Dynamic computing environment using remotely allocable resources

• US 7,278,142 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2001
• Issued: 10/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Clouding Corporation (Marathon Patent Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Veritas Operating Corporation (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: Nanja, Sekaran, Miyamoto, Carleton, Bandhole, Jagadish, Blume, William
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ho; Andy
• Application Number:
  US09/861,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20020049803A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,329 Days
• Field of Search: 709/229, 709/217, 709/218, 709/220, 709/223, 709/226, 718/104, 719/310
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and a method of providing a dynamic computing environment to a user, in which the dynamic computing environment is configured to communicate and to operate under the control of the user. The dynamic computing environment has one or more virtual resources including at least one virtual computing device and one or more computer programs associated with the at least one virtual computing device. According to the present invention, the user has access, for example, to interact with, to modify, and to use the dynamic computing environment including the at least one virtual resource and the at least one physical resource.

Claims

1. A system to provide a dynamic computing environment to a user, the system comprising:

a session manager configured to accept user inputs;

a configuration manager coupled to the session manager, wherein

the configuration manager generates an association relating at least one virtual resource to at least one physical resource, the configuration manager maintains information identifying a configuration of the at least one virtual resource included in the dynamic computing environment, and

the information identifying the configuration of the at least one virtual resource comprises information identifying one or more computer programs associated with the at least one virtual resource; and

a device manager, wherein the device manager allocates the at least one physical resource as the at least one virtual resource within the dynamic computing environment, wherein the device manager also installs the one or more computer programs on the at least one physical resource;

wherein the user has access to interact with the dynamic computing environment including the at least one virtual resource and the at least one physical resource.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a device services manager coupled to the session manager, wherein the device services manager is configured to provide an interface between the session manager and the at least one physical resource.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the interface is coupled to a manager of the at least one physical resource to coordinate a function to be performed by the at least one virtual resource, wherein the interface is under control of an interface computer program.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the manager of the at least one physical resource is a sub-net manager.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the manager of the at least one physical resource is the device manager.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the manager of the at least one physical resource is a storage manager.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one physical resource is a physical computing device.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a boot manager coupled to the device services manager, the boot manager configured to initialize the physical computing device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the association relating the at least one virtual resource with at least one physical resource remains for a period of time.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the user determines the period of time.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sub-net manager coupled to the device services manager, the sub-net manager configured to manage a virtual sub-network associated with a virtual network, wherein the virtual sub-network includes a virtual resource associated with a physical resource.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the sub-net manager is configured to manage two or more virtual sub-networks.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a storage manager coupled to the device services manager, where the storage manager is configured to manage one or more physical storage devices, wherein the storage manager provides a virtual storage to store data from the at least one virtual resource.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic computing environment comprises:

a first virtual resource configured as a client, wherein the first virtual resource is a first virtual computing device;

a second virtual resource configured as a server, wherein the second virtual resource is a second virtual computing device, the second virtual computing device coupled to exchange information with the first virtual computing device; and

a virtual sub-network including the first and the second virtual computing device;

wherein the user has access to the client, the server, and the information exchanged.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user has access to both the client and the server to verify proper execution of a computer program.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic computing environment comprises:

a first virtual resource configured as a first virtual computing device, where the first virtual computing device is associated with at least one physical computing device;

a first virtual sub-network including the first virtual computing device;

a second virtual resource configured as a second virtual computing device, where the second virtual computing device is associated with at least one physical computing device; and

a second virtual sub-network including the second virtual computing device, where the first virtual sub-network and the second virtual sub-network are configured to exchange information between the first virtual computing device and the second virtual computing device,

wherein the user has access to both the first and second virtual computing devices within the first and second sub-network, respectively.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising an account manager coupled to the session manager, where the account manager is configured to manage data representing a user account, where the user account is associated with the user.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising a license manager coupled to the session manager, where the license manager is configured to manage data representing the use of at least one license associated with the one or more computer programs.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising an administrative database configured to exchange information with each of the managers, where the administrative database is configured to store information exchanged with at least one of the managers.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration manager maintains a description of one or more virtual resources.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual resource is a virtual computing device.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual resource is a virtual computing peripheral.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one physical resource is a physical computing peripheral.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual resource is associated with two or more physical resources.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein two or more virtual resources are associated with the at least one physical resource.

26. The system of claim 1, further comprising a web server coupled to the session manager, wherein the web server accepts user requests and forwards the requests to the session manager.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the computer programs associated with virtual computing devices in the dynamic computing environment includes an operating system computer program.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the computer programs associated with virtual computing devices in the dynamic computing environment includes an application computer program.

29. The system of claim 1, further comprising a network coupled between the user and the system.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the network is the Internet.

31. A method for providing a dynamic computing environment to a user, where the dynamic computing environment is responsive to an input from the user, the dynamic computing environment having one or more virtual computing devices and one or more computer programs associated with each of the one or more virtual computing devices, the method performing on a user computer system including a processor coupled to a memory, a user input device and a display, wherein the user computer system is configured to communicate with the dynamic computing environment, the method comprising:

accepting one or more user inputs;

creating a first virtual computing device based upon a first subset of the accepted user inputs;

configuring at least one of a plurality of physical computing devices to operate as the first virtual computing device;

associating the one or more computer programs with the first virtual computing device based upon a second subset of the accepted user inputs, wherein the computer programs are operably disposed within at least one of the configured physical computing devices;

generating a virtual network based upon a third set of user inputs; and

configuring the first virtual computing device to reside in the virtual network based upon a fourth set of user inputs;

wherein the virtual network provides the user with access to at least one of the one or more computer programs executed and to the first virtual computing device.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

creating a second virtual computing device based upon a fifth subset of the accepted user inputs;

configuring another physical computing device to operate as the second virtual computing devices; and

associating another one or more computer programs with the second virtual computing device based upon a sixth subset of the accepted user inputs, wherein the another computer programs are operably disposed within at least one of the another configured physical computing devices;

generating a second virtual network based upon a seventh set of user inputs; and

configuring the second virtual computing device to reside in the virtual network based upon a eighth set of user inputs;

wherein the second virtual network provides the user with access to each of the another computer programs executed and the second virtual computing device.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the first and the second virtual network are the same virtual network.