Apparatus and methods for sharing idle workstations
US5978829A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 5, 1996 |
| Grant date | Nov 2, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 5, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/3495
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention relates to systems for sharing idle workstation computers that are connected together through a network and shared file system. More particularly, a user of a local host workstation may submit jobs for execution on remote workstations. The systems of the present invention select a remote host that is idle in accordance with a decentralized scheduling scheme and then continuously monitor the activity of the remote host on which the job is executing. If the system detects certain activity on the remote host by one of the remote host's primary users, the execution of the job is immediately suspended to prevent inconvenience to the primary users. The system also suspends job execution if the remote host's load average gets too high. Either way, the suspended job is migrated by selecting another idle remote workstation to resume execution of the suspended job (from the point in time at which the last checkpoint occurred).
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.