Building custom appliances in a cloud-based network

• US 10,657,466 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Issued: 05/19/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferris, James Michael, Darcy, Aaron Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, George
• Application Number:
  US12/128,787
• Publication Number:
  US 20090299920A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,373 Days
• Field of Search: 709221, 709224, 709229, 705 735
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters

Abstract

A cloud management system can track the usage of the virtual machines in order to determine the fees associated with the user'"'"'s subscription to the cloud computing environment. The usage can include the resources consumed to support the virtual machines and can include the utilization of the virtual machines by the user or third parties. The cloud management system can determine the fees charged to the user for utilizing the cloud computing environment based on the tracked usage.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request to build a software appliance, the request comprising a set of software modules from a repository of software modules to be included in the software appliance and an indication of a period of time for utilization of the software appliance;

determining, by a processor, a minimum amount of an operating system necessary to allow the set of software modules to run on one or more sets of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, wherein the minimum amount of the operating system comprises a subset of a complete operating system, the subset sufficient to support the set of software modules, and wherein the minimum amount of the operating system provides a set of reduced features and components required to provide an application space for the set of software modules;

configuring the software appliance in view of the request, wherein the software appliance comprises the set of software modules and the minimum amount of the operating system, and wherein configuring the software appliance comprises embedding a management identifier into the software appliance, the management identifier to permit tracking of the software appliance;

identifying a set of resource servers hosted in the cloud computing environment that are available during the period of time specified in the request;

creating the one or more sets of virtual machines using the set of resource servers hosted in the cloud computing environment to support the software appliance, the one or more sets of virtual machines comprising a first set of virtual machines running on a first partition of the set of resources servers and a second set of virtual machines running on a second partition of the set of resource servers, wherein the first partition and the second partition are isolated to support a multi-tenant cloud arrangement;

instantiating the software appliance on the one or more sets of virtual machines using the minimum amount of the operating system during the period of time specified in the request; and

tracking a utilization of the software appliance, including a duration for which the software appliance is instantiated, the period of time during which the software appliance is instantiated, and an amount of resources consumed by the software appliance, in order to determine a charge, wherein the charge is determined in view of the duration, the period of time and the amount of resources consumed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a charge associated with building the software appliance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the charge is in view of at least one of a charge for the set of software modules or a charge for instantiation of the software appliance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the charge for instantiation of the software appliance is in view of at least one of a time period for the software appliance, a duration of the software appliance, or a resource usage of the software appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of the software modules comprises at least one of the operating system and an application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprises receiving configuration information for the software appliance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers to deliver resources to instantiate the software appliance.

8. A system comprising:

a network interface to at least one virtual machine in a cloud computing environment; and

a processor to communicate with memory to execute a cloud management module, the processor to;

receive a request to build a software appliance, the request comprising a set of the software modules from a repository of software modules to be included in the software appliance and an indication of a period of time for utilization of the software appliance;

determine a minimum amount of an operating system necessary to allow the set of software modules to run on one or more sets of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, wherein the minimum amount of the operating system comprises a subset of a complete operating system, the subset sufficient to support the set of software modules, and wherein the minimum amount of the operating system provides a set of reduced features and components required to provide an application space for the set of software modules;

build the software appliance in view of the request, wherein the software appliance comprises the set of software modules and the minimum amount of the operating system, and wherein building the software appliance comprises embedding a management identifier into the software appliance, the management identifier to permit tracking of the software appliance;

identify a set of resource servers hosted in the cloud computing environment that are available during the period of time specified in the request;

create the one or more sets of virtual machines using the set of resource servers hosted in the cloud computing environment to support the software appliance, the one or more sets of virtual machines comprising a first set of virtual machines running on a first partition of the set of resources servers and a second set of virtual machines running on a second partition of the set of resource servers, wherein the first partition and the second partition are isolated to support a multi-tenant cloud arrangement;

instantiate the software appliance on the one or more sets of virtual machines during the period of time specified in the request; and

track a utilization of the software appliance, including a duration for which the software appliance is instantiated, the period of time during which the software appliance is instantiated, and an amount of resources consumed by the software appliance, in order to determine a charge, wherein the charge is determined in view of the duration, the period of time and the amount of resources consumed.

9. The system of claim 8, the processor further to:

determine a charge associated with building the software appliance.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the charge is in view of at least one of a charge for the set of software modules or a charge for instantiation of the software appliance.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the charge for instantiation of the software appliance is in view of at least one of a time period for the software appliance, a duration of the software appliance, or a resource usage of the software appliance.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the set of the software modules comprises at least one of the operating system and an application.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein receiving to receive the request, the processor further to:

receive configuration information for the software appliance.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers to deliver resources to instantiate the software appliance.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing instructions which when executed, cause a processor to:

receive a request to build a software appliance, the request comprising a set of software modules from a repository of software modules to be included in the software appliance and an indication of a period of time for utilization of the software appliance;

determine, by the processor, a minimum amount of an operating system necessary to allow the set of software modules to run on one or more sets of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, wherein the minimum amount of the operating system comprises a subset of a complete operating system, the subset sufficient to support the set of software modules, and wherein the minimum amount of the operating system provides a set of reduced features and components required to provide an application space for the set of software modules;

build the software appliance in view of the request, wherein the software appliance comprises the set of software modules and the minimum amount of the operating system, and wherein to build the software appliance the instructions to cause the processing device to embed a management identifier into the software appliance, the management identifier to permit tracking of the software appliance;

identify a set of resource servers hosted in the cloud computing environment that are available during the period of time specified in the request;

create the one or more sets of virtual machines using the set of resource servers hosted in the cloud computing environment to support the software appliance, the one or more sets of virtual machines comprising a first set of virtual machines running on a first partition of the set of resources servers and a second set of virtual machines running on a second partition of the set of resource servers, wherein the first partition and the second partition are isolated to support a multi-tenant cloud arrangement;

instantiating the software appliance on the one or more sets of virtual machines during the period of time specified in the request; and

track a utilization of the software appliance, including a duration for which the software appliance is instantiated, the period of time during which the software appliance is instantiated, and an amount of resources consumed by the software appliance, in order to determine a charge, wherein the charge is determined in view of the duration, the period of time and the amount of resources consumed.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, the instructions to further cause the processing device to:

determine a charge associated with building the software appliance.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the charge is in view of at least one of a charge for the set of software modules or a charge for instantiation of the software appliance.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the charge for instantiation of the software appliance is in view of at least one of a time period for the software appliance, a duration of the software appliance, or a resource usage of the software appliance.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the set of the software modules comprises at least one of the operating system and an application.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein to receive the request the instructions to cause the processing device to:

receive configuration information for the software appliance.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers to deliver resources to instantiate the software appliance.