of the service providing device 10 . In this embodiment, the CPU 11 reads and executes a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13. It is also possible to provide

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the service providing apparatus 10 realized by executing the above control program.

As shown in FIG. 3, the service providing apparatus 10 in the present embodiment includes a processing request reception unit 31, a processing request storage unit 32, an auto-scaling control unit 33, a reception unit 34, a prediction unit 35, a processing It has an execution unit 36 , a processing result storage unit 37 , and a processing result transmission unit 38 .

Here, the processing execution unit 36 is processing means capable of processing a processing request transmitted from the image forming apparatus 20 by a plurality of activated virtual machines 51 .

Here, a virtual machine means an execution environment created virtually (pseudo) within one physical computer. By using such virtual machines, it is possible to configure a plurality of virtual machines in a physical machine such as a server or device configured by one computer and perform parallel processing on each virtual machine. becomes. Note that this virtual machine may also be called an instance.

The process of controlling the number of activated virtual machines according to the amount of processing to be executed is called auto-scaling. By performing this auto-scaling, when the amount of processing to be executed is large compared to the number of virtual machines started, control (scale out) is performed so that the number of virtual machines started increases. When the amount of processing to be executed is smaller than the number of virtual machines started, control (scale-in) is performed to reduce the number of virtual machines started.

The processing request receiving unit 31 continuously receives a plurality of processing requests from the image forming apparatus 20, which is a client device.

The processing request storage unit 32 temporarily stores the processing requests received by the processing request receiving unit 31 as a queue. The processing execution unit 36 acquires the processing request stored in the processing request storage unit 32 and executes processing based on the acquired processing request.

When the auto-scaling control unit 33 performs control to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines to be activated according to the amount of processing requests waiting to be executed, the necessary number of virtual machines predicted by the prediction unit 35 is ensured. , to control the number of virtual machines started in the process execution unit 36 .

The receiving unit 34 receives, from the image forming apparatus 20, information for predicting the processing load of the processing request before the processing request receiving unit 31 receives the processing request. The receiving unit 34 receives information generated before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the image forming apparatus 20 as information for predicting the processing load of the processing request.

Specifically, the receiving unit 34 receives information generated by referring to the details of the user's operation in the image forming apparatus 20 as information for predicting the processing load of the processing request.

Here, the information generated by referring to the contents of the user's operation includes information on the type of data that the user intends to process, information on the amount of data that the user intends to process, Information about the type of processing that the user intends to perform can be used.

Furthermore, before the processing request received by the processing request receiving unit 31 is stored in the processing request storage unit 32 that stores processing requests waiting to be executed, the receiving unit 34 stores information that can predict the processing load of the processing request. is received from the image forming apparatus 20 .

The prediction unit 35 sequentially predicts the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request using information that can predict the processing load of the processing request received by the receiving unit 34 .

If the information generated before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the image forming apparatus 20 is updated, the prediction unit 35 predicts again the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request. do.

The processing result storage unit 37 stores the processing result after the processing is performed by the processing execution unit 36 . The processing result transmission unit 38 transmits the processing result stored in the processing result storage unit 37 to various servers such as the receipt storage server 61, the business card management server 62, the data storage server 63, and the like.

Next, the configuration of the autoscale control section 33 will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the autoscale control unit 33 includes an unused number calculation unit 41 , an excess/deficiency calculation unit 42 , and a virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 .

The unused number calculation unit 41 calculates the unused number, which is the number of unused virtual machines being activated, from the usage status of the virtual machines 51 in the process execution unit 36 .

The excess/deficiency number calculation unit 42 subtracts the required number predicted by the prediction unit 35 from the unused number calculated by the unused number calculation unit 41, thereby calculating the number of virtual machines generated when the processing request is processed. Calculate the number of surpluses and deficiencies.

The virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 adjusts the number of virtual machines 51 activated in the processing execution unit 36 so as to eliminate the excess/deficiency of the virtual machines 51 represented by the excess/deficiency number calculated by the excess/deficiency number calculation unit 42. By controlling, the number of activated virtual machines is controlled such that the required number of virtual machines predicted by the prediction unit 35 is ensured.

By performing the above-described control, the auto-scaling control unit 33 does not perform control to reduce the number of virtual machines when the excess/deficiency number is less than 1 even if the unused number is 1 or more. It will be.

Next, the operation of the service providing apparatus 10 in the information processing system of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, a specific example in which the prediction unit 35 predicts the required number of virtual machines based on the information received by the reception unit 34 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, and 7. FIG.

First, in the image forming apparatus 20, a case will be described where the prediction unit 35 predicts the required number of virtual machines based on the type of processing content that the user intends to execute, that is, the type of service that the user intends to execute.

For example, FIG. 5 shows a setting example of the required number of virtual machines for each service type. FIG. 5 shows cases where the required number of virtual machines is set to 0.25, 1, and 0.5 for service types such as receipt storage service, business card management service, and data storage service, respectively. there is

With such settings, when predicting the required number of virtual machines for processing requests 1, 2, and 3 as shown in FIG. The required number of virtual machines required to process each processing request is predicted with reference to the setting contents of FIG.

However, in this case, since the amount and type of data to be processed are not taken into account, the prediction unit 35 may calculate the required number of virtual machines using a calculation formula as shown in FIG. .

The calculation formula example shown in FIG. 7 shows a calculation formula for calculating the required number of virtual machines for a data amount of X (KB) for each combination of service type and MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) type. ing. Here, the MIME type is information indicating the type of data file.

Then, when the necessary number is predicted by the prediction unit 35 in this way, the excess/shortage number calculation unit 42 in the auto scale control unit 33 predicts the number of unused virtual machines calculated by the unused number calculation unit 41. The surplus/deficit number is calculated by subtracting the required number predicted by the unit 35 .

Here, when the excess/deficiency number is greater than 1, it indicates that the number of virtual machines is excessive, and in the case of a negative value, it indicates that the number of virtual machines is insufficient.

Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 performs increase/decrease control of the number of activated virtual machines as shown in FIG. 8, for example, using the calculated excess/deficiency number.

As shown in FIG. 8, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 performs scale-out, that is, control to increase the number of activated virtual machines when the excess/deficiency number is 1 or more. Specifically, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 performs control to increase the number of activated virtual machines by setting the maximum integer equal to or less than the excess/deficiency number as the increase/decrease number.

As shown in FIG. 8, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 performs scale-in, that is, control to decrease the number of activated virtual machines when the excess/deficiency number is less than zero. Specifically, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 performs control to decrease the number of activated virtual machines by setting the minimum integer equal to or greater than the absolute value of the excess/deficiency number as the increase/decrease number.

When the excess/deficiency number is equal to or greater than 0 and less than 1, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 performs control to maintain the current number of activated virtual machines without changing the number of activated virtual machines.

A specific example of virtual machine increase/decrease control performed in the case of such settings will be described with reference to FIG.

For example, when the unused number is 2 and the required number is 1.75 as shown in FIG. = 2-1.75). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 42 performs control to maintain the current virtual machines.

When the unused number is 3 and the required number is 1.75, the excess/deficiency number calculated by the excess/deficiency number calculation unit 42 is 1.25 (3-1.75). That is, since the excess/deficiency number is 1 or more, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 42 performs scale-in control such that the current virtual machine is decremented by one.

Furthermore, when the unused number is 1 and the required number is 1.75, the excess/deficiency number calculated by the excess/deficiency number calculation unit 42 is -0.75 (1-1.75). That is, since the excess/deficiency number is less than 0, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 42 performs scale-out control to increase the current virtual machine by one.

Next, the operation of the service providing apparatus 10 described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the receiving unit 34 receives, from the image forming apparatus 20, operation information indicating the content of the processing request before the processing request is confirmed (step S101).

Based on the operation information received by the receiving unit 34, the predicting unit 35 then predicts the number of virtual machines required to process the processing request as the required number (step S102).

Then, the excess/deficiency calculation unit 42 of the autoscale control unit 33 subtracts the required number predicted by the prediction unit 35 from the unused number calculated by the unused number calculation unit 41 to calculate the excess/deficiency. (Step S103).

Then, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines whether the excess/deficiency number calculated by the excess/deficiency number calculation unit 42 is less than 0, 0 or more and less than 1, or 1 or more (step S104).

Then, if it is determined in step S104 that the excess/deficiency number is less than 0, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the number of virtual machines is insufficient when the processing request being operated by the user is confirmed and transmitted. Then, it determines that the number of virtual machines to be activated is increased, and scale-out control is executed (step S105).

Further, when it is determined in step S104 that the excess/deficiency number is equal to or greater than 0 and less than 1, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines the number of virtual machines even if the processing request being operated by the user is confirmed and transmitted. is neither insufficient nor excessive, and the current number of virtual machines to be activated is maintained.

Further, when it is determined in step S104 that the excess/deficiency number is equal to or greater than 1, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines the number of virtual machines even if the processing request being operated by the user is confirmed and transmitted. judged to be too much. Then, when the number of processing requests stored in the queue (processing request storage unit 32) is 0 and there is a 100% empty virtual machine (yes in step S106), the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 Scale-in control is executed to reduce the number of virtual machines to be activated (step S107).

A specific example of scale-in and scale-out executed in this way will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 illustrates a case where processing requests are received continuously as time elapses.

First, at time t0, if the number of running virtual machines is 1, the number of unused machines is 1, and the required number is 1, the excess/deficiency number (unused number - required number) is 0. Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is zero.

At time t1, if the number of running virtual machines is 1, the number of unused machines is 1, and the required number increases to 2, the excess/deficiency number is -1 (=1-2). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is -1, and performs scale-out control to increase the number of activated virtual machines by one.

Then, at time t2, if the number of running virtual machines is 2, the number of unused virtual machines is 1, and the required number is 1.5 due to the scale-out control being performed, the excess or deficiency is 0.5 ( = 2-1.5). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is zero.

Then, at time t3, if the number of virtual machines being activated remains 2, the unused number decreases to 1, and the required number increases to 2, the excess/deficiency number becomes -1 (=1-2). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is -1, and performs scale-out control to increase the number of activated virtual machines by one.

If auto-scaling control is performed by referring only to the number of currently running virtual machines and the number of unused virtual machines at time t3, the number of unused virtual machines is 1 or more. Scale-in control is performed to reduce the number of machine startups.

However, at time t3, the required number based on the processing request that has not yet been determined is 2, so the excess/deficiency becomes -1, and conversely, scale-out control is performed to increase the number of activations.

At time t4, scale-out control is performed, and if the number of running virtual machines is 3, the unused number is 2, and the required number is 1, the excess/deficiency is 1 (=2- 1). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is -1, and performs scale-in control to decrease the number of activated virtual machines by one.

As a result, at time t5, due to the scale-in control, the number of running virtual machines is 2, the unused number is 1, and the required number is 1. If the number of excesses and deficiencies is 0 (=1 -1). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is zero.

Finally, at time t6, if the number of running virtual machines remains 2, the unused number is 1, and the required number is 0.5, the excess/deficiency is 0.5 (=1-0.5 ). Therefore, the virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 43 determines that the increase/decrease number is zero.

Next, the operation of the service providing apparatus 10 of this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence chart of FIG.

First, before the processing request is confirmed, the image forming apparatus 20 transmits operation information regarding the content of the processing request to the service providing apparatus 10 (step S201).

For example, as shown in FIG. 13, in the image forming apparatus 20, when the user selects an image on the operation panel 71 in order to use a certain service, the contents of the service used by the user and the current Information such as the data amount and data type of the image data being selected is transmitted to the service providing apparatus 10 as operation information.

Based on the operation information received from the image forming apparatus 20, the prediction unit 35 in the service providing apparatus 10 predicts the number of virtual machines that will be required when the processing request is sent (step S202)

Information on the required number predicted by the prediction unit 35 is transmitted to the autoscale control unit 33 (step S203).

The autoscale control unit 33 acquires the data amount of the processing request stored in the processing request storage unit 32 (step S204), and compares the acquired data amount of the processing request with the required number of information received from the prediction unit 35. Based on this, the processing execution unit 36 controls the increase/decrease in the number of virtual machines activated (step S205).

Thereafter, when the processing content of the processing request is determined in the image forming apparatus 20 and the processing request is transmitted from the image forming apparatus 20 to the service providing apparatus 10 (step S206), the processing request is stored in the processing request storage unit 32. It is stored as a queue (step S207).

Then, the processing execution unit 36 acquires the processing request stored in the processing request storage unit 32 (step S208), and executes processing based on the acquired processing request (step S209).

The obtained processing result is stored in the processing result storage unit 37 and transmitted from the processing result transmission unit 38 to various server devices.

[Variation]
In the above embodiment, the image forming apparatus 20 is the client apparatus that transmits the processing request to the service providing apparatus 10. However, the present invention is not limited to such a case. , a mobile phone terminal, a tablet terminal, etc., can be similarly applied.

10 service providing device 11 CPU
12 memory 13 storage device 14 communication interface (IF)
15 User Interface (UI) Device 16 Control Bus 20 Image Forming Device 30 Network 31 Processing Request Receiving Unit 32 Processing Request Storage Unit 33 Autoscale Control Unit 34 Reception Unit 35 Prediction Unit 36 Processing Execution Unit 37 Processing Result Storage Unit 38 Processing Result Transmission Unit 41 Unused number calculation unit 42 Excess/shortage number calculation unit 43 Virtual machine number increase/decrease control unit 51 Virtual machine 61 Receipt storage server 62 Business card management server 63 Data storage server 71 Operation panel

Claims (6)

receiving means for continuously receiving a plurality of processing requests from a client device;
a storage means for temporarily storing the processing request accepted by the acceptance means;
execution means for acquiring the processing request stored in the storage means and executing processing based on the acquired processing request;
Information generated by referring to the user's operation content before the processing request is accepted by the receiving means and before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the client device, and the user intends to execute the processing. Receive from the client device at least one of information on the type of data, information on the amount of data the user intends to process, and information on the type of processing content the user intends to execute. receiving means for
prediction means for sequentially predicting the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request using the information received by the reception means;
Securing the necessary number of virtual machines predicted by the prediction means when performing control to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated by the execution means according to the amount of processing requests waiting for execution stored in the storage means. a control means for controlling the number of virtual machines so that
Information processing device with 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, when said information is updated, said prediction means again predicts the required number of virtual machines required to process said processing request. The control means is
a first calculation means for calculating an unused number, which is the number of unused virtual machines being activated, from the usage status of the virtual machines;
a second calculation means for calculating an excess or deficiency of virtual machines generated when the processing request is processed by subtracting the required number predicted by the prediction means from the unused number;
By controlling the number of virtual machines so as to eliminate the excess/deficiency of the virtual machines represented by the excess/deficiency number, the necessary number of virtual machines predicted by the prediction means is secured. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein number control is executed. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein said control means does not execute control to reduce the number of virtual machines when said excess/deficiency number is smaller than 1 even if said unused number is 1 or more. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said receiving means receives said information from said client device before said processing request received by said receiving means is stored in said storing means. a receiving step of continuously receiving a plurality of processing requests from a client device;
a storage step of temporarily storing the processing request received in the receiving step in a storage means;
an execution step of acquiring the processing request stored in the storage means and executing a process based on the acquired processing request in the execution means;
Information generated by referring to the user's operation content before the processing request is accepted in the receiving step and before the processing content of the processing request is determined in the client device, and the user intends to execute the processing. Receive from the client device at least one of information on the type of data, information on the amount of data the user intends to process, and information on the type of processing content the user intends to execute. a receiving step for
a prediction step of sequentially predicting the required number of virtual machines required to process the processing request, using information capable of predicting the processing load of the processing request received in the receiving step;
Securing the necessary number of virtual machines predicted in the prediction step when performing control to increase or decrease the number of virtual machines activated by the execution means according to the amount of processing requests waiting to be executed stored in the storage means a control step for controlling the number of virtual machines so that
A program that causes a computer to run

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