Specification-based computing system configuration

• US 10,558,478 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2017
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Gill, Binny Sher, Sutton, Carl David, Parthasarathy, Ranjan
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Dieu Minh T
• Application Number:
  US15/842,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20190354390A1
• Time in Patent Office: 789 Days
• Field of Search: 714 15, 714 16, 714 41
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0721 within a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 : the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 : considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 : Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 : characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 : Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 : Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 : Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5051 : Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 : for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems for managing a distributed computing system. A method embodiment commences upon receiving user-provided specification parameters that describe a target state of a computing entity. After generating a set of resource management commands to achieve the specified target state of a computing entity, the resource management commands are scheduled for execution. As execution of the resource management commands is being carried out, the execution status of the resource management commands is continuously monitored. If performance of the resource management commands raises an error and/or the resource entity state is different than predicted, a set of remediation actions are determined, and an additional set of processing operations are invoked to accomplish the remediation actions. When all resource management commands and/or any remediation actions have completed successfully, the target resource entity state has been achieved. The user did not need to write executable code to perform steps that pursue the target state.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving one or more specification parameters that describe at least one resource entity state associated with a computing environment;

generating one or more resource management commands to achieve the resource entity state at the computing environment;

scheduling execution of at least one of the resource management commands at the computing environment;

monitoring an execution status of the at least one of the resource management commands;

determining remediation actions to be taken, the remediation actions being determined based at least in part on the execution status; and

performing one or more processing operations to carry out the remediation actions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a write-ahead log to track the execution status.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying at least one resource entity associated with the specification parameters, and

dispatching at least a portion of the specification parameters to a resource-specific management agent to process the portion of the specification parameters, the portion of the specification parameters being associated with the resource entity.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the specification parameters in a resource specification database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling execution of the at least one of the resource management commands comprises issuing one or more tasks to one or more computing services.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the execution status is derived from one or more responses from the one or more computing services.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the resource management commands is generated based at least in part on at least one of, one or more conditions of the computing environment, or one or more resource usage rules.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the processing operations is determined based at least in part on at least one of, one or more conditions of the computing environment, or one or more task processing rules.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the execution status indicates the at least one of the resource management commands is running, is pending, has completed, or has failed.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the processing operations is a retry operation, a wait operation, or an error operation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the one or more resource management commands to achieve the resource entity state at the computing environment is performed by a command compiler.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the command compiler further carries-out at least some steps of,

consulting then-current conditions of a computing system;

using the then-current conditions of the computing system when generating the resource management commands;

scheduling at least some of a plurality of resource management commands onto at least two different nodes; and

monitoring activities at the at least two different nodes.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least some of the resource management commands are scheduled for sequential execution, and at least some of the resource management commands are scheduled for parallel execution.

14. A computer readable medium, embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the 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 acts comprising:

receiving one or more specification parameters that describe at least one resource entity state associated with a computing environment;

generating one or more resource management commands to achieve the resource entity state at the computing environment;

scheduling execution of at least one of the resource management commands at the computing environment;

monitoring an execution status of the at least one of the resource management commands;

determining remediation actions to be taken, the remediation actions being determined based at least in part on the execution status; and

performing one or more processing operations to carry out the remediation actions.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of creating a write-ahead log to track the execution status.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of:

identifying at least one resource entity associated with the specification parameters, and

dispatching at least a portion of the specification parameters to a resource-specific management agent to process the portion of the specification parameters, the portion of the specification parameters being associated with the resource entity.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of storing the specification parameters in a resource specification database.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein scheduling execution of the at least one of the resource management commands comprises issuing one or more tasks to one or more computing services.

19. A system comprising:

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

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

receiving one or more specification parameters that describe at least one resource entity state associated with a computing environment;

generating one or more resource management commands to achieve the resource entity state at the computing environment;

scheduling execution of at least one of the resource management commands at the computing environment;

monitoring an execution status of the at least one of the resource management commands;

determining remediation actions to be taken, the remediation actions being determined based at least in part on the execution status; and

performing one or more processing operations to carry out the remediation actions.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of,

consulting then-current conditions of a computing system;

using the then-current conditions of the computing system when generating the resource management commands;

scheduling at least some of a plurality of resource management commands onto at least two different nodes; and

monitoring activities at the at least two different nodes.