Containerized application extensions in distributed storage systems

• US 10,649,679 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2016
• Issued: 05/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Gill, Binny Sher, Gueco, Jon Carlo, Gupta, Vinod
• Primary Examiner(s): Dudek, Jr., Edward J
• Application Number:
  US15/360,077
• Publication Number:
  US 20200034062A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,266 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

Systems for distributed data storage. A user accesses a user interface in a distributed virtualization system comprising computing nodes that support virtualized controllers that include preconfigured APIs to receive application extension modules. The system receives a user command from a user interface at the virtualized controller, the user command corresponding to a download request for at least one application extension. A successful download and integration event causes integration of the containerized application extension into the system. The additional functionality of the containerized application extension is offered to the user. The user can address additional functionality of the containerized application extension through a user interface.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a distributed virtualization system comprising a plurality of nodes connected over a network, the distributed virtualization system having a first node comprising a virtualized controller and a virtualized container service machine, the virtualized controller managing a storage pool that aggregates a first storage device locally attached to the first node and a second storage device locally attached to a second node;

receiving, at the virtualized controller, a command to invoke a containerized application extension from a graphical user interface, wherein the containerized application extension extends capabilities afforded to the distributed virtualization system by adding application features to an existing application; and

executing, at the virtualized container service machine, the containerized application extension, wherein the containerized application extension is invoked and accessed using the graphical user interface and the virtualized container service machine operates the containerized application extension by at least accessing data on the storage pool through the virtualized controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the containerized application extension is communicatively coupled to a containerized application via an application programming interface and the containerized application extension is separate from the containerized application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the virtualized container service machine responsive to receiving the command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein operations pertaining to the containerized application extension are facilitated at least in part by a container daemon at the virtualized container service machine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a set of attributes describing a plurality of containerized application extensions managed by the virtualized container service machine is stored in an application extension database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the containerized application extension comprises at least one application programming interface (API), the API facilitating communication with at least one of, the graphical user interface, the virtualized controller, or a set of external resources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the containerized application extension comprises at least one of, a containerized application extension server, a containerized application extension user interface driver, or a set of container libraries.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor perform a set of acts comprising:

maintaining a distributed virtualization system comprising a plurality of nodes connected over a network, the distributed virtualization system having a first node comprising a virtualized controller and a virtualized container service machine, the virtualized controller managing a storage pool that aggregates a first storage device locally attached to the first node and a second storage device locally attached to a second node;

receiving, at the virtualized controller, a command to invoke a containerized application extension from a graphical user interface, wherein the containerized application extension extends capabilities afforded to the distributed virtualization system by adding application features to an existing application; and

executing, at the virtualized container service machine, the containerized application extension, wherein the containerized application extension is invoked and accessed using the graphical user interface and the virtualized container service machine operates the containerized application extension by at least accessing data on the storage pool through the virtualized controller.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the containerized application extension is communicatively coupled to a containerized application via an application programming interface and the containerized application extension is separate from the containerized application.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8, the set of acts further comprising creating the virtualized container service machine responsive to receiving the command.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein operations pertaining to the containerized application extension are facilitated at least in part by a container daemon at the virtualized container service machine.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein a set of attributes describing a plurality of containerized application extensions managed by the virtualized container service machine is stored in an application extension database.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the containerized application extension comprises at least one application programming interface (API), the API facilitating communication with at least one of, the graphical user interface, the virtualized controller, or a set of external resources.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the containerized application extension comprises at least one of, a containerized application extension server, a containerized application extension user interface driver, or a set of container libraries.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the command corresponds to a download request for the containerized application extension and registration of the containerized application extension.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein at least one of, the virtualized controller, or the virtualized container service machine, is at least one of, a virtual machine, or a container.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the virtualized container service machine is implemented in at least one of, the distributed virtualization system, or one or more bare metal servers.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising at least one of, a list operation, a download operation, an install operation, a start operation, a stop operation, a pause operation, or a delete operation.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the virtualized controller comprising a user interface module, a container service module, and an application extension database, the user interface module to generate a graphical user interface for a user, the container service module to receive a user command from the user interface module and generate a container service message to the virtualized container service machine, the application extension database containing a set of attributes describing a plurality of containerized application extensions managed by the virtualized container service machine, and the command to invoke the containerized application extension from the graphical user interface is received at a user interface module.

20. A system comprising:

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

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

maintaining a distributed virtualization system comprising a plurality of nodes connected over a network, the distributed virtualization system having a first node comprising a virtualized controller and a virtualized container service machine, the virtualized controller managing a storage pool that aggregates a first storage device locally attached to the first node and a second storage device locally attached to a second node;

receiving, at the virtualized controller, a command to invoke a containerized application extension from a graphical user interface, wherein the containerized application extension extends capabilities afforded to the distributed virtualization system by adding application features to an existing application; and

executing, at the virtualized container service machine, the containerized application extension, wherein the containerized application extension is invoked and accessed using the graphical user interface and the virtualized container service machine operates the containerized application extension by at least accessing data on the storage pool through the virtualized controller.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the containerized application extension is communicatively coupled to a containerized application via an application programming interface and the containerized application extension is separate from the containerized application.