METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SIMPLIFYING DISTRIBUTED SERVER MANAGEMENT

• US 20130232248A1
• Filed: 04/03/2013
• Published: 09/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BladeLogic Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BladeLogic Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Kraus, Thomas M., Manwani, Vijay G., Muddana, Sekhar
• Granted Patent: US 9,100,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/084 Configuration by using pre-existing information, e.g. using templates or copying from other elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0863 by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer

Abstract

A method and system for managing a large number of servers and their server components distributed throughout a heterogeneous computing environment is provided. In one embodiment, an authenticated user, such as a IT system administrator, can securely and simultaneously control and configure multiple servers, supporting different operating systems, through a “virtual server.” A virtual server is an abstract model representing a collection of actual target servers. To represent multiple physical servers as one virtual server, abstract system calls that extend execution of operating-system-specific system calls to multiple servers, regardless of their supported operating systems, are used. A virtual server is implemented by a virtual server client and a collection of virtual server agents associated with a collection of actual servers.

Claims

1. A method for receiving and executing, on one of a plurality of servers, a system command from a software application program, the method comprising:

receiving a system command from a command-line interface of a server management system, the server management system including the command-line interface, a virtual server client, and virtual server agents, each virtual server agent running on a respective server;

translating the system command to an abstract system command, the abstract system command being indifferent to operating systems used by the servers running the virtual server agents;

receiving, at the virtual server client, the abstract system command; and

instantiating the abstract system command by;

identifying, by the virtual server client, a target server to receive the abstract system command and a corresponding virtual server agent associated with the target server,

transmitting the abstract system command to the corresponding virtual agent for translation of the abstract system command into an operating system-specific system command for execution on the target server,

executing the operating system-specific system command under permissions determined as a function of the target server, an identity of a user of the command-line interface, and a role assigned to the identity, and

receiving execution results from the corresponding virtual server agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two of the plurality of servers have different operating systems.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising aggregating the abstract system command and a second abstract system command into a high-level abstract system command.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving, by the virtual server client, the high-level abstract system command;

disintegrating, by the virtual server client, the high-level abstract system command into the abstract system command and the second abstract system command; and

instantiating each of the abstract system command and the second abstract system command.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving, by the virtual server client, the high-level abstract system command; and

instantiating the high-level abstract system command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein instantiating the abstract system command further includes:

identifying at least two target servers to receive the abstract system command, each with a corresponding virtual server agent;

transmitting the abstract system command to the corresponding virtual server agents, the abstract system command being translated into operating-system specific commands appropriate for respective target servers; and

receiving execution results from the virtual server agents.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the permissions used to execute the respective operating-system specific commands differ between a first server and a second server.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the target server includes identifying the target virtual server agent to receive the abstract system command in response to a server identifier included in the abstract system command.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the target server is a group of physical servers represented by the virtual server agent.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing, by the target server, the operating system specific system command in a thread-safe manner.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining an audit log to record the name of the user and the abstract system command executed on the target server.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

encrypting, by the virtual server client, the abstract system command; and

decrypting, by the virtual server agent, the encrypted abstract system command.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying an existing non-distributed application to function as a network-aware application by substituting a non network-aware system command with the abstract system command.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the modifying includes modifying a non-distributed Unix shell to function as the network-aware application.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the modifying includes modifying a non-distributed scripting language to function as the network-aware application.

16. A method for receiving and executing, on one of a plurality of servers, a system command from a software application program, the method comprising:

providing a representation of a plurality of servers as a single virtual server, the representation of the single virtual server implemented by a virtual server client and a plurality of virtual server agents, at least one virtual server agent running on each one of the plurality of servers;

receiving, by the virtual server client from a client-side software application program, an abstract system command that requests a service from an operating system of at least one of the plurality of servers, the abstract system command being indifferent to the operating system used by the at least one server; and

instantiating the abstract system command by;

identifying, by the virtual server client, a target server to receive the abstract system command and a corresponding virtual server agent associated with the target server,

transmitting the abstract system command to the virtual server agent for the identified target server for translation of the abstract system command into an operating system-specific system command for execution on the target server, and

receiving execution results from the virtual server agent.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein instantiating the abstract system command further includes:

mapping a user identity for a user of the client-side software application program to an associated local user identity for the target server; and

executing the operating system-specific system call using the mapped local user identity on the target server.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein instantiating the abstract system command further includes authorizing the abstract system command for the mapped local user identity based on at least one of role-based access control model and an access control list.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the mapping occurs as a function of the user identity, the target server, and a role associated with the user identity.

20. A method for receiving and executing, on one of a plurality of servers, a system call from a software application program, the method comprising:

providing a representation of a plurality of servers as a single virtual server, the representation of the single virtual server implemented by a virtual server client and a plurality of virtual server agents, at least one virtual server agent running on each one of the plurality of servers, and a first server of the plurality of servers having an operating system that differs from a second server of the plurality of servers;

receiving, by the virtual server client from a client-side software application program, a system call that requests a service from an operating system of at least one of the plurality of servers;

transmitting the system call to respective virtual server agents for the first server and the second server;

mapping a user identity for a user of the client-side software application program to a first local user identity for the first server and a second local user identity for the second server, the mapping being a function of a role associated with the user identity; and

executing the system call using the first local user identity on the first server and the second local user identity on the second server.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising receiving, at the virtual server client, execution results from the virtual server agents.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising

translating the system call to an abstract system call;

and

translating, at the virtual server agents, the abstract system call into an operating-system specific system call.