METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING THE END TO END LIFECYCLE OF THE VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT FOR AN APPLIANCE

• US 20160328226A1
• Filed: 04/28/2016
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Desktop 365, LLC
• Original Assignee: Desktop 365, LLC
• Inventors: ARYA, DARSHAN B., ZHULENEV, ANDREY S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,303,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

A system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance includes a set of installation tools and an administration portal. A reference architecture for an appliance defines technology layers of an appliance. A partner ecosystem defines a delivery model of an appliance to a customer. A setup wizard tool is installing and configuring management software components, infrastructure software components, and application images on an appliance. An environment management module completes the installation and configuration of the management software components of a virtualization environment and provides ongoing management of the infrastructure software and management software components. An image management module stores the configuration of the application images and provides ongoing management of the application images. A catalog management module maintains a library of the application images. A user subscriptions module maintains a record of user subscriptions to the application images in the library.

Claims

1. A system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance, comprising:

a) a set of installation tools, comprising;

i) a setup wizard tool for installing and configuring management software components, infrastructure software components, and application images in a virtualization environment of an appliance; and

,

ii) a configuration tool providing standard variables information to the setup wizard tool; and

,

b) an administration portal, comprising;

i) an environment management module for completing the installation and configuration of the infrastructure software and management software components of a virtualization environment and providing ongoing management of the infrastructure software and management software components;

ii) an image management module for completing the configuration of the application images and providing ongoing management of the application images;

iii) a catalog management module for maintaining a library of the application images;

iv) a user subscriptions module for maintaining a record of user subscriptions to the application images in the library; and

,

v) a user management module for maintaining a record of users in the system,

wherein the set of installation tools and the administration portal convert hardware into a working appliance and wherein the administration portal enables users to subscribe and access the application images.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said set of installation tools further comprises:

a) an assembler tool for reimaging a server hardware and preparing it for the setup wizard tool; and

,

b) a trace tool allowing tracking of issues and error logs during operation of the setup wizard tool.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said administration portal further comprises,

a) a reseller management module for creating and managing multiple value added resellers of the appliance;

b) an organization management module for creating and managing multiple organizations per one reseller, with one or multiple organizations per a customer;

c) a billing management module for generating monthly invoicing based on user subscriptions; and

,

d) a license management module for generating monthly software licensing utilization reports;

e) a capacity management module for generating hardware capacity utilization reports;

f) a provisioning module for provisioning application images to users based on the user subscriptions; and

,

g) a usage module for generating monthly usage reports based on the user subscriptions.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of user onboarding tools further comprising a self-help tool for users to learn about how to use the system during a user onboarding phase of a life-cycle.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of user support tools further comprising,

a) an audit log module to track user activities in the system for user support purposes;

and,

b) a support requests module for users to submit support requests in the system.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of information technology (IT) operations tools further comprising,

a) a monitoring tool to collect information about hardware utilization and management software performance metrics;

and,

b) a troubleshooting tool for an engineer to quickly collect required information to troubleshoot user issues.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said administration portal comprises:

a) a web server for delivering a user interface of the administration portal;

b) an application server comprising a services faç

ade, a platform service, and, a platform core; and

,

c) a fabric for communication with the management software components and the infrastructure software components, said fabric comprising services core and plugins, wherein the plugins use API (Application Protocol Interface) and PowerShell commands.

8. A reference architecture for an appliance, defining technology layers of an appliance, comprising:

a) a business users layer for describing the use cases of different roles in a system, using application images, wherein user onboarding tools provide business users information about how to use the system;

b) an applications layer for describing the application images used by business users and application images configuration information;

c) a management software layer for describing software products used in the appliance and software configuration information, wherein the software products create a virtualization environment and manage the application images that are running in virtual machines (VMs) created by an infrastructure software layer;

d) an operating system (OS) layer for describing operating systems (OSs) and OS configuration information, wherein said application images are built using the OS templates, wherein OS templates are managed using an environment management module in an administration portal;

e) an infrastructure software layer for describing infrastructure software components used to create a server virtualization environment, said software components including a file server, a hypervisor, a host OS, and a software defined storage, wherein a set of IT operations tools are used to manage the infrastructure software components; and

,

f) a hardware layer for describing a server hardware bill of material and a server hardware configuration for a series of appliances, wherein a set of installation tools install infrastructure software components on bare bone hardware.

9. The reference architecture for an appliance of claim 8, wherein said reference architecture further comprises:

a) a user data layer for describing file server configuration information, wherein user access control to user data is managed by the administration portal, wherein user data is produced as a result of business users working with application images; and

,

b) a devices layer for describing devices compatible with the system and devices configuration information, wherein the business users are using devices to access application images using a remote access protocol.

10. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said management software layer comprises:

a) a Citrix XenDesktop for managing a desktop virtualization environment;

b) an active directory for storing user authentication and authorization information and group policies for operating systems in the appliance;

c) a SQL database for storing data of the Citrix XenDesktop and data of the administration portal;

d) an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server for delivering notification emails to business users;

e) a Citrix Desktop Director for monitoring the desktop virtualization environment;

f) a Microsoft Licensing Server for tracking Microsoft licensing information; and

,

g) a Citrix Licensing Server for tracking Citrix licensing information.

11. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said infrastructure software layer comprises:

a) a file server for providing user data storage; and

,

b) a hypervisor for enabling server virtualization of the hardware.

12. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said infrastructure software layer comprises:

a) a primary server host OS and a secondary server host OS to run the software defined storage.

13. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said hardware layer comprises a primary server and a secondary server to provide needed computing resources to the appliance.

14. A partner ecosystem for delivering an appliance to a customer, comprising:

a) customers being users of an appliance created out of multiple components per a reference architecture;

b) software vendors providing software products, as a component within the appliance per the reference architecture;

c) value added resellers responsible for services of implementing and supporting the appliance per the reference architecture and using an information technology service management (ITSM) framework to deliver their services;

d) original equipment manufacturers (OEM) responsible for assembly of appliance hardware per the reference architecture; and

,

e) an appliance vendor responsible for creating the reference architecture, including an administration portal and other tools, and providing an ITSM Framework.

15. The partner ecosystem of claim 14, further comprising:

a) application vendors providing software for application images used within the reference architecture; and

,

b) distributors responsible for supply chain and delivery of OEM products to the customer, as well as reselling of software licenses and application licenses per reference architecture.