Resource allocation in a virtualized environment

• US 8,307,362 B1
• Filed: 12/18/2009
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Gong, Changbin, Teng, Yu, Liu, Song, Fiske, Rulian
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, VINCENT HUY
• Application Number:
  US12/653,981
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718/100, 718/104
• US Class Current: 718/1
• 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

In a virtualized environment, provisioned virtual machines may be migrated between different servers as needed and, accordingly, may be clustered according to particular configurations and requirements. The system described herein provides techniques for controlling the provisioning of users'"'"' virtual machines among clusters based on determined requirements obtained from users'"'"' service level agreements (SLAs) and in accordance with an optimized allocation of resources to service the processes corresponding to the virtual machines. The provisioning of virtual machines according to the system described herein may be dynamically controlled and allow for over-provisioning of virtual machines to a cluster beyond that which would normally be supported at the cluster absent the provisioning control techniques provided by the system described herein. The over-provisioning may be controllable according to specific requirements identified in each user'"'"'s SLA.

Claims

1. A method of allocating resources in a computer system, comprising:

accessing information identifying service requirements between a service provider and each of a plurality of users;

allocating processing resources to each of the plurality of users according to the information identifying service requirements between each of the plurality of users and the service provider, wherein the total number of processing resources allocated to the users exceeds the total number of processing resources available, wherein the information identifying service requirements is accessed from a service level agreement between each of the plurality of users and the service provider, the service level agreement of each of the plurality of users being stored in a computer-readable format, and wherein the information identifying service requirements is harvested from each user'"'"'s service level agreement and used in the allocating of the processing resources for a specified period of time;

modifying the allocating of the processing resources in response to a change in the service requirements of the service level agreement for at least one of the users over the specified period of time; and

enforcing the service requirements for the plurality of users over the specified period of time according to the allocating of the processing resources after the change in service requirements.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing resources include at least one virtual machine for each of the users that corresponds to a process serviceable by the service provider, and wherein the at least one virtual machine is assigned to at least one server of the service provider according to the allocation of resources to service the process corresponding to the at least one virtual machine.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the process corresponding to the at least one virtual machine requires compute resources to be serviced, the compute resources including at least one of:

a central processing unit, a memory, storage capacity, and networking bandwidth.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the at least one server is remotely accessible via the Internet to service the process of the at least one virtual machine for each of the users.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the virtual machines of the plurality of users are grouped into at least one cluster for servicing by the service provider.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information identifying service requirements is accessed from a service level agreement between each of the plurality of users and the service provider.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the service provider provides computing as a service via a cloud computing environment.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer software that allocates resources in a computer system, the computer software comprising:

executable code that accesses information identifying service requirements between a service provider and each of a plurality of users;

executable code that allocates processing resources to each of the plurality of users according to the accessed information identifying service requirements between each of the plurality of users and the service provider, wherein the total number of processing resources allocated to the users exceeds the total number of processing resources available, wherein the information identifying service requirements is accessed from a service level agreement between each of the plurality of users and the service provider, the service level agreement of each of the plurality of users being stored in a computer-readable format, and wherein the information identifying service requirements is harvested from each user'"'"'s service level agreement and used in the allocating of the processing resources for a specified period of time;

executable code that modifies the allocating of the processing resources in response to a change in the service requirements of the service level agreement for at least one of the users over the specified period of time; and

executable code that enforces the service requirements for the plurality of users over the specified period of time according to the allocating of the processing resources after the change in service requirements.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the processing resources include at least one virtual machine for each of the users that corresponds to a process serviceable by the service provider, and wherein the at least one virtual machine is assigned to at least one server of the service provider according to the allocation of resources to service the process corresponding to the at least one virtual machine.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the process corresponding to the at least one virtual machine requires compute resources to be serviced, the compute resources including at least one of:

a central processing unit, a memory, storage capacity, and networking bandwidth.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the at least one server is remotely accessible via the Internet to service the process of the at least one virtual machine for each of the users.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the virtual machines of the plurality of users are grouped into at least one cluster for servicing by the service provider.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the information identifying service requirements is accessed from a service level agreement between each of the plurality of users and the service provider.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the service provider provides computing as a service via a cloud computing environment.

15. A method of requesting resources in a computer system, comprising:

each of a plurality of users providing information identifying service requirements required of a service provider;

each of the plurality of users requesting processing resources according to the information identifying service requirements required of the service provider, wherein the total number of processing resources requested by all of the plurality of users exceeds the total number of processing resources available at the same time, and wherein the service requirements from the information identifying service requirements required of the service provider are satisfied for each of the plurality of users, wherein the information identifying service requirements is provided from a service level agreement between each of the plurality of users and the service provider, the service level agreement of each of the plurality of users being stored in a computer-readable format, and wherein the information identifying service requirements is harvested from each user'"'"'s service level agreement and used in the allocating of the processing resources for a specified period of time;

at least one of the plurality of users causing a change in the service requirements of the service level agreement of the at least one user over the specified period of time that causes a modification of the allocating of the processing resources; and

at least one other user of the plurality of users receiving a modified allocation of processing resources over the specified period of time according to the allocating of the processing resources after the change in service requirements.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the processing resources include at least one virtual machine for each of the users that corresponds to a process serviceable by the service provider, and wherein the at least one virtual machine is assigned to at least one server of the service provider according to the allocation of resources to service the process of the at least one virtual machine.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the process corresponding to the at least one virtual machine requires compute resources to be serviced, the compute resources including at least one of:

a central processing unit, a memory, storage capacity, and networking bandwidth.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the virtual machines of the plurality of users are grouped into at least one cluster for servicing by the service provider.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer software that requests resources in a computer system, the computer software comprising:

executable code that provides, for each of a plurality of users, information identifying service requirements required of a service provider;

executable code that requests, for each of the plurality of users, processing resources according to the information identifying service requirements required of the service provider, wherein the total number of processing resources requested by all of the plurality of users exceeds the total number of processing resources available at the same time, and wherein the service requirements from the information identifying service requirements required of the service provider are satisfied for each of the plurality of users, wherein the information identifying service requirements is provided from a service level agreement between each of the plurality of users and the service provider, the service level agreement of each of the plurality of users being stored in a computer-readable format, and wherein the information identifying service requirements is harvested from each user'"'"'s service level agreement and used in the allocating of the processing resources for a specified period of time;

executable code that, for at least one of the plurality of users, causes a change in the service requirements of the service level agreement of the at least one user over the specified period of time that causes a modification of the allocating of the processing resources; and

executable code that, for at least one other user of the plurality of users, receives information corresponding to modified allocation of processing resources over the specified period of time according to the allocating of the processing resources after the change in service requirements.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 19, wherein the processing resources include at least one virtual machine for each of the users that corresponds to a process serviceable by the service provider, and wherein the at least one virtual machine is assigned to at least one server of the service provider according to the allocation of resources to service the process of the at least one virtual machine.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein the process corresponding to the at least one virtual machine requires compute resources to be serviced, the compute resources including at least one of:

a central processing unit, a memory, storage capacity, and networking bandwidth.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein the virtual machines of the plurality of users are grouped into at least one cluster for servicing by the service provider.