Pluggable Allocation in a Cloud Computing System

• US 20160072727A1
• Filed: 09/08/2015
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Leafe, Edward, Walsh, Alexander, Voccio, Paul, Messerli, Antony Joel, Thier, Charles B., Dickinson, John A., Holt, Gregory Lee, Behrens, Christopher James, Morris, Trey Eugene, Dietz, Matthew Charles, Kolker, Jason LuVern, Sawalha, Ziad, Ishaya, Vishvananda, Srikrishan, Yogeshwar, Mathews, William Randolph
• Granted Patent: US 9,584,439 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• 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 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2139 Recurrent verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/00 Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units program control for peripheral devices G06F13/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5022 Mechanisms to release resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols

Abstract

In one embodiment, a cloud computing system provides user extensibility by providing a plugin interface for major systems. Plugin interfaces for a compute service, object service, network service, authentication and authorization service, message service, and image service are disclosed. One or more of the plugin interfaces can be used to alter the allocation of virtual to physical resources across multiple services. Compound services and smart allocation facilities are possible with user-directed modification.

Claims

1. A cloud computing system, the system comprising:

a compute service, the compute service including a request application programming interface (API), an allocator, and a physical resource pool;

the allocator including a processor, a computer-readable storage medium, and a network interface, and a compute plug-in facility;

the physical resource pool including a plurality of information processing devices, each information processing device including a processor, a computer-readable medium, and network interface;

a network service logically coupling the request API, the allocator and the physical resource pool;

wherein the allocator is operative to instantiate one or more virtual resources based on one or more requests received via the request API, and wherein each virtual resource, when instantiated, is associated with one of the plurality of physical resources according to an allocation policy; and

wherein there is a default allocation policy;

wherein the compute plug-in facility further comprises a plug-in API, and wherein the compute plug-in facility is operable to modify the allocation policy in response to a request to use a non-default allocation policy via the plug-in API; and

wherein the subsequent association of virtual resources with physical resources is directed by the non-default allocation policy.

2. The cloud computing system of claim 1, wherein the default allocation policy is provided by a first party and the non-default allocation policy is provided by a second party.

3. The cloud computing system of claim 2, wherein the physical resource pool is controlled by the first party and resources from the physical resource pool are temporarily provided to the second party.

4. The cloud computing system of claim 1, wherein the virtual resources include one or more of a logical container, an operating environment, and a virtual router.

5. The cloud computing system of claim 1, wherein the network service includes a default packet routing policy, a default packet filtering policy, and a network plug-in facility;

and wherein the network plug-in facility is operable to modify one of the default packet routing policy and the default packet filtering policy in response to a request to use a non-default routing policy; and

wherein the subsequent routing and/or filtering of packets is directed by the non-default packet routing policy.

6. The cloud computing system of claim 5, wherein the default routing policy is provided by a first party and the non-default routing policy is provided by a second party.

7. The cloud computing system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises an authentication and authorization service.

8. The cloud computing system of claim 7, wherein the authentication and authorization service includes a plug-in facility;

and wherein requests received via the request API are authenticated via the plug-in facility.

9. A cloud computing system, the system comprising:

a storage service, a compute service, and a physical resource pool,

the storage service including a storage request application programming interface (API) and a storage allocator, the storage allocator including a processor, a computer-readable storage medium, and a network interface, and a storage plug-in facility;

the compute service including a compute request API and a compute allocator, the compute allocator including a processor, a computer-readable storage medium, and a network interface, and a compute plug-in facility;

the physical resource pool including a plurality of information processing devices, each information processing device including a processor, a computer-readable medium, and network interface;

wherein the storage allocator is operative to associate one or more objects accessed via the storage request API with one or more of the plurality of physical resources according to a storage allocation policy; and

wherein there is a default storage allocation policy;

wherein the storage plug-in facility further comprises a storage plug-in API, and wherein the storage plug-in facility is operable to modify the storage allocation policy in response to a request to use a non-default storage allocation policy via the storage plug-in API; and

wherein the subsequent association of objects with physical resources by the storage allocator is directed by the non-default allocation policy;

wherein the compute allocator is operative to instantiate one or more virtual resources based on one or more requests received via the compute request API, and wherein each virtual resource, when instantiated, is associated with one of the plurality of physical resources according to a compute allocation policy; and

wherein there is a default compute allocation policy; and

wherein the compute plug-in facility further comprises a compute plug-in API, and wherein the compute plug-in facility is operable to modify the compute allocation policy in response to a request to use a non-default compute allocation policy via the compute plug-in API; and

wherein the subsequent association of virtual resources with physical resources by the compute allocator is directed by the non-default allocation policy.

10. The cloud computing system of claim 9, wherein the default storage allocation policy is provided by a first party and the non-default storage allocation policy is provided by a second party.

11. The cloud computing system of claim 10, wherein the physical resource pool is controlled by the first party and resources from the physical resource pool are temporarily provided to the second party.

12. The cloud computing system of claim 9, wherein the default compute allocation policy is provided by a first party and the non-default compute allocation policy is provided by a second party.

13. The cloud computing system of claim 12, wherein the physical resource pool is controlled by the first party and resources from the physical resource pool are temporarily provided to the second party.

14. The cloud computing system of claim 9, wherein the network service includes a default packet routing policy, a default packet filtering policy, and a network plug-in facility;

and wherein the network plug-in facility is operable to modify one of the default packet routing policy and the default packet filtering policy in response to a request to use a non-default routing policy; and

wherein the subsequent routing and/or filtering of packets is directed by the non-default packet routing policy.

15. The cloud computing system of claim 14, wherein the default routing policy is provided by a first party and the non-default routing policy is provided by a second party.

16. The cloud computing system of claim 9, wherein the system further comprises an authentication and authorization service.

17. The cloud computing system of claim 16, wherein the authentication and authorization service includes a plug-in facility;

and wherein requests received via the storage plug-in API and compute plug-in API are authenticated via the plug-in facility.

18. The cloud computing system of claim 9, wherein the storage allocator is operative to associate one or more objects stored via the storage API with one of the plurality of information processing devices from the physical resource pool;

and wherein the storage plug-in facility is operable to modify the compute allocation policy in response to a request to use a non-default allocation policy; and

wherein the subsequent association of virtual resources with physical resources minimizes the latency between the virtual resources instantiated by the compute allocator and the objects stored via the storage service.

19. A method in a cloud computing system, comprising:

receiving, by a plug-in application programming interface associated with a computing service in the cloud computing system, a request to change a configuration of the computing resource;

determining that the request to change the configuration of the computing resource is authorized; and

changing the configuration of the computing resource.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the computing service is one of a storage service, a compute service, and a network service.