Instance host configuration

• US 9,413,604 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2015
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kowalski, Marcin Piotr, Paterson-Jones, Roland, Greenfield, James Alfred Gordon
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilles, Jude Jean
• Application Number:
  US14/679,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20150215163A1
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/224, 709/223, 709/206, 709/222
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0273 using web services for network management, e.g. simple object access protocol [SOAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for instance host configuration are disclosed. A system includes a plurality of instance hosts configurable for resource instances of a network-accessible service, and control servers to manage remote configuration of the instance hosts. In response to an instance configuration request from a client, a selected control server transmits, to a selected instance host, a sequence of one or more commands. The selected instance host instantiates a remote command executor. The remote command executor initiates configuration operations corresponding to the command sequence, and terminates. The selected control server provides a response to the instance configuration request, based at least in part on results of the operations initiated by the executor.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing, in an instance host comprising one or more hardware processors, a command sequence of one or more commands, the command sequence sent by a control server to configure a resource instance provided by the instance host;

employing at least one a remote command executor (RCE) to cause one or more operations to be performed to configure the resource instance, the one or more operations corresponding to the command sequence; and

providing one or more results of the one or more operations to the control server.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more operations is idempotent.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the command sequence is formatted according to a version of one or more of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or Extended Markup Language (XML).

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the command sequence is sent from the control server via a tunneling protocol.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more operations are directed to one or more of:

a hypervisor executing on the instance host that provides the resource instance;

or

an operating system executing on the instance host.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the instance host is included in a same provider network as the control server.

20. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

instantiating the at least one RCE in response to receiving the command sequence.

6. A system, comprising:

one or more instance hosts configured to implement a plurality of resource instances that provide one or more network-accessible services, the one or more instance hosts comprising one or more processors, the one or more instance hosts further comprising;

a command receiver that executes to access one or more commands sent by a control server for remote configuration of a resource instance of the plurality of resource instances; and

at least one remote command executor (RCE) that executes to;

cause one or more operations to be performed to configure the resource instance, the one or more operations corresponding to the one or more commands; and

determine one or more results of the one or more operations;

wherein the command receiver further executes to provide the one or more results to the control server.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the at least one RCE is instantiated by the command receiver in response to receiving the one or more commands.

8. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the resource instance is implemented on an instance host that is included in a same provider network as the control server.

9. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the resource instance is implemented on a third party instance host that is outside a provider network that includes the control server.

10. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the third party instance host is configured to provide test information indicating one or more tests to validate that the third party instance host supports the remote configuration of the resource instance.

11. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein:

the command receiver comprises a web server;

the at least one RCE comprises at least one Common Gateway Interface (CGI) process that is instantiated by the command receiver; and

the one or more commands are sent using a secure version of HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

12. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the plurality of resource instances comprises one or more of a compute resource instance, a storage resource instance, or a networking resource instance.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-accessible storage media storing instructions that when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform actions comprising:

accessing, at an instance host, one or more commands sent by a control server to configure a resource instance provided by the instance host;

employing at least one remote command executor (RCE) to cause one or more operations to be performed to configure the resource instance, the one or more operations corresponding to the one or more commands; and

providing one or more results of the one or more operations, to the control server.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 13, the actions further comprising:

for each of the one or more commands, instantiating a RCE to cause the one or more operations to be performed corresponding to a command.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the instance host is outside a provider network that includes the control server.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein:

causing the one or more operations to be performed comprises requesting that the one or more operations be performed by one or more of;

a hypervisor executing on the instance host, or an operating system executing on the instance host; and

the one or more results comprise one or more of a return code, an error output, or a standard output provided the one or more of the hypervisor or the operating system.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the at least one RCE comprises at least one Common Gateway Interface (CGI) process that is instantiated by a web server executing on the instance host.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more commands are formatted according to a version of one or more of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or Extended Markup Language (XML).