JPH1078879A - Agent monitor control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To strengthen the proof stress of an agent processing system to the fluctuation of a load by using the most of the autonomous characteristics of an agent, and controlling the useless action of the agent at the time of the high load. SOLUTION: This device is provided with a privileged processing means 30 such as a privileged agent. The privileged processing means 30 receives the information of agent state management information from an engine 20. The extinction or processing request cancelation of slave agents generated by an agent who died a natural death is decided based on this information, and the instruction is issued to local/remote engines 20 and 20' according to the location. The engines 20 and 20' execute the instructed forced extinction or processing request cancelation of the agents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an agent monitoring control system in an agent processing system in which a large number of agents move autonomously in a server or a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a new type of information processing system in a system including a plurality of processing devices connected to a network, an agent processing system has been put into practical use. An "agent" can act autonomously to perform work on behalf of a user of an information processing system, and has the following capabilities.

(A) An agent can walk across a plurality of servers in a network. (b) The agent has a life time for the purpose of preventing runaway, but can continue processing autonomously until the life is reached.

(C) An agent cannot interfere with another agent such as disappearance. (d) The agent can newly create one or more other agents.

(E) An agent can request a newly created or existing another agent (hereinafter referred to as a child agent) to perform processing. (f) Child agents have the same capabilities as parent agents.

In order to control the execution of these agents, an "engine" having the following capabilities is provided in a computer. (a) One or more engines (multiple in the network) can exist in the computer that performs agent processing.

(B) In addition to managing the life of an agent operating on the engine, the state of the agent (for example, the location of the agent as to whether or not the agent resides in the own engine, the execution state of the agent on the own engine, the life and death, etc.) ).

In the above-described agent processing system, there have been the following problems. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an operation example of the conventional method.

[0009] The conventional agent life management and forced extinction at the end of the life alone will temporarily restrict the input of a new agent when computer resources such as CPU are insufficient due to a temporary increase in system load. Even if it does, there is a problem that the high load state continues for a long time and the load does not calm down. The process in which this phenomenon occurs is as shown in FIG.

(A) Under normal load condition, parent agent
Assume that A has created a child agent-a. A lifetime is assigned to the generated child agent-a. (B) If the load becomes high, the agent waits for a long time due to a shortage of resources at a high load, and a timeout occurs due to the life management of the local engine.
The local engine issues a deletion instruction to the parent agent-A that has timed out.

(C) When the parent agent-A times out first and dies, the child agent-a not only continues the business processing requested by the parent agent-A until the end of its life, but also autonomously. Continue the action. For example, child agent-a is parent agent-
The user attempts to report the result of the requested business process to A, but cannot reply from the parent agent-A, so the notification is retried many times. A similar phenomenon is seen in the grandchild (child agent of the child agent) when the child agent-a has died.

(D) Since this processing becomes a factor of consuming new computer resources and further increases the system load, other processing is performed for agents other than the above-described parent / child / grandchild agent. Therefore, computer resources are allocated less and less. As a result, a timeout or death of a new agent occurs, and the useless retry processing as described in (C) causes a new increase in system load.

As described above, a vicious cycle continues from the death of an agent to an increase in load, and from the increase in load to the death of another agent, and the death of one agent occurs in a chain reaction to many agents in the engine. Spill over. In such a high-load situation, even if the input of a new agent is completely shut out by means such as blocking the online line, the high-load state will occur due to the autonomous processing of the agents that have already entered the system. It will be extended for a while.

(E) Then, many agents are killed and the system load is finally calmed down.

[0015]

In the conventional system for managing only the life of an agent, when the life is reached, the processing of an invalid agent can be finally stopped. This works well when the load is low enough or there is enough computer resources available for the load, but once the load becomes high and the resource runs short, the load further increases, as shown above. Does not converge for a long time. Conventionally, in order to avoid such a high load, it is necessary to prepare sufficient computer resources more than the expected peak traffic, which not only increases the investment amount but also when the unexpected traffic occurs. Could fall into the high load condition described above.

A method of limiting the generation of child agents and switching to data transmission / reception as in a conventional program is also conceivable.
It is not a service that makes use of agent autonomy.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and makes use of the autonomous characteristics of the agent while regulating only the useless behavior of the agent under such a high load.
The purpose is to enhance the tolerance of the agent processing system against load fluctuations.

[0018]

In order to solve the above problems, in addition to the engine and the agent in the conventional agent processing system (hereinafter, the conventional agent is referred to as a general agent), the present invention provides, for example, the following: Has function realization means.

(I) Privileged agent mechanism (configured with the following new functions) Agent status acquisition unit This is a processing unit that receives a notification of general agent status management information from the engine and requests notification.

Local agent processing cancellation request means If a dead agent has a child and the child resides in the same engine, the privileged agent can determine the death / cancellation of the processing request of the child agent based on the management state of the child agent. , Processing means for instructing the engine to that effect.

Remote agent processing cancellation request means When a child is stationed in another remote engine, the privileged agent can determine the death / cancellation of the child agent on the basis of the management state of the child agent, and can execute the processing on all remote engines. This is a processing means for instructing the privileged agent using the communication means of the interface mechanism between privileged agents.

(II) Mechanism for adding privileged agents to the engine Processing request form management means between general agents Processing request form from parent agent to child agent (discrimination between non-consignment type for waiting for child processing results and other consignment type) ).

Means for Notifying General Agent State Management Information to Privileged Agent The process of notifying the privileged agent of agent state management information in the engine, including information on the processing request form, when the general agent dies or an inquiry request is made from the privileged agent. Means.

Means for canceling general agent processing based on a privileged agent instruction This is processing means for forcibly killing a specified agent or canceling a processing request to a specified general agent based on a request from a privileged agent.

Privileged agent priority execution control means Execution control means for executing a privileged agent with higher priority than a general agent.

(III) Interface mechanism between privileged agents A means for performing communication between a privileged agent and another privileged agent, broadcasting from a privileged agent to another privileged agent, and executing it with priority over communication between general agents. is there.

Instead of the above privileged agent,
The functions possessed by the privileged agent can be realized by being absorbed in a privileged process installed separately from the process in which the engine runs. Here, the privilege means a special authority such that the CPU use right can be acquired with higher priority than the general agent, and a special process can be requested to the engine.

Further, the function corresponding to the above-described privileged agent can be realized by being absorbed in the engine as a function of controlling the local / remote engine.

[0029]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 10, 10 ', and 10 "denote processing devices including a CPU and a memory, and 20, 20', and 20"
Is an engine that manages and controls the execution of agents.
30, 30 ′ and 30 ″ are privileged processing means to which special authority such as a privileged agent is given, and 40, 40 ′ and 40 ″ are for performing work on behalf of a user of the information processing system. An agent 50 capable of autonomously behaving across a plurality of processing devices represents a network connecting the processing devices.

The agent execution control unit 21 in the engine 20 (similarly for the engines 20 'and 20 ") is a means for controlling the execution of the agent, such as generation and deletion of the agent and assignment of CPU usage rights to the agent. The agent execution control section 21 is provided with a means for controlling the execution of the privilege processing means 30 in preference to the general agent 40 or the like.

The agent status management unit 22 manages the life of the agent 40 operating on the engine 20,
It manages the state of the agent (location of the agent whether or not it resides in its own engine, the execution state of the agent on its own engine, life and death, etc.). The agent status management unit 22 of the present invention further determines whether the processing request from the parent agent to the child agent is a non-consignment type in which the parent agent waits for the processing result of the child agent, or a request that does not wait for the result after requesting the processing. It also manages information on the processing request form for distinguishing whether it is a type.

The status management information notifying unit 23 transmits the agent status management information managed by the agent status management unit 22 when the general agent dies or the privilege processing unit 3
When the inquiry request starts from 0, the privilege processing means 30 is notified. The management information to be notified includes information on the processing request form whether the relationship between the parent and the child agent is a processing entrustment type or a non-consignment type.

The agent processing canceling unit 24 is a means for forcibly killing a designated agent or canceling a processing request to a designated general agent based on a request from the privilege processing means 30.

The agent status acquisition unit 31 in the privilege processing means 30 (similarly for 30 ', 30 ") receives a notification of general agent status management information from the engine 20 in response to a notification request or when an agent has died. Means.

Local agent processing cancellation request section 3
In the case where the dead agent has a child and the child resides in the same engine, it can determine the death / cancellation of the child agent based on the status management information of the child agent and request the engine 20 to do so. Processing means.

Remote agent processing cancellation request unit 3
When a child agent is stationed in another remote engine (20 ', 20 ", etc.), it is possible to determine the death / cancellation of the child agent based on the status management information of the child agent. This processing means requests the above privilege processing means (30 ', 30 ", etc.) to kill the child agent or cancel the processing request using the inter-privilege processing interface mechanism 34.

The inter-privilege processing interface mechanism 34 includes a privilege processing means 30 and other privilege processing means (30 ', 30 ").
Etc.) and a processing mechanism for performing broadcast.

Hereinafter, when the privilege processing means 30 is realized as a privileged agent, when the privilege processing means 30 is realized as a privileged process, the privilege processing means 30
Embodiments in the case where the control function is realized as the control function at 0 will be described with reference to FIGS.

[First Embodiment] The first embodiment is a privileged agent installation system in which the privilege processing means 30 shown in FIG. 1 is realized by a privileged agent.

(I) The privileged agent has the following functions. When a general (parent) agent dies, it has a function to obtain information on the processing request form from the parent agent to the child agent and information on whether or not the child agent is stationed in its own engine by one of the following: .

A) Asynchronous report from engine when parent agent dies. b) or response from engine to periodic inquiry from privileged agent.

Either of these is determined for each system.
Of course, both acquisition methods may be used in one system. Examine the relationship between the dying general (parent) agent and its child agent. If the relationship is "non-consignment type",
Immediately suppress the child agent's useless behavior. The procedure is described below.

I) If the child agent is stationed in its own engine, it is deleted. Or, it instructs cancellation of the processing request. ii) If it is not stationed in its own engine, it broadcasts to the privileged agents of all other engines a command to forcibly delete the agent / cancel the processing request.

Iii) Upon receiving a broadcast for instructing cancellation of a forced deletion / processing request from a privileged agent on another engine, instructs a designated child agent to cancel / cancel the processing request.

Here, there are a method of performing broadcast notification by a child agent of a privileged agent and a method of performing data communication between engines. Which method is implemented is a matter of design and may be either.

(II) In the engine, the following functions are added corresponding to the privileged agent. Control is performed so that only one privileged agent is created when the engine starts, and disappears when the engine ends.

At or after the disappearance of the agent in the engine, the disappearance event of the agent and the agent state management information such as the processing request form of the child agent from the parent agent are transmitted to the privileged agent.

The processing of the privileged agent is executed with priority over other general agents. In addition to the processing permitted by the general agent, only the privileged agent is provided with a function to delete the general agent / cancel the processing request.

Forced disappearance from privileged agent on own engine to privileged agent on other engine /
Provides a function to transmit a processing request cancellation command. This is an example of an implementation of the interface mechanism between privileged processes shown in FIG. 1, for example, and there are implementation variations such as a system via an external independent process and a system having a direct communication interface between privileged agents. Matters.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing according to the first embodiment. Hereinafter, the processing (1) to (16) shown in FIG.
It will be described according to. (1) Under normal load, on the local engine 20, the parent agent-A becomes two child agents-a,
Let a 'be generated. The local engine 20 records whether the processing request form to the child agents -a, a 'is a consignment type or a non-consignment type.

(2) In accordance with the operation of the child agents -a, a ', actions such as whether the child agents -a, a' are stationed in their own engines are recorded. (3) When the load becomes high, the agent waits for a long time, and the parent agent-A reaches the end of its life, the local engine 20 disappears when the life of the parent agent-A reaches.

(4) The local engine 20 informs the privileged agent of the information of the child agent-a, a '(along with the presence / absence of the child agent in its own engine, The type division (consignment type / non-consignment type) is transmitted to the privileged agent.

(5) Further, the local engine 20 performs control for executing the processing of the privileged agent with priority over other general agents. Therefore, when there is an instruction from the privileged agent, it is executed without delay even in a high load state.

(6) The privileged agent acquires the agent status management information notified from the local engine 20. (7) Based on the information, the privileged agent determines whether or not the disappeared parent agent-A has a child agent. If there is a child agent, the processing request form is non-consignment type (the parent agent is a child agent. It is determined whether or not the request form is a request form for waiting for a processing result. If there is no child agent or if the request type is outsourced, the privileged agent does nothing.

(8) If a child agent exists and the processing request form to the child agent is a non-consignment type, it is checked whether the child agent is stationed in its own engine. If the engine is stationed at another engine, the process proceeds to processing (12).

(9) When the child agent is stationed in its own engine, it instructs the local engine 20 to cancel the processing of the child agent. (10) In the local engine 20, the child agent-a on its own engine
Forcibly cancels the process. As a result,
Faster easing of load.

(11) The privileged agent further checks whether another engine has a child agent, and terminates the processing if there is no child agent. If there is, the following processing (12) is executed.

(12) The privileged agent issues an instruction to the remote engine 20 'to cancel the processing of the child agent-a'. (13) The local engine 20 transfers the instruction from the privileged agent to the remote engine 20 '.

(14) The remote engine 2 receiving the notification
0 'transmits an instruction to the privileged agent to the privileged agent on the remote engine. (15) Upon receiving the instruction, the privileged agent instructs the remote engine 20 'to cancel the processing of the child agent-a'.

(16) Upon receiving the instruction, the remote engine 20 'forcibly cancels the processing of the child agent-a'. This prevents a high load. In addition, the privileged agent in this example periodically monitors status management information of the general agent to determine whether there is an agent in which communication between the parent and the child continues for a predetermined time or more, for example. If agents are found, it is easy to forcibly kill both agents.

As a result, it is possible to crack down on the parent-child agent that maliciously increases the system load, and to prevent adverse effects. [Second Embodiment] The second embodiment is an example of a system using a privileged process in which the privilege processing means 30 shown in FIG. 1 is realized by a privileged process.

In this embodiment, the function of the above-described privileged agent is realized by absorbing the privileged agent into a privileged process installed separately from the process in which the engine runs. This method has a feature that when the engine controls the execution of the agent by an interpreter method, the overhead is smaller than that of the privileged agent method.

In order to make the execution priority of the privileged process higher than that of the general agent, it is possible to deal with this by setting the execution priority of the OS level higher than that of the engine. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process according to the second embodiment. Hereinafter, description will be made in accordance with the processes (1) to (15) shown in FIG.

(1) It is assumed that the parent agent-A generates two child agents-a and a 'on the local engine 20 under normal load. The local engine 20 records whether the processing request form to the child agents -a, a 'is a consignment type or a non-consignment type.

(2) In accordance with the operation of the child agents -a, a ', actions such as whether the child agents -a, a' are stationed in their own engines are recorded. (3) When the load becomes high, the agent waits for a long time, and the parent agent-A reaches the end of its life, the local engine 20 disappears when the life of the parent agent-A reaches.

(4) The local engine 20 informs the local privileged process of the child agent-a, a 'together with the notification of the death of the parent agent-A. The request category (consignment type / non-consignment type) is transmitted to the local privileged process.

(5) In the local privileged process, the agent status management information notified from the local engine 20 is obtained. (6) Based on the information, the local privileged process determines whether the lost parent agent-A has a child agent, and if there is a child agent, the processing request form is non-consignment type (the parent agent is a child agent). (A request form for waiting for the processing result of (1)) is determined. When there is no child agent or when the processing request form is a consignment type, the local privileged process does nothing.

(7) If a child agent exists and the processing request form to the child agent is a non-consignment type, it is checked whether or not the child agent is stationed in its own engine. If the engine is stationed at another engine, the process proceeds to processing (11).

(8) When the child agent is stationed in its own engine, the local engine 20 is instructed to cancel the processing of the child agent. (9) The local engine 20 forcibly cancels the processing of the child agent-a on its own engine in accordance with an instruction from the local privileged process. As a result, the load can be calmed down faster than before.

(10) The local privileged process further checks whether or not another engine has a child agent. If there is no child agent, the process ends. If there is, the next processing (11)
Execute

(11) The local privileged process issues an instruction to the remote engine 20 'to cancel the processing of the child agent-a'. (12) The local engine 20 transfers the instruction from the local privileged process to the remote engine 20 '.

(13) Remote engine 2 receiving the notification
0 'transmits the instruction to the remote privileged process on the remote engine. (14) The remote privileged process instructs the remote engine 20 'to cancel the processing of the child agent-a'.

(15) Upon receiving the instruction, the remote engine 20 'forcibly cancels the processing of the child agent-a'. This prevents a high load. [Third Embodiment] The third embodiment is an example of a supervisory control system using an engine, and is realized by absorbing the function corresponding to the above-described privileged agent as a local / remote engine control function. I do.

This method is characterized in that there is no division loss between the engine and the privileged agent and the overhead is small as compared with the above-described privileged agent method of the first embodiment. However, when a new system is individually regulated against a high load caused by malicious intent, the above-described first embodiment can easily cope with the change of only the privileged agent. Becomes difficult.

Further, when there is no bottleneck in the engine, it is advantageous as compared with the above-described second embodiment, since there is no process division loss. However, in a system where the processing capacity of a process equipped with an engine has a bottleneck in the system, the second embodiment is more effective because the engine load associated with execution of the privilege processing function is distributed to another process. is there.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing according to the third embodiment. Hereinafter, the processing (1) to (11) shown in FIG.
It will be described according to. (1) Under normal load, on the local engine 20, the parent agent-A becomes two child agents-a,
Let a 'be generated. The local engine 20 records whether the processing request form to the child agents -a, a 'is a consignment type or a non-consignment type.

(2) In accordance with the operation of the child agents -a, a ', actions such as whether the child agents -a, a' are stationed in their own engines are recorded. (3) When the load becomes high, the agent waits for a long time, and the parent agent-A reaches the end of its life, the local engine 20 disappears when the life of the parent agent-A reaches.

(4) The local engine 20 calls a process corresponding to a privileged agent in the engine, and stores the agent status management information (the child agent resides in the
No, the type of processing request form (consignment type / non-consignment type) is acquired.

(5) Based on the information, whether or not the disappeared parent agent-A has a child agent, and if there is a child agent, the processing request form is a non-consignment type (the parent agent processes the child agent. It is determined whether or not the request is a request waiting for the result). If no child agent exists or if the request type is a commission type, nothing is processed.

(6) If a child agent exists and the processing request form to the child agent is a non-consignment type, it is checked whether the child agent is stationed in its own engine. If the engine is stationed at another engine, the process proceeds to processing (9).

(7) When the child agent is stationed in the own engine, the main processor of the local engine 20 is instructed to cancel the processing of the child agent, and the processing of the child agent-a on the own engine is forced. Cancel.
As a result, the load can be calmed down faster than before.

(8) In the process corresponding to the privileged agent in the engine, it is further checked whether or not another engine has a child agent. If there is no child agent, the process is terminated. If so, the following processing (9) is performed.

(9) The local engine 20 issues an instruction to cancel the processing of the child agent-a 'to all the remote engines 20' and the like. (10) The remote engine 20 'receives the processing cancel instruction.

(11) Upon receiving the cancellation of the processing of the child agent-a ', the remote engine 20'
The processing of a 'is forcibly canceled. This prevents a high load.

[0085]

Conventionally, the time-out or death of one agent has triggered a high load. For this reason, sufficient computer resources had to be prepared so as not to enter such a high load state, and a huge capital investment was required.

On the other hand, by introducing a privileged agent or a processing means corresponding to a privileged agent, the equipment only needs to realize the net agent processing amount required for the system. Agent processing system for which
It can be constructed more economically than before.

Further, malicious use may cause an autonomous agent to consume useless computer resources and cause the system to fall into a high load state. Such security measures are often individual measures for each system, and it is required to quickly add a new measure against a new threat. However, the conventional engine alone was limited to handling only general-purpose functions, and it was difficult to deal with individual systems.

On the other hand, in the present invention, the security policy of the individual service provider can be realized by causing the privileged agent to monitor the status of the general agent and to control the unauthorized agent. As described above, the present invention also leads to improvement in safety.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation example of a conventional method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 10 ', 10 "processing unit 20, 20', 20" engine 21 agent execution control unit 22 agent state management unit 23 state management information notification unit 24 agent processing cancellation unit 30, 30 ', 30 "privilege processing means 31 agent Status acquisition unit 32 Local agent processing cancellation request unit 33 Remote agent processing cancellation request unit 34 Interface mechanism between privileged processes 40, 40 ′, 40 ″ Agent 50 Network

Claims (4)

[Claims] An agent capable of walking across a plurality of processing devices in a network and acting autonomously in order to perform work on behalf of a user of an information processing system, and the agent in each processing device in the network. In an information processing system comprising an engine for controlling execution and managing the status of an agent, an agent status obtaining means for receiving notification of the status management information of the agent from the engine, and an agent which has died based on the obtained status management information of the agent. When the generated child agent is stationed in the same engine, it is determined that the child agent is to be killed or the processing request is canceled, and the local agent processing cancellation request means for giving an instruction to the engine and the acquired state management information of the agent. A certain death If a child agent created by a failed agent resides in another remote processing device, the request to determine the death of the child agent or the cancellation of the processing request and to instruct the other remote processing device to perform the remote agent processing cancellation request Means for managing agent state management information including a processing request form from a parent agent to a child agent; and agent state management information for the agent. On the occasion of death or when the privilege processing means requests notification,
State management information notifying means for notifying the privilege processing means;
An agent monitoring control method, comprising: agent processing canceling means for forcibly killing a specified agent or canceling a processing request to a specified agent based on a request from the privilege processing means. 2. The agent monitoring and control system according to claim 1, wherein said privilege processing means comprises a privileged agent which is executed with higher priority than a general agent. . 3. The agent monitoring control system according to claim 1, wherein said privilege processing means is constituted by a process execution means having a higher execution priority than a general agent and different from a process in which said engine runs. Agent monitoring control method characterized by the following. 4. An agent capable of walking across a plurality of processing devices in a network and acting autonomously in order to perform work on behalf of a user of an information processing system, and the agent in each processing device in the network. In an information processing system comprising an engine for performing execution control and state management of the agent, the engine comprises: agent state management means for managing state management information of an agent including a processing request form from a parent agent to a child agent; Based on the status management information, when a child agent created by a deceased agent is stationed in its own engine at the moment of death of a parent agent or an instruction from an engine running on another processing device, the child agent is forcibly removed. Kill or his child When a child agent created by a deceased parent agent is stationed in another remote processing device based on the agent's state management information and a certain parent agent's death trigger based on the agent's state management information. And a remote agent processing cancellation request means for deciding the death of the child agent or canceling the processing request and issuing an instruction to an engine on another remote processing device.