On-demand access to compute resources

• US 9,075,657 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2006
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 12, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Adaptive Computing Enterprises, Inc. (Ala Services LLC)
• Inventors: Jackson, David B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eskandarnia, Arvin
• Assistant Examiner(s): DESAI, MARGISHI V
• Application Number:
  US11/279,007
• Publication Number:
  US 20060230149A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,378 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 714/5, 709/226, 709/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/827 Aggregation of resource allocation or reservation requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• 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 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer-readable media for controlling and managing the identification and provisioning of resources within an on-demand center as well as the transfer of workload to the provisioned resources. One aspect involves creating a virtual private cluster within the on-demand center for the particular workload from a local environment. A method of managing resources between a local compute environment and an on-demand environment includes detecting an event associated with a local compute environment and based on the detected event, identifying information about the local environment, establishing communication with an on-demand compute environment and transmitting the information about the local environment to the on-demand compute environment, provisioning resources within the on-demand compute environment to substantially duplicate the local environment and transferring workload from the local-environment to the on-demand compute environment. The event can be a threshold or a triggering event within or outside of the local environment. The transfer of workload and provisioning of the on-demand center can also be related to a profile of the workload or an analysis of backlog workload. Another aspect relates to transferring webserver traffic from a webserver to an on-demand center such that web traffic is served by the on-demand center.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting an event associated with a local compute environment, wherein the local compute environment is separate from a remote compute environment;

based on the event, transmitting information about the local compute environment to the remote compute environment;

receiving a request for resources in the remote compute environment, wherein a specification of resources is associated with the request, the specification of resources being one of fully explicit, partially explicit, fully implicit based on workload, and based on a virtual private cluster package concept where the virtual private cluster package can include aspects of provisioning a support environment and adjustments to resource request timeframes including pre-allocation, allocation duration, and post-allocation timeframe adjustments;

based on the information and the specification of resources, establishing, at a first time, a reservation of compute resources in the remote compute environment for a specific workload, wherein the reservation reserves the compute resources in the remote compute environment for use at a second time by the specific workload, which is later than the first time, to yield reserved compute resources, and wherein the reserved compute resources comprise at least one processor;

provisioning the reserved compute resources within the remote compute environment such that a configuration of the remote compute environment substantially duplicates a configuration of the local compute environment; and

transferring the specific workload from the local compute environment to the reserved compute resources in the remote compute environment such that the specific workload consumes the reserved compute resources at the second time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is at least one of the passing of a threshold related to performance of the local compute environment associated with a job and a triggering event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the local compute environment is related to at least one of:

hardware and an operating system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing communication with the remote compute environment and transmitting the information about the local compute environment to the remote compute environment is performed automatically.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is a one-click step performed by a user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein provisioning the reserved compute resources within the remote compute environment such that the remote compute environment substantially duplicates the local compute environment further comprises:

if a particular resource cannot be duplicated in the remote compute environment, then identifying and selecting a substitute resource.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying and selecting a substitute resource is accomplished either at the remote compute environment or via negotiation between a slave workload manager at the remote compute environment and a master workload manager on the local compute environment.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a type of workload to transfer to the remote compute environment to yield an identified type of workload, and wherein transferring workload from the local compute environment to the remote compute environment further comprises only transferring the identified type of workload to the remote compute environment.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein transferring the identified type of workload to the remote compute environment is based upon different hardware and/or software capabilities between the remote compute environment and the local compute environment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein provisioning the reserved compute resources within the remote compute environment further comprises creating a virtual private cluster in the remote compute environment.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the virtual private cluster further comprises an aggregate of compute resources in the remote compute environment having partitions and wherein only partitioned resources are accessible by the local compute environment.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating at least one profile associated with workload to be processed in the local compute environment at a third time which is later than the first time;

selecting at the local compute environment a profile from the at least one profile to yield a selected profile;

communicating the selected profile as part of the information transmitted to the remote compute environment; and

provisioning the reserved compute resources at least in part based on the selected profile.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating at least one profile associated with workload to be processed in a compute environment is performed in advance of receiving job requests on the local compute environment.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein generating at least one profile associated with workload to be processed in a compute environment is performed dynamically as job requests are received on the local compute environment.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein a plurality of profiles are generated.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting at the local compute environment a profile from the at least one profile, communicating the selected profile from the local compute environment to the remote compute environment, provisioning resources within the remote compute environment according to the selected profile and transferring workload from the local compute environment to the remote compute environment is all performed after a one-click input by an administrator.

17. The method of claim of claim 12, wherein any profile of the generated at least one profile relates to configuring resources that are different from available resources within the local compute environment.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is a backlog workload condition in the local compute environment yielding a backlog workload, wherein the information transmitted to the remote compute environment comprises an analysis of the backlog workload, the method further comprising:

provisioning the reserved compute resources in the remote compute environment according to the analysis to yield provisioned resources; and

transferring the backlog workload to the provisioned resources in the remote compute environment.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein provisioning the remote compute environment further comprises creating a virtual private cluster within the remote compute environment.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein analyzing the backlog workload, communicating the information associated with analysis to the remote compute environment, provisioning the remote compute environment according to the analyzed backlog workload and transferring the backlog workload to the provisioned remote compute environment occurs in response to a one-click operation from an administrator.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein determining whether a backlog workload condition exists in the local compute environment is performed on the basis of an event.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the event is a threshold being met.

20. The method of 18, wherein the analysis comprises a determination of at least one resource type associated with the backlog workload for provisioning in the remote compute environment.

24. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform a method comprising;

detecting an event associated with a local compute environment, wherein the local compute environment is separate from a remote compute environment;

based on the event, transmitting information about the local compute environment to the remote compute environment;

receiving a request for resources in the remote compute environment, wherein a specification of resources is associated with the request, the specification of resources being one of fully explicit, partially explicit, fully implicit based on workload, and based on a virtual private cluster package concept where the virtual private cluster package can include aspects of provisioning a support environment and adjustments to resource request timeframes including pre-allocation, allocation duration, and post-allocation timeframe adjustments;

based on the information and the specification of resources, establishing, at a first time, a reservation of compute resources in the remote compute environment for a specific workload, wherein the reservation reserves the compute resources in the remote compute environment for use at a second time, which is later than the first time by the specific workload, to yield reserved compute resources, and wherein the reserved compute resources comprise at least one processor;

provisioning the reserved compute resources within the remote compute environment such that a configuration of the remote compute environment substantially duplicates a configuration of the local compute environment; and

transferring the specific workload from the local compute environment to the reserved compute resources in the remote compute environment such that the specific workload consumes the reserved compute resources at the second time.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by a processor, perform a method comprising:

detecting an event associated with a local compute environment, wherein the local compute environment is separate from a remote compute environment;

based on the event, transmitting information about the local compute environment to the remote compute environment;

receiving a request for resources in the remote compute environment, wherein a specification of resources is associated with the request, the specification of resources being one of fully explicit, partially explicit, fully implicit based on workload, and based on a virtual private cluster package concept where the virtual private cluster package can include aspects of provisioning a support environment and adjustments to resource request timeframes including pre-allocation, allocation duration, and post-allocation timeframe adjustments;

based on the information and the specification of resources, establishing, at a first time, a reservation of compute resources in the remote compute environment for a specific workload, wherein the reservation reserves the compute resources in the remote compute environment for use at a second time, which is later than the first time by the specific workload, to yield reserved compute resources, and wherein the reserved compute resources comprise at least one processor;

provisioning the reserved compute resources within the remote compute environment such that a configuration of the remote compute environment substantially duplicates a configuration of the local compute environment; and

transferring the specific workload from the local compute environment to the reserved compute resources in the remote compute environment such that the specific workload consumes the reserved compute resources at the second time.