DISTRIBUTED ON-DEMAND COMPUTING SYSTEM

• US 20100005175A1
• Filed: 09/11/2009
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Liu, Zaide "Edward", Garg, Vikas, Swildens, Eric Sven-Johan, Day, Richard David
• Granted Patent: US 8,145,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1017 based on a round robin mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing

Abstract

A method and mechanism for a distributed on-demand computing system. The system automatically provisions distributed computing servers with customer application programs. The parameters of each customer application program are taken into account when a server is selected for hosting the program. The system monitors the status and performance of each distributed computing server. The system provisions additional servers when traffic levels exceed a predetermined level for a customer'"'"'s application program and, as traffic demand decreases to a predetermined level, servers can be un-provisioned and returned back to a server pool for later provisioning. The system tries to fill up one server at a time with customer application programs before dispatching new requests to another server. The customer is charged a fee based on the usage of the distributed computing servers.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically distributing computing resources for application programs across a plurality of servers, comprising:

partitioning a plurality of servers into a Web server partition and a distributed computing server partition, each server in the Web server partition adapted to serve content to requesting client systems, and each server in the distributed computing server partition capable of being provisioned in real-time to run customer application program(s);

tracking a status of each distributed computing server in the distributed computing server partition;

automatically provisioning a server from the distributed computing server partition to run a customer'"'"'s application program;

charging a fee to the customer based on usage of servers in the distributed computing server partition provisioned with the customer'"'"'s application program(s).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the partitioning step varies the size of the Web server partition and the distributed computing server partition based on demand for each partition of servers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning step provisions the server from the distributed computing server partition based on demand for the customer'"'"'s application program.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

re-provisioning a server in the distributed computing server partition that has been provisioned for a customer'"'"'s application program when demand for the customer'"'"'s application program has fallen below a certain level and the server has not been provisioned for other application programs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein when the customer'"'"'s application program requires a particular operating system, the provisioning step provisions the server from the distributed computing server partition to run the required operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning step creates an image of the customer'"'"'s application program and sends the image to the server from the distributed computing server partition.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the provisioning step creates an image of the customer'"'"'s application program combined with the required operating system and sends the image to the server from the distributed computing server partition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning step provisions servers in the distributed computing server partition that have already been provisioned with at least one other application program with the customer'"'"'s application program to reach a certain level of server usage

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning step selects servers in the distributed computing server partition based on characteristics of the customer'"'"'s application program.

10. An apparatus for dynamically distributing computing resources for application programs across a plurality of servers, comprising:

a server partitioning subsystem that partitions a plurality of servers into a Web server partition and a distributed computing server partition, each server in the Web server partition adapted to serve content to requesting client systems, and each server in the distributed computing server partition capable of being provisioned in real-time to run customer application program(s);

a distributed computing server tracking subsystem that tracks a status of each distributed computing server in the distributed computing server partition;

a server provisioning subsystem that automatically provisions a server from the distributed computing server partition to run a customer'"'"'s application program;

a fee subsystem that charges a fee to the customer based on usage of servers in the distributed computing server partition provisioned with the customer'"'"'s application program(s).

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the server partitioning subsystem varies the size of the Web server partition and the distributed computing server partition based on demand for each partition of servers.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the server provisioning subsystem provisions the server from the distributed computing server partition based on demand for the customer'"'"'s application program.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

re-provisioning a server in the distributed computing server partition that has been provisioned for a customer'"'"'s application program when demand for the customer'"'"'s application program has fallen below a certain level and the server has not been provisioned for other application programs.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein when the customer'"'"'s application program requires a particular operating system, the server provisioning subsystem provisions the server from the distributed computing server partition to run the required operating system.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the server provisioning subsystem creates an image of the customer'"'"'s application program and sends the image to the server from the distributed computing server partition.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the server provisioning subsystem creates an image of the customer'"'"'s application program combined with the required operating system and sends the image to the server from the distributed computing server partition.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the server provisioning subsystem provisions servers in the distributed computing server partition that have already been provisioned with at least one other application program with the customer'"'"'s application program to reach a certain level of server usage

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the server provisioning subsystem selects servers in the distributed computing server partition based on characteristics of the customer'"'"'s application program.

19. A computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for dynamically distributing computing resources for application programs across a plurality of servers, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps:

partitioning a plurality of servers into a Web server partition and a distributed computing server partition, each server in the Web server partition adapted to serve content to requesting client systems, and each server in the distributed computing server partition capable of being provisioned in real-time to run customer application program(s);

tracking a status of each distributed computing server in the distributed computing server partition;

automatically provisioning a server from the distributed computing server partition to run a customer'"'"'s application program;

charging a fee to the customer based on usage of servers in the distributed computing server partition provisioned with the customer'"'"'s application program(s).

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the partitioning step varies the size of the Web server partition and the distributed computing server partition based on demand for each partition of servers.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the provisioning step provisions the server from the distributed computing server partition based on demand for the customer'"'"'s application program.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising:

re-provisioning a server in the distributed computing server partition that has been provisioned for a customer'"'"'s application program when demand for the customer'"'"'s application program has fallen below a certain level and the server has not been provisioned for other application programs.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein when the customer'"'"'s application program requires a particular operating system, the provisioning step provisions the server from the distributed computing server partition to run the required operating system.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the provisioning step creates an image of the customer'"'"'s application program and sends the image to the server from the distributed computing server partition.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the provisioning step creates an image of the customer'"'"'s application program combined with the required operating system and sends the image to the server from the distributed computing server partition.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the provisioning step provisions servers in the distributed computing server partition that have already been provisioned with at least one other application program with the customer'"'"'s application program to reach a certain level of server usage

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the provisioning step selects servers in the distributed computing server partition based on characteristics of the customer'"'"'s application program.