Implementing Containers For A Stateful Application In A Distributed Computing System

• US 20190213086A1
• Filed: 01/11/2018
• Published: 07/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robin Systems, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Robin Systems, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vallala, Shravan Kumar, Venkatesan, Dhanashankar, Alluboyina, Ravi Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A new snapshot of a storage volume is created by instructing computing nodes to suppress write requests. A snapshot of the application may be created and used to rollback or clone the application. Clones snapshots of storage volumes may be gradually populated with data from prior snapshots to reduce loading on a primary snapshot. Components of cloned applications may communicate with one another using addresses of these components in the parent application. Changes to application state may be written to a remote storage volume that may be mounted to a new instance or clone of the application to recreate its state. Jobs to create and execute a bundled application may be referenced with a simulated file system that generates reads to hosts only when the job log file is actually read. Storage nodes may implement interfaces to a SAN or cloud storage system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

instantiating, on a computing device, a container;

loading, by the computing device, an executable program into the container, the container being programmed to control execution of the executable program;

associating, by the computing device, a file system with the container;

mounting, by the computing device, a remote storage volume to the file system;

executing, by the container, the executable program, the executable program being such that persistent changes to a state of the executable program are invoked by the executable program during execution; and

writing, by the container, the persistent changes to the state of the executable program to the remote storage volume.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the file system is a layered file system comprising multiple layers, the multiple layers including only one writable layer and one or more read-only layers;

and

wherein mounting the remote storage volume to the file system comprises mounting the remote storage volume as the writable layer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising merging the multiple layers of the layered file system to create the file system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the container is a DOCKER container and the file system is a graph driver plugin associated with the container.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein mounting, by the computing device, the remote storage volume to the file system comprises changing metadata of the graph driver plugin to refer to the remote storage volume.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a first computing device, the method further comprising:

freezing execution of the container on the first computing device;

moving the container to a second computing device;

mounting the remote storage volume to the second computing device; and

restarting execution of the container on the second computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a first computing device, the method further comprising:

freezing execution of the container on the first computing device;

creating a clone volume of the remote storage volume;

copying the container to a second computing device;

mounting the clone volume to the second computing device; and

restarting execution of the container on the second computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the container is one of a plurality of containers executing throughout a distributed computing system, the plurality of containers being part of a bundled application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the bundled application defines an application manifest, the manifest invoking instantiating of the container and loading of executable program into the container.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

provisioning the remote storage volume according to provisioning defined by the bundled application.

11. A system comprising one or more processing devices and one or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or more processing devices, the one or more memory devices storing executable code effective to cause the one or more processing devices to:

instantiate a container;

load an executable program into the container, the container being programmed to control execution of the executable program;

associate a file system with the container;

mount a remote storage volume to the file system;

execute the executable program, the executable program being such that persistent changes to a state of the executable program are invoked by the executable program during execution; and

write the persistent changes to the state of the executable program to the remote storage volume.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the file system is a layered file system comprising multiple layers, the multiple layers including only one writable layer and one or more read-only layers;

and

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to mount the remote storage volume to the file system by mounting the remote storage volume as the writable layer.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to merge the multiple layers of the layered file system to create the file system.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the container is a DOCKER container and the file system is a graph driver plugin associated with the container.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is a first computing device, the system further comprising a second computing device;

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to freeze execution of the container on the first computing device and move the container to a second computing device;

wherein the second computing device is programmed to;

mount the remote storage volume to the second computing device; and

restart execution of the container on the second computing device.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is a first computing device, the system further comprising a second computing device;

wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to freeze execution of the container on the first computing device and move the container to a second computing device;

wherein the second computing device is programmed to;

mount a clone volume of the remote storage volume to the second computing device;

copy the container to the second computing device;

mount the clone volume to the second computing device; and

restart execution of the container on the second computing device.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the container is one of a plurality of containers executing throughout a distributed computing system, the plurality of containers being part of a bundled application.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein further comprising an orchestration computing device executing an application manifest for the bundled application, the orchestration computing device programmed to execute the manifest and invoke instantiating of the container on the computing device and loading of executable program into the container.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the orchestration computing device is further programmed to provision the remote storage volume according to provisioning defined by the bundled application.

15. The system of claim 44, wherein the executable code is further effective to cause the one or more processing devices to mount the remote storage volume to the file system by changing metadata of the graph driver plugin to refer to the remote storage volume.