Systems and methods for identification and management of cloud-based virtual machines

• US 8,341,625 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferris, James Michael, Huff, David P., Kearney, Bryan, Vujec, Tomislav
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, DONG U
• Application Number:
  US12/128,768
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,671 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for identification and management of cloud-based virtual machines. A user requests the instantiation of a set of virtual machines from a cloud computing environment. A cloud management system requests the resources necessary to build the machines from a set of resource servers. After populating the set of virtual machines from the cloud, the cloud management system inserts a token ID into one of the virtual machines to designate that machine as a management instance. An image of that machine can be stored in the cloud management system to represent the configuration of the set of virtual machines, even when the cloud itself lacks permanent storage. When the user wishes to update the set of virtual machines, the cloud management system can insert another token ID into another virtual machine, reconfigure the software, processing, or other resources of that machine as a revised management instance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

instantiating, by a management server device of a cloud computing system, a set of virtual machines in computing devices of the cloud computing system;

inserting, by the management server device, a single token ID which is not an identifier used to identify a virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, the single token ID to designate the virtual machine as a management instance virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, wherein the presence of the single token ID in the management instance virtual machine allows the management server device to directly configure, manage, store, and track the management instance virtual machine;

registering, by the management server device, the management instance virtual machine to a database of the management server device;

storing, by the management server device, an image of the management instance virtual machine to the database in order to record a configuration record of the set of virtual machines; and

changing, by the management server device, a configuration of the management instance virtual machine, wherein changing the configuration comprises at least one of setting an operating system, changing one or more applications, adding one or more applications, deleting one or more applications, updating processing level, or updating bandwidth.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cloud computing system comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the set of virtual machines.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein individual virtual machines in the set of virtual machines are identified by an identification field in the configuration record.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing an image of the changed configuration of the management instance virtual machine to the database of the management server device.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising removing the single token ID of the management instance virtual machine having the changed configuration.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating a revised set of virtual machines based on the changed configuration.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising retiring the set of virtual machines upon generation of the revised set of virtual machines.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising inserting a single token ID in a virtual machine of the revised set of virtual machines to generate a revised management instance virtual machine of the revised set of virtual machines.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing an image of the revised management instance virtual machine to the database of the management server device in order to record a configuration record of the revised set of virtual machines.

10. A system for managing the identification of entities in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

a memory;

a processor communicably coupled to the memory;

a network interface device to communicably couple the memory and the processor to a set of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment; and

a cloud management module executed from the memory by the processor and communicating with the cloud computing environment via the network interface device, the cloud management module configured to;

inserting a single token ID which is not an identifier used to identify a virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, the single token ID to designate the virtual machine as a management instance virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, wherein the presence of the single token ID in the management instance virtual machine allows the management server device to directly configure, manage, store, and track the management instance virtual machine;

register the management instance virtual machine in a database of the cloud management module;

store an image of the management instance virtual machine to the database in order to record a configuration record of the set of virtual machines; and

change a configuration of the management instance virtual machine, wherein changing the configuration comprises at least one of setting an operating system, changing one or more applications, adding one or more applications, deleting one or more applications, updating processing level, or updating bandwidth.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the set of virtual machines.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein individual machines in the set of virtual machines are identified by an identification field in the configuration record.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the cloud management module is further configured to store an image of the changed configuration of the management instance virtual machine to the database of the cloud management module.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the cloud management module is further configured to remove the single token ID of the management instance virtual machine having the changed configuration.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the cloud management module is further configured to generate a revised set of virtual machines based on the changed configuration.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the cloud management module is further configured to retire the set of virtual machines upon generation of the revised set of virtual machines.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the cloud management module is further configured to insert a single token ID in a virtual machine of the revised set of virtual machines to generate a revised management instance virtual machine of the revised set of virtual machines.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the cloud management module is further configured to store an image of the revised management instance virtual machine to the database of the cloud management module in order to record a configuration record of the revised set of virtual machines.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine of a set of virtual machines executed in a resource server device of a cloud computing system, a single token ID from a management server device of the cloud computing system which is not an identifier used to identify a virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, the single token ID to designate the virtual machine as a management instance virtual machine, wherein the presence of the single token ID in the management instance virtual machine allows the management server device to directly configure, manage, store, and track the management instance virtual machine;

changing, by the management instance virtual machine of the resource server device, a configuration of the management instance virtual machine based on instructions from the management server device, wherein changing the configuration comprises at least one of setting an operating system, changing one or more applications, adding one or more applications, deleting one or more applications, updating processing level, or updating bandwidth; and

providing, by the virtual machine of the resource server device, identification and configuration data to the management server device for registration of the management instance virtual machine to a database of the management server device and storage of an image of the management instance virtual machine to the database in order to record a configuration record of the set of virtual machines.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the cloud computing system comprises a set of resource server devices configured to deliver resources to instantiate the set of virtual machines.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein individual virtual machines in the set of virtual machines are identified by an identification field in the configuration record.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the single token ID of the management instance virtual machine is removed subsequent to changing the configuration.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the management server device generates a revised set of virtual machines based on the changed configuration of the management instance virtual machine.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the management server device retires the set of virtual machines upon generation of the revised set of virtual machines.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the management server device inserts a single token ID in a virtual machine of the revised set of virtual machines to generate a revised management instance virtual machine of the revised set of virtual machines.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the management server device stores an image of the revised management instance virtual machine to the database in order to record a configuration record of the revised set of virtual machines.