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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">
<erlref>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>1996</year><year>2013</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
under the License.
</legalnotice>
<title>overload</title>
<prepared>Peter Högfeldt</prepared>
<responsible>Peter Högfeldt</responsible>
<docno></docno>
<approved>(Joe Armstrong)</approved>
<checked></checked>
<date>1996-10-29</date>
<rev>A</rev>
<file>overload.sgml</file>
</header>
<module>overload</module>
<modulesummary>An Overload Regulation Process</modulesummary>
<description>
<p><c>overload</c> is a process which indirectly regulates CPU
usage in the system. The idea is that a main application calls
the <c>request/0</c> function before starting a major job, and
proceeds with the job if the return value is positive; otherwise
the job must not be started.
</p>
<p><c>overload</c> is part of the <c>sasl</c> application, and all
configuration parameters are defined there.
</p>
<p>A set of two intensities are maintained, the <c>total intensity</c> and the <c>accept intensity</c>. For that purpose
there are two configuration parameters, the <c>MaxIntensity</c>
and the <c>Weight</c> value (both are measured in 1/second).
</p>
<p>Then total and accept intensities are calculated as
follows. Assume that the time of the current call to
<c>request/0</c> is <c>T(n)</c>, and that the time of the
previous call was <c>T(n-1)</c>.
</p>
<list type="bulleted">
<item>
<p>The current <c>total intensity</c>, denoted
<c>TI(n)</c>, is calculated according to the formula,
</p>
<p><c>TI(n) = exp(-Weight*(T(n) - T(n-1)) * TI(n-1) + Weight</c>,
</p>
<p>where <c>TI(n-1)</c> is the previous total intensity.
</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>The current <c>accept intensity</c>, denoted
<c>AI(n)</c>, is determined by the formula,
</p>
<p><c>AI(n) = exp(-Weight*(T(n) - T(n-1)) * AI(n-1) + Weight</c>,
</p>
<p>where <c>AI(n-1)</c> is the previous accept intensity,
provided that the value of <c>exp(-Weight*(T(n) - T(n-1)) * AI(n-1)</c> is less than <c>MaxIntensity</c>; otherwise the
value is
</p>
<p><c>AI(n) = exp(-Weight*(T(n) - T(n-1)) * AI(n-1)</c>.
</p>
</item>
</list>
<p>The value of configuration parameter <c>Weight</c> controls the
speed with which the calculations of intensities will react to
changes in the underlying input intensity. The inverted value of
<c>Weight</c>,
</p>
<p><c>T = 1/Weight</c></p>
<p>can be thought of as the "time constant"
of the intensity calculation formulas. For example, if <c>Weight = 0.1</c>, then a change in the underlying input intensity will be
reflected in the <c>total</c> and <c>accept intensities</c> within
approximately 10 seconds.
</p>
<p>The overload process defines one alarm, which it sets using
<c>alarm_handler:set_alarm(Alarm)</c>. <c>Alarm</c> is defined
as:
</p>
<taglist>
<tag><c>{overload, []}</c></tag>
<item>
<p>This alarm is set when the current accept intensity exceeds
<c>MaxIntensity</c>.
</p>
</item>
</taglist>
<p>A new overload alarm is not set until the current accept
intensity has fallen below <c>MaxIntensity</c>. To prevent the
overload process from generating a lot of set/reset alarms, the
alarm is not reset until the current accept intensity has fallen
below 75% of <c>MaxIntensity</c>, and it is not until then that
the alarm can be set again.
</p>
</description>
<funcs>
<func>
<name>request() -> accept | reject</name>
<fsummary>Request to proceed with current job</fsummary>
<desc>
<p>Returns <c>accept</c> or <c>reject</c> depending on the
current value of the accept intensity. </p>
<p>The application
calling this function should be processed with the job in
question if the return value is <c>accept</c>; otherwise it
should not continue with that job.
</p>
</desc>
</func>
<func>
<name>get_overload_info() -> OverloadInfo</name>
<fsummary>Return current overload information data</fsummary>
<type>
<v>OverloadInfo = [{total_intensity, TotalIntensity}, {accept_intensity, AcceptIntensity}, {max_intensity, MaxIntensity}, {weight, Weight}, {total_requests, TotalRequests}, {accepted_requests, AcceptedRequests}].</v>
<v>TotalIntensity = float() > 0</v>
<v>AcceptIntensity = float() > 0</v>
<v>MaxIntensity = float() > 0</v>
<v>Weight = float() > 0</v>
<v>TotalRequests = integer()</v>
<v>AcceptedRequests = integer()</v>
</type>
<desc>
<p>Returns the current total and accept intensities, the
configuration parameters, and absolute counts of the total
number of requests, and accepted number of requests (since
the overload process was started).</p>
</desc>
</func>
</funcs>
<section>
<title>See Also</title>
<p>alarm_handler(3), sasl(3)
</p>
</section>
</erlref>
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