DECENTRALIZED NODE FINDER IN MULTI-CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20200137154A1
• Filed: 11/05/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Wu, Pengfei, Ying, Zhi, Wang, Kun
• Granted Patent: US 11,368,527 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1834 implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella p2p communication protocols H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1061 using node-based peer discovery mechanisms static access to replicated servers H04L67/1006; service discovery H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

In a multi-cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of cloud platforms with each cloud platform comprising one or more nodes, a method maintains at a given one of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment a blockchain instance in accordance with a decentralized blockchain network comprised of at least a subset of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment wherein each of the subset of nodes locally maintain a blockchain instance. Further, the method maintains at the given one of the nodes a global state database which is locally synchronized with the locally maintained blockchain instance and stores identifying information about nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment, wherein the identifying information comprises information on how to find one or more of the nodes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in a multi-cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of cloud platforms with each cloud platform comprising one or more nodes;

maintaining at a given one of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment a blockchain instance in accordance with a decentralized blockchain network comprised of at least a subset of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment wherein each of the subset of nodes locally maintain a blockchain instance; and

maintaining at the given one of the nodes a global state database which is locally synchronized with the locally maintained blockchain instance and stores identifying information about nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment, wherein the identifying information comprises information on how to find one or more of the nodes;

wherein the method is implemented via one or more processing devices each comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying information further comprises information on one or more attributes of one or more of the nodes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more attributes of each of the nodes comprises computing resources available on one or more of the nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the given one of the nodes registering with the decentralized blockchain network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of registering further comprises the given one of the nodes sending a registration request message to the decentralized blockchain network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the registration request message is cryptographically signed by the given one of the nodes.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein a record for the given one of the nodes is added to the decentralized blockchain network after verification by a consensus of the other nodes of the decentralized blockchain network, and wherein the record indicates identifying information about the given one of the nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the given one of the nodes unregistering with the decentralized blockchain network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of unregistering further comprises the given one of the nodes sending an unregistration request message to the decentralized blockchain network.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a record for the given one of the nodes is added to the decentralized blockchain network after verification by a consensus of the other nodes of the decentralized blockchain network, and wherein the record indicates that the given one of the nodes is unavailable.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the given one of the nodes querying its locally maintained global state database to obtain identifying information for another node in the multi-cloud computing environment so as to find the other node.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the given one of the nodes using the identifying information for the other node to communicate with the other node.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the given one of the nodes communicates with the other node for one or more of data protection functions.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more data protection functions comprise a data protection load balancing function.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more data protection functions comprise a data protection auto-upgrade function.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the global state database stores the identifying information about the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment as key-value pairs.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the locally maintained blockchain instance synchronizing with the decentralized blockchain network.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cloud platforms comprises multiple private clouds, multiple public clouds, or a combination of one or more private clouds and one or more public clouds.

19. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing device causes said at least one processing device to perform steps:

in a multi-cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of cloud platforms with each cloud platform comprising one or more nodes;

maintaining at a given one of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment a blockchain instance in accordance with a decentralized blockchain network comprised of at least a subset of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment wherein each of the subset of nodes locally maintain a blockchain instance; and

maintaining at the given one of the nodes a global state database which is locally synchronized with the locally maintained blockchain instance and stores identifying information about nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment, wherein the identifying information comprises information on how to find one or more of the nodes.

20. A system comprising:

one or more processing devices configured to;

in a multi-cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of cloud platforms with each cloud platform comprising one or more nodes;

maintain at a given one of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment a blockchain instance in accordance with a decentralized blockchain network comprised of at least a subset of the nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment wherein each of the subset of nodes locally maintain a blockchain instance; and

maintain at the given one of the nodes a global state database which is locally synchronized with the locally maintained blockchain instance and stores identifying information about nodes in the multi-cloud computing environment, wherein the identifying information comprises information on how to find one or more of the nodes.