System and Method for Portable and Flexible Deployment of Servers

• US 20130198354A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Softlayer Technologies Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: JONES, MARC, SKARDA, DUKE
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,345 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5045 Making service definitions prior to deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A system of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated and virtual servers comprises a plurality of geographically-dispersed data centers comprising a plurality of dedicated servers, a plurality of hosts operable to host a plurality of virtual servers, a management workstation operable to capture dedicated and virtual server images, an image repository operable to store the captured server images, and an intra-data center networking infrastructure enabling communication within the data center. An integrated management system is operable to control and manage deployment of server images to dedicated and virtual servers located in a user-specified data center, and an inter-data center networking infrastructure enables communication between the plurality of data centers.

Claims

1. A system of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated and virtual servers comprising:

a plurality of geographically-dispersed data centers each comprising;

at least one pod including;

a plurality of dedicated servers;

a plurality of hosts operable to host a plurality of virtual servers;

a management workstation operable to capture dedicated and virtual server images;

an image repository operable to store the captured server images; and

an intra-data center networking infrastructure enabling communication within the pod;

an integrated management system operable to control and manage deployment of server images to dedicated and virtual servers located in a user-specified data center; and

an inter-data center networking infrastructure enabling communication between the plurality of data centers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each data center comprises a plurality of pods and the intra-data center networking infrastructure enables communication between the plurality of pods.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface receiving user input, the user interface being selected from the group consisting of a customer web portal, a mobile application, and a programmatic API.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the user interface receives a user selection of at least one data center location for storing a captured image.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the user interface receives a user selection of at least one data center location for deploying a captured image.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the user interface receives a user selection of one of dedicated server and virtual server for deploying a captured image.

7. A method of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated and virtual servers comprising:

receiving, at a user interface, a user input of an order requesting the deployment of a dedicated or virtual server at a specified data center location;

receiving, at the user interface, a user input of a selection of a server image to be deployed;

creating, at an integrated management system, a deployment transaction;

automatically selecting a server according to the user input;

automatically deploying the selected server image including a specification of an operating system to the selected server; and

automatically booting the selected server using the specified operating system.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, at the user interface, a user input of an order requesting the capturing of a server image;

receiving a user selection of at least one data center location for storing the captured image;

capturing the server image; and

storing the captured image at the at least one data center location according to the user selection.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving a user selection of one of dedicated server and virtual server for deploying a captured image.

10. A system of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated and virtual servers comprising:

a plurality of geographically-dispersed data centers each comprising;

a plurality of dedicated servers;

a plurality of hosts operable to host a plurality of virtual servers;

a management workstation operable to capture dedicated and virtual server images;

an image repository operable to store the captured server images; and

an intra-data center networking infrastructure enabling communication within the data center;

an integrated management system operable to control and manage deployment of stored server images selectively to dedicated and virtual servers located in a user-specified data center; and

an inter-data center networking infrastructure enabling communication between the plurality of geographically-dispersed data centers.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a user interface receiving user input, the user interface being selected from the group consisting of a customer web portal, a mobile application, and a programmatic API.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface receives a user selection of at least one data center location for storing a captured image.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface receives a user selection of at least one data center location for deploying a captured image.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface receives a user selection of one of dedicated server and virtual server for deploying a captured image.