Tenant Allocation in Multi-Tenant Software Applications

• US 20160054991A1
• Filed: 07/31/2015
• Published: 02/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mossotto, Franco, Pizzutilo, Riccardo, Agostinacchio, Domenico, Presti, Luigi
• Granted Patent: US 9,851,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/62 Uninstallation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

A solution is proposed for managing a multi-tenant software application adapted to serve a plurality of tenants. A deletion request is received for deleting one of the tenants from the plurality of tenants. Responsive to receiving the deletion request, an instance of the software application associated with the tenant to he deleted is disabled. The disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted is deleted after a protection period from the deletion request. An addition request for adding a new tenant to the software application is received. An instance of the software application for the new tenant is allocated to a selected instance of the software application.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for managing a multi-tenant software application adapted to serve a plurality of tenants, the method comprising:

receiving a deletion request for deleting one of the tenants from the plurality of tenants,

responsive to receiving the deletion request, disabling an instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted,

deleting the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted after a protection period from the deletion request,

receiving an addition request for adding a new tenant to the software application, and

allocating an instance of the software application for the new tenant to a selected instance of the software application, the selected instance being selected between one of a set of one or more available instances of the software application and a new instance of the software application according to an indication of the number of the tenants allocated to each available instance of the software application reduced according to the number of the disabled tenants thereof.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the allocating the instance of the software application for the new tenant comprises:

searching for at least one of the available instances of the software application being eligible for allocating to the new tenant, and

responsive to at least one eligible available instance of the software application being eligible, setting the selected instance of the software application of the at least one eligible available instances of the software application.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the allocating of the software application for the new tenant comprises:

searching for at least one of the available instances of the software application being eligible for allocating to the new tenant, and

responsive to at least one eligible available instance of the software application failing to be eligible, deploying at least one new computing machine running the new instance of the software application.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the allocating of the software application for the new tenant comprises:

creating a new slot of one or more resources of the selected instance of the software application when no free slot being not assigned to any tenant thereof is available,

assigning a free slot of the selected instance of the software application to the new tenant.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the deleting of the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted comprises:

dropping a slot assigned to the disabled tenant when the number of slots of the selected instance is higher than the maximum value or freeing the slot assigned to the disabled tenant otherwise.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the slot assigned to each tenant comprises one or more filters for accessing data of the tenant.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the deleting of the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted comprises:

deleting the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted after one or more shared data structures storing the data of the disabled tenant have been purged.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

purging each shared data structure periodically.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the software application is provided as a service.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the software application is provided as a service in a cloud environment.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on the computing system, causes the computing system to:

receive a deletion request for deleting one tenant from a plurality of tenants,

responsive to receiving the deletion request, disable an instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted,

delete the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted after a protection period from the deletion request,

receive an addition request for adding a new tenant to the software application, and

allocate an instance of the software application for the new tenant to a selected instance of the software application, the selected instance being selected between one of a set of one or more available instances of the software application and a new instance of the software application according to an indication of the number of the tenants allocated to each available instance of the software application reduced according to the number of the disabled tenants thereof.

12. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a deletion request for deleting one tenant from a plurality of tenants,

responsive to receiving the deletion request disable an instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted,

delete the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted after a protection period from the deletion request,

receive an addition request for adding a new tenant to the software application, and

allocate an instance of the software application for the new tenant to a selected instance of the software application, the selected instance being selected between one of a set of one or more available instances of the software application and a new instance of the software application according to an indication of the number of the tenants allocated to each available instance of the software application reduced according to the number of the disabled tenants thereof.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the instructions to allocate the instance of the software application for the new tenant further causes the processor to:

search for at least one of the available instances of the software application being eligible for allocating to the new tenant, and

responsive to at least one eligible available instance of the software application being eligible, set the selected instance of the software application to one of the at least one eligible available instances of the software application.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the instructions to allocate the software application for the new tenant further causes the processor to:

create a new slot of one or more resources of the selected instance of the software application when no free slot being not assigned to any tenant thereof is available,

assign a free slot of the selected instance of the software application to the new tenant.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the slot assigned to each tenant comprises one or more filters for accessing data of the tenant.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein the instructions to allocate the software application for the new tenant further causes the processor to:

search for at least one of the available instances of the software application being eligible for allocating to the new tenant, and

responsive to at least one eligible available instance of the software application failing to be eligible, deploy at least one new computing machine running the new instance of the software application.

17. The system according to claim 12, wherein the instruction to delete the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted further causes the processor to:

drop a slot assigned to the disabled tenant when the number of slots of the selected instance is higher than the maximum value or freeing the slot assigned to the disabled tenant otherwise.

18. The system according to claim 12, wherein the instructions to delete the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted further causes the processor to:

delete the disabled instance of the software application associated with the tenant to be deleted after one or more shared data structures storing the data of the disabled tenant have been purged.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

purge each shared data structure periodically.

20. The system according to claim 12, wherein the software application is provided as a service and wherein the software application is provided as a service in a cloud environment.