Providing instance availability information

• US 9,306,814 B1
• Filed: 01/02/2013
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Roth, Gregory Branchek, de Kadt, Christopher Richard Jacques, Greenfield, James Alfred Gordon, Radhakrishnan, Arjun, Shealey, Randall Avery, Golden, Robin Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacobs, Lashonda
• Application Number:
  US13/732,993
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0805 by checking availability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions

Abstract

A distributed execution environment provides instances of computing resources for customer use, such as instances of data processing resources, data storage resources, database resources, and networking resources. Data is collected from systems internal to and external to the distributed execution environment. Some or all of the data is utilized to compute instance availability information for instances of computing resources provided by the distributed execution environment. The instance availability information might then be provided to customers and other users of the distributed execution environment. Various types of actions might be taken in a manual or automated way based upon the computed instance availability information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for obtaining and utilizing information regarding the status of instances of computing resources provided by a distributed execution environment, the method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

transmitting a request for instance availability information for one or more instances of computing resources to an instance availability monitoring component in the distributed execution environment;

receiving the instance availability information for the one or more instances of computing resources from the instance availability monitoring component in response to the request, the instance availability information comprising data indicating the probability of failure of the one or more instances of computing resources at a future time;

providing a user interface configured to present the instance availability information; and

causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the received instance availability information in response to one or more requests received through the user interface.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,

wherein the instance availability information further comprises data indicating the current actual availability of the one or more instances of computing resources.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request for the instance availability information is transmitted to a Web service application programming interface (“

API”

), and wherein the instance availability information is received from the API.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request for instance availability information identifies a customer of a service provider that operates the distributed execution environment, and wherein the instance availability information is limited to the instances purchased by the customer.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing a user interface configured to present the instance availability information comprises displaying the instance availability information in a graphical user interface in a management console.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the instance availability information is colored in a manner to indicate a probability that the one or more instances of computing resources will be available at a future time.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the instance availability information is presented on a mobile device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the distributed execution environment is implemented by a plurality of data centers, and wherein causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the instance availability information comprises migrating one or more of the instances of computing resources out of a data center affected by a failure.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the distributed execution environment is implemented by a plurality of data centers, and wherein causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the instance availability information comprises migrating one or more of the instances of computing resources into a data center affected by the failure.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the instance availability information comprises migrating one or more of the instances of computing resources out of the distributed execution environment.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the instance availability information comprises scaling up the number of instances of computing resources or scaling down the number of instances of computing resources.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the instance availability information comprises performing a backup operation with respect the one or more instances of computing resources.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the instance availability information comprises causing a fault resilient protocol to be utilized with the one or more instances of computing resources instead of a performance oriented protocol.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the instances of computing resources comprise one or more of instances of virtual machines, instances of database resources, instances of data storage resources, instances of search resources instance of domain name service resources, instances of load balancing resources, instances of workflow resources, instances of application container resources, instances of electronic communication resources, instances of queuing resources, instances of notification resources, instances of caching resources, instances of identity and access management resources, instances of cryptographic resources, instances of content distribution resources, and instances of networking resources.

15. An apparatus for obtaining and utilizing instance availability information, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to

receive instance availability information comprising data indicating a probability of future failure of one or more instances of computing resources in a distributed execution environment, and

cause one or more actions to be performed with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the received instance availability information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the computer-readable storage medium has further computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to receive information regarding the operational status of a plurality of distributed execution environments, and wherein the one or more actions comprise actions for moving instances of computing resources between the plurality of environments.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the distributed execution environments comprise one or more distributed execution environments provided as a service and one or more on-premises environments.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instance availability information is received by way of an application programming interface (API) for obtaining the instance availability information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the API is configured to provide the instance availability information on one or more of a per customer basis, a per instance basis, a per data center basis, or a per region basis.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein cause one or more actions to be performed with regard to the instances of computing resources based upon the received instance availability information comprises migrating one or more of the instances of computing resources out of or into a data center affected by a failure based upon the instance availability information.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the computer-readable storage medium has further computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to provide a user interface configured to present the instance availability information.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein provide a user interface configured to present the instance availability information comprises displaying the instance availability information in a graphical user interface (GUI) in a management console, the GUI configured to present the instance availability information with visual attributes assigned in a manner to indicate a probability that the one or more instances of computing resources will be available at a future time.

23. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive data indicating a probability of future availability of one or more instances of computing resources in a distributed execution environment, the instances of computing resources comprising one or more of instances of virtual machines, instances of database resources, instances of data storage resources, instances of search resources instance of domain name service resources, instances of load balancing resources, instances of workflow resources, instances of application container resources, instances of electronic communication resources, instances of queuing resources, instances of notification resources, instances of caching resources, instances of identity and access management resources, instances of cryptographic resources, instances of content distribution resources, and instances of networking resources; and

utilize the received data to cause one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources in the distributed execution environment based on a type of an actual instance failure or a potential failure identified using the received data.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the received data comprises instance availability information indicating the current actual availability of the one or more instances of computing resources and the probability that the one or more instances of computing resources will be available at a future time.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to present a user interface configured to display the instance availability information and to receive user input defining the one or more actions to be taken with regard to the instances of computing resources in the distributed execution environment.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the actions comprise one or more of migrating one or more of the instances of computing resources out of or into a data center affected by a failure based upon the instance availability information, migrating one or more of the instances of computing resources out of the distributed execution environment, scaling up the number of instances of computing resources or scaling down the number of instances of computing resources, performing one or more backup operations with respect the one or more instances of computing resources, and causing a fault resilient protocol to be utilized with the one or more instances of computing resources instead of a performance oriented protocol.

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the instance availability information is received by way of a push mechanism.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the instance availability information is received by way of a pull mechanism.