Account state simulation service for cloud computing environments

• US 9,075,788 B1
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• 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): JEAN, FRANTZ B
• Application Number:
  US13/524,952
• Time in Patent Office: 1,117 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/226, 703/13, 703/22, 703/23, 707/638, 707/639, 718/101
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/25 Testing of logic operation, e.g. by logic analysers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3086 where the reporting involves the use of self describing data formats, i.e. metadata, markup languages, human readable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/40 Data acquisition and logging for input to computer G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/827 Aggregation of resource allocation or reservation requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for an account state simulation service for cloud computing environments are disclosed. A system includes a plurality of service managers coordinating respective distributed network-accessible services, and a metadata manager. The metadata manager receives an account state change simulation request, indicating (a) an initial account state of a client account and (b) a collection of operations to be simulated. The metadata manager generates a response to the account change state simulation request, comprising at least one of (a) a representation of an expected end state of the client account reachable as a result of performing the collection of operations (b) an indication of an expected failure of a particular operation of the collection of operations or (c) an estimate of an expected billing amount associated with an implementation of the collection of operations.

Claims

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

a plurality of service managers configured to coordinate a plurality of distributed, network-accessible services of a provider network, wherein each service manager of the plurality of service managers is configured to accept operation requests formatted in accordance with a supported operations specification of a respective service; and

a metadata manager;

wherein the metadata manager is operable to;

receive an account state change simulation request, comprising (a) an indication of an initial account state of a particular client account of the provider network, including a plurality of service attribute values of a set of services of the plurality of services in use by the particular client account and (b) an indication of a collection of operations to be simulated on behalf of the particular client account, wherein a first operation of the collection of operations is formatted in accordance with a supported operations specification of a first service of the set, and a second operation of the collection of operations is formatted in accordance with a supported operations specification of a second service of the set;

generate a response to the account change state simulation request, comprising at least one of (a) a representation of an expected end state of the particular client account reachable as a result of performing the collection of operations (b) an indication of an expected failure of a particular operation of the collection of operations or (c) an estimate of an expected billing amount associated with an implementation of the collection of operations.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of service attribute values comprises an identification of a first resource of a plurality of resources of the provider network, wherein the first resource is allocated to the particular client account and is used to implement at least a portion of the functionality of the first service, and wherein the representation of the expected end state comprises an indication of a different resource of the plurality of resources being used to implement the functionality of the first service.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of service attribute values comprises an indication of a performance metric of a resource of a plurality of resources of the provider network, wherein the resource is allocated to the particular client account.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the response comprises an indication of an expected result of a particular operation of the collection of operations.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the collection of operations is specified at least in part using a stack specification template.

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

in response to a plan request specifying at least one configuration setting of a desired target state of the particular client account, generate a plan comprising a set of recommended operations to achieve the desired target state.

7. A method, comprising:

performing, by one or more computer processors;

receiving an account state change simulation request, comprising an indication of a collection of operations to be simulated on behalf of a particular client account of a provider network; and

generating a response to the account change state simulation request, comprising at least one of (a) a representation of an expected end state of the particular client account reachable as a result of performing the collection of operations, wherein the expected end state comprises a plurality of service attribute values of a set of services implemented in the provider network (b) an indication of an expected failure of a particular operation of the collection of operations or (c) an estimate of an expected billing amount associated with an implementation of the collection of operations.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of service attribute values comprises an identification of a first resource of a plurality of resources of the provider network, wherein the first resource is allocated to the particular client account and is used to implement at least a portion of the functionality of a particular service of the set of services.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of service attribute values comprises an indication of a performance metric of a resource of the provider network, wherein the resource is allocated to the particular client account.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said generating the response comprises determining an initial state of the particular client account on which the collection of operations is to be simulated, based at least in part on at least one of:

(a) an initial account state indicator included in the simulation request or (b) a time at which the simulation request is received.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the collection of operations is specified at least in part using a template.

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

in response to a plan request, specifying at least one configuration setting of a desired target state of the particular client account, providing an indication of a result of a simulation of a set of candidate operations identified to achieve the desired target state.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the result of the simulation comprises an estimated probability of achieving the desired target state.

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

providing a programmatic interface to allow a submission of a format preference of a plan indicating the candidate operations; and

generating a plan in accordance with a particular format preference submitted via the programmatic interface, wherein the particular format preference comprises an indication of a template supported by a service manager of a particular service of the plurality of services of the provider network.

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

receive an account state change simulation request, comprising an indication of a collection of operations to be simulated on behalf of a particular client account of a provider network and;

generate a response to the account change state simulation request, comprising at least one of (a) a representation of an expected end state of the particular client account reachable as a result of performing the collection of operations, wherein the expected end state comprises a plurality of resource attribute values of a set of resources of the provider network in use by the particular client account (b) an indication of an expected failure of a particular operation of the collection of operations or (c) an estimate of a cost of performing the collection of operations.

16. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the plurality of resource attribute values comprises a configuration setting of a particular resource of the set of resources.

17. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the expected end state comprises an authorization setting of a user affiliated with the particular client account.

18. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 15, wherein to generate the response, the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

determine an initial state of the particular client account on which the collection of operations is to be simulated, based at least in part on at least one of;

(a) an initial account state indicator included in the simulation request or (b) a time at which the simulation request is received.

19. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the collection of operations is specified at least in part using a template.

20. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the instructions when executed on the one or more processors:

in response to a plan request, specifying at least one configuration setting of a desired target state of the particular client account, provide an indication of a result of a simulation of a set of candidate operations identified to achieve the desired target state.

21. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 20, wherein the result of the simulation comprises an estimated probability of achieving the desired target state.

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

implement a programmatic interface to allow a submission of a format preference of a plan indicating the candidate operations; and

generate a plan in accordance with a particular format preference submitted via the programmatic interface, wherein the particular format preference comprises an indication of template supported by a service manager of a particular service of the plurality of services of the provider network.

23. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the representation of an expected end state comprises a representation of contents of an application data object modified by an operation of the collection of operations.