JP2011227840A - Apparatus for controlling transmission/reception of core license between servers in non-smp configuration - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve load distribution by increasing/decreasing the number of active cores of respective servers without exceeding the number of active cores allocated to the whole apparatus in the apparatus configured by a plurality of servers in non-SMP configuration.SOLUTION: A management module 130 always monitors loads of respective servers, deactivates active cores of a server with a low load so that the number of active cores do not to exceed the number of core licenses allocated to the whole apparatus, and activates cores less than the number of cores obtained by deactivating the number of cores of a server with a high load to achieve load distribution.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that includes a plurality of servers, and the server includes a spare core corresponding to Capacity on Demand (CoD).

  As a conventional technique, there is a method of performing load distribution by changing the number of active cores according to the load of each server in a state where an SMP configuration is assembled. In this method, it is assumed that the processor and the server can assemble the SMP. If the SMP is not assembled, the increase / decrease in the number of active cores depending on the load remains in each server.

http://eetimes.jp/article/22881/ http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r3s/topic/ipha2/ipha2.pdf

  Since each server has a different usage state, in order to increase the number of active cores of a certain server when the load is high, it is necessary to purchase a core license for that server in advance.

  At this time, even if another server has a low load, to reduce the number of active cores of a low-load server and return the core license, it is necessary to decide in advance when to return the core license. Changing the number of core licenses to demand is not easy.

  If an SMP configuration is configured, load distribution can be performed by increasing or decreasing the active core between servers according to the load. However, for processors and servers that do not have an SMP configuration, a spare core is installed and a core license is purchased in advance. However, if the core license of each server can be moved, the core of the low-load server is deactivated and the load is increased accordingly. By activating the core of the server, it becomes possible to distribute the load efficiently without immediately purchasing or returning a core license.

  Even in the case of a processor or server that does not have an SMP configuration, the core license of the entire apparatus is collectively managed by the management module, so that the core license can be transferred between servers.

  Since it is not necessary to change the number of active cores of the entire apparatus, the number of core licenses purchased in advance can be reduced.

  It is not necessary to make a plan for purchasing or returning a license in advance by predicting the load status of the server, and the time required for the procedure for purchasing or returning a license can be greatly reduced.

  Power consumption can be reduced by reducing the number of active cores in a low-load server.

  By allocating the core license stored in the management module to a high-load server, the number of active cores can be increased and the performance can be quickly ended without purchasing a new core license.

It is the schematic of this invention. It is a figure which passes a core license to a management module. It is a figure which receives a core license from a management module. It is a figure which returns a core license to a management module. It is a figure which returns a core license to an initial state.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of the present invention. This apparatus has server modules 100 to 107, the server modules 100 to 102 have processors 110 to 115 having spare cores corresponding to CoD, and the server modules 103 to 107 have no spare cores not compatible with CoD. Having a processor. The management module 130 is connected to all the server modules 100-107. Each server module has a baseboard management controller and is connected to a processor in the server module. The processors 110-115 have a plurality of cores, an active core and a spare core that is normally inactive but can be activated by the baseboard management controller. The server modules 100 to 102 that support CoD are equipped with an OS that constantly monitors changes in the number of active cores and that responds to changes in the number of active cores without restarting the OS by increasing or decreasing the number of active cores.

  The management module 130 has the following functions.

  Always monitor the load on all connected server modules.

  Know the number of cores that can be active throughout the device.

  It has a function of storing the number of core licenses assigned to the entire apparatus and controlling so that the number of active cores does not exceed the number of assigned core licenses.

  It has a function of grasping which of the server modules in the apparatus is the server module corresponding to CoD among the server modules in the entire apparatus.

  It has a function of storing the number of active cores in the initial state of the server module corresponding to CoD.

  It has a function of constantly grasping the number of active cores of a server module that supports CoD.

  It has a function to increase / decrease the allocation of the core license of each server according to the load of the server module corresponding to CoD.

  The baseboard management control devices 120 to 121 have the following functions.

  When the management module 130 receives an instruction to increase or decrease the number of active cores, it has a control function to increase or decrease the number of active cores of the connected processor.

  Next, the operation of the present invention will be described.

  If there is a server module that has been in a low load state for more than a certain period of time, the management module searches for a CoD-compatible server module in the device and if it is found, whether or not the number of active cores of that server module can be reduced. Investigate.

  If the load state of the server modules 101 and 102 continues for a certain period of time and the number of active cores is 2 or more, the number of active cores of the server module is reduced. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, a core license corresponding to the reduced number of active cores is stored in the management module.

  The management module stores the number of active cores reduced from which server module.

  When the load of the server module 100 increases and the high load state continues for a certain time, the management module 130 checks whether the number of active cores of the server module 100 can be increased.

  If it is found that the number of active cores of the server module 100 can be increased by the management module 130, the core license stored in the management module 100 is assigned to the spare core in the server module 100 as shown in FIG. Further, when the baseboard management control device 120 increases the number of active cores of the processors 110 and 111, the processing capability of the server module 100 increases, and the time until the high load state is eliminated is shortened.

  The server modules 101 and 102 with reduced active cores have lower power consumption.

  When the load on the server module 100 decreases, the management module 130 instructs the baseboard management controller 120 in the server module 100 to reduce the number of active cores as shown in FIG. And the corresponding core license is passed to the management module 130.

  When stopping a server module, it is necessary to return the core license originally assigned to the server module. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the initial active core license stored in the management module 130 is stored in the server module. hand over.

  100-107: Server module, 100-102: CoD compatible server module, 110-115: Processor with spare core, 120-122: Baseboard management controller, 130: Management module,

Claims (3)

  A device that knows the number of cores that can be activated in the entire device and also knows the number of active cores for each server.   A device that has a function to control the number of active cores allocated according to the load of each server module in the device.   A device that activates or deactivates the core of a processor in a server module for each core.

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