Integration of heterogeneous computing systems into a hybrid computing system

• US 8,972,538 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2012
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Adlung, Ingo, Amann, Stefan, Axnix, Christine, Baitinger, Friedemann, Frey, Jeffrey A., Gdaniec, Joseph M., Mayer, Carl, Mihajlovski, Viktor, Stevens, Jerry W., Welter, Friedrich M.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, VIET DUY
• Application Number:
  US13/459,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20120215921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,039 Days
• Field of Search: 709/210, 709/202, 709/208, 709/213, 709/214, 709/215, 709/220, 709/223, 709/226, 718/1
• US Class Current: 709/220
• 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

An integrated hybrid system is provided. The hybrid system includes compute components of different types and architectures that are integrated and managed by a single point of control to provide federation and the presentation of the compute components as a single logical computing platform.

Claims

1. A method of integrating computing systems, said method comprising:

coupling a first physical computing system of a first system hardware architecture with a second physical computing system of a second and different system hardware architecture via a management network to provide a hybrid system;

determining that a selection has been made to have a component of the second physical computing system managed from a single point of control residing at least partially within the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system;

installing a component of the single point of control on the component of the second physical computing system to have the component of the second physical computing system managed by the single point of control; and

controlling the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system from the single point of control, the single point of control comprising a unified resource manager which is a part of the management network, and the second physical computing system comprising a hypervisor managed by the unified resource manager by way of a component of the unified resource manager which is part of the hypervisor of the second physical computing system, wherein the unified resource manager adheres to a management model of the first system hardware architecture in controlling the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system, and wherein the controlling comprises the unified resource manager managing the first physical computing system and the hypervisor of the second physical computing system to, at least in part, present the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system as having a consistent resource configuration and system behavior.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling comprises at least one of managing configuration of at least one of the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system, or providing commands to the second physical computing system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first physical computing system comprises a central electronic complex and the second physical computing system comprises one or more blades of a blade extension.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing by the first physical computing system a portion of an application for a customer and executing by the second physical computing system another portion of the application for the customer, wherein to the customer the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system are one system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second physical computing system comprises a management module used to manage resources of the second physical computing system, the management module receiving management commands from the single point of control.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the single point of control to instantiate a virtual server on at least one of the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises using by the first physical computing system and the second physical computing system a data network, said data network being independent from said management network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the management network is secure and the single point of control is authoritative.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the component of the second physical computing system is entitled to be managed by the single point of control; and

installing the component of the single point of control on the component of the second physical computing system based, at least in part, on determining that the component of the second physical computing system is entitled.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the component of the unified resource manager comprises firmware located in said hypervisor of the second physical computing system.

9. A method of integrating computing systems, said method comprising:

coupling a first computing system of a first system architecture with a second computing system of a second and different system architecture via a management network to provide a hybrid system;

controlling the first computing system and the second computing system from a single point of control, said single point of control being a part of the management network and adhering to a management model of the first system architecture;

determining that a selection has been made to have a component of the second computing system managed from the single point of control;

determining whether the component is entitled to be managed by the single point of control; and

installing firmware on the component to have the component managed by the single point of control.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein installing the firmware on the component is performed based on determining that the component is entitled.