JPH032956A - Computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the processing efficiency of a computer system and to cope with the increase/decrease of cost caused by the load fluctuation by performing the dynamic cost control between the computer systems for each processing unit and selecting a computer system having the lowest process cost at execution of a due process to carry out this process. CONSTITUTION:The cost control parts 18 and 28 control the executing cost of each process set in accordance with each characteristic and the communication cost between the computer systems 1 and 2. The execution distribution means 12 and 22 specify the systems 1 and 2 having the lowest cost for execution of the processes requested by the application program means 11 and 21 by reference to both parts 18 and 28. Then the means 12 and 22 ask both systems 1 and 2 to carry out the processes, and the process executing means 14 and 24 carry out the assigned processes respectively. Thus the dynamic cost control is carried out for each process between both systems 1 and 2 connected to each other. Then one of both systems 1 and 2 that has the lowest process cost is selected for execution of the due process at a due time point. Thus it is possible to improve the processing efficiency and to cope with the increase/decrease of cost caused by the load fluctuation in a computer system.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention is applied to a computer system. The present invention relates to control of a distributed processing system using a plurality of computers.

〔overview〕

In a plurality of computer systems connected to a communication medium, the present invention dynamically performs cost management for each processing unit among the computer systems, and when executing a process, selects the computer system with the lowest processing cost at that time and executes the process. By doing so, processing efficiency is increased and it is possible to respond to increases and decreases in costs due to changes in load.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, when performing distributed processing between multiple computer systems, users or application programs have to evaluate the overall processing capacity of the computer system, or the computer system can be tailored to suit the processing content, such as by using a dedicated processor for a specific field. A back-end processor method that takes into account the characteristics of processing capacity, specifies a computer system that is considered suitable for executing a process, requests the execution in bulk, and returns the results, or a remote job entry IJ method. There is a method of identifying the computer system with the lowest load when executing a process and requesting this computer system to execute the process all at once.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional distributed processing control described above, only the load on each computer system or the characteristics of each computer system depending on the processing content are considered independently, so it is possible to consider both simultaneously and optimally distribute processing execution. It is not possible to aim for this.

In particular, in distributed processing, the application program dynamically takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of each connected system depending on the processing content, the communication cost for requesting processing to the system, and the load on the system that can execute the processing. Ideally, the system with the highest execution efficiency, including the own system, should be selected at the time of execution for each processing unit in the application program. Because processing is handled in units of entire large application programs instead of processing, processing is requested one after another regardless of the load on a particular system, or a dedicated processor is deliberately forced to perform processing that it is not good at, resulting in suboptimal processing efficiency as a whole. There's a problem.

Furthermore, although it is possible to designate a system to be executed for each processing unit by considering each element so that it is optimal at a certain point in time, it is possible with minor improvements to the conventional technology; however, the designation of the execution system is fixed. However, each system has the problem of not being able to cope with increases and decreases in costs due to changes in load.

The present invention is intended to solve such problems, and aims to provide a system that can improve processing efficiency and cope with increases and decreases in costs due to changes in load.

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, a plurality of computer systems are interconnected by a communication medium, and each computer system is provided with an application program means, a communication control means for communicating with each other via the communication medium, and a communication control means specified by the communication control means. processing encoding/decoding means for requesting processing to a computer system provided by the computer system and receiving and decoding the result of the processing from the communication control means; and processing encoded by the processing encoding/decoding means from the communication control means. In a computer system equipped with a processing proxy execution means that receives and decodes the result, encodes it, and sends it back to the computer system that requested the processing, processing is executed for each processing unit set according to the characteristics of each computer system. A cost management unit that manages costs and communication costs with the computer system, and the lowest cost including the communication cost for referring to this cost management unit and executing the processing requested by the application program means. Execution distribution means that identifies a system and requests processing to that system, and notifies the timeliness computer system of the processing execution cost and communication cost of the cost management section, and the processing execution cost and communication notified from other computer systems. The present invention is characterized by comprising a cost management means for updating information in a cost management section of its own computer system based on costs.

[Effect]

The cost management section manages the processing execution cost for each processing unit set according to the characteristics of each processing unit and the communication cost with the computer system, and the execution allocation means refers to the cost management section and applies the A system with the lowest cost including communication cost for executing the process requested by the program means is identified, the process is requested to that system, and the process execution means is assigned to the own system by the execution allocation means. Execute processing. On the other hand, the cost management means notifies other systems of the processing execution cost and communication cost of the cost management section in a timely manner, and also updates information in the cost management section of its own computer system with the processing execution cost and communication cost notified from the other systems. .

By dynamically managing costs for each processing unit between computer systems connected in this way, and selecting the system with the lowest processing cost at the time of processing execution, processing efficiency is increased and load is reduced. It is possible to respond to increases and decreases in costs due to fluctuations in

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of computer systems L2 are interconnected by a communication medium 3, and each computer system 1
．． 2, application program means 11.21 and communication medium 3
communication control means 15.25 for communicating with each other via;
processing encoding/decoding means 13.23 that requests processing to the computer systems 1 and 2 specified by the communication control means 15.25, and receives and decodes the results of the processing from the communication control means 15.25; The computer system 1. receives the encoded processing result from the communication control means 15.25 by the processing encoding/decoding means 13.23, decodes it, and requests the processing.
Furthermore, as a feature of the present invention, the processing execution cost for each processing unit is set according to the characteristics of each computer system 1.2. and a cost management unit 18.28 that manages communication costs between the computer systems 1 and 2;
Referring to this cost management section 18.28, the system with the lowest cost including the communication cost for executing the process requested by the application program means 11.21 is identified, and the execution allocation is made to request the process to that system. means 12.22, and processing execution means 14.24 for executing the processing allocated to the own computer system by the execution distribution means 12.22.
and notifies the timeliness computer system of the processing execution cost and communication cost of the cost management unit 18.28, and updates the information in the cost management unit of its own computer system with the processing execution cost and communication cost notified from the other computer system. and cost management means 17.27.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the logical structure of the cost management sections 18 and 28 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The logical structure includes a processing unit 181 that identifies the processing content, a system salt 182 that can process this processing unit 181, and a system salt 182 that calculates the cost required to execute the processing shown by the processing unit 181 in the computer system shown by the system salt 182. This includes an execution cost 183 for processing, and a communication cost 184 necessary for requesting processing to the computer system indicated by system salt 182.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the execution cost notification part to other systems of the cost management means 17 and 27 in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows that the cost management section 1 receives notifications from other systems of the cost management means 17 and 27 in the embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for updating 8 and 28.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the execution distribution means 12 and 22 in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing a state in which three computer systems having advantages and disadvantages depending on the processing contents are connected based on the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing a case where the states of the cost management units 18 and 28 change due to a change in load from the state shown in FIG. 6.

First, the cost management means 17 is activated at the same time as the computer system 1 is activated. As shown in FIG. 3, the cost management means 17 measures the load on its own system (step 171).
, calculate the execution cost of the process that the own system provides to other systems (step 172), notify all connected computer systems via the communication control means 15 (step 173), and pause for a certain period of time (step 174).

Thereafter, this process is activated at regular intervals, remeasures the load, and notifies other systems of the latest execution cost.

In the computer system 2, processing similar to the startup process is also performed.

The execution cost notified by the process of the cost management means 17 shown in FIG. 3 is received by the process shown in FIG. 4.

That is, the cost management means 17 waits for notification of execution cost information from the communication control means 15 (step 175), restores the execution cost from the received data (step 176), and calculates the communication cost depending on the type of communication control means 15 that received the data. In setting step 177), the notified system name 182, execution cost 183, and communication cost 184 are set for each processing unit 181 of the cost management section 18 shown in FIG. Thereafter, as described above, the process shown in FIG. 3 is activated at regular intervals in each connected computer system, so the contents of the cost management section 18 are rewritten each time (step 178).

Next, the operation at the time when execution of the application program means 11 is started will be explained based on FIG.

During execution of a process, if control is transferred to a process that can be distributed between mutually connected computer systems, the application program means 11 requests the execution distribution means 12 to execute the process (step 121).

The execution distribution means 12 selects the processing unit 181 of the cost management section 18 based on the processing request content received from the application program means 11.
is searched, and the system with the lowest sum of execution cost 183 and communication cost 184 depending on this is selected (step 122).

Step 123) to determine whether the system obtained at this time is the local system; if it is the local system, call the processing execution means 14 within the local system (step 124);
If it is another system, the processing encoding/decoding means 13 is called to request processing to the other system (step 125).
.

For the purpose of explanation, it is assumed here that computer system 2 has been selected as the system to which execution is requested.

The processing encoding/decoding means 13 communicates with the processing proxy execution means 26 via the communication control means 15, the communication medium 3, and the communication control means 25.
request processing.

The processing proxy execution means 26 requests the execution distribution means 22 to execute the requested processing. The execution distribution means 22 executes the requested process in the same manner as the execution distribution means 12,
The result is returned to the processing proxy execution means 26.

The processing proxy execution means 26 includes the communication control means 25 and the communication medium 3.
, returns the processing result to the processing encoding/decoding means 13 via the communication control means 15. The processing encoding/decoding means 13 decodes the returned result and returns it to the execution distribution means 12. In either case, after obtaining the processing results, the results are returned to the application program means 11 (step 126).

Next, the above processing flow and operation will be explained in more detail using schematic diagrams.

6 is a system in which three computer systems having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 are connected, and 4.5.6 are computer systems each having the same configuration as the computer system 1 in FIG. 1.

The application program 41 executed on the computer system 4 includes processes 411, 412, and 413 that can be distributed, and the cost management unit 48 on the computer system 4 includes processes 411, 412, and 413 that correspond to each of the processes 411, 412, and 413. Information 481.
482.483 are stored, and each computer system 4.
5.6, process executions 441, 442.443, and 541.542. corresponding to processes 411.412.413, respectively.
543 and 641.642.643.

Each process of the application program 41 executed at this time is executed by the above-mentioned execution distribution means, process 411 is executed by the process execution unit 541 on the computer system 5, and process 412 is executed by the process execution unit 442 on the computer system 4. 413 is executed by the processing execution means 643, so that the execution efficiency of the application program 41 is maximized.

FIG. 7 shows a state in which the contents of the cost management section 48 have changed after that due to changes in the load on the computer system 6.

In the situation shown in FIG.
It is not optimal to execute the process by the process execution means 543 of the computer system 5 instead. In this way, without any changes being made to the application program 41, the computer system on which the process will be executed is selected at the time of execution, and the execution of the process is distributed in such a way that the cost is the lowest.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, an application program is not made aware of the computer system that actually performs distributed processing, and the system to be executed for each processing unit is determined to be optimal at the time of execution. The overall execution efficiency can always be optimized in accordance with the system load status and by taking into account the execution cost characteristics of each processing unit of each system.

For example, when a dedicated processor is connected through a communication medium but not activated, the general-purpose processor performs processing, and when the dedicated processor is activated, the processing weight can be automatically shifted to the dedicated processor. Become. In addition, in this case, when the load on the dedicated processor increases so much that requesting processing becomes ineffective, the overall load can be adjusted by automatically returning the processing main body to the general-purpose processor. .

Furthermore, the fact that the application program does not need to be aware of the computer system on which it is actually executed has the advantage that the application program can be universally applied to a distributed processing system consisting of a group of computer systems with different configurations.

In this way, when executing an application program that requires the comprehensive capabilities of a group of computer systems in which the performance of each computer system has been improved by specifying the processing fields that are connected to each other, the total processing cost will be reduced. It shows a remarkable effect in reducing the number of applications and maintaining the versatility of application programs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example of one unit in the cost management section according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the processing flow of the cost management means according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the execution distribution means according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are diagrams showing the state at one point in time during operation of the embodiment of the present invention. 1.2.4.5.6...Computer system, 3...Communication medium, 11.21...Application program means, 12.
22...Execution distribution means, 13.23...Processing encoding/decoding means, 14.24.44.54.64...Processing execution means, 15.25...Communication control means, 16. 26
...Processing proxy execution means, 17.27...Cost management means, 18.28.48...Cost management section, 41...
・Application program, 181...Processing unit, 182...
・System name, 1g3...Execution cost, 184...
Communication costs.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of computer systems are interconnected by a communication medium, and each computer system has the following: an application program means, a communication control means for communicating with each other via the communication medium, and this communication control. processing encoding/decoding means for requesting processing to a computer system specified by the means, and receiving and decoding the result of the processing from the communication control means; In a computer system that is equipped with processing proxy execution means that receives encoded processing results, decodes them, encodes them, and sends them back to the computer system that requested the processing, various processing units are set according to the characteristics of each computer system. a cost management unit that manages the processing execution cost for each process and the communication cost with the computer system; Execution distribution means for identifying the system with the lowest cost and requesting processing to that system, and timely notifying other computer systems of the processing execution cost and communication cost of the cost management unit, and processing notified from other computer systems. A computer system comprising: cost management means for updating information in a cost management section of its own computer system based on execution costs and communication costs.