Configurable virtual machines

• US 9,239,727 B1
• Filed: 10/17/2012
• Issued: 01/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Panchapakesan, Rajan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Adam
• Application Number:
  US13/653,981
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis

Abstract

Systems and methods for configuring a virtual machine provided by a remote computing system based on the availability of one or more remote computing resources and respective corresponding prices of the one or more remote computing resources.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions;

at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to;

identify one or more remote computing resources and a corresponding respective level of availability of each of the one or more remote computing resources;

determine a respective corresponding price of each of the one or more remote computing resources based at least in part on the corresponding respective level of availability of each of the one or more remote computing resources and one or more pricing models;

provide an indication of the one or more remote computing resources and the respective corresponding price of each of the one or more remote computing resources;

receive an indication of a selection of at least one of the one or more remote computing resources;

determine, responsive at least in part to the indication of the selection, that a feasible configuration of the at least one of the one or more remote computing resources for a virtual machine has been selected;

generate, responsive at least in part to the indication of the selection and determination that a feasible configuration has been selected, a configuration file; and

transmit the configuration file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more remote computing resources comprises at least one of:

(i) a processor device;

(ii) a memory device;

(iii) a storage device;

(iv) a graphical processing unit;

(v) a hard disk drive;

(vi) a solid state drive;

or (vii) a networking device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to identify one or more pricing models.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more pricing models comprises at least one of:

(i) a regression model;

(ii) a machine learning model;

or (iii) a stochastic model.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the prices of each of the one or more remote computing resources is valid for a predetermined period of time.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein identifying the level of availability of each of the one or more remote computing resources comprises identifying that previously deployed remote computing resources are no longer deployed.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to update a remote computing resource database to modify the availability level of each of the remote computing resources of the selection.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration file comprises an identifier of each of the selection of at least one of the one or more remote computing resource.

9. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computers comprising one or more processors, a configuration file identifying at least one remote computing resource, wherein the configuration file indicates that the at least one remote computing resource has been verified to be in a feasible configuration of the at least one remote computing resource for a virtual machine;

identifying, by the one or more computers using the received configuration file, the at least one remote computing resource;

allocating, by the one or more computers, the identified at least one remote computing resource to the virtual machine; and

providing, by the one or more computers, the virtual machine to a user responsive at least in part to the allocation of the at least one remote computing resource, wherein the identification of the at least one remote computing resource is responsive at least in part to the user'"'"'s selection of the at least one remote computing resource from a set of one or more remote computing resources and wherein the user is provided with a pricing of each of the one or more remote computing resources.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more remote computing resources comprises at least one of:

(i) a processor device;

(ii) a memory device;

(iii) a storage device;

(iv) a graphical processing unit;

(v) a hard disk drive;

(vi) a solid state drive;

or (vii) a networking device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the configuration file comprises a unique identifier of each of the at least one remote computing resource.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising updating, by the one or more computers, a remote computing resource database to modify an availability level of each of the at least one remote computing resource.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting, by the one or more computers, a notification of the virtual machine to the user.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the virtual machine is accessible via one or more application program interfaces (APIs).

15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, executes a method comprising:

identifying one or more remote computing resources;

determining a respective corresponding price of each of the one or more remote computing resources;

providing an indication of the one or more remote computing resources and the respective corresponding price of each of the one or more remote computing resources;

receiving an indication of a selection of at least one of the one or more remote computing resources;

determining that a feasible configuration of the selection of the at least one of the one or more remote computing resources for a virtual machine has been selected;

generating a configuration file, responsive at least in part to determining feasibility of the selection of the at least one of the one or more remote computing resources; and

transmitting the indication of the selection of the at least one of the one or more remote computing resources.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more remote computing resources comprises at least one of:

(i) a processor device;

(ii) a memory device;

(iii) a storage device;

(iv) a graphical processing unit;

(v) a hard disk drive;

(vi) a solid state drive;

or (vii) a networking device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises determining a corresponding respective level of availability of each of the one or more remote computing resources.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the providing the respective corresponding price of each of the one or more remote computing resources comprises identifying the level of availability of a first remote computing resource from the one or more remote computing resources and setting the price of the first remote computing resource at a first value if the level of availability is above a predetermined threshold or set the price at a second value if the level of availability is below a predetermined threshold.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein at least one of the prices of each of the one or more remote computing resources is valid for a predetermined period of time.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises identifying one or more pricing models.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the one or more pricing models comprises at least one of:

(i) a regression model;

(ii) a machine learning model;

or (iii) a stochastic model.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the configuration file indicates an identity of a consumer for whom the selection of the at least one of the one or more remote computing resources is made.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the configuration file comprises an identifier associated with each of the selection of at least one of the one or more remote computing resource.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein providing a price of each of the one or more remote computing resources comprises identifying the level of availability of each of the one or more remote computing resources.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the method further comprises updating a remote computing resource database to modify the availability level of each of the remote computing resources of the selection.