Patent Issued for Dynamic allocation of resources (USPTO 11803423): United Services Automobile Association

2023 NOV 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Culbertson, II, William Preston (Plant City, FL, US), Osterkamp, Brian J. (New Braunfels, TX, US), Philbrick, Ashley Raine (San Antonio, TX, US), Post, Nathan Lee (Rockport, TX, US), Russell, Ryan Thomas (The Colony, TX, US), filed on May 18, 2022, was published online on October 31, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11803423 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:

“1. Field of the Invention

“The present invention relates to dynamic allocation of computer resources. In particular, the invention relates to dynamical allocation of resources in a shared system of virtual computing machines.

“2. Description of Related Art

“Computing machines are available in a variety of configurations. For example, personal computers are designed to be used by one user. Personal computers may be configured to emphasize computing power, memory, or storage, depending upon the interests of the user and the intended uses.

“Whereas a personal computer may be convenient for a user, providing a personal computer to each employee of a business may become costly as costs for individuals individual licenses for software may be required. Administrative tasks required to monitor and administer such licenses for individual computers owned by the company and loaned to individuals may be significant. Further, security may be an issue, as individual computers may be stolen or lost.

“Individual computers given to employees of companies are subject to the same costs, failures, and risks. Thus, an enterprise may prefer to utilize a central computing system. Using a central computing system increases security both for the individual and for the business. However, central computing systems may increase downtime if a server must be removed from service to re-configure an individual user’s machine when the user’s needs change. Downtime also may increase if security on the server is compromised, and each of the users of the server must be inconvenienced by the interruption of service.

“Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method that addresses the shortcomings of the prior art discussed above.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, the disclosure is directed to a method for dynamically allocating computing resources to plural virtual computing machines in a shared system. The computing resources include processing resources, memory resources, and storage resources. In accordance with the method, an initial allocation is made for each computing resource for each virtual computing machine. The system monitors a current demand for each computing resource for each of the plurality of virtual computing machines to identify changes in the current demand.

“The system then identifies a first virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of a first computing resource is approaching a first predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the first virtual computing machine. The system then dynamically allocates unused first computing resource to the first virtual computing machine to satisfy the current demand for the first computing resource.

“In another aspect, the disclosure is directed to a method for dynamically allocating computing resources to plural virtual computing machines in a shared system. Computing resources includes processing resources, memory resources, and storage resources.

“In accordance with this aspect of the disclosure, the system determines an initial allocation for each computing resource for each virtual computing machine. The system monitors a current demand for each computing resource for each one of a plurality of virtual computing machines to identify changes in the current demand. The system identifies a first virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of a first computing resource is approaching a first predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the first virtual computing machine. The system also identifies a second virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of the first computing resource is less than a second predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the second virtual computing machine.

“The server then makes a dynamic allocation of at least part of the first computing resource from the second virtual computing machine to the first virtual computing machine to meet the current demand for the first computing resource in the first virtual computing machine.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for dynamically allocating computing resources to a plurality of virtual computing machines in a shared system, the method comprising the steps of: determining an initial allocation for each computing resource for each virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines; monitoring a current demand for each computing resource for each one of the plurality of virtual computing machines to identify changes in the current demand; identifying a first virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of a first computing resource is approaching a first predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to a first user of the first virtual computing machine; identifying a second virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines in which a second user uses a portion of computing resources provided by the second virtual computing machine and a third virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines in which a third user uses a portion of computing resources provided by the third virtual computing machine; consolidating a computing resource usage for each computing resource of the second user and a computing resource usage for each computing resource of the third user into the second virtual computing machine by dynamically allocating computing resources from the second virtual computing machine and computing resources from the third virtual computing machine and then freeing computing resource usage of the third virtual computing machine; and dynamically allocating unused computing resources of the third virtual computing machine to the first user of the first virtual computing machine to satisfy a current demand for each computing resource by the first user in excess of resources provided by the first virtual computing machine; wherein an order in which the computing resources from the second virtual computing machine and the computing resources from the third virtual computing machine are dynamically allocated is based on a likelihood that a return of a dynamically allocated resource will be required before return allocation of other dynamically allocated resources.

“2. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 1, wherein the computing resource usage for each computing resource of the second user and the computing resource usage for each computing resource of the third user are provided using an available amount of each computing resource of the second virtual computing machine.

“3. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 1, wherein the first computing resource is a processing resource.

“4. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 1, wherein the first computing resource is a memory resource.

“5. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 1, wherein the first computing resource is a storage resource.

“6. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 1, wherein the second user and the third user share each computing resource of the second virtual machine.

“7. A method for dynamically allocating computing resources to a plurality of virtual computing machines in a shared system, the method comprising the steps of: determining an initial allocation for each computing resource for each virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines; monitoring a current demand for each computing resource for each one of the plurality of virtual computing machines to identify changes in the current demand; identifying a first virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of a first computing resource is approaching a first predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the first virtual computing machine, wherein the first computing resource is a processing resource; identifying a second virtual computing machine and a third virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of the first computing resource is less than a second predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the second virtual computing machine and the third virtual computing machine; and dynamically allocating at least a part of the first computing resource from the second virtual computing machine and from the third virtual computing machine to the first virtual computing machine to meet the current demand for the first computing resource in the first virtual computing machine; and wherein an order in which the first computing resource from the second virtual computing machine and the first computing resource from the third virtual computing machine are dynamically allocated is based on a likelihood that a return of a dynamically allocated resource will be required before a return allocation of another dynamically allocated resource.

“8. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 7, wherein the first computing resource is an entire processing core.

“9. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 7, wherein the first computing resource is a specific processing core and is from at least one of a same memory channel and a same memory rank corresponding to a given memory resource address.

“10. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 7, wherein the dynamically allocating includes dynamically allocating available computing resources on the second virtual computing machine to the first virtual computing machine.

“11. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 7, further comprising: identifying a second computing resource for which usage by the first virtual computing machine of the second computing resource is approaching a first predetermined threshold of the second computing resource allotted to the first virtual computing machine, wherein the second computing resource is a memory resource; and dynamically allocating at least a part of the second computing resource from the second virtual computing machine to the first virtual computing machine to meet a current demand for the second computing resource in the first virtual computing machine.

“12. The method for dynamically allocating computer resources of claim 7, wherein the step of monitoring the current demand for each computing resource includes monitoring an amount of storage used by at least one of the plurality of virtual machines.

“13. The method for dynamically allocating computer resources of claim 7, wherein the second predetermined threshold of the second computing resource is less than 30 percent.

“14. The method for dynamically allocating computing resources of claim 7, wherein the step of monitoring the current demand for each computing resource includes monitoring an amount of memory used by at least one of the plurality of virtual machines.

“15. A shared system for dynamically allocating computing resources to a plurality of virtual computing machines in the shared system, the shared system comprising: at least one processor, configured to: determine an initial allocation for each computing resource for each virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines; monitor a current demand for each computing resource for each one of the plurality of virtual computing machines in the system to identify changes in the current demand; identify a first virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines having usage of a first computing resource approaching a first predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the first virtual computing machine; identify a second virtual computing machine of the plurality of virtual computing machines for which usage of the first computing resource is less than a second predetermined threshold of the first computing resource allotted to the second virtual computing machine; and dynamically allocate computing resources from the second virtual computing machine to the first virtual computing machine to meet the current demand for the first computing resource for the first virtual computing machine; wherein computing resources are also dynamically allocated from a third virtual computing machine to meet the current demand for the first computing resource for the first virtual computing machine; wherein an order in which the computing resources from the second virtual computing machine and the computing resources from the third virtual computing machine are dynamically allocated is based on a likelihood that a return of a dynamically allocated resource will be required before return allocation of other dynamically allocated resources.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the likelihood that a return of a dynamically allocated resource will be required before return allocation of other dynamically allocated resources is determined based on monitoring demand for dynamically allocated resources.

“17. The system of claim 15, wherein the first computing resource is a processing resource.

“18. The system of claim 15, wherein the first computing resource is a memory resource.

“19. The system of claim 15, wherein the first computing resource is a storage resource.

“20. The system of claim 15, wherein a plurality of computing resources from a virtual computing machine are dynamically allocated together.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Culbertson, II, William Preston. Dynamic allocation of resources. U.S. Patent Number 11803423, filed May 18, 2022, and published online on October 31, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11803423)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)