Stateful virtual compute system

• US 10,387,177 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2017
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wagner, Timothy Allen, Reque, Sean Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Qing
• Application Number:
  US15/450,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20170177391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 718 1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3668 Software testing software testing in telephone exchanges H04M3/242, testing of hardware G06F11/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• 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

A system for providing a stateful virtual compute system is provided. The system may be configured to maintain a plurality of virtual machine instances. The system may be further configured to receive a request to execute a program code and select a virtual machine instance to execute the program code on the selected virtual machine instance. The system may further associate the selected virtual machine instance with shared resources and allow program codes executed in the selected virtual machine instance to access the shared resources.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more hardware computing devices configured to execute specific computer-executable instructions to at least;

receive a first request to execute a first program code;

initiate, at a first time, execution of a first copy of the first program code on a first virtual machine instance, wherein the first virtual machine instance is associated with a first shared resource in a first state, and wherein the first copy of the first program code causes, during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time, the first state of the first shared resource to be modified;

receive a second request to execute the first program code; and

subsequent to the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time, initiate, at a second time, execution of a second copy of the first program code, which is different from the first copy of the first program code that previously caused the first state of the first shared resource to be modified, on the first virtual machine instance, wherein the second copy of the first program code accesses, during the execution of the second copy of the first program code initiated at the second time, the first state of the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time such that access to the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code is provided to at least one other copy of the same program code that is different from the first copy of the first program code.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware computing devices are further configured to:

receive a third request to execute the first program code; and

initiate, at a third time, execution of a third copy of the first program code on a second virtual machine instance different from the first virtual machine instance, wherein the third copy of the first program code accesses, during the execution of the third copy of the first program code initiated at the third time, the first state of the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware computing devices are further configured to remove, in response to terminating the first virtual machine instance, data created or modified by the first copy of the first program code from the first shared resource.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program code is no longer able to access the modified first state of the first shared resource after the first virtual machine instance is terminated.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time and the execution of the second copy of the first program code initiated at the second time occur in a first container on the first virtual machine instance, and wherein the first program code is no longer able to access the modified first state of the first shared resource after the first container is terminated.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more hardware computing devices are further configured to:

receive a third request to execute a second program code;

determine, based on account metadata associated with the second program code, a second shared resource to be made accessible during execution of the second program code;

associate a second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource such that the second shared resource is accessible during execution of the second program code; and

initiate, at a third time, execution of a first copy of the second program code on the second virtual machine instance, wherein the first copy of the second program code modifies, during the execution of the first copy of the second program code initiated at the third time, a state of the second shared resource.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein associating the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource comprises one of attaching the second shared resource to the second virtual machine instance, establishing a connection between the second virtual machine instance and the second shared resource, or recording an association between the second virtual machine instance and the second shared resource in a database.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein an amount of time elapsed to associate the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource is at least an order of magnitude greater than an amount of time elapsed between receiving the second request to execute the first program code and executing the second copy of the first program code initiated at the second time.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more hardware computing devices are further configured to:

receive a fourth request to execute the second program code; and

initiate, at a fourth time, execution of a second copy of the second program code on the second virtual machine instance without further associating the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more hardware computing devices are further configured to:

dissociate the second shared resource from the second virtual machine instance; and

remove data created or modified by the second program code from the second shared resource.

11. A computer-implemented method, as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a first request to execute a first program code;

initiating, at a first time, execution of a first copy of the first program code on a first virtual machine instance, wherein the first virtual machine instance is associated with a first shared resource in a first state, and wherein the first copy of the first program code causes, during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time, the first state of the first shared resource to be modified;

receiving a second request to execute the first program code; and

subsequent to the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time, initiating, at a second time, execution of a second copy of the first program code, which is different from the first copy of the first program code that previously caused the first state of the first shared resource to be modified, on the first virtual machine instance, wherein the second copy of the first program code accesses, during the execution of the second copy of the first program code initiated at the second time, the first state of the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time such that access to the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code is provided to at least one other copy of the same program code that is different from the first copy of the first program code.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a third request to execute a second program code;

determining, based on account metadata associated with the second program code, a second shared resource to be made accessible during execution of the second program code;

associating a second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource such that the second shared resource is accessible during execution of the second program code; and

initiating, at a third time, execution of a first copy of the second program code on the second virtual machine instance, wherein the first copy of the second program code modifies, during the execution of the first copy of the second program code initiated at the third time, a state of the second shared resource.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein associating the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource comprises one of attaching the second shared resource to the second virtual machine instance, establishing a connection between the second virtual machine instance and the second shared resource, or recording an association between the second virtual machine instance and the second shared resource in a database.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a fourth request to execute the second program code; and

initiating, at a fourth time, execution of a second copy of the second program code on the second virtual machine instance without further associating the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

dissociating the second shared resource from the second virtual machine instance; and

removing data created or modified by the second program code from the second shared resource.

16. Non-transitory physical computer storage storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, configure the one or more computing devices to:

receive a first request to execute a first program code;

initiate, at a first time, execution of a first copy of the first program code on a first virtual machine instance, wherein the first virtual machine instance is associated with a first shared resource in a first state, and wherein the first copy of the first program code causes, during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time, the first state of the first shared resource to be modified;

receive a second request to execute the first program code; and

subsequent to the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time, initiate, at a second time, execution of a second copy of the first program code, which is different from the first copy of the first program code that previously caused the first state of the first shared resource to be modified, on the first virtual machine instance, wherein the second copy of the first program code accesses, during the execution of the second copy of the first program code initiated at the second time, the first state of the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code during the execution of the first copy of the first program code initiated at the first time such that access to the first shared resource modified by the first copy of the first program code is provided to at least one other copy of the same program code that is different from the first copy of the first program code.

17. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 16, wherein the computer executable instructions further configure the one or more computing devices to:

receive a third request to execute a second program code;

determine, based on account metadata associated with the second program code, a second shared resource to be made accessible during execution of the second program code;

associate a second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource such that the second shared resource is accessible during execution of the second program code; and

initiate, at a third time, execution of a first copy of the second program code on the second virtual machine instance, wherein the first copy of the second program code modifies, during the execution of the first copy of the second program code initiated at the third time, a state of the second shared resource.

18. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 17, wherein associating the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource comprises one of attaching the second shared resource to the second virtual machine instance, establishing a connection between the second virtual machine instance and the second shared resource, or recording an association between the second virtual machine instance and the second shared resource in a database.

19. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 17, wherein the computer executable instructions further configure the one or more computing devices to:

receive a fourth request to execute the second program code; and

initiate, at a fourth time, execution of a second copy of the second program code on the second virtual machine instance without further associating the second virtual machine instance with the second shared resource.

20. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 17, wherein the computer executable instructions further configure the one or more computing devices to:

dissociate the second shared resource from the second virtual machine instance; and

remove data created or modified by the second program code from the second shared resource.