MULTI-REGION VIRTUAL DATA CENTER TEMPLATE

• US 20190319841A1
• Filed: 06/20/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skytap Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Skytap Incorporated
• Inventors: Schick, Bradley M., Mehrotra, Sumit, Andrus, Ross, Hanlon, Matthew, Branch, Yelena
• Granted Patent: US 11,824,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A facility for distributing a template recording a past state of a virtual computing environment is described. The facility accesses a list of physical data centers at which the template is to be available for immediate use to instantiate a new virtual computing environments. The facility causes the template to be stored at each physical data center on the list.

Claims

1-26. -26. (canceled)

27. A method in a computing system for managing the geographic distribution of instances of a template recording a past state of a virtual computing environment, the method comprising:

receiving user input specifying information uniquely identifying a template, among a plurality of templates, to be deleted; and

in response to the receiving;

identifying a plurality of physical data centers in which a template instance of the specified template is stored, wherein the template instance is a copy of the specified template that was previously created in that physical data center;

deleting from each of the identified physical data centers the stored template instance; and

updating a data structure storing an association between the specified template and the template instance by removing the association.

28. A hardware networking component conveying a user interface data structure, the data structure comprising:

information directing the presentation of a visual indication of a template recording a past state of a virtual computing environment;

information directing the presentation of visual indications of each of a plurality of geographic locations; and

information directing the presentation of one or more controls usable to select any among the presented visual indications of each of a plurality of geographic locations as geographic locations in which the indicated template is to be maintained, such that, upon receipt, the information comprising the data structure is usable to facilitate specification by a user of geographic locations at which the indicated template is to be maintained.

29. A method in a computing system for recording a current state of a virtual computing environment, the method comprising:

presenting a list of existing templates each stored persistently;

receiving user input selecting one of the listed existing templates, the selected existing template referring to a first template instance;

in response to the receiving,

persistently storing a second template instance capturing the current state of the virtual computing environment; and

causing the selected template to refer to the second template instance rather than the first template instance.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein, at the time the user input is received, the selected existing template referring to both a first template instance at a first data center and a third template instance at a second data center,

and wherein persistently storing the second template instance comprises persistently storing the second template instance at the first data center,

the method further comprising:

persistently storing a fourth template instance at the second data center, and

causing the selected template to refer to the fourth template instance as well as the second template instance.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising formulating the fourth template instance by:

copying the second template instance; and

in the copy, substituting for each of one or more region-specific resources suited to the first data center a corresponding region-specific resource suited to the second data center.

32. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

at a time before the storing, receiving a first request to dereference a reference to the existing template selected by the received user input;

in response to the first request, identifying the first template instance;

at a time after the storing, receiving a second request to dereference the reference; and

in response to the second request, identifying the second template instance.

33. One or more computer memories collectively containing a template instances table data structure, the data structure comprising:

at least one entry, each entry comprising;

information identifying a template recording a particular past state of a virtual computing environment, the template comprising a state for each of a plurality of virtual machines specified for the virtual computing environment; and

information identifying a physical data center in which an instance of data constituting the identified template has been replicated.

34. The computer memories of claim 33 wherein at least two of the entries contain information identifying the same template.

35. The computer memories of claim 33 wherein each entry of the data structure further comprises:

information usable to access in the identified physical data center the instance of data constituting the identified template that has been replicated in the identified physical data center.

36. The computer memories of claim 33 wherein each entry of the data structure further comprises:

information identifying a version of the data constituting the identified template.

37. A hardware networking component conveying a user interface data structure, the data structure comprising:

information directing the presentation of a list of existing templates each stored persistently; and

information directing the presentation of one or more controls usable to select one of the listed existing templates as an existing template that is to be replaced by a new template recording a current state of a virtual computing environment, such that, upon receipt, the information comprising the data structure is usable to facilitate specification by a user of an existing template that is to be replaced by a new template recording a current state of the virtual computing environment.

38. One or more computer memories collectively storing contents configured to cause a computing system to perform a method for recording a current state of a virtual computing environment, the method comprising:

accessing an indication of an existing template stored persistently; and

persistently storing a distinguished template capturing the current state of the virtual computing environment in place of the indicated existing template.

39. One or more computer memories collectively containing a reference data structure, the data structure comprising:

a reference to a persistently stored first template recording a first state of a first virtual computing environment,

such that, up to a time when the first template is replaced with a second template recording a second state of a second computing environment, the reference refers to the to the first template and can be used to instantiate a new virtual computing environment based on the first template,

and such that, after the time when the first template is replaced with the second template, the reference refers to the second template and can be used to instantiate a new virtual computing environment based on the second template.

40. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the second virtual computing environment is distinct from the first virtual computing environment.

41. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the reference is a numerical identifier.

42. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the reference is a textual identifier.

43. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the reference is a URL.

44. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the reference identifies a particular location in a particular memory at which the template is stored.

45. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the reference directly identifies a particular location in a particular memory at which the template is stored.

46. The computer memories of claim 39 wherein the reference indirectly identifies a particular location in a particular memory at which the template is stored.