Notification of computing capacity status

• US 10,163,152 B1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ward, Jr., David John, Kim, Jin Seop, Elliott, Stephen Alden, Ingram, Rusenia Carpio, Ennaji, Rachid, Helfrich, Brian, Kapila, Dhanvi Harsha, Zhai, Peng
• Primary Examiner(s): Vyas, Abhishek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gaw, Mark H
• Application Number:
  US13/829,661
• Time in Patent Office: 2,112 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

One or more computing instances are instantiated and allocated to customers. The computing instances have a modifiable interruptibility property that is operable to allow a computing instance to be terminated or reallocated from a first customer to a second customer. Requests for additional computing instances having modifiable interruptibility properties are received. Information pertaining to the instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing instances is provided. The information may include a current status of the instantiated computing instances or requested additional computing resources.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices;

at least one memory having stored therein computer instructions that, upon execution by the one or more computing devices of the system, at least cause the system to;

instantiate a computing instance on one of the one or more computing devices;

associate the computing instance with a first user as long as a maximum billing price assigned to the first user for the computing instance exceeds a predetermined price level for the computing instance;

provide, by an application programming interface, information pertaining to a current status of the computing instance including data indicative of a change in a predetermined price level and a potential termination of the computing instance, wherein the system is configured to continue to provide uninterrupted access to the computing instance to the first user until receiving an indication that the access may be terminated, the indication communicated via the application programming interface;

receive, by the application programming interface, one or more requests indicative of actions for the computing instance based upon the updated price level, wherein the actions are responsive to the indication that access may be terminated; and

perform the actions based at least in part on the one or more requests, wherein prior to the user'"'"'s instance being terminated, at least one of the actions comprises storing in a storage medium a snapshot of the state of the computing instance for later use when the received request indicates that access will be terminated.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more requests comprise a request to perform checkpointing.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more requests comprise a request to unsubscribe to a service provided by the system.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the information pertaining to the current status provided by the application programming interface (API).

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more requests comprise a request to convert the computing instance to a reserved or on-demand instance.

6. A method for providing computing resources comprising a computing instance by a provider network, the method comprising:

in a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing devices providing the computing resources, instantiate the computing instance on one of the plurality of computing devices;

receiving, a request to provide access to the computing instance, the request based on a maximum price rate for the computing instance and wherein the computing instance is uninterrupted by the maximum price rate being above a predetermined price rate;

providing, by the application programming interface, information pertaining to a current status of the computing instance including data indicative of a change in a predetermined price rate and a potential termination of the computing instance, wherein the system is configured to continue to provide uninterrupted access to the computing instance to the first user until receiving an indication that the access may be terminated, the indication communicated via the application programming interface; and

receiving, by the application programming interface, information indicative of at least one action to perform responsive to the information;

performing the at least one action; and

terminating the computing instance based on receiving an indication, based on the current status, that the access to the computing instance may be terminated, wherein prior to the computing instance being terminated, at least one of the actions comprises storing in a storage medium a snapshot of the state of the computing instance for later use when the received request indicates that access will be terminated.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the providing comprises providing the application programming interface (API).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more updates comprise a request to configure the computing instance according to a template defined by the customer.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more updates comprise an update to the maximum price rate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the providing comprises sending a message to a user of the computing instance.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more requests comprise a request to load data from a previous checkpointing process.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more updates comprise a request to subscribe to a load balancing service.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more updates comprise a request to perform one or more workflow management tasks when the computing instance is instantiated.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more workflow tasks are determined based on workflows scheduled for performance on other instantiated computing instances.

15. The method of claim 6, wherein the information is updated in response to a change in the current status of the request.

16. The method of claim 6, further comprising assigning a request identifier associated with the request and associating the information with the request identifier.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising storing the information pertaining to the requested computing instance and the request identifier for subsequent retrieval.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions comprising instructions that upon execution on one or more computing devices, at least cause:

instantiating a plurality of computing instances allocated to a plurality of customers, wherein the plurality of computing instances have a modifiable interruptibility property operable to allow a computing instance to be terminated or reallocated from a first customer to a second customer;

receiving requests for additional computing instances having modifiable interruptibility properties; and

providing information pertaining to the instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing instances including a current status of one or more of the instantiated computing instances or requested additional computing resources;

receiving a request to perform an action on at least one of the instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing instances; and

perform the action based at least in part on the request; and

interrupting the computing instance based on receiving an indication, based on the current status, that the computing instance may be interrupted, wherein prior to the user'"'"'s instance being interrupted, at least one of the actions comprises storing in a storage medium a snapshot of the state of the at least one of computing instances for later use when the received request indicates that access will be interrupted.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein an instantiated computing resource with a modifiable interruptibility property is terminated based on a market-based price level.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising computer-readable instructions comprising instructions that upon execution on the one or more computing devices, at least cause receiving one or more requests indicative of actions for one or more of the instantiated computing instances.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising computer-readable instructions comprising instructions that upon execution on the one or more computing devices, at least cause receiving one or more requests indicative of one or more updates to the requested additional computing resources.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the information comprises a current status of a requested additional computing resource and data indicating if or when the requested additional computing instance will be allocated.

23. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having collectively stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least implement:

a programming interface sub-system configured to;

receive first electronic messages that encode identifiers indicative of requests for information pertaining to instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing instances including a current status of one or more of the instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing resources;

in response to receiving one of the electronic messages, sending second electronic messages indicative of information pertaining to a current status of the one or more of the instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing resources;

receive a request to perform an action on at least one of the one or more of the instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing resources;

perform the action based at least in part on the request to provide uninterruptible access to the one or more instantiated computing instances and requested additional computing resources; and

prior to the user'"'"'s instance being terminated, storing in a storage medium a snapshot of the state of at least one of the instantiated computing instances for later use when the received request indicates that access will be terminated.