Many enterprises are beginning to exploit shared resource pool environments. In these environments, the application workloads exploit a common set of hardware resources. These are complex environments where selecting per-application scheduler parameter settings is a challenging task. It is a challenge because i) the capacity of resource pools are generally overbooked, i.e., the sum of per-application peak demands are greater than the capacity of the pool, and ii) because different applications can have different quality of service (QoS) requirements that are affected by the applications' ability to obtain capacity when needed.

We are designing and developing a capacity management service for resource pools that support enterprise applications. It automatically searches for workload assignments that best meet objectives such as consolidation, load leveling, and problem solving. Consolidation packs workloads onto a small set of resources, load leveling distributes workloads across a fixed size resource pool to lessen the likelihood of service level violations, and problem solving recommends alternative assignments to lessen the impact of unexpected demands on a particular resource. The service evaluates alternative workload assignments more quickly and accurately than human operators. As a result it can lower administrative costs, reduce the risks associated with resource sharing, and improve the use of resource pool infrastructure.

Related Papers and Reports

• D. Gmach, J. Rolia, L. Cherkasova, and A. Kemper: Workload Analysis and Demand Prediction of Enterprise Data Center Applications. Proc. of the 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Workload Characterization (IISWC'2007), Boston, MA, USA, September 27-29, 2007.

• D. Gmach, J. Rolia, L. Cherkasova, and A. Kemper: Capacity Management and Demand Prediction for Next Generation Data Centers. Proc. of the International IEEE Conference on Web Services (ICWS'2007), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, July 9-13, 2007.

• J. Rolia, L. Cherkasova, and R. Friedrich: Performance Engineering for EA Systems in Next Generation Data Centres. Proc. of the Sixth International Workshop on Software and Performance (WOSP'2007), Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 5-8, 2007.

• L. Cherkasova and J. Rolia: R-Opus: A Composite Framework for Application Performability and QoS in Shared Resource Pools. In Proc. of the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, (DSN'2006), Philadelphia, PA, USA, June, 2006.

• J. Rolia, L. Cherkasova, C. McCarthy: Configuring Workload Manager Control Parameters for Resource Pools. Proc. of the 10th IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS'2006), Vancouver, Canada, April 2006.

• J. Rolia, L. Cherkasova, M. Arlitt, Vijay Machiraju: An Automated Approach for Supporting Application QoS in Shared Resource Pools. IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Self-Managed Systems & Services (SELFMAN'2005), France, Nice, May 19, 2005, co-located with IM 2005.

• J. Rolia, L. Cherkasova, M. Arlitt, A. Andrzejak: A Capacity Management Service for Resource Pools. Proc. of the Fifth International Workshop on Software and Performance (WOSP'2005), Spain, July 11-15, 2005.