METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR LOAD BALANCING IN CLOUD-BASED NETWORKS

• US 20090300210A1
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,971 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• 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 47/78 Architectures of resource allocation

Abstract

A cloud management system can be configured to monitor and allocate resources of a cloud computing environment. The cloud management system can be configured to receive a request to instantiate a virtual machine. In order to instantiate the virtual machine, the cloud management system can be configured to determine the current resource usage and available resources of the cloud in order to allocate resources to the requested virtual machine. The cloud management system can be configured to scale the resources of the cloud in the event that resources are not available for a requested virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method of managing a cloud computing environment, comprising:

monitoring a set of resources for the cloud computing environment;

maintaining a record of the set of resources for the cloud computing environment, the record including virtual machines instantiated in the cloud computing environment; and

allocating the set of resources to the virtual machines instantiated in the cloud computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the record includes at least one of overall computing resources of the cloud computing environment, computing resources of individual servers providing the set of resources, overall available computing resources, and available computing resources of the individual servers.

3. The method of claim 2, fiber comprising:

receiving a request to instantiate at least one virtual machine in the cloud computing environment;

determining currently available computing resources from the set of resources capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine; and

instantiating the at least one virtual machine utilizing the currently available computing resources.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the set of resources are allocated based on at least one of overall available computing resources or the available computing resources of the individual servers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein instantiating the at least one virtual machine utilizing the currently available computing resources comprises at least one of evenly distributing the available computing resources of the individual servers or instantiating the virtual machine in the individual servers containing resources best suited to support the at least one virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 3, farther comprising:

activating reserve resources if the currently available computing resources from the set of resources are not capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

maintaining a record of a set of external resources for at least one external cloud computing environment; and

requesting instantiation of the at least one virtual machine in the at least one external cloud computing environment if the set of resources are not capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine.

8. A system for managing the identification of entities in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

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

a cloud management module, communicating with the network interface, the cloud management module being configured to

monitor a set of resources for the cloud computing environment;

maintain a record of the set of resources for the cloud computing environment, the record including virtual machines instantiated in the cloud computing environment; and

allocate the set of resources to the virtual machines instantiated in the cloud computing environment.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the record includes at least one of overall computing resources of the cloud computing environment, computing resources of individual servers providing the set of resources, overall available computing resources, and available computing resources of the individual servers.

10. The system of claim 9, the cloud management module being further configured to

receive a request to instantiate at least one virtual machine in the cloud computing environment;

determine currently available computing resources from the set of resources capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine; and

instantiate the at least one virtual machine utilizing the currently available computing resources.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of resources are allocated based on at least one of overall available computing resources and the available computing resources of the individual servers,

12. The system of claim 11, wherein instantiating the at least one virtual machine utilizing the currently available computing resources comprises at least one of evenly distributing the available computing resources of the individual servers and instantiating the virtual machine in the individual servers containing resources best suited to support the at least one virtual machine.

13. The system of claim 10, the cloud management module being further configured to

activate reserve resources if the currently available computing resources from the set of resources are not capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine.

14. The system of claim 10, the cloud management module being further configured to

maintain a record of a set of external resources for at least one external cloud computing environment;

and

request instantiation of the at least one virtual machine in the at least one external cloud computing environment if the set of resources are not capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine.

15. A cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment being managed by a method comprising:

monitoring a set of resources for the cloud computing environment;

maintaining a record of the set of resources for the cloud computing environment the record including virtual machines instantiated in the cloud computing environment; and

allocating the set of resources to the virtual machines instantiated in the cloud computing environment.

16. The cloud computing environment of claim 15, wherein the record includes at least one of overall computing resources of the cloud computing environment, computing resources of individual servers providing the set of resources, overall available computing resources, and available computing resources of the individual servers.

17. The cloud computing environment of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a request to instantiate at least one virtual machine in the cloud computing environment;

determining currently available computing resources from the set of resources capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine; and

instantiating the at least one virtual machine utilizing the currently available computing resources.

18. The cloud computing environment of claim 17, wherein the set of resources are allocated based on at least one of overall available computing resources and the available computing resources of the individual servers,

19. The cloud computing environment of claim 18, wherein instantiating the at least one virtual machine utilizing the currently available computing resources comprises at least one of evenly distributing the available computing resources of the individual servers and instantiating the virtual machine in the individual servers containing resources best suited to support the at least one virtual machine.

20. The cloud computing environment of claim 17, further comprising:

activating reserve resources if the currently available computing resources from the set of resources are not capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine.

21. The cloud computing environment of claim 17, further comprising:

maintaining a record of a set of external resources for at least one external cloud computing environment; and

requesting instantiation of the at least one virtual machine in the at least one external cloud computing environment if the set of resources are not capable of supporting the at least one virtual machine.