System and method for programmatic management of distributed computing resources

• US 7,886,021 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2008
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: McClain, John W., Jones, Peter C., Scheifler, Robert W., Johnson, Thomas V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yohannes; Tesfay
• Application Number:
  US12/110,880
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,016 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• 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: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing a development and deployment platform for Software as a Service (SaaS) providers are disclosed. The platform may provide an application programming interface (API) through which customers may configure virtualized grids of language-level virtual machines (VMs), networks, and storage resources. A grid may be horizontally scalable and programmatically configurable by a customer and/or customer code. The platform may allow dynamic scaling of resources (up and down) to match changing demands, by allowing customers and/or customer code to programmatically alter their own system level structure at runtime, through the API. The grid may be accessed by both on-grid and off-grid processes, through internal and external connectivity resources provided by the platform. The platform may provide common utilities for end-user services, deployment operations, and development tasks (e.g., debugging), and may include frameworks and macro-components (e.g. web servers). The platform may host long-running Internet-based services and/or one-shot computational services.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

a computing platform receiving input on behalf of a customer specifying two or more platform resources and connections thereto, wherein the specified platform resources comprise two or more of;

a computational resource, a network resource, and a storage resource;

wherein the two or more platform resources are virtual resources allocated from a pool of platform resources shared between two or more customers;

the computing platform receiving program code on behalf of the customer;

the computing platform configuring a virtual system comprising the specified platform resources and dependent on the specified connections thereto;

the computing platform executing the program code on the virtual system to host a service on behalf of the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is accessible by one or more end users of the service other than the customer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, during said executing the program code:

the computing platform receiving input on behalf of the customer specifying a configuration change for the virtual system; and

in response to receiving the input specifying a configuration change, the computing platform dynamically reconfiguring the virtual system in accordance with the specified configuration change.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the input specifying a configuration change is provided by the executing program code.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the program code comprises program instructions defined by an application programming interface supported by the computing platform.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the application programming interface comprises one or more of:

an operation to create a resource in the virtual system, an operation to find a platform resource, an operation to configure a resource in the virtual system, an operation to change configuration of a resource in the virtual system, and an operation to destroy a resource in the virtual system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the operation to destroy a resource in the virtual system is executable to destroy a given platform resource instance in the virtual system if the given platform resource instance is not currently referenced by another resource in the virtual system and to not destroy the given platform resource instance if the given platform resource instance is currently referenced by another resource in the virtual system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the input and the program code are provided to the computing platform as a result of the execution of program instructions on a computing system other than the computing platform.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the platform resources comprise one or more of:

a network accessible file system, a database, a language-level virtual machine, a connectivity resource internal to the virtual system, an external connectivity resource, a communication interface, a communication portal, an identity management utility, an access management utility, a system monitoring utility, a debugging interface, a debugging utility, a computational utility, a graphical user interface, and a web server.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing platform monitoring the virtual system during said executing the program code to detect an instance of a given system event;

in response to detecting an instance of the given system event, the computing platform providing an indication of the given system event; and

in response to the indication, the program code modifying the configuration of the virtual system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the given system event comprises a change in resource usage in the virtual system, and wherein said modifying the configuration of the virtual system comprises destroying a platform resource in the virtual system or creating an additional platform resource in the virtual system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the input specifying the two or more platform resources further specifies, for each resource, configuration information comprising one or more of:

a name, an IP address, a host name, a host name mapping, a working directory, a home directory, an environment variable, a hardware constraint, a non-collocation constraint, a standard input file, a standard output file, a standard error file, a file system mount, an exit action, and an IP filter.

13. A computer-implemented method comprising:

executing an operation defined by an application programming interface to obtain a reference to a computing platform comprising a pool of platform resources;

executing operations defined by the application programming interface to create two or more resources in a virtual system from the pool of platform resources, wherein the two or more resources comprise two or more of a computational resource, a network resource, and a storage resource;

wherein the two or more resources are virtual resources allocated from the pool of platform resources, wherein the pool of platform resources is shared between two or more entities;

executing an operation defined by the application programming interface to configure a connection between at least two of the two or more resources in the virtual system;

executing an operation defined by the application programming interface to populate at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system; and

executing an operation defined by the application programming interface to initiate operation of at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, in response to said initiating operation of at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system, the virtual system executing program code configured to implement a service hosted by the computing platform and accessible to end users of the service.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising, subsequent to said executing an operation to initiate operation of at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system, executing an operation defined by the application programming interface to change a configuration of the virtual system, wherein the operation to change a configuration of the virtual system comprises one or more of:

an operation to create an additional platform resource in the virtual system, an operation to find a platform resource, an operation to change configuration of a platform resource in the virtual system, and an operation to destroy a platform resource in the virtual system.

16. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the one or more processors and comprising program instructions executable by the one or more processors;

wherein the program instructions are executable to implement;

obtaining a reference to a computing platform comprising a pool of platform resources;

creating two or more resources in a virtual system from the pool of platform resources, wherein the two or more resources comprise two or more of a computational resource, a network resource, and a storage resource;

wherein the two or more resources are virtual resources allocated from the pool of platform resources, wherein the pool of platform resources is shared between two or more entities;

configuring a connection between at least two of the two or more resources in the virtual system;

populating at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system; and

initiating operation of at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the program instructions executable to implement said obtaining, said creating, said configuring, said populating, and said initiating are defined by an application programming interface supported by the computing platform.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said populating at least one of the two of more resources comprises transferring program code to the at least one of the two or more resources, and wherein said initiating operation of at least one of the two or more resources in the virtual system comprises initiation of execution of the program code on the virtual system to implement a service hosted by the computing platform and accessible to end users of the service.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement, subsequent to said initiating, changing a configuration of the virtual system, and wherein the program instructions to implement changing a configuration of the virtual system comprise one or more of:

an operation to create an additional platform resource in the virtual system, an operation to find a platform resource, an operation to change configuration of a platform resource in the virtual system, and an operation to destroy a platform resource in the virtual system.