Managing hardware resources by sending messages amongst servers in a data center

• US 8,346,935 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Joyent, Inc. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Joyent, Inc. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Duncan, James, Candel, Pedro Palazón, Mayo, Mark G, Hoffman, Jason A, Young, David P
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): CONAWAY, JAMES E
• Application Number:
  US12/696,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20110179134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 709/214, 709223-229, 718/1, 718104-105
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• 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 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Systems and methods to manage workloads and hardware resources in a data center or cloud. In one embodiment, a method includes a data center having a plurality of servers in a network. The data center provides a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center. The hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers. The method further includes sending messages amongst the servers, some of the messages being sent from a server including status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that server. The method further includes detecting a request from the virtual machine to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources, and provisioning the servers to temporarily allocate additional resources to the virtual machine, wherein the provisioning is based on status information provided by one or more of the messages.

Claims

1. A method for managing resources in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising:

providing, via the data center, a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each respective virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center, and wherein the hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers;

sending a plurality of messages amongst the plurality of servers, at least a portion of the messages being sent from any respective server comprising status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that respective server;

detecting a request from a first of the respective virtual machines to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources;

provisioning the plurality of servers to temporarily allocate additional resources from the hardware resources to the first respective virtual machine, the provisioning based at least in part on status information provided by one or more of the messages;

sending a new message from a new server that has joined the network, the new message comprising presence information regarding one or more agents executing on the new server; and

initiating a first new agent on the new server, the initiating comprising;

discovering, by the first new agent, services in the network available to the first new agent;

self-configuring, by the first new agent, in response to the services discovered;

causing a second new agent to log in to a first messaging system to advertise presence of the new server; and

causing a third new agent to log in to a second messaging system, the third new agent to manage a listener queue on the new server, to publish messages to the second messaging system, and to listen for new messages in the listener queue.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an application program interface (API) to each of the plurality of users for operation of its respective virtual machine in the data center;

wherein each respective user is able to customize the provisioning to allocate the additional resources for its respective virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating an economic value to the storage and processing resources;

wherein provisioning to allocate the additional resources is further based at least in part on the economic value associated with the storage or processing resources that are available for use by the first respective virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the messages further comprise presence information for a server or commands to partition hardware resources on a server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the messages are sent using at least one of an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) or an Advance Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each respective server of the plurality of servers comprises a plurality of logical solid state drives (SSDs), each respective solid state drive being individually addressable by a virtual machine supported by the respective server; and

provisioning to allocate the additional resources comprises allocating at least one of the logical SSDs to the first respective virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of messages is associated with a topic, each message being routed in the network based on its respective topic, the method further comprising sorting the messages into one or more queues based on the respective topic of each message.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising executing a plurality of listener processes in the network, each of the plurality of listener processes being associated with a respective one of the queues, wherein a first listener process of the plurality of listener processes listens for presence information, the presence information to include an indication that a new server has joined the network.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing an events agent, a metrics agent, and a provisioning agent on each of the plurality of servers, each respective events agent, metrics agent, and provisioning agent to provide a portion of the plurality of messages, wherein the respective metrics agent provides a portion of the status information, and the respective provisioning agent implements a temporary allocation of additional resources from its respective server to a virtual machine of a user.

15. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing to each of the plurality of users a report regarding usage by its virtual machine of the hardware resources.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an user interface (UI) to each of the plurality of users for operation of its respective virtual machine in the data center;

wherein each respective user is able to customize the provisioning to allocate the additional resources for its respective virtual machine.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising executing a presence listener on each of the plurality of servers, each respective presence listener to provide a portion of the plurality of messages, wherein the presence listener relays the presences and availability of a system.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing an events user interface (UI) to each of the plurality of users for presenting events and metrics.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein:

each of the one or more queues is stored on a different one of the plurality of servers; and

the predefined topics for the queues are stored as a predefined topic hierarchy on two or more of the plurality of servers.

9. A method for managing resources in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising:

providing, via the data center, a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each respective virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center, and wherein the hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers;

sending a plurality of messages amongst the plurality of servers, at least a portion of the messages being sent from any respective server comprising status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that respective server;

detecting a request from a first of the respective virtual machines to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources;

provisioning the plurality of servers to temporarily allocate additional resources from the hardware resources to the first respective virtual machine, the provisioning based at least in part on status information provided by one or more of the messages;

sending a new message from a new server that has joined the network, the new message comprising presence information regarding one or more agents executing on the new server; and

initiating a first new agent on the new server, the initiating comprising;

discovering, by the first new agent, services in the network available to the first new agent;

self-configuring, by the first new agent, in response to the services discovered;

causing a second new agent to log in to a first messaging system to advertise presence of the new server;

launching, by the second new agent after logging in to the first messaging system, a command processor executing on the new server; and

causing a third new agent to log in to a second messaging system, the third new agent to manage a listener queue on the new server, to publish messages to the second messaging system, and to listen for new messages in the listener queue.

10. A method for managing resources in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising:

providing, via the data center, a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each respective virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center, and wherein the hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers;

sending a plurality of messages amongst the plurality of servers, at least a portion of the messages being sent from any respective server comprising status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that respective server;

detecting a request from a first of the respective virtual machines to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources;

provisioning the plurality of servers to temporarily allocate additional resources from the hardware resources to the first respective virtual machine, the provisioning based at least in part on status information provided by one or more of the messages;

sending a new message from a new server that has joined the network, the new message comprising presence information regarding one or more agents executing on the new server; and

initiating a first new agent on the new server, the initiating comprising;

discovering, by the first new agent, services in the network available to the first new agent;

wherein discovering the services is performed using domain name system-based service discovery (DNS-SD)

self-configuring, by the first new agent, in response to the services discovered;

causing a second new agent to log in to a first messaging system to advertise presence of the new server; and

causing a third new agent to log in to a second messaging system, the third new agent to manage a listener queue on the new server, to publish messages to the second messaging system, and to listen for new messages in the listener queue.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the services further comprise a data store.

11. A method for managing resources in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising:

providing, via the data center, a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each respective virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center, and wherein the hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers;

sending a plurality of messages amongst the plurality of servers, at least a portion of the messages being sent from any respective server comprising status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that respective server;

detecting a request from a first of the respective virtual machines to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources;

provisioning the plurality of servers to temporarily allocate additional resources from the hardware resources to the first respective virtual machine, the provisioning based at least in part on status information provided by one or more of the messages;

sending a new message from a new server that has joined the network, the new message comprising presence information regarding one or more agents executing on the new server; and

initiating a first new agent on the new server, the initiating comprising;

discovering, by the first new agent, services in the network available to the first new agent;

self-configuring, by the first new agent, in response to the services discovered;

causing a second new agent to log in to a first messaging system to advertise presence of the new server; and

causing a third new agent to log in to a second messaging system, the third new agent to manage a listener queue on the new server, to publish messages to the second messaging system, and to listen for new messages in the listener queue;

wherein each of the plurality of servers is configured to send and receive messages using the first messaging system and the second messaging system.

12. A method for managing resources in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising:

providing, via the data center, a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each respective virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center, and wherein the hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers;

sending a plurality of messages amongst the plurality of servers, at least a portion of the messages being sent from any respective server comprising status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that respective server;

detecting a request from a first of the respective virtual machines to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources;

provisioning the plurality of servers to temporarily allocate additional resources from the hardware resources to the first respective virtual machine, the provisioning based at least in part on status information provided by one or more of the messages;

sending a new message from a new server that has joined the network, the new message comprising presence information regarding one or more agents executing on the new server;

initiating a first new agent on the new server, the initiating comprising;

discovering, by the first new agent, services in the network available to the first new agent;

self-configuring, by the first new agent, in response to the services discovered; and

causing a second new agent to log in to a first messaging system to advertise presence of the new server; and

causing a third new agent to log in to a second messaging system, the third new agent to manage a listener queue on the new server, to publish messages to the second messaging system, and to listen for new messages in the listener queue;

wherein;

the first messaging system implements an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP); and

the second messaging system implements an Advance Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP).

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying instructions, the instructions causing a computing device to perform a method for managing resources in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising:

providing, via the data center, a virtual machine for each of a plurality of users, each respective virtual machine to use a portion of hardware resources of the data center, and wherein the hardware resources include storage and processing resources distributed onto each of the plurality of servers;

sending messages amongst all of the plurality of servers, at least a portion of the messages being sent from any respective server comprising status information regarding a hardware resource utilization status of that respective server;

detecting a request from a first of the respective virtual machines to handle a workload requiring increased use of the hardware resources; and

provisioning the plurality of servers to temporarily allocate additional resources from the hardware resources to the first respective virtual machine, the provisioning based at least in part on status information provided by one or more of the messages;

sending a new message from a new server that has joined the network, the new message comprising presence information regarding one or more agents executing on the new server; and

initiating a first new agent on the new server, the initiating comprising;

discovering, by the first new agent, services in the network available to the first new agent;

self-configuring, by the first new agent, in response to the services discovered;

causing a second new agent to log in to a first messaging system to advertise presence of the new server; and

causing a third new agent to log in to a second messaging system, the third new agent to manage a listener queue on the new server, to publish messages to the second messaging system, and to listen for new messages in the listener queue.