Account cloning service for cloud computing environments

• US 8,856,077 B1
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Roth, Gregory B., Scharf, James E. Jr., Ramachandran, Rajiv, Samuelsson, Anders, Carlson, Keith A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gofman, Alex
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pham, Tuan A
• Application Number:
  US13/524,975
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for an account cloning service for cloud computing environments are disclosed. A system includes a plurality of resources, a plurality of service managers coordinating respective distributed network-accessible services, and a metadata manager. The metadata manager receives an account cloning request specifying a source client account. The metadata manager identifies a representation of an administrative state of the source client account with respect to a plurality of services, including configuration settings of an original set of resources of the plurality of resources providing functionality of the set of services. The metadata manager stores a record of an association of a clone client account of the particular source client account with the representation of the administrative state.

Claims

1. A system, comprising a plurality of computing devices configured to implement:

a plurality of computing platform resources of a provider network, wherein each computing platform resource of at least a subset of the plurality of computing platform resources is assignable to a client account of a client of the provider network;

a plurality of service managers, wherein each service manager of the plurality of service managers is configured to coordinate a respective distributed network-accessible service of a plurality of services implemented at least in part using computing platform resources of the provider network; and

a metadata manager, wherein the metadata manager is configured to;

collect information from each service of a set of services of the plurality of services to determine a representation of an administrative state of the set of services, the set of services used by a client account, wherein the representation comprises a first set of configuration settings of an original set of computing platform resources of the plurality of computing platform resources configured to provide at least a portion of a functionality of the set of services to the particular source client account, wherein the administrative state provides a unified view of the administrative state across multiple services of the set of services of the client account;

implement one or more interfaces to allow a submission of an account cloning request; and

in response to receipt of an account cloning request in accordance with the one or more interfaces, the account cloning request specifying the client account as a particular source client account of the client of the provider network and specifying a particular version descriptor,

identify the representation of the administrative state of the particular source client account with respect to each service of the set of services of the plurality of services, wherein the representation comprises the first set of configuration settings of the original set of computing platform resources of the plurality of computing platform resources configured to provide at least the portion of the functionality of the set of services to the particular source client account at a time indicated by the particular version descriptor; and

store a record of an association of a clone client account of the particular source client account with the representation of the administrative state.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the account cloning request includes an indication of a copy-on-write cloning mode, wherein the metadata manager is further operable to:

store an indication that an acquisition of a computing platform resource on behalf of the clone client account is not to be initiated until a request to change an entity identified in the representation of the administrative state is received.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the metadata manager is further operable to:

store respective records of a plurality of operation requests submitted to each service manager of the plurality of service managers, wherein at least one record of an operation request submitted on behalf of the particular source client account indicates a change to a particular configuration setting of the first set of configuration settings.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the metadata manager is further operable to:

initiate an acquisition of one or more additional computing platform resources on behalf of the clone client account; and

in response to receiving an account state restoration request specifying the clone client account and a restoration version descriptor, change a configuration setting of a particular computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources to a value indicated by the restoration version descriptor.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the metadata manager is further operable to:

initiate an acquisition of one or more additional computing platform resources on behalf of the clone client account; and

in response to receiving an account state change replay request specifying the clone client account, initiate a configuration change on a particular computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources to replicate an operation performed on an original computing platform resource of the original set of computing platform resources.

6. The system as recited in claim 1,

wherein the one or more interfaces comprises a programmatic interface;

and

wherein the metadata manager is further configured to;

implement the one or more programmatic interfaces to allow a submission of one or more of;

an account state restoration request, or an account state change replay request.

7. A method, comprising:

assigning a plurality of computing platform resources to a client account of a provider network;

coordinating, by one or more service managers, a distributed network-accessible service of a plurality of services implemented at least in part using computing platform resources of the provider network;

collecting information from each service of a set of services of the plurality of services to determine a representation of an administrative state of the set of services, the set of services used by the client account, wherein the representation comprises a first set of configuration settings of an original set of computing platform resources of the plurality of computing platform resources configured to provide at least a portion of a functionality of the set of services to the particular source client account, wherein the administrative state provides a unified view of the administrative state across multiple services of the set of services of the client account;

implementing one or more interfaces to allow a submission of an account state cloning request;

in response to receiving an account state cloning request in accordance with the one or more interfaces, the account state cloning request specifying the client account as a particular source client account of a client of a provider network,

identifying the representation of the administrative state of the particular source client account with respect to each service of the set of services of the plurality of services implemented in the provider network, wherein the representation comprises the first set of configuration settings of the original set of computing platform resources of the plurality of computing platform resources of the provider network configured to provide at least the portion of the functionality of the set of services to the particular source client account; and

storing a record of an association of a clone client account with the representation.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the account state cloning request indicates a copy-on-write cloning mode, further comprising:

storing an indication that an acquisition of a

on behalf of the clone client account is not to be initiated until a request to change an entity identified in the representation of the administrative state is received.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

in response to an indication of a request to mutate a computing platform resource of the original set of computing platform resources, initiating an acquisition of an additional computing platform resource on behalf of the clone client account.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

storing respective records of a plurality of operation requests submitted to each service manager of a plurality of service managers, wherein each service manager is configured to coordinate a respective service of the set of services, wherein at least one record of an operation request submitted on behalf of the particular source client account indicates a change to a particular configuration setting of the first set of configuration settings.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

initiating an acquisition of one or more additional computing platform resources on behalf of the clone client account.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

in response to receiving an account state restoration request specifying the clone client account and a restoration version descriptor, changing a configuration setting on a particular computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources to a value indicated by the restoration version descriptor.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the account restoration request comprises a breakpoint descriptor including a request to obtain client feedback when a particular configuration change is completed, further comprising:

in accordance with the breakpoint descriptor, sending a feedback request to a client requesting the client to indicate whether further configuration changes are to be initiated.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

in response to receiving an account state change replay request specifying the clone client account, performing an operation on a particular computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources to replicate an operation performed on an original computing platform resource of the original set of computing platform resources.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

providing an estimate of a projected cost of implementing a set of configuration changes indicated in the account state change replay request, wherein at least one configuration change of the set comprises an acquisition of a computing platform resource of the plurality of computing platform resources of the provider network on behalf of the clone account.

16. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

implementing one or more programmatic interfaces to allow a submission of one or more of;

an account state cloning request, an account state restoration request, or an account state change replay request;

wherein the account state cloning request is received in accordance with an interface of the one or more programmatic interfaces.

17. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the account state cloning request comprises a budget indicator, further comprising:

in response to receiving the account state cloning request,

determining, based at least in part on the budget indicator, a first subset of the original set of computing platform resources for which acquisition of corresponding computing platform resources for the clone client account is to be initiated, and a second subset of the original set for which acquisition of corresponding computing platform resources is to be deferred;

initiating, prior to receiving a request to change an entity identified in the representation of administrative state, acquisition of computing platform resources corresponding to the first subset on behalf of the clone client account; and

storing an indication that an acquisition of computing platform resources corresponding to the second subset on behalf of the clone client account is not to be initiated until a request to change an entity identified in the representation of the administrative state is received.

18. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more processors:

assign a plurality of computing platform resources to a client account of a provider network;

coordinate, by one or more service managers, a distributed network-accessible service of a plurality of services implemented at least in part using the computing platform resources of the provider network;

collect information from each service of a set of services of a plurality of services to determine a representation of an administrative state of the set of services, the set of services used by a client account, wherein the representation comprises a first set of configuration settings of an original set of computing platform resources of the plurality of the computing platform resources configured to provide at least a portion of a functionality of the set of services to the particular source client account, wherein the administrative state provides a unified view of the administrative state across multiple services of the set of services of the client account;

implement one or more interfaces to allow a submission of an account state cloning request; and

in response to receipt of an account state cloning request in accordance with the one or more interfaces, the account state cloning request specifying the client account as a particular source client account of a client of the provider network,

identify the representation of the administrative state of the particular source client account with respect to each service of the set of services of the plurality of services implemented in the provider network, wherein the representation comprises the first set of configuration settings of the original set of computing platform resources of the plurality of computing platform resources of the provider network configured to provide at least the portion of the functionality of the set of services to the particular source client account; and

store a record of an association of a clone client account with the representation.

19. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the account state cloning request indicates a copy-on-write cloning mode, and wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

store an indication that an acquisition of a computing platform resource on behalf of the clone client account is not to be initiated until a request to change an entity identified in the representation of the administrative state is received.

20. The storage medium as recited in claim 19, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

in response to an indication of a request to mutate a computing platform resource of the original set of computing platform resources, initiate an acquisition of an additional computing platform resource on behalf of the clone client account.

21. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

store respective records of a plurality of operation requests submitted to each service manager of a plurality of service managers, wherein each service manager is configured to coordinate a respective service of the set of services, wherein at least one record of an operation request submitted on behalf of the particular source client account indicates a change to a particular configuration setting of the first set of configuration settings.

22. The storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

initiate an acquisition of one or more additional computing platform resources on behalf of the clone client account.

23. The storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

in response to receiving an account state restoration request specifying the clone client account and a restoration version descriptor, change a configuration setting on a particular computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources to a value indicated by the restoration version descriptor.

24. The storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

in response to receiving an account state change replay request specifying the clone client account, performing an operation on a particular computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources to replicate an operation performed on a particular computing platform resource of the additional one or more computing platform resources.

25. The storage medium as recited in claim 24, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

provide an estimate of a projected cost of implementing a set of configuration changes indicated in the account state change replay request, wherein at least one configuration change of the set comprises an acquisition of a computing platform resource of the plurality of computing platform resources of the provider network on behalf of the clone client account.

26. The storage medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

copy contents of an application data object stored on a particular original computing platform resource of the original set of computing platform resources to a particular additional computing platform resource of the one or more additional computing platform resources.