Microsoft patents cloud system that fixes slow server nodes
Microsoft has filed a patent for a system that monitors groups of computer servers to find ones that are running slower than expected. When a slow server is detected, the system creates a special 'compensator' program that runs on that server to help balance the workload without using extra resources.
In the filing’s own words
A Kubernetes cluster is a set of nodes networked together. Each node has a fixed capacity of allocatable resources. When a workload is deployed onto a Kubernetes cluster, one or more pods are created. To use the resources, a pod can specify a quantity of resources it needs to do its work. Implicit in this work allocation scheme is that nodes are capable of performing up to their rated capacity. However, this assumption is not always true as there may be differences across the nodes that are not evident from their rated capacity. In some applications that are particularly sensitive to latency, these differences in execution time may not be acceptable. The presently disclosed technology monitors for nodes that are performing outside of a normal range and assigning compensator workload pods to compensate for underperforming nodes and/or assigning fewer compensator workload pods to compensate for overperforming nodes.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A container orchestration cluster comprising: a set of nodes to execute a set of pods; a control plane running a scheduler to schedule the pods on the nodes; an abnormal node detector to identify an underperforming node within the set of nodes; and a compensator pod generator to create a compensator pod within the set of pods assigned to the identified underperforming node, wherein the compensator pod does not consume its assigned resources and is assigned a higher scheduling priority than other pods within the set of pods, the control plane further to schedule the compensator pod on the underperforming node.
Facts
- Company
- Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
- Official title
- CONTAINER ORCHESTRATION SYSTEM WITH DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTABLE NODE CAPACITY
- Publication number
- US20260267675A1
- Application number
- 19073978
- Filed
- Mar 7, 2025
- Published
- Sep 10, 2026
- Inventors
- 5
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06F 9/45558 Physics & computingG06F 2009/45562 Physics & computingG06F 2009/45591 Physics & computingMore from Microsoft in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.