Remote management of distributed datacenters

• US 10,235,205 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2012
• Issued: 03/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Srinivasa, Balaji
• Primary Examiner(s): Choudhury, Azizul
• Application Number:
  US13/480,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20130318242A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,490 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5631 Resource management and allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2592 using tunnelling or encapsulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1066 Session management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3268 using certificate validation, registration, distribution or revocation, e.g. certificate revocation list [CRL]

Abstract

A cloud-based management system for distributed datacenters provides remote management of the datacenters from terminals at various locations. A virtual cloud-based operating system facilitates a transparent system call architecture, permitting subscribers to deploy, configure and manage operations at machines operating on different local operating systems. The virtual operating system can canonicalize available resources into a namespace to expose the resources as files at terminals. Asynchronous execution of subscriber commands across a group of target machines is provided with a notification procedure to control bandwidth and resource allocation. A file distribution model without a central controller for a group of target machines is provided to alleviate interaction with the management cluster for file distribution.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

generating a zero certificate for a plurality of target machines, the zero certificate including information for a subscriber of data management services;

sending the zero certificate to the plurality of target machines;

generating a unique certificate for each target machine in response to receiving the zero certificate from an agent at each target machine;

providing the unique certificate to each corresponding target machine;

receiving, at a computing device, a first resource request from a computing device associated with a user, the first resource request comprising at least a subscriber identifier of the user, a machine identifier for at least one target machine of plurality of target machines, and instructions for the target machine identified by the machine identifier, wherein the instructions are executable instructions to be executed at the target machine;

assigning, by the computing device, a transaction identifier to the first resource request;

receiving, at the computing device, a second resource request from an agent on each target machine of the plurality of target machines, the second resource request comprising at least an indication of availability of each target machine of the plurality of target machines;

determining, by the computing device and based on the second resource request, availability of the target machine identified by the machine identifier;

in response to determining that the target machine identified by the machine identifier is available, providing a reply, by the computing device and to the second resource request, the reply to the second resource request comprising at least the transaction identifier assigned to the first resource request and an instruction to the agent on the target machine to send a third resource request to the computing device;

receiving, at the computing device, the third resource request from the agent on the target machine, the third resource request comprising at least the transaction identifier assigned to the first resource request;

matching, by the computing device, the transaction identifier from the third resource request to the transaction identifier assigned to the first resource request; and

in response to determining a match, providing a reply to the third resource request, by the computing device, the reply to the third resource request comprising at least the executable instructions for the target machine from the first resource request.

2. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computing device, a fourth resource request from the first agent on the first target machine, the fourth resource request comprising at least an output associated with an operation executed at the first target machine specified by the executable instructions and the transaction identifier.

3. The computer-implemented method according to claim 2, further comprising:

in response to receiving the fourth resource request, providing a reply to the first resource request, the reply to the first resource request comprising at least the output data associated with the operation executed at the first target machine.

4. The computer-implemented method according to claim 3, wherein the computing device is a cloud-based server cluster comprising a plurality of servers.

5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein the reply to the second resource request further comprises a connection instruction to the first agent on the first target machine.

6. The computer-implemented method according to claim 5, wherein the connection instruction comprises an address of a server in the plurality of servers in the cloud-based server cluster to which the first agent is instructed to send the third resource request.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

generating a zero certificate for a plurality of target machines, the zero certificate including information for a subscriber of data management services;

sending the zero certificate to the plurality of target machines;

generating a unique certificate for each target machine in response to receiving the zero certificate from an agent at each target machine;

providing the unique certificate to each corresponding target machine;

sending, by a first agent at a first target machine, a first resource request, the first resource request comprising at least an indication of availability;

receiving, by the first agent at the first target machine, a first reply to the first resource request, the first reply to the first resource request comprising at least a transaction identifier of an operation provided by a computing device associated with a user and an instruction to send a second resource request;

in response to the instruction, sending a second resource request, the second resource request comprising at least the transaction identifier of the operation provided by the computing device associated with the user;

receiving, by the first agent at the first target machine, a second reply to the second resource request, the second reply to the second resource request comprising at least the operation, wherein the operation includes instructions to be executed at the first target machine;

in response to the instructions, relaying the operation to the first target machine to be executed by the first target machine and receiving an output associated with an execution of the operation by the first target machine; and

sending, by the first agent at the first target machine, a third resource request, the third resource request comprising at least the output associated with the operation and the transaction identifier of the operation provided by the computing device associated with the user.

8. The computer-implemented method according to claim 7, wherein the output associated with the operation is at least a data result or a response code.

9. The computer-implemented method according to claim 8, further comprising:

converting the output into a system protocol packet; and

encapsulating the system protocol packet into a communication protocol packet header.

10. The computer-implemented method according to claim 7, wherein the second and third resource requests further comprise at least a machine identifier for the first target machine.

11. The computer-implemented method according to claim 7, wherein the first, second and third resource requests are sent as communication protocol packets.

12. The computer-implemented method according to claim 7, wherein the first and second replies are communication protocol packets.

13. The computer-implemented method according to claim 12, further comprising:

decoding the communication protocol packet;

extracting a system call to be performed by the first target machine;

converting the system call into a corresponding native system call for the first target machine; and

passing the native system call to the first target machine.

14. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media storing executable storing executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to:

generate a zero certificate for a plurality of target machines, the zero certificate including information for a subscriber of data management services;

send the zero certificate to the plurality of target machines;

generate a unique certificate for each target machine in response to receiving the zero certificate from an agent at each target machine;

provide the unique certificate to each corresponding target machine;

receive a first resource request from a computing device associated with a user, the first resource request comprising at least a subscriber identifier of the user, a machine identifier for at least a target machine of the plurality of target machines, and instructions for the target machine identified by the machine identifier, wherein the instructions are executable instructions to be executed at the target machine;

assign a transaction identifier to the first resource request;

receive a second resource request from an agent on each target machine of the plurality of target machines, the second resource request comprising at least an indication of availability of each target machine of the plurality of target machines;

determine availability of the target machine identified by the machine identifier; and

in response to determining that the target machine identified by the machine identifier is available, provide a reply to the second resource request, the reply to the second resource request comprising at least the transaction identifier assigned to the first resource request and an instruction to the agent on the target machine to send a third resource request to the computing device;

receive the third resource request from the agent on the target machine, the third resource request comprising at least the transaction identifier assigned to the first resource request;

match the transaction identifier from the third resource request to the transaction identifier assigned to the first resource request; and

in response to determining a match, provide a reply to the third resource request, the reply to the third resource request comprising at least the executable instructions for the target machine from the first resource request.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 14, storing further executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to:

receive a fourth resource request from the agent on the target machine, the fourth resource request comprising at least an output associated with an operation executed at the target machine specified by the executable instructions and the transaction identifier.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 15, storing further executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to provide a reply to the first resource request, the reply to the first resource request comprising at least the output data associated with the operation executed at the target machine.