Capacity pooling for application reservation and delivery

• US 8,078,728 B1
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Pollan, C. Evan, Jagtap, Sameer S., Prager, Neal R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Haresh N
• Application Number:
  US11/690,254
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-228, 714/19, 718/1
• US Class Current: 709/226
• 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

Abstract

An application reservation and delivery system with capacity pooling including a logical resource pool, an application library, a resource manager, and a deployment manager. The logical resource pool includes computer resource assets which includes asset type, amount, and asset source in which each computer resource asset is decomposed to a specified level of granularity. The application library includes application configurations, each including at least one server configuration and computer resource asset requirements. The resource manager tracks availability of the computer resource assets, receives requests for specific application configurations for specified time periods, compares each requested application configuration with available computer resource assets at the specified time periods, and reserves resources for each requested application configuration during the specified time periods. The deployment manager deploys each requested application configuration using the reserved resources.

Claims

1. A data center system, comprising:

a shared network;

at least one dedicated virtualization host supporting at least one virtual machine coupled to said shared network;

at least one physical server coupled to said shared network; and

an application reservation and delivery system, comprising;

a logical resource pool comprising a plurality of computer resource assets including asset type, amount, and asset source, in which each of said plurality of computer resource assets is decomposed to a specified level of granularity;

an application library comprising a plurality of application configurations, each of said application configurations comprising at least one server configuration which comprises computer resource asset requirements and which describes a configuration server, and a networking specification for the application configuration;

a resource manager, which receives requests for one of the application configurations for a specified future time period as compared to the time of the request, which compares said requested application configuration with available computer resource assets, which tracks availability of said computer resource assets over time for scheduling deployment of said requested application configuration at said future time period and which reserves resources for said requested application configuration when available during said future time period; and

a deployment manager which deploys at least one server configured according to said requested application configuration using said reserved resources and which provides said at least one server to a remote user via the shared network during said future time period.

2. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said at least one dedicated virtualization host provides at least one virtual machine supporting said application reservation and delivery system.

3. The data center system of claim 1 further comprising the dedicated virtualization host coupled to said shared network and providing at least one virtual machine supporting said application reservation and delivery system.

4. The data center system of claim 1 further comprising the at least one physical server coupled to said shared network and supporting said application reservation and delivery system.

5. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said asset source comprises a virtualization host with memory which sources a portion of said memory as a divisible computer resource asset to said logical resource pool.

6. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said asset source comprises a virtual machine as an indivisible computer resource asset provided to said logical resource pool.

7. The data center system of claim 6 wherein said indivisible computer resource asset depends upon a virtualization host which hosts said virtual machine.

8. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said asset source comprises a network address as an indivisible computer resource asset provided to said logical resource pool.

9. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said asset source comprises a physical server as an indivisible computer resource asset provided to said logical resource pool.

10. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said at least one server configuration comprises a hardware configuration and a software configuration.

11. The data center system of claim 10 wherein said hardware configuration comprises a virtual machine and a prescribed amount of memory and wherein said software configuration comprises a predetermined disk image attached to said virtual machine.

12. The data center system of claim 1 wherein said at least one server configuration comprises a plurality of server configurations and a networking specification for said plurality of server configurations.

13. The data center system of claim 1 further comprising a prescriptive remote access protocol describing remote access to at least one deployed server configured according to said requested application configuration.

14. A method of application reservation and delivery with capacity pooling, comprising:

providing at least one dedicated virtualization host supporting at least one virtual machine coupled to a shared network;

providing at least one physical server coupled to said shared network;

providing a logical resource pool having a plurality of computer resource assets including asset type, amount, and asset source;

decomposing each computer resource asset to a specified level of granularity;

defining, in an application library, a plurality of application configurations, each of said configurations comprising at least one server configuration which comprises computer resource asset requirements and which describes a configuration of a server, and a networking specification for the application configuration;

receiving by a resource manager, a request for one of the application configurations for a specified future time period as compared to the time of request, comparing, by the resource manager using a processing unit, the requested application configuration with available computer resource assets during the future time period, tracking by the resource manager, availability of said computer resource assets over time for scheduling deployment of said requested application configuration at said future time period and reserving, by the resource manager, resources for the requested application configuration when available during the future time period;

deploying, by the deployment manager, at least one server configured according to the requested application configuration using the reserved resources during the future time period; and

providing the deployed server configured according to the requested application configuration to a remote user via the shared network during said future time period.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said providing a plurality of computer resource assets comprises providing a virtualization host with memory which sources a portion of the memory as a divisible computer resource asset.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said providing a plurality of computer resource assets comprises providing a virtual machine as an indivisible computer resource asset which is hosted by the virtualization host.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein said defining comprises defining at least one server configuration including a virtual machine with a prescribed amount of memory and a predetermined disk image attached to the virtual machine.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein said defining comprises defining a plurality of server configurations for an application configuration and a networking specification for the application configuration.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein said defining comprises defining a prescriptive remote access protocol describing remote access to at least one deployed server configured according to the requested application configuration.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein said tracking comprises tracking availability of the computer resource assets over time and scheduling deployment of at least one server configured according to a requested application configuration at a future time.