State control in distributed computing systems

• US 10,361,917 B1
• Filed: 12/22/2016
• Issued: 07/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Parthasarathy, Ranjan, Khinvasara, Abhijit S., Yarlagadda, Bharath, Gupta, Vinod
• Primary Examiner(s): Coby, Frantz
• Application Number:
  US15/389,123
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: 709203, 709223, 709213, 709226, 707649, 707638, 707639
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/722 at the destination endpoint, e.g. reservation of terminal resources or buffer space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Systems and methods commence upon detecting certain computing system specification change events. Changes are recorded in resource usage intent specification records that characterize desired states associated with respective resources of the computing system. The change event causes generation of a data state snapshot of data stored in the computing system. A state tuple is constructed to associate the desired state with the data state. The state tuple is committed to a version control system. At any time, a user or process can select a selected system state tuple from committed tuples stored in the version control system. The tuple is analyzed to determine its associated desired state and its data state. Actions are taken to restore the data state of the tuple to the computing system, and then bringing the computing system to the state of the tuple so as to reproduce the desired system state in the computing system.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a version control system at least by;

identifying a source code versioning system; and

interfacing the source code versioning system with a state management service located on a computing cluster;

selecting, at the state management service, a first state of the computing cluster from a set of states stored in the source code versioning system;

determining, by the source code versioning system, an intent state and a data state associated with the first state; and

altering a current state of computing resources of the computing cluster to the first state at least by executing, by at least the source code versioning system and the state management service, instructions that cause performance of a set of acts, the set of acts comprising;

restoring the data state to the computing cluster; and

applying the intent state to the computing cluster.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the source code versioning system comprises a Source Code Control System (SCCS) or a Git version-control system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data state is characterized by at least one data snapshot, and the intent state is characterized by one or more resource usage intent specifications associated with computing and storage components of the computing cluster.

4. The method of claim 1, altering the current state comprising:

updating, at the source code versioning system, an intent specification into an updated specification with one or more modifications based at least in part upon the intent state;

updating, at the source code versioning system, a version branch associated with the one or more modifications to the intent specification;

committing, by the source code versioning system, the updated intent specification; and

publishing the updated intent specification to a repository located on the source code versioning system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the data state or the intent state corresponds to one or more entities, and achieving the first state comprises at least one of a reversion action to a prior system state, or a roll-back action to a just prior system state, or a roll-forward action to a stored system state.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising enumerating the set of states stored in the version control system to display to a user, wherein altering the current state comprises identifying a commit identifier associated with the first state and determining a command for altering the current state based at least in part upon the commit identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising quiescing at least a portion of the computing cluster prior to restoring the data state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a universally unique identifier is associated with at least one of a selected system state, or the intent state, or the data state.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein system states are controlled by at least one user through at least one of a management interface or a version control system console.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a repository of the version control system stores one or more data records associated with at least one of the first state, the intent state, or the data state.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a set of acts, the set of acts comprising:

identifying a version control system at least by;

identifying a source code versioning system; and

interfacing the source code versioning system with a state management service located on a computing cluster;

selecting, at the state management service, a first state of the computing cluster from a set of states stored in the source code versioning system;

determining, by the source code versioning system, an intent state and a data state associated with the first state; and

altering a current state of computing resources of the computing cluster to the first state at least by executing, by at least the source code versioning system and the state management service, instructions that cause performance of a set of acts, the set of acts comprising;

restoring the data state to the computing cluster; and

applying the intent state to the computing cluster.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the source code versioning system comprises a Source Code Control System (SCCS) or a Git version-control system.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the data state is characterized by at least one data snapshot, and the intent state is characterized by one or more resource usage intent specifications associated with computing and storage components of the computing cluster.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein at least one of the data state or the intent state corresponds to one or more entities.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein achieving the first state comprises at least one of a reversion action to a prior system state, or a roll-back action to a just prior system state, or a roll-forward action to a stored system state.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of enumerating the set of states stored in the version control system to display to a user.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of quiescing at least a portion of the computing cluster prior to restoring the data state.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein a universally unique identifier is associated with at least one of a selected system state, or the intent state, or the data state.

19. A system, comprising:

a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions; and

one or more processors that execute the instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform a set of acts, the acts comprising,

identifying a version control system at least by;

identifying a source code versioning system; and

interfacing the source code versioning system with a state management service located on a computing cluster;

selecting, at the state management service, a first state of the computing cluster from a set of states stored in the source code versioning system;

determining, by the source code versioning system, an intent state and a data state associated with the first state;

altering a current state of computing resources of the computing cluster to the first state at least by executing, by at least the source code versioning system and the state management service, instructions that cause performance of a set of acts, the set of acts comprising;

restoring the data state to the computing cluster; and

applying the intent state to the computing cluster.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the source code versioning system comprises a Source Code Control System (SCCS) or a Git version-control system.