Optimization of Virtual Appliance Deployment

• US 20120131578A1
• Filed: 10/30/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ciano, Giuseppe, MacLellan, Scot
• Granted Patent: US 8,910,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

In an embodiment for deploying a new virtual appliance (225) on a data processing center (100) structure information of the new virtual appliance is determined (509-521). The structure information of the new virtual appliance includes an indication of the new virtual machines and an indication of the new software programs of each new virtual machine. Configuration information indicative of a current configuration of the data processing center is retrieved (527). License condition information indicative of license conditions applicable to the data processing center is also retrieved (530-533). A deployment scheme of the virtual appliance on the data processing center is then determined (539,548). The determination of the deployment scheme is performed by optimizing a cost function based on the license condition information, the configuration information and the structure information, and the new virtual appliance may be deployed (551) according to the deployment scheme.

Claims

1. A deployment method for deploying a new virtual appliance on a data processing center including one or more computers configured to each host one or more virtual machines, the new virtual appliance including one or more new virtual machines which each include one or more new software programs, wherein the deployment method includes steps comprising:

determining structure information of the new virtual appliance, the structure information of the new virtual appliance including an indication of the one or more new virtual machines and an indication of the one or more new software programs;

retrieving configuration information indicative of a current configuration of the data processing center;

retrieving license condition information indicative of license conditions applicable to the data processing center;

determining a deployment scheme of the virtual appliance on the data processing center, the determination of the deployment scheme being performed by optimizing a cost function based on the license condition information, the configuration information and the structure information; and

deploying the new virtual appliance according to the deployment scheme.

2. The deployment method according to claim 1, further including steps comprising:

retrieving license entitlement information indicative of license entitlements available in the data processing center, the determination of the deployment scheme being further performed by constraining the cost function to fulfill a set of constraints defined according to the license entitlement information.

3. The deployment method according to claim 2, wherein the step of deploying the new virtual appliance is conditioned to the fulfillment of the constraints by the cost function, the deployment method further including a step comprising:

providing a warning message in response to the missing fulfillment of the constraints by the cost function, the warning message including an indication of each license entitlement corresponding to a constraint that cannot be fulfilled.

4. The deployment method according to claim 3, wherein the warning message further includes an indication of a reason of the non-fulfillment of each constraint.

5. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the deployment scheme includes an indication of said one or more new virtual machines to be created in the data processing center and an indication of a customization of each one of a plurality of customizable virtual machines of the data processing center to be customized, the step of deploying the new virtual appliance including:

creating the new virtual machines and customizing the customizable virtual machines according to the corresponding customization.

6. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining structure information includes:

verifying an inclusion of the structure information of the new virtual appliance in an appliance repository, the appliance repository including structure information of each one of a plurality of known virtual appliances previously deployed on the data processing center; and

retrieving the structure information of the new virtual appliance from the appliance repository in response to the inclusion, or discovering the structure information from an image of the new virtual appliance and saving the structure information of the new virtual appliance into the appliance repository otherwise.

7. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the license condition information includes an indication of a first set of license conditions each one for a corresponding virtual appliance, and an indication of a second set of license conditions each one for a corresponding software program, the step of retrieving license condition information including:

creating a first hash table including the license conditions for the virtual appliances each one being directly accessible through an identifier of the corresponding virtual appliance, and a second hash table including the license conditions for the software programs each one being directly accessible through an identifier of the corresponding software program.

8. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes an indication of at least one deployed virtual appliance already deployed on the data processing center, of a plurality of deployed virtual machines of each deployed virtual appliance, of at least one deployed software program included in each of the plurality of deployed virtual machines, of physical resources of each of said one or more computers, or of virtual resources assigned to each of the plurality of deployed virtual machines.

9. The deployment method according to claim 1, wherein each of the license conditions is based on a number of instances of a corresponding virtual appliance or software program that is installed or executed on a single one of the computers, a subset of said one or more computers or the data processing center, or on an amount of physical resources or virtual resources that are allocated thereto.

10. The deployment method according to claim 2, wherein each of the license entitlements defines a maximum number of instances of a corresponding virtual appliance or software program that may be installed or executed on a single one of the computers, a subset of the computers or the data processing center, and/or a maximum amount of physical resources or virtual resources that may be allocated thereto.

11. A computer program product for deploying a new virtual appliance on a one or more computers configured to each host one or more virtual machines, the new virtual appliance including one or more new virtual machines which each includes one or more new software programs, said computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program which includes code directly loadable into a working memory of a data processing system and configured to cause the data processing system to perform steps comprising:

determining structure information of the new virtual appliance, the structure information of the new virtual appliance including an indication of the one or more new virtual machines and an indication of the one or more new software programs;

retrieving configuration information indicative of a current configuration of the one or more computers;

retrieving license condition information indicative of license conditions applicable to the one or more computers;

determining a deployment scheme of the virtual appliance on the one or more computers, the determination of the deployment scheme being performed by optimizing a cost function based on the license condition information, the configuration information and the structure information; and

deploying the new virtual appliance according to the deployment scheme.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, further including steps comprising:

retrieving license entitlement information indicative of license entitlements available in the one or more computers, the determination of the deployment scheme being further performed by constraining the cost function to fulfill a set of constraints defined according to the license entitlement information.

13. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the step of deploying the new virtual appliance is conditioned to the fulfillment of the constraints by the cost function, the deployment method further including a step comprising:

providing a warning message in response to the missing fulfillment of the constraints by the cost function, the warning message including an indication of each license entitlement corresponding to a constraint that cannot be fulfilled.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the warning message further includes an indication of a reason of the non-fulfillment of each constraint.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the deployment scheme includes an indication of the plurality of new virtual machines to be created in the one or more computers and an indication of a customization of each one of a plurality of customizable virtual machines of the one or more computers to be customized, the step of deploying the new virtual appliance including:

creating the new virtual machines and customizing the customizable virtual machines according to the corresponding customization.

16. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the step of determining structure information includes:

verifying an inclusion of the structure information of the new virtual appliance in an appliance repository, the appliance repository including structure information of each one of a plurality of known virtual appliances previously deployed on the one or more computers; and

retrieving the structure information of the new virtual appliance from the appliance repository in response to the inclusion, or discovering the structure information from an image of the new virtual appliance and saving the structure information of the new virtual appliance into the appliance repository otherwise.

17. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the license condition information includes an indication of a first set of license conditions each one for a corresponding virtual appliance, and an indication of a second set of license conditions each one for a corresponding software program, the step of retrieving license condition information including:

creating a first hash table including the license conditions for the virtual appliances each one being directly accessible through an identifier of the corresponding virtual appliance, and a second hash table including the license conditions for the software programs each one being directly accessible through an identifier of the corresponding software program.

18. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the configuration information includes an indication of at least one deployed virtual appliance already deployed on the one or more computers, of a plurality of deployed virtual machines of each deployed virtual appliance, of at least one deployed software program included in each of the plurality of deployed virtual machines, of physical resources of each of the plurality of computers, or of virtual resources assigned to each of the plurality of deployed virtual machines.

19. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein each of the license conditions is based on a number of instances of a corresponding virtual appliance or software program that is installed or executed on a single one of the computers, a subset of the plurality of computers or the one or more computers, or on an amount of physical resources or virtual resources that are allocated thereto.

20. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein each of the license entitlements defines a maximum number of instances of a corresponding virtual appliance or software program that may be installed or executed on a single one of the computers, a subset of the computers or the one or more computers, and/or a maximum amount of physical resources or virtual resources that may be allocated thereto.

21. A system configured to deploy a new virtual appliance, wherein the new virtual appliance includes a plurality of new virtual machines, each of said new virtual machines including one or more new software programs, the system comprising:

one or more computers;

a memory in each of the plurality of computers configured to host a plurality of virtual machines;

a processor in at least one computer of the plurality of computers, the processor configured to implement steps comprising;

determining structure information of the new virtual appliance, the structure information of the new virtual appliance including an indication of the new virtual machines and an indication of the new software programs of each new virtual machine;

retrieving configuration information indicative of a current configuration of the one or more computers;

retrieving license condition information indicative of license conditions applicable to the one or more computers;

determining a deployment scheme of the virtual appliance on the one or more computers, the determination of the deployment scheme being performed by optimizing a cost function based on the license condition information, the configuration information and the structure information; and

deploying the new virtual appliance according to the deployment scheme.