System and method for determining how many servers of at least one server configuration to be included at a service provider's site for supporting an expected workload

Abstract

A method comprises receiving, into a capacity planning system, workload information representing an expected workload of client accesses of streaming media files from a site. The method further comprises the capacity planning system determining, for at least one server configuration, how many servers of the at least one server configuration to be included at the site for supporting the expected workload in a desired manner.

1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, into a capacity planning system including a computer system, workload information representing an expected workload of client accesses of streaming media files from a site;   said capacity planning system determining, for each of a plurality of different server configurations, how many servers of each of the different server configurations to be included at said site for supporting the expected workload in the target manner, wherein a first of the plurality of different server configurations has a memory size or disk storage configuration that differs from a memory size or disk configuration, respectively, of a second of the plurality of different server configurations; and   said capacity planning system selecting a type of load balancing strategy from among a plurality of types of load balancing strategies to use for the expected workload.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said workload information includes identification of a number of concurrent client accesses of said streaming media files from said site over a period of time. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said workload information further includes identification of a corresponding encoding bit rate of each of said streaming media files accessed. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, into said capacity planning system, configuration information for each of said server configurations.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said determining how many servers of each of the different server configurations to be included at said site for supporting the expected workload in the target manner comprises:
 computing a cost corresponding to resources of each server configuration that are consumed in supporting the expected workload.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein said computing said cost comprises:
 computing a cost of consumed resources for a stream in said expected workload having a memory access to a streaming media file; and   computing a cost of consumed resources for a stream in said expected workload having a disk access to a streaming media file.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving at least one service parameter associated with a service level agreement, and   identifying the plurality of different server configurations that are able to support the expected workload in accordance with the service level agreement.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said at least one service parameter comprises information identifying at least one performance criteria to be satisfied by said site in supporting the expected workload in the target manner. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein said determining how many servers of each of the different server configurations to be included at said site for supporting the expected workload in the target manner comprises:
 determining how many servers of each of the different server configurations to be included at said site for supporting the expected workload in a manner that satisfies said at least one service parameter. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plural types of load balancing strategies include a round robin strategy and a locality-aware strategy. 
     
     
         11 . A method comprising:
 receiving, into a capacity planning system including a computer system, workload information representing an expected workload of client accesses of streaming media files from a site;   said capacity planning system determining, for at least one server configuration, how many servers of said at least one server configuration to be included at said site for supporting the expected workload in a target manner;   said capacity planning system selecting a type of load balancing strategy from among a plurality of types of load balancing strategies to use for the expected workload;   receiving at least one service parameter associated with a service level agreement;   identifying plural server configurations that are able to support the expected workload in accordance with the service level agreement, wherein the at least one server configuration is one of the plural server configurations, wherein a first of the plural server configurations has a memory size or disk storage configuration that differs from a memory size or disk configuration, respectively, of a second of the plural server configurations,   wherein said at least one service parameter comprises information identifying at least one performance criteria to be satisfied by said site in supporting the expected workload in the target manner.   
     
     
         12 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable software code that upon execution cause a system to:
 receive workload information representing an expected workload of client accesses of streaming media files from a site;   determine how many servers of each of a plurality of configuration types to be implemented as a cluster at said site for supporting the expected workload in a target manner, wherein a first server according to a first of the plurality of configuration types has a memory size or disk storage configuration that differs from a memory size or disk configuration, respectively, of a server according to a second of the plurality of configuration types; and   select a type of load balancing strategy from among a plurality of types of load balancing strategies to use for the expected workload.   
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein determining how many servers of each configuration type to be implemented as a cluster at said site for supporting the expected workload in the target manner comprises:
 determining how many servers of each configuration type is capable of supporting said expected workload in accordance with at least one service parameter.   
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein said at least one service parameter comprises information identifying at least one performance criteria desired to be satisfied by said site under the expected workload. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein the software code upon execution cause the system to further:
 generate a workload profile for the received workload information for a server of a given one of the configuration types, wherein said workload profile comprises, for a plurality of different points in time, identification of a number of concurrent client accesses, wherein the number of concurrent client accesses are categorized into corresponding encoding bit rates of streaming media files accessed thereby and are further sub-categorized into either memory or disk accesses.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein the plural types of load balancing strategies include a round robin strategy and a locality-aware strategy. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein selecting the type of load balancing strategy from among the plurality of types of load balancing strategies is based on evaluating the plurality of types of load balancing strategies for the expected workload.