ALLOCATION AND RESERVATION OF VIRTUALIZATION-BASED RESOURCES

• US 20130304923A1
• Filed: 05/14/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clay, Steven D., Gower, Barry P., Ortiz, Jose I.
• Granted Patent: US 9,569,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5011 Pool
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5014 Reservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present disclosure a method and technique for allocating and reserving virtualization-based resources is disclosed. The method includes: receiving, by a virtualization-based resource management system, a reservation request to reserve a set of computing resources; dynamically allocating the set of computing resources to the reservation request; assigning a key to the allocated set of computing resources; and maintaining the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a utilization request is received to utilize the allocated set of computing resources, the utilization request including the key.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a virtualization-based resource management system, a reservation request to reserve a set of computing resources;

dynamically allocating the set of computing resources to the reservation request;

assigning a key to the allocated set of computing resources; and

maintaining the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a utilization request is received to utilize the allocated set of computing resources, the utilization request including the key.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the key to assign to the allocated set of computing resources with the reservation request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a release request is received to enable release of the allocated set of computing resources, the release request including the key.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to receiving the utilization request, authenticate the key received with the utilization request to the allocated set of computing resources.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning, to a requestor submitting the reservation request, configuration data corresponding to the allocated set of computing resources.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising communicating at least one reserved IP address corresponding to at least one resource of the allocated set of computing resources to the requestor.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to receiving the utilization request with the key from a requestor, enabling utilization of the allocated set of resources by the requestor in response to validating the key; and

responsive to the requestor placing the allocated set of resources in an inactive state, maintaining the allocated set of resources in a reserved state.

8. A virtualization-based resource management system, comprising:

a host having a processor unit operable to execute a virtualization-based resource management application, the management application configured to dynamically allocate computing resources, the management application further configured to;

receive a reservation request to reserve a set of computing resources;

dynamically allocate the set of computing resources to the reservation request;

assign a key to the allocated set of computing resources; and

maintain the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a utilization request is received to utilize the allocated set of computing resources, the utilization request including the key.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the management application is further configured to receive the key to assign to the allocated set of computing resources with the reservation request.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the management application is further configured to maintain the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a release request is received to enable release of the allocated set of computing resources, the release request including the key.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the management application is further configured to, responsive to receiving the utilization request, authenticate the key received with the utilization request to the allocated set of computing resources.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the management application is further configured to return, to a requestor submitting the reservation request, configuration data corresponding to the allocated set of computing resources.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the management application is configured to communicate at least one reserved IP address corresponding to at least one resource of the allocated set of computing resources to the requestor.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the management application is further configured to:

responsive to receiving the utilization request with the key from a requestor, enable utilization of the allocated set of resources by the requestor in response to validating the key; and

responsive to the requestor placing the allocated set of resources in an inactive state, maintain the allocated set of resources in a reserved state.

15. A computer program product for managing virtualization-based resources, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising computer readable program code configured to;

receive a reservation request to dynamically reserve a set of computing resources;

dynamically allocate the set of computing resources to the reservation request;

assign a key to the allocated set of computing resources; and

maintain the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a utilization request is received to utilize the allocated set of computing resources, the utilization request including the key.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to receive the key to assign to the allocated set of computing resources with the reservation request.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to maintain the allocated set of computing resources in a reserved state until a release request is received to enable release of the allocated set of computing resources, the release request including the key.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to:

responsive to receiving the utilization request with the key from a requestor, enable utilization of the allocated set of resources by the requestor in response to validating the key; and

responsive to the requestor placing the allocated set of resources in an inactive state, maintain the allocated set of resources in a reserved state.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to, responsive to receiving the utilization request, authenticate the key received with the utilization request to the allocated set of computing resources.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to return, to a requestor submitting the reservation request, configuration data corresponding to the allocated set of computing resources.