EXECUTING PROGRAMS BASED ON USER-SPECIFIED CONSTRAINTS

• US 20080059557A1
• Filed: 09/06/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: DeSantis, Peter, Cabrera, Luis, Theimer, Marvin, Vermeulen, Allan, Hoole, Quinton, Paterson-Jones, Roland
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,944 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities

Abstract

Techniques are described for managing execution of programs on multiple computing systems, such as based at least in part of user-specified constraints. For example, constraints related to execution of a program may be based on a desired relative location of a host computing system to execute a copy of the program with respect to an indicated target (e.g., computing systems executing other copies of the program or copies of another indicated program), on particular geographic locations, and/or on factors not based on location (e.g., cost of use of a particular computing system, capabilities available from a particular computing system, etc.). Some or all of the multiple computing systems may be part of a program execution service for executing multiple programs on behalf of multiple users, and each may provide multiple virtual machines that are each capable of executing one or more programs for one or more users.

Claims

1. A method for a computing system of a program execution service to execute programs in locations selected in accordance with user-specified constraints, the program execution service using a plurality of host computing systems in multiple geographic areas to execute programs, the plurality of host computing systems being connected at multiple hierarchical levels that are each associated with a distinct degree of proximity such that computing systems of a group at a first hierarchical level are physically proximate and share a common group data exchange medium that is specific to that group and such that each successive higher hierarchical level includes computing system that are less proximate and connected via one or more other data exchange mediums, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a user of the program execution service to execute an indicated quantity of copies of an indicated program in such a manner as to satisfy one or more indicated execution constraints, the one or more execution constraints for use by the program execution service in selecting one or more of the plurality of host computing systems to execute the indicated quantity of indicated program copies, the one or more execution constraints specifying one or more degrees of proximity of the selected one or more host computing systems to one or more indicated other target computing systems;

automatically determining one or more of the hierarchical levels whose associated degrees of proximity correspond to the one or more degrees of proximity specified by the one or more execution constraints;

automatically determining one or more candidate host computing systems that are available to execute the indicated quantity of indicated program copies in accordance with the one or more execution constraints, the candidate host computing systems being connected to the indicated target computing systems at one or more of the determined hierarchical levels;

automatically selecting from the candidate host computing systems the one or more host computing systems to execute the indicated quantity of indicated program copies, such that each of the selected one or more host computing systems is to execute at least one of the indicated program copies; and

initiating executing of the indicated quantity of indicated program copies on the selected one or more host computing systems.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicated quantity of program copies include multiple copies, wherein the indicated target computing systems are computing systems executing other copies of the indicated program, wherein the one or more execution constraints specify at least one of a minimum and a maximum degree of proximity between at least some of the computing systems executing the multiple indicated program copies, a specified minimum proximity degree being for use in providing a minimum degree of reliability in case of a failure that affects one or more of the executing multiple indicated program copies, and a specified maximum proximity degree being for use in providing a minimum degree of network connectivity performance between the executing indicated program copies of the at least some computing systems, and wherein the multiple hierarchical levels include a succession beginning at a lowest hierarchical level whose associated degree of proximity corresponds to multiple programs executing on a single computing system and ending at a highest hierarchical level whose associated degree of proximity corresponds to multiple geographically distributed rings of computing data centers connected by the Internet, the succession including multiple intermediate hierarchical levels that include a switch-based hierarchical level whose associated degree of proximity corresponds to a group of multiple computing systems connected by a switch-based data exchange medium, a router-based hierarchical level whose associated degree of proximity corresponds to a group of multiple switch-based computing system groups connected by a router-based data exchange medium, a data center-based hierarchical level whose associated degree of proximity corresponds to a group of multiple router-based computing system groups connected by a local area network of a data center, and a ring hierarchical level whose associated degree of proximity corresponds to multiple geographically proximate data centers connected by one or more dedicated high-speed data connections.

3. A computer-implemented method for executing programs in accordance with user-specified constraints, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a user of one or more execution constraints for use in selecting one or more host computing systems to execute one or more copies of a program, the one or more execution constraints being based on at least one of locations of the one or more computing systems and of capabilities of the one or more computing systems related to executing the one or more program copies;

automatically determining one or more candidate host computing systems that are available to execute the one or more program copies in accordance with the one or more execution constraints, the candidate host computing systems being selected from a predefined group of multiple distributed computing systems for use in executing programs of users of a program execution service;

automatically selecting the one or more host computing systems to execute the one or more program copies from the candidate host computing systems, such that each of the selected one or more host computing systems is to execute at least one of the one or more program copies; and

initiating execution of the one or more program copies on the selected one or more host computing systems.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein at least one of the one or more execution constraints is based on one or more indicated degrees of proximity between one or more indicated target computing resources and the one or more host computing systems selected to execute the one or more program copies, and wherein the determined candidate host computing systems each have a proximity to at least one of the indicated target computing resources that satisfies at least one of the indicated degrees of proximity.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the multiple computing systems of the predefined group are inter-connected using multiple data exchange mediums, and wherein a degree of proximity between two computing systems is based at least in part on one or more data exchange mediums that connect the two computing systems.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the one or more degrees of proximity each correspond to at least one of multiple connection-based proximity levels, the connection-based proximity levels including a level corresponding to multiple programs executing on a single computing system that share a data exchange medium within the single computing system, a level corresponding to a group of multiple computing systems connected by a switch-based data exchange medium, a level corresponding to a group of multiple switched groups of computing systems connected by a router-based data exchange medium, a level corresponding to a group of computing systems of a computing data center connected by a local area network of the data center, a level corresponding to multiple geographically proximate computing data centers connected by one or more dedicated high-speed data connections, and a level corresponding to multiple geographically distributed computing data centers connected by an internet.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the connection-based proximity levels are hierarchically organized, and wherein the at least one execution constraint indicates a range of one or more of the proximity levels.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the one or more indicated target computing resources are computing systems that execute one or more indicated programs and/or that store one or more indicated groups of data.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein at least one of the one or more execution constraints is based on a relative location of each of the one or more host computing systems with respect to one or more indicated target computing resources, such that the candidate host computing systems are each selected based at least in part on a relative location of the candidate host computing system with respect to at least one of the indicated target computing resources, wherein the indication from the user further includes an indication of the program for which the one or more copies are to be executed and to execute multiple copies of the indicated program, and wherein the one or more indicated target computing resources are computing systems that each execute at least one copy of the indicated program.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more program copies include multiple copies, wherein at least one of the one or more execution constraints is based on a relative location of each of the one or more host computing systems with respect to one or more indicated target computing resources, the relative location being based on a range of multiple degrees of proximity between the indicated target computing resources and the one or more host computing systems that execute the multiple program copies, wherein the determined one or more candidate host computing systems include multiple candidate host computing systems have differing degrees of proximity within the range to the one or more indicated target computing resources, and wherein the selecting of the one or more host computing systems from the multiple candidate host computing systems includes selecting host computing systems that have a preferred degree of proximity to the one or more indicated target computing resources.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the preferred degree of proximity is indicated by the user and is one of a degree of proximity within the range that is most proximate and of a degree of proximity within the range that is least proximate.

12. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more program copies include multiple copies, and wherein the one or more execution constraints specify a level of performance to be provided by the one or more host computing systems, the specified level of performance including at least one of a minimum degree of reliability in case of a failure that affects a subset of the multiple executing program copies and of a minimum degree of network connectivity performance between the multiple executing program copies, the minimum degree of reliability being based at least in part on the multiple executing program copies being executed on multiple computing systems having at least an indicated lack of proximity, and the minimum degree of network connectivity performance being based at least in part on the multiple executing program copies being executed on one or more computing systems having at least an indicated degree of proximity.

13. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more execution constraints indicate one or more geographical locations of the one or more host computing systems with respect to one or more governmental boundaries.

14. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more execution constraints indicate one or more capabilities of the one or more computing systems related to executing the one or more program copies.

15. The method of claim 3 further comprising, before the receiving of the indication from the user, defining a group of one or more execution constraints based on instructions received from the user, and wherein the indication from the user of the one or more execution constraints is based on an indication of the defined group.

16. The method of claim 3 wherein at least one of the one or more host computing systems each hosts multiple virtual machines that are each able to execute at least one program, and wherein the program is a virtual machine image to be executed by at least one virtual machine hosted by each of the at least one host computing systems.

17. The method of claim 3 wherein the method is performed by a computing system of a program execution service, wherein the program is one of multiple programs associated with the program execution service by customers of the program execution service, the multiple computing machines being used by the program execution service to execute the multiple programs on behalf of the customers, and wherein the method further comprises receiving multiple requests from multiple users to execute instances of multiple programs, and automatically selecting one or more of the multiple computing machines for use with each of the requests.

18. A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to execute programs in accordance with user-specified constraints, by performing a method comprising:

receiving an indication from a user of one or more execution constraints for use in selecting one or more computing systems to execute one or more copies of a program, the one or more host computing systems to be selected from a predefined group of multiple computing systems that are for use in executing user programs, the one or more execution constraints being based at least in part on at least one of locations of the one or more computing systems, of capabilities of the one or more computing systems related to executing the one or more program copies, and of costs related to the one or more computing systems executing the one or more program copies;

automatically selecting the one or more computing systems from the multiple computing systems to execute the one or more program copies, the selecting being based at least in part on the selected one or more computing systems satisfying the one or more execution constraints; and

providing an indication to initiate executing of the one or more program copies on the selected at least one computing system.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the one or more execution constraints indicate relative locations of the one or more host computing systems with respect to one or more indicated target computing resources, wherein the indication from the user further indicates the program and a quantity of multiple copies of the indicated program that are each to be executed on a distinct computing system, wherein the indicated target computing resources for use in determining the relative location of a host computing system to execute one of the multiple program copies are computing systems executing other copies of the indicated program, and wherein the one or more execution constraints indicate at least one of a minimum and a maximum degree of distance between at least some of the computing systems executing the multiple program copies, an indicated minimum degree of distance being for use in providing a minimum degree of reliability in case of a failure that affects one of the executing multiple program copies, and an indicated maximum degree of distance being for use in providing a minimum degree of network connectivity performance between the executing program copies of the at least some computing systems.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the computer-readable medium is at least one of a memory of a computing system and a data transmission medium transmitting a generated data signal containing the contents.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing system to perform the method.

22. A system configured to execute programs in accordance with specified constraints, comprising:

one or more memories; and

a system manager component configured to, in response to a determination to execute one or more copies of a program on one or more computing systems for a user in accordance with one or more execution constraints, the one or more execution constraints indicating relative locations of the one or more host computing systems with respect to one or more indicated target computing resources, the one or more host computing systems to be selected from a predefined group of multiple computing systems;

automatically select the one or more computing systems to execute the one or more program copies, the one or more computing systems being selecting from a predefined group of multiple computing systems for use in executing programs for a program execution service, such that the selected one or more computing systems satisfy the one or more execution constraints; and

initiate execution of the one or more program copies on the selected one or more computing systems.

23. The system of claim 22 further comprising the multiple computing systems, the multiple computing systems having multiple groups that each have two or more computing systems sharing a common physical data connection not shared by computing machines external to the group, at least one of the multiple groups being in a first geographic location distinct from a second geographic location of at least one other of the multiple groups, wherein the relative locations of the one or more host computing systems are based at least in part on the groups of computing systems, wherein the initiating of the execution of the one or more program copies on the selected one or more computing systems includes executing the one or more program copies on the selected one or more computing systems, wherein at least some of the multiple computing systems are each configured to host multiple virtual machines that are each able to execute at least one program for a user, such that each of the at least some computing systems is able to simultaneously execute multiple distinct programs for multiple users, wherein the selected one or more computing systems include one or more of the at least some computing systems, and wherein the common physical data connections shared by the multiple computing machines of the multiple groups are each provided by at least one of a network switch, a network router that supports multiple network switches, and a local area network of a data center.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the system includes a first computing system of which at least one of the one or memories is a part, and wherein the system manager component includes software instructions for execution by the first computing system using the at least one memory.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the system manager component consists of a means for, in response to a determination to execute one or more copies of a program on one or more computing systems for a user in accordance with one or more execution constraints, the one or more execution constraints indicating relative locations of the one or more host computing systems with respect to one or more indicated target computing resources, the one or more host computing systems to be selected from a predefined group of multiple computing systems:

automatically selecting the one or more computing systems to execute the one or more program copies, the one or more computing systems being selecting from a predefined group of multiple computing systems for use in executing programs for a program execution service, such that the selected one or more computing systems satisfy the one or more execution constraints; and

initiating execution of the one or more program copies on the selected one or more computing systems.