SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGEMENT OF VIRTUAL APPLIANCES IN CLOUD-BASED NETWORK

• US 20090300149A1
• Filed: 05/28/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2008
• 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, Huff, David P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/222
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• 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: H04L 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/826 Involving periods of time

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for instantiating and operating a virtual appliance monitor in a cloud. A network cloud environment can include a set of instantiated virtual appliances supported in the cloud. A cloud management system can control and organize the resource servers and other resources necessary to build the virtual appliances. In addition to the set of virtual appliances, the cloud management system can instantiate a virtual appliance monitor that communicates with the set of virtual appliances, to monitor their execution state, software complement, and other operational details. In implementations the virtual appliance monitor can be migrated from a physical on-premise platform. The virtual appliance store can store information related to the execution state of the virtual appliances to an off-cloud appliance data store. The instantiation and operation of the virtual appliance monitor can be metered for subscription-based usage charges.

Claims

1. A method of managing a set of virtual appliances in a cloud, comprising:

instantiating a virtual appliance monitor in at least a first network cloud;

receiving appliance state information representing an execution state of at least one set of virtual software appliances instantiated in the first network cloud, in the virtual appliance monitor; and

generating at least one appliance control action by the virtual appliance monitor based on the appliance state information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the appliance state information to an appliance data store external to the at least first network cloud.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the instantiating of a virtual appliance monitor comprises migrating an on-premise appliance monitor to the virtual appliance monitor in the at least first network cloud.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the appliance state information comprises at least one of an appliance ID, version data for a software appliance, an execution state of a software appliance, and an I/O state of a software appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one appliance control action comprises at least one of a termination instruction, a restart instruction, and a resource configuration instruction.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each software appliance in the set of software appliances comprises at least one pre-configured application and a reduced operating system configured to support the at least one pre-configured application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one set of virtual appliances comprises a plurality of sets of virtual appliances.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least first network cloud comprises a plurality of clouds, the virtual appliance monitor monitoring the plurality of sets of virtual appliances in the plurality of clouds.

9. A system for monitoring appliances in a cloud, comprising:

a first interface to at least one set of virtual software appliances instantiated in at least a first network cloud; and

a cloud management system, communicating with the first interface, the cloud management system being configured to—

instantiate a virtual appliance monitor, the virtual appliance monitor being configured to—

receive appliance state information representing an execution state of the at least one set of virtual software appliances instantiated in the first network cloud, in the virtual appliance monitor, and

generate at least one appliance control action based on the appliance state information.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the virtual appliance monitor is configured to store the appliance state information to an appliance data store external to the at least first network cloud.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the instantiating of a virtual appliance monitor comprises migrating an on-premise appliance monitor to the virtual appliance monitor in the at least first network cloud.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the appliance state information comprises at least one of an appliance ID, version data for a software appliance, an execution state of a software appliance, and an I/O state of a software appliance.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one appliance control action comprises at least one of a termination instruction, a restart instruction, and a resource configuration instruction.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein each software appliance in the set of software appliances comprises at least one pre-configured application and a reduced operating system configured to support the at least one pre-configured application.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one set of virtual appliances comprises a plurality of sets of virtual appliances.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least first network cloud comprises a plurality of clouds, the virtual appliance monitor monitoring the plurality of sets of virtual appliances in the plurality of clouds.

17. A set of virtual software appliances, the set of virtual software appliances being monitored by a method comprising:

instantiating a virtual appliance monitor in a at least a first network cloud;

receiving appliance state information representing an execution state of at least one set of virtual software appliances instantiated in the at least first network cloud, in the virtual appliance monitor; and

generating at least one appliance control action by the virtual appliance monitor based on the appliance state information.

18. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises storing the appliance state information to an appliance data store external to the at least first network cloud.

19. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 17, wherein the instantiating of a virtual appliance monitor comprises migrating an on-premise appliance monitor to the virtual appliance monitor in the at least first network cloud.

20. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 17, wherein the appliance state information comprises at least one of an appliance ID, version data for a software appliance, an execution state of a software appliance, and an I/O state of a software appliance.

21. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 17, wherein the at least one appliance control action comprises at least one of a termination instruction, a restart instruction, and a resource configuration instruction.

22. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 17, wherein each software appliance in the set of software appliances comprises at least one pre-configured application and a reduced operating system configured to support the at least one pre-configured application.

23. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 17, wherein the at least one set of virtual appliances comprises a plurality of sets of virtual appliances.

24. The set of virtual software appliances of claim 23, wherein the at least first network cloud comprises a plurality of clouds, the virtual appliance monitor monitoring the plurality of sets of virtual appliances in the plurality of clouds.