DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SYSTEM HAVING AUTONOMIC DEPLOYMENT OF VIRTUAL MACHINE DISK IMAGES

• US 20070233698A1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cassatt (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Radia, Sanjay, Henseler, David, Sundar, Jagane
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1482 by means of middleware or OS functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2051 in regular structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. For instance, a distributed computing system comprises a plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network. In addition, the distributed computing system includes a software image repository storing: (i) one or more image instances of a virtual machine manager that is executable on the application nodes, wherein when executed on the applications nodes, the image instances of the virtual machine manager provide one or more virtual machines, and (ii) one or more image instances of one or more software applications that are executable on the virtual machines. The distributed computing system also includes a control node that comprises an automation infrastructure to provide autonomic deployment of the image instances of the virtual machine manager on the application nodes and to provide autonomic deployment of the image instances of the software applications on the virtual machines.

Claims

1. A distributed computing system comprising:

a plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network;

a software image repository storing;

(i) one or more image instances of a virtual machine manager that is executable on the application nodes, wherein when executed on the applications nodes, the image instances of the virtual machine manager provide one or more virtual machines, and (ii) one or more image instances of one or more software applications that are executable on the virtual machines; and

a control node that comprises an automation infrastructure to provide autonomic deployment of the image instances of the virtual machine manager on the application nodes and to provide autonomic deployment of the image instances of the software applications on the virtual machines.

2. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the image instances of the one or more software applications comprise virtual disk image files.

3. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein when the automation infrastructure deploys the image of the one or more applications, the automation infrastructure copies a first one of the image instances to a first one of the application nodes.

4. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein an application image in the set of application images comprises an operating system.

5. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein an application image in the set of application images comprises a server application.

6. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein a first one of the virtual machines provides an environment that emulates an x86 platform.

7. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the automation infrastructure captures the image of the virtual machine manager from an application node.

8. The distributed computing system of claim 7, wherein the automation infrastructure captures the image of the application from an application node executing the virtual machine manager.

9. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the control node maintains the image instances as persistent or non-persistent based on a configuration.

10. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the control node further comprises one or more rule engines that provide autonomic deployment of the software applications to the virtual machines in accordance with a set of one or more rules.

11. The distributed computing system of claim 10, wherein the rule engines are forward-chaining rule engines.

12. The distributed computing system of claim 10, wherein the automation infrastructure automatically updates the rules engines to autonomically control the deployment of the applications to the application nodes in accordance with a current state of the application matrix.

13. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the control node further comprises an application matrix that includes parameters for controlling the deployment, undeployment, and execution of the software applications to the virtual machines within the distributed computing system.

14. The distributed computing system of claim 13, further comprising an application governor that accesses the application matrix to communicate instructions from the automation infrastructure to the software applications.

15. The distributed computing system of claim 10, wherein the automation infrastructure automatically updates the rules engines to monitor the execution of the applications when deployed to the application nodes in accordance with a current state of the application matrix.

16. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the automation subsystem includes a rule compiler that compiles the rules into one or more discrimination networks.

17. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the control node further comprises:

a monitoring subsystem that collects the status data from the application nodes and communicates the status data to the automation subsystem, wherein the status data represents an actual state for the application nodes; and

a business logic tier that provides expected state data to the automation subsystem, wherein the expected state data represents an expected state for the application nodes,

wherein the rule engines analyze the status data from the monitoring subsystem and apply the set of rules to produce action requests to the business logic tier to control the application nodes to reduce any difference between the actual state and the expected state.

18. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the application nodes are organized into tiers, and wherein each of the information collectors collects the status data from the application nodes of different tiers.

19. The distributed computing system of claim 1, further comprising:

a database storing data that defines a model for a hierarchical organization of the distributed computing system, wherein the model specifies a fabric having a one or more domains, and wherein each domain has at least one tier that includes at least one of the application nodes,

wherein the rule engines automatically produce action requests to control the deployment of the applications in accordance with a hierarchical organization of the distributed computing system defined by the model.

20. A method comprising:

storing one or more image instances of a virtual machine manager that is executable on application nodes in a distributed computing system, wherein the image instances of the virtual machine manager provide one or more virtual machines;

storing one or more image instances of one or more software applications that are executable on the virtual machines;

executing a rules engine to perform operations to autonomically deploy the image instances of the virtual machine manager on application nodes within a distributed computing system; and

executing the rules engine to perform operations to autonomically deploy the image instances of the software applications on the virtual machines.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein storing the image instances of the one or more software applications comprise storing virtual disk image files.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein performing operations to autonomically deploy the image instances comprises copying a first one of the image instances to a first one of the application nodes.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the software applications comprise an operating system.

24. The method of claim 20,

further comprising generating an application matrix that specifies data for controlling the deployment of the software applications within a distributed computing system;

and

wherein performing operations to provide autonomic control comprises provide autonomic control over the deployment, undeployment, and execution of the software applications on the virtual machines within the distributed computing system in accordance with parameters of the application matrix.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein performing operations comprises:

receiving status data for the distributed computing system having the plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network, wherein the status data represents an actual state of the application nodes;

processing the status data with rules in a set of rule engines to determine operations for reducing any difference between an expected state and the actual state of the distributed computing system; and

performing the operations to provide autonomic control over the deployment of the software applications on the virtual machines within the distributed computing system in accordance with the rules.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising accessing parameters of the application matrix and generating one or more rules for use in autonomically controlling the deployment of the software applications on the virtual machines.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising processing the rules with a plurality of forward-chaining rule engines that compile the rules into one or more discrimination networks.

28. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that cause a programmable processor to:

store one or more image instances of a virtual machine manager that is executable on application nodes in a distributed computing system, wherein the image instances of the virtual machine manager provide one or more virtual machines;

store one or more image instances of one or more software applications that are executable on the virtual machines;

perform operations to autonomically deploy the image instances of the virtual machine manager on application nodes within a distributed computing system; and

perform operations to autonomically deploy the image instances of the software applications on the virtual machines.