Extensible computing system

• US 7,503,045 B1
• Filed: 08/11/2004
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Patterson, Martin, Markson, Tom, Aziz, Ashar
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Ai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kawsar; Abdullah Al
• Application Number:
  US10/917,163
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 718/104, 718/1, 718/100, 718/101, 718/102, 718/103, 718/105, 709/226, 719/220, 719/221, 719/223, 719/225, 719/226, 719/229
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4679 Arrangements for the registration or de-registration of VLAN attribute values, e.g. VLAN identifiers, port VLAN membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/205 Quality of Service based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/351 for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/357 Fibre channel switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• 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

Methods and apparatus providing a dynamically sized, highly scalable and available server farm are disclosed. A Virtual Server Farm (VSF) is created out of a wide scale computing fabric (“Computing Grid”) which is physically constructed once and then logically divided up into VSFs for various organizations on demand. Each organization retains independent administrative control of a VSF. A VSF is dynamically firewalled within the Computing Grid. Allocation and control of the elements and topology in the VSF is performed by a Control Plane connected to all computing, networking, and storage elements in the computing grid through special control ports. No physical rewiring is necessary in order to construct VSFs in many different configurations, including single-tier Web server or multi-tier Web-server, application server, database server configurations.

Claims

1. A method for managing a computing grid comprising a plurality of computing resources, wherein the plurality of computing resources comprises a plurality of processors and storage devices, the method comprising:

logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions, wherein each partition comprises a subset of the plurality of computing resources;

dynamically changing a number of computing resources logically assigned to a particular partition from the plurality of partitions;

assigning a first partition from the plurality of partitions to a first user;

assigning a second partition from the plurality of partitions to a second user; and

providing secure access to the first partition and the second partition to allow the first user to access the first partition but not the second partition and the second user to access the second partition but not the first partition,

wherein the step of providing secure access is performed using virtual local area network switches,

wherein logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions further comprises generating instructions to logically couple together the subset of computing resources within each of the plurality of partitions, and

wherein logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions is performed through a plurality of control ports associated with the plurality of computing resources such that the plurality of computing resources in the computing grid are unable to access computing resources which they are not authorized to access.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein computing resources in the subset of computing resources associated with the first partition do not have access to computing resources in the subset of computing resources associated with the second partition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions, is performed through a control plane, wherein the control plane comprises a plurality of control ports associated with the plurality of computing resources, and the plurality of control ports manages membership of the plurality of computing resources within a particular partition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically changing a number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition from the plurality of partitions includes adding an additional computing resource to the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising removing the additional computing resource from another partition from the plurality of partitions.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the additional computing resource is not currently associated with any of the plurality of partitions.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising configuring the additional computing resource in accordance with an intended role of the additional computing resource in the particular partition.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein adding an additional computing resource to the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition includes selecting, from among a set of processors, an additional processor;

and

generating instructions that logically couple the additional processor to the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically changing a number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition from the plurality of partitions includes removing a particular computing resource from the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein removing a particular computing resource from the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition includes generating instructions that cause a particular processor to be logically decoupled from the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a non-partition portion of the computing grid includes a subset of the plurality of computing resources.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically changing the number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition in response to real-time loading experienced by the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically changing the number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition in response to a request by the first user.

14. An apparatus comprising one or more processors for managing a computing grid comprising a plurality of computing resources, wherein the plurality of computing resources comprises a plurality of processors and storage devices, comprising:

means for logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions, wherein each partition comprises a subset of the plurality of computing resources;

means for dynamically changing a number of computing resources logically assigned to a particular partition from the plurality of partitions;

means for assigning a first partition from the plurality of partitions to a first user;

means for assigning a second partition from the plurality of partitions to a second user; and

means for providing secure access to the first partition and the second partition to allow the first user to access the first partition but not the second partition and the second user to access the second partition but not the first partition,

wherein the means for providing secure access comprises means for configuring virtual local area networks,

wherein means for logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions further comprises means for generating instructions to logically couple together the subset of computing resources within each of the plurality of partitions, and

wherein means for logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions is performed through a plurality of control ports associated with the plurality of computing resources such that the plurality of computing resources in the computing grid are unable to access computing resources which they are not authorized to access.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein computing resources in the subset of computing resources associated with the first partition do not have access to computing resources in the subset of computing resources associated with the second partition.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein means for logically partitioning at least a portion of the computing grid into a plurality of partitions, is performed through a control plane, wherein the control plane comprises a plurality of control ports associated with the plurality of computing resources, and the plurality of control ports manages membership of the plurality of computing resources within a particular partition.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein means for dynamically changing a number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition from the plurality of partitions includes means for adding an additional computing resource to the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising means for removing the additional computing resource from another partition from the plurality of partitions.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the additional computing resource is not currently associated with any of the plurality of partitions.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising means for configuring the additional computing resource in accordance with an intended role of the additional computing resource in the particular partition.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein means for adding an additional computing resource to the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition includes means for selecting, from among a set of processors, an additional processor;

and

means for generating instructions that logically couple the additional processor to the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein means for dynamically changing a number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition from the plurality of partitions includes means for removing a particular computing resource from the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein means for removing a particular computing resource from the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition includes means for generating instructions that cause a particular processor to be logically decoupled from the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

24. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a non-partition portion of the computing grid includes a subset of the plurality of computing resources.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising means for dynamically changing the number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition in response to real-time loading experienced by the subset of computing resources assigned to the particular partition.

26. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising means for dynamically changing the number of computing resources logically assigned to the particular partition in response to a request by the first user.