Mechanism for Creating and Maintaining Multi-Tenant Applications in a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Environment of a Cloud Computing System

• US 20130227563A1
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: McGrath, Michael P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,720,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

A mechanism for creating and maintaining multi-tenant applications in a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment of a cloud computing system is disclosed. A method includes receiving, by a virtual machine (VM), a request to start an application on the VM, wherein the VM hosts multi-tenant applications associated with owners different than an owner of the requested application, creating unique kernel namespace directories for the application, wherein each unique kernel namespace directory corresponds to one of a plurality of standard directories on an OS of the VM, providing identification of the created unique namespace directories to the application, wherein the application does not update code of the application to access the unique kernel namespace directories, receiving an access request to one of the standard directories, mapping the requested standard directory to a corresponding unique kernel namespace directory of the application, and directing the application to the corresponding unique kernel namespace directory.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine (VM) executing on a computing device of a cloud computing system, a request to start an application on the VM, wherein the VM hosts a plurality of multi-tenant applications associated with owners that are different than an owner of the requested application;

creating, by the VM, unique kernel namespace directories for the application, wherein each unique kernel namespace directory for an application corresponds to one of a plurality of standard directories on an OS of the VM;

providing, by the VM, identification of the created unique namespace directories to the application, wherein the application does not update code of the application to access the unique kernel namespace directories of the application;

receiving, by the VM, an access request to a standard directory of the plurality of standard directories on the OS;

mapping, by the VM, the requested standard directory to a corresponding unique kernel namespace directory of the application; and

directing, by the VM in response to the access request, the application to the corresponding unique kernel namespace directory.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein when the application is executed on the node, the unique namespace directories of the application cause resources of the application to be isolated from other applications executing on the node.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the resources comprise identifying information of the application, files of the application, and commands of the application.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a pam_namespace module creates the unique kernel namespace directories.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein Linux™

Containers (LXC) creates the unique kernel namespace directories.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein one or more commands of a kernel of the OS of the VM comprising clone and unshare create the unique kernel namespace directories.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the unique kernel namespace directories are created as part of initializing the application on the VM.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the unique namespace directories for the application comprise a unique namespace directory for a configuration directory of the application, a unique namespace directory for the identifying information of the application, a unique namespace directory for files of the application, and a unique namespace directory for the commands of the application.

9. An apparatus of a cloud computing system, comprising:

a memory;

a processing device communicably coupled to the memory; and

a virtual machine (VM) to virtualize resources of the memory and the processing device, the VM operable to;

receive a request to start an application on the VM, wherein the VM hosts a plurality of multi-tenant applications associated with owners that are different than an owner of the requested application;

create unique kernel namespace directories for the application, wherein each unique kernel namespace directory for an application corresponds to one of a plurality of standard directories on an OS of the VM;

provide identification of the created unique namespace directories to the application, wherein the application does not update code of the application to access the unique kernel namespace directories of the application;

receive an access request to a standard directory of the plurality of standard directories on the OS;

map the requested standard directory to a corresponding unique kernel namespace directory of the application; and

direct, in response to the access request, the application to the corresponding unique kernel namespace directory.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein when the application is executed on the node, the unique namespace directories of the application cause resources of the application to be isolated from other applications executing on the node.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the resources comprise identifying information of the application, files of the application, and commands of the application.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein a pam_namespace module creates the unique kernel namespace directories.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein Linux™

Containers (LXC) creates the unique kernel namespace directories.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein one or more commands of the kernel comprising clone and unshare create the unique kernel namespace directories.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein unique namespace directories for the application comprise a unique namespace directory for a configuration directory of the application, a unique namespace directory for the identifying information of the application, a unique namespace directory for files of the application, and a unique namespace directory for the commands of the application.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine (VM) executing on a computing device of a cloud computing system, a request to start an application on the VM, wherein the VM hosts a plurality of multi-tenant applications associated with owners that are different than an owner of the requested application;

creating, by the VM, unique kernel namespace directories for the application, wherein each unique kernel namespace directory for an application corresponds to one of a plurality of standard directories on an OS of the VM;

providing, by the VM, identification of the created unique namespace directories to the application, wherein the application does not update code of the application to access the unique kernel namespace directories of the application;

receiving, by the VM, an access request to a standard directory of the plurality of standard directories on the OS;

mapping, by the VM, the requested standard directory to a corresponding unique kernel namespace directory of the application; and

directing, by the VM in response to the access request, the application to the corresponding unique kernel namespace directory.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein when the application is executed on the node, the unique namespace directories of the application cause resources of the application to be isolated from other applications executing on the node.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the resources comprise identifying information of the application, files of the application, and commands of the application.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein at least one of a pam_namespace module, Linux™

Containers (LXC), and one or more commands of the kernel comprising clone and unshare create the unique kernel namespace directories.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein unique namespace directories for the application comprise a unique namespace directory for a configuration directory of the application, a unique namespace directory for the identifying information of the application, a unique namespace directory for files of the application, and a unique namespace directory for the commands of the application.