System and method for managing virtual servers

• US 20050120160A1
• Filed: 10/25/2004
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Hazel, Tom, Davis, Scott H., Thomas, Benjamin J. III, Plouffe, Jerry, Vasilevsky, Alexander D., Noyes, Steven S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,776,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

A management capability is provided for a virtual computing platform. In one example, this platform allows interconnected physical resources such as processors, memory, network interfaces and storage interfaces to be abstracted and mapped to virtual resources (e.g., virtual mainframes, virtual partitions). Virtual resources contained in a virtual partition can be assembled into virtual servers that execute a guest operating system (e.g., Linux). In one example, the abstraction is unique in that any resource is available to any virtual server regardless of the physical boundaries that separate the resources. For example, any number of physical processors or any amount of physical memory can be used by a virtual server even if these resources span different nodes. A virtual computing platform is provided that allows for the creation, deletion, modification, control (e.g., start, stop, suspend, resume) and status (i.e., events) of the virtual servers which execute on the virtual computing platform and the management capability provides controls for these functions. In a particular example, such a platform allows the number and type of virtual resources consumed by a virtual server to be scaled up or down when the virtual server is running. For instance, an administrator may scale a virtual server manually or may define one or more policies that automatically scale a virtual server. Further, using the management API, a virtual server can monitor itself and can scale itself up or down depending on its need for processing, memory and I/O resources. For example, a virtual server may monitor its CPU utilization and invoke controls through the management API to allocate a new processor for itself when its utilization exceeds a specific threshold. Conversely, a virtual server may scale down its processor count when its utilization falls. Policies can be used to execute one or more management controls. More specifically, a management capability is provided that allows policies to be defined using management object'"'"'s properties, events and/or method results. A management policy may also incorporate external data (e.g., an external event) in its definition. A policy may be triggered, causing the management server or other computing entity to execute an action. An action may utilize one or more management controls. In addition, an action may access external capabilities such as sending notification e-mail or sending a text message to a telephone paging system. Further, management capability controls may be executed using a discrete transaction referred to as a “job.” A series of management controls may be assembled into a job using one or management interfaces. Errors that occur when a job is executed may cause the job to be rolled back, allowing affected virtual servers to return to their original state.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of physical resources;

a virtualization layer that maps the plurality of physical resources to one or more virtual resources, wherein the one or more virtual resources span at least two of the plurality of physical resources; and

an interface that represents the mapping of the plurality of physical resources to the one or more virtual resources.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of physical resources includes at least one of an input/output (I/O) device, an interconnect, a processor, and a storage entity.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more virtual resources include at least one of a virtual multiprocessor computer and an I/O device.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more virtual resources include at least one virtual computer that is mapped to at least one of the plurality of physical resources.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the interface is adapted to provide ability to map physical resources to at least one virtual resource and to remove physical resources from being mapped to the at least one virtual resource.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the interface includes at least one of a group comprising:

a graphical user interface;

a command line interface; and

a programmatic interface.

26. The virtual computing system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of virtual resources includes a virtual I/O interface.

27. The virtual computing system according to claim 26, wherein the virtual I/O interface includes an associated identifier.

28. The virtual computing system according to claim 27, wherein the virtual I/O interface is a virtual network interface, and wherein the associated identifier includes a network address.

29. The virtual computing system according to claim 28, wherein the network address includes a MAC address.

30. The virtual computing system according to claim 27, wherein the virtual I/O interface is a virtual storage adapter, and wherein the associated identifier includes a storage adapter identifier.

31. The virtual computing system according to claim 30, wherein the storage adapter identifier includes a World Wide Node Name (WWNN) identifier.

32. The virtual computing system according to claim 27, further comprising a manager that is adapted to define the one or more virtual resources in the virtual computing system, the one or more virtual resources including the virtual I/O resource, and wherein the manager is adapted to assign the associated identifier to the virtual I/O resource.

33. The virtual computing system according to claim 32, wherein the manager is adapted to select the associated identifier from a group of available identifiers.

34. The virtual computing system according to claim 32, wherein the manager further comprises an interface, through which the associated identifier is assigned to the virtual I/O resource.

35. The virtual computing system according to claim 32, wherein the one or more virtual resources include at least one virtual computer that is mapped to at least one of the plurality of physical resources, and wherein the manager further comprises an interface, through which the at least one virtual computer may be created.

36. The virtual computing system according to claim 35, wherein the manager is adapted to perform at least one of adding, moving, and removing at least one of the plurality of physical resources from the virtual computing system.

37. The virtual computing system according to claim 35, wherein the interface includes a control for making a copy of the at least one virtual computer, and wherein the control includes means for assigning, to a virtual I/O resource associated with the copy, a new associated identifier.

38. The virtual computing system according to claim 37, wherein the manager is adapted to select the associated identifier from a group of available identifiers.

39. The virtual computing system according to claim 37, wherein the interface includes at least one of a group comprising:

a graphical user interface;

a command line interface; and

a programmatic interface.

40. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least two of the plurality of physical resources are associated with respective separate nodes, and wherein the one or more virtual resources span the separate nodes.

7. In a computer system comprising a plurality of resources and user interface having a display, a method of permitting configuration of the plurality of resources, comprising:

displaying a representation of a virtual server on the display; and

providing for a user to select a resource and associate the resource with the virtual server.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising providing for the user to select the resource and disassociate the resource from the virtual server.

9. In a computer system including an interface and a plurality of resources, a method of allocating the plurality of resources comprising acts of:

providing a selection of at least one virtual resource on the interface; and

allowing mapping of at least one resource of the plurality of resources to the virtual resource through a virtualization layer.

10. A computer-based system for managing a virtual server system comprising a plurality of physical resources, at least one of which is associated with at least one of a plurality of virtual resources, the virtual server system comprising a virtualization layer that maps the at least one of the plurality of physical resources, the computer-based system comprising:

an interface that provides a representation on the mapping; and

at least one control adapted to create and delete the mapping.

11. A management infrastructure adapted to operate in a computer-based network environment to control allocation of a plurality of resources in the network environment, the management infrastructure comprising:

a control interface;

a distributed virtual machine monitor program adapted to execute on at least one of the plurality of resources; and

at least one management agent adapted to communicate with the control interface to receive instructions and to forward results, and wherein the management agent is capable of communicating the instructions to the distributed virtual machine monitor program which is capable of implementing the instructions so as to allocate the plurality of resources and wherein the management agent forwards a result of the implementing of the instructions.

12. The management infrastructure as recited in claim 11, wherein the control interface includes at least one of a group comprising:

a graphical user interface;

a command line interface; and

a programmatic interface.

13. A system comprising:

a virtual server system capable of executing at least one of a plurality of operating systems; and

a manager capable of mapping the at least one of the plurality of operating systems to the virtual server.

14. A virtual computing system comprising:

a plurality of physical resources;

a virtualization layer that maps the plurality of physical resources to one or more virtual resources; and

a manager that performs at least one of adding, moving, and removing at least one of the plurality of physical resources from the virtual computing system.

15. The virtual computing system according to claim 14, wherein the manager stores a history of changes in configuration of the virtual computing system.

16. The virtual computing system according to claim 14, further comprising a manager that is adapted to processes at least one transaction, the at least one transaction relating to the at least one of adding, moving, and removing the at least one of the plurality of resources from the virtual computing system.

17. The virtual computing system according to claim 16, wherein the manager is adapted to store change information of the at least one transaction as a discrete entry in the history of changes.

18. The virtual computing system according to claim 17, wherein the manager is adapted to undo the at least one transaction based on the discrete entry stored in the history of changes.

19. The virtual computing system according to claim 14, wherein the manager is adapted to implement at least one management policy relating to virtual and physical resources.

20. The virtual computing system according to claim 19, wherein the at least one management policy includes at least one rule triggered by one or more events.

21. The virtual computing system according to claim 20, wherein the manager is adapted to perform one or more actions in response to a triggering of the at least one rule.

22. The virtual computing system according to claim 19, wherein the at least one management policy is in effect for a particular period of time.

23. The virtual computing system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one rule is triggered based on one or more parameters.

24. The virtual computing system according to claim 23, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of a performance parameter indicating the performance of the virtual computing system.

25. The virtual computing system according to claim 21, wherein the manager is adapted to perform at least one of the group of actions comprising:

add a resource to the virtual computing system;

repair a resource of the virtual computing system;

remove a resource from the virtual computing system;

start a processing resource of the virtual computing system; and

stop a processing resource of the virtual computing system.