Hierarchical model-based autonomic control of software systems

Abstract

Various control algorithms are used in autonomic control to maintain Quality of Service (QoS) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Controllers are all based to some extent on models of the relationship between resources, QoS measures, and the workload imposed by the environment. This work discusses the range of algorithms with an emphasis on richer and more powerful models to describe non-linear performance relationships, and strong interactions among the system resources. A hierarchical framework is described which accommodates different scopes and timescales of control actions, and different control algorithms. The control algorithms and architectures can be considered in three stages: tuning, load balancing and provisioning. Different situations warrant different solutions, so this work shows how different control algorithms and architectures at the three stages can be combined to fit into different autonomic environments to meet QoS and SLAs across a large variety of workloads.

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Index Terms

• Computer systems organization

  • Dependable and fault-tolerant systems and networks

• General and reference

  • Cross-computing tools and techniques

    • Performance

• Networks

  • Network performance evaluation

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Management of computing and information systems

      • Software management

        • Software maintenance

• Software and its engineering

  • Software notations and tools

    • Context specific languages

      • Domain specific languages

  • Software organization and properties

    • Software system structures

      • Distributed systems organizing principles

        • Organizing principles for web applications

      • Software architectures