Processing requests in virtual computing environments

• US 7,962,620 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kubisys, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kubisys, Inc.
• Inventors: Urano, Shinichi, Safari, Tigran, Acharya, Soubir
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miah; Razu A
• Application Number:
  US12/138,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20090106424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3692 for test results analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/14 Network analysis or design
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 : Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 : Admission control; Resource allocation
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for processing read and write requests received from a cloned instance of a server application, the cloned instance of the server application having a corresponding instance that is hosted in a production portion of a computing environment.

Claims

1. A method for processing requests in a computing environment that includes a production environment and a test environment, the method comprising:

receiving, by a layer system of the computing environment, a read request from a secondary instance of a server application, the secondary instance of the server application being hosted in the test environment and having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in the production environment;

examining the received read request to determine whether the received read request is a first instance of a read request received for a particular target resource, and if so, executing a read operation to read data from a segment of a time-fixed data image corresponding to the particular target resource, the time-fixed data image being representative of a time-fixed state of data in the production environment, otherwise, executing a read operation to read data from a storage location associated with the test environment;

receiving a write request from the secondary instance of the server application; and

executing a write operation to write data included in the write request to the storage location associated with the test environment,

wherein the secondary instance of the server application is one of a set of server application instances, each server application instance of the set being a secondary instance of a server application having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in the production environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment is accessible exclusively within the test environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a persistent storage location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a write cache operable to store blocks of data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the write operation comprises one or more of the following:

causing a block of data in the storage location associated with the test environment to be replaced by a block of data included in the write request;

causing a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment to be deleted;

causing a block of data included in the write request to be appended to a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment; and

causing a block of data included in the write request to be stored in the storage location association with the test environment.

6. A method for processing write requests in a computing environment that includes a production environment and a test environment, the method comprising:

receiving, by a layer system of the computing environment, a write request from a secondary instance of a server application, the secondary instance of the server application being hosted in the test environment and having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in the production environment; and

executing a write operation to write data included in the write request to a storage location associated with the test environment, the executing including one or more of the following;

causing a block of data in the storage location associated with the test environment to be replaced by a block of data included in the write request;

causing a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment to be deleted;

causing a block of data included in the write request to be appended to a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment; and

causing a block of data included in the write request to be stored in the storage location association with the test environment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment is accessible exclusively within the test environment.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a persistent storage location.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a write cache operable to store blocks of data.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the secondary instance of the server application is one of a set of server application instances, each server application instance of the set being a secondary instance of a server application having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in the production environment.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable medium that stores executable instructions to cause a machine to:

receive a read request from a secondary instance of a server application, the secondary instance of the server application being hosted in a test environment of a computing environment and having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in a production environment of the computing environment;

examine the received read request to determine whether the received read request is a first instance of a read request received for a particular target resource, and if so, executing a read operation to read data from a segment of a time fixed data image corresponding to the particular target resource, the time-fixed data image being representative of a time-fixed state of data in the production environment, otherwise, executing a read operation to read data from a storage location associated with test environment;

receive a write request from the secondary instance of the server application; and

execute a write operation to write data included in the write request to the storage location associated with the test environment,

wherein the secondary instance of the server application is one of a set of server application instances, each server application instance of the set being a secondary instance of a server application having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in the production environment.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment is accessible exclusively within the test environment.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a persistent storage location.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a write cache operable to store blocks of data.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions to execute a write operation comprises instructions to:

cause a block of data in the storage location associated with the test environment to be replaced by a block of data included in the write request;

cause a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment to be deleted;

cause a block of data included in the write request to be appended to a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment;

cause a block of data included in the write request to be stored in the storage location association with the test environment, or some combination thereof.

16. A machine-readable non-transitory medium that stores executable instructions to cause a machine to:

receive a write request from a secondary instance of a server application, the secondary instance of the server application being hosted in a test environment of a computing environment and having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in a production environment of the computing environment; and

execute a write operation to write data included in the write request to a storage location associated with test environment, including;

causing a block of data in the storage location associated with the test environment to be replaced by a block of data included in the write request;

causing a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment to be deleted;

causing a block of data included in the write request to be appended to a block of data, or a portion thereof, in the storage location associated with the test environment;

causing a block of data included in the write request to be stored in the storage location association with the test environment, or some combination thereof.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment is accessible exclusively within the test environment.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a persistent storage location.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the storage location associated with the test environment comprises a write cache operable to store blocks of data.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the secondary instance of the server application is one of a set of server application instances, each server application instance of the set being a secondary instance of a server application having a corresponding primary instance that is hosted in the production environment.