Apparatus, method and system for rapid delivery of distributed applications

• US 8,949,364 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Miloushev, Vladimir I., Nickolov, Peter A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele, Krista M.
• Application Number:
  US11/522,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078988A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,063 Days
• Field of Search: 709/212
• US Class Current: 709/212
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An apparatus, method and system are disclosed for visually constructing and rapidly delivering distributed applications. The system includes a virtual appliance apparatus and a composite appliance apparatus, as well as a system for virtualizing hardware resources and for provisioning, executing and scaling distributed applications.

Claims

1. A method for creating a distributed application from existing software, the method comprising the steps of:

a) creating a plurality of storage volumes by installing software;

b) defining a set of configurable parameters for specializing said application;

c) visually defining metadata, using one or more processors, sufficient to automatically construct multiple running instances of said application from said volumes, each instance of said application comprising a plurality of virtual appliance instances comprising a virtual machine operable to boot an operating system, one or more virtual volumes, an application service that implements a distributed function of said application, and one or more virtual network interfaces; and

d) defining a set of values for said configurable parameters sufficient to configure an instance of said application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a) visually defining a subsystem of functionality of the distributed application; and

b) configuring a particular virtual appliance instance from the plurality of virtual appliance instances to implement the subsystem of functionality.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the particular virtual appliance instance comprises a first virtual machine and a second virtual machine, and wherein the first virtual machine is configured to pass messages to the second virtual machine to implement the subsystem of functionality.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a) deploying an instance of said distributed application on a first hardware architecture and a second hardware architecture, wherein the first hardware architecture and the second hardware architecture are heterogeneous hardware architectures.

2. A method for creating a distributed application from existing software, the method comprising the steps of:

a) selecting from a catalog a plurality of bootable volumes containing software;

b) creating at least one application volume by installing application-specific software;

c) defining a set of configurable parameters for specializing said application;

d) visually defining metadata, using one or more processors, sufficient to automatically construct multiple running instances of said application from said bootable volumes and said application volume, each instance of said application comprising a plurality of virtual appliance instances comprising a virtual machine operable to boot an operating system, one or more virtual volumes, an application service that implements a distributed function of said application, and one or more virtual network interfaces; and

e) defining a set of values for said configurable parameters sufficient to configure an instance of said application.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

a) visually defining a subsystem of functionality of the distributed application; and

b) configuring a particular virtual appliance instance from the plurality of virtual appliance instances to implement the subsystem of functionality.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the particular virtual appliance instance comprises a first virtual machine and a second virtual machine, and wherein the first virtual machine is configured to pass messages to the second virtual machine to implement the subsystem of functionality.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

a) deploying an instance of said distributed application on a first hardware architecture and a second hardware architecture, wherein the first hardware architecture and the second hardware architecture are heterogeneous hardware architectures.

3. A method for creating a composite appliance from existing software, the method comprising the steps of:

a) selecting from a catalog a plurality of bootable volumes containing software;

b) defining a set of configurable parameters for specializing a composite appliance;

c) visually defining metadata, using one or more processors, sufficient to automatically construct multiple running instances of said composite appliance from said bootable volumes, each instance of said composite appliance comprising a plurality of virtual appliance instances comprising a virtual machine operable to boot an operating system, one or more virtual volumes, an application service that implements a distributed function of an application, and one or more virtual network interfaces; and

d) defining a set of values for said configurable parameters sufficient to configure an instance of said composite appliance.

10. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

a) visually defining a subsystem of functionality of the application; and

b) configuring the composite appliance to implement the subsystem of functionality.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a particular instance of said composite appliance comprises a first virtual machine and a second virtual machine, and wherein the first virtual machine is configured to pass messages to the second virtual machine to implement the subsystem of functionality.

12. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

a) deploying a particular instance of said composite appliance on a first hardware architecture and a second hardware architecture, wherein the first hardware architecture and the second hardware architecture are heterogeneous hardware architectures.