APPARATUS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS FOR CLOUD AGNOSTIC MULTI-TIER APPLICATION MODELING AND DEPLOYMENT

• US 20140372533A1
• Filed: 09/02/2014
• Published: 12/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CliQr Technologies, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: FU, Tianying, JOSHI, Gautam, MALIK, Saad Ali, NAGARAJ, Abhinav
• Granted Patent: US 9,967,318 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• 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

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed facilitate obtaining a cloud agnostic representation of a multi-tier application. Cloud specific implementations of the cloud agnostic representation may be deployed on a plurality of clouds. In some embodiments, dependency information for each component service in a multi-tier application is obtained, wherein the dependency information for a component service indicates prerequisites for starting the component service; and a cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application is derived, wherein the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application comprises metadata for obtaining each of the component services for a plurality of clouds, and a sequence for starting each of the component services, the sequence based, in part, on the dependency information.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, for a multi-tier application comprising a plurality of components, dependency information for each component in the plurality, wherein the dependency information for a component comprises information indicating prerequisites for starting the component; and

deriving a cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application, wherein the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application comprises metadata for;

obtaining each of the plurality of components for a plurality of clouds, and

starting each of the components, wherein each component in the plurality of components is started based on a starting sequence derived, in part, from the dependency information.

2. The processor implemented method of claim 1, wherein the dependency information for each component further comprises residence dependency information and the metadata further comprises:

Virtual Machine (VM) co-residency information for a first subset of the plurality of components when deployed, the co-residency information comprising;

information indicating the compatibility of at least one first group of components in the first subset for co-residency;

or

information indicating the incompatibility of at least one second group of components in the first subset for co-residency;

or

VM placement information for a second subset of the plurality of components when deployed, the VM placement information comprising a mapping of each component in the second subset to one or more VMs.

3. The processor implemented method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of components are selected from at least one of:

a service library, the service library comprising a plurality of services, wherein each of the plurality of services is associated with a corresponding service configuration metadata;

or

an application catalog, the application catalog comprising a plurality of predefined multi-tier applications, wherein each of the plurality of applications is associated with a corresponding application metadata.

4. The processor implemented method of claim 3, wherein the multi-tier application is obtained by:

displaying a representation of the plurality of services in the service library and a representation of applications in the application catalog in a Graphical User Interface (GUI); and

displaying, based on the dependency information and in response to a selection of each of the plurality of components, a graphical representation of the multi-tier application on the GUI, the graphical representation reflecting the selected components and the dependencies between the selected components.

5. The processor implemented method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of services comprise at least one of:

a web server;

a relational database;

a non-relational database;

a load balancing service;

a front-end cache;

a back-end cache;

a message bus;

an application server;

Virtual Machine Image (VMI) based services, or

external endpoint based services.

6. The processor implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

deploying the multi-tier application on at least one of a plurality of clouds using a cloud-specific implementation of the multi-tier application, wherein the cloud-specific implementation specific to the at least one cloud is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application.

7. The processor implemented method of claim 6, wherein deploying the multi-tier application on the at least one of the plurality of clouds comprises:

obtaining, based on the metadata in the cloud agnostic representation, a cloud specific implementation of each of the component services.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory comprising dependency information for each component in a plurality of components of a multi-tier application, wherein the dependency information for a component comprises information indicating prerequisites for starting the component; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to;

obtain the dependency information for each component in the plurality; and

derive a cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application, wherein the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application comprises metadata for;

obtaining each of the plurality of components for a plurality of clouds, and

starting each of the components, wherein each component in the plurality of components is started based on a starting sequence derived, in part, from the dependency information.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the dependency information for each component further comprises residence dependency information and the processor is further configured to:

obtain the metadata based on the residence dependency information, the metadata comprising;

Virtual Machine (VM) co-residency information for a first subset of the plurality of components when deployed, the co-residency information comprising;

information indicating the compatibility of at least one first group of components in the first subset for co-residency;

or

information indicating the incompatibility of at least one second group of components in the first subset for co-residency;

or

VM placement information for a second subset of the plurality of components when deployed, the VM placement information comprising a mapping of each component in the second subset to one or more VMs.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein:

the memory comprises;

a service library, the service library comprising a plurality of services, wherein each of the plurality of services is associated with a corresponding service configuration metadata;

or

an application catalog, the application catalog comprising a plurality of predefined multi-tier applications, wherein each of the plurality of applications is associated with a corresponding application metadata; and

the processor is configured to;

select each of the plurality of components from at least one of the service library or the application catalog.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus further comprises a display coupled to the processor, wherein to obtain the multi-tier application, the processor is further configured to:

display a representation of the plurality of services in the service library and a representation of applications in the application catalog in a Graphical User Interface (GUI); and

display, based on the dependency information and in response to a selection of each of the plurality of components, a graphical representation of the multi-tier application on the GUI, the graphical representation reflecting the selected components and the dependencies between the selected components.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of services comprise at least one of:

a web server;

a relational database;

a non-relational database;

a load balancing service;

a front-end cache;

a back-end cache;

a message bus;

an application server;

Virtual Machine Image (VMI) based services, or

external endpoint based services.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

deploy the multi-tier application on at least one of a plurality of clouds using a cloud-specific implementation of the multi-tier application, wherein the cloud-specific implementation specific to the at least one cloud is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein to deploy the multi-tier application on the at least one of the plurality of clouds, the processor is configured to:

obtain, based on the metadata in the cloud agnostic representation, a cloud specific implementation of each of the component services.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which, when executed by a processor, perform steps in a method, the steps comprising:

obtaining, for a multi-tier application comprising a plurality of components, dependency information for each component in the plurality, wherein the dependency information for a component comprises information indicating prerequisites for starting the component; and

deriving a cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application, wherein the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application comprises metadata for;

obtaining each of the plurality of components for a plurality of clouds, and

starting each of the components, wherein each component in the plurality of components is started based on a starting sequence derived, in part, from the dependency information.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the dependency information for each component further comprises residence dependency information and the metadata further comprises:

Virtual Machine (VM) co-residency information for a first subset of the plurality of components when deployed, the co-residency information comprising;

information indicating the compatibility of at least one first group of components in the first subset for co-residency;

or

information indicating the incompatibility of at least one second group of components in the first subset for co-residency;

or

VM placement information for a second subset of the plurality of components when deployed, the VM placement information comprising a mapping of each component in the second subset to one or more VMs.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of components are selected from at least one of:

a service library, the service library comprising a plurality of services, wherein each of the plurality of services is associated with a corresponding service configuration metadata;

or

an application catalog, the application catalog comprising a plurality of predefined multi-tier applications, wherein each of the plurality of applications is associated with a corresponding application metadata.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the multi-tier application is obtained by:

displaying a representation of the plurality of services in the service library and a representation of applications in the application catalog in a Graphical User Interface (GUI); and

displaying, based on the dependency information and in response to a selection of each of the plurality of components, a graphical representation of the multi-tier application on the GUI, the graphical representation reflecting the selected components and the dependencies between the selected components.

19. The processor implemented method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of services comprise at least one of:

a web server;

a relational database;

a non-relational database;

a load balancing service;

a front-end cache;

a back-end cache;

a message bus;

an application server;

Virtual Machine Image (VMI) based services, or

external endpoint based services.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

deploying the multi-tier application on at least one of a plurality of clouds using a cloud-specific implementation of the multi-tier application, wherein the cloud-specific implementation specific to the at least one cloud is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic representation of the multi-tier application.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein deploying the multi-tier application on the at least one of the plurality of clouds comprises:

obtaining, based on the metadata in the cloud agnostic representation, a cloud specific implementation of each of the component services.