Internet protocol address management (IPAM) integration with a plurality of virtualization tiers in the virtual cloud

• US 9,430,295 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2012
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infoblox Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Infoblox Incorporated
• Inventors: Eizadi, Soheil, Whittle, Steven, Wang, Chuan
• Primary Examiner(s): GHAFFARI, ABU Z
• Application Number:
  US13/434,522
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718/104, 709/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/00 Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00; network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorised activity G06F21/00

Abstract

Processing infrastructure metadata information about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud is disclosed. Infrastructure metadata information is collected. The collected metadata information is about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud. A storage of infrastructure metadata information is updated. The updating of the storage of infrastructure metadata information is performed using the collected information.

Claims

1. A method of processing infrastructure metadata information, comprising:

collecting infrastructure metadata information about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud, wherein collecting the infrastructure metadata information includes using an Advanced Message Queuing Protocol message, collecting the infrastructure metadata information includes collecting information about the virtual resource, the virtual cloud includes a virtual switch, and the infrastructure metadata information includes information about a plurality of virtualization tiers that the virtual resource belong to, and collecting information about the virtual resource includes collecting from a hypervisor, information about a first tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers pertaining to a physical layer of the virtual resource, collecting information from an infrastructure manager that manages the hypervisor about a second tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers, the information about the second tier includes an identifier of the virtual switch that has been automatically discovered, and collecting information from a cloud manager that manages the infrastructure manager about a third tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers; and

updating a storage of infrastructure metadata information using the collected information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the collected infrastructure metadata information includes information that identifies a location of the virtual resource in the virtual cloud.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual resource includes one or more of the following:

a virtual machine, a virtual entity, a virtual device, a virtual network, a virtual switch, a virtual host adaptor, and a virtual appliance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the collected infrastructure metadata information includes one or more of the following:

a fully qualified domain name, an Internet Protocol address, a Media Access Control address, an operating system metadata, a virtual data center metadata, an infrastructure manager metadata, a hypervisor metadata, a virtual entity metadata, a virtual cluster metadata, a virtual host metadata, a host server metadata, a virtual switch metadata, a virtual entity type metadata, an extensible attribute, a virtual resource container metadata, an organization metadata, a cloud metadata, a data center metadata, and an external network metadata.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the information includes receiving the collected information at an Internet Protocol Address Management appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the information includes receiving a result from crawling the virtual cloud to discover the infrastructure metadata information about the virtual resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the information includes dynamically collecting the information due to a creation of the virtual resource in the virtual cloud.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting the information includes receiving information from an agent in communication with a global cloud manager of the virtual cloud.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the collected information is used to automatically provision an Internet Protocol address to the virtual resource.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the storage includes updating a data record associated with the virtual resource with at least a portion of the collected information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage is included in a database managed by an Internet Protocol Address Management appliance.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage includes a data record for each virtual machine in the virtual cloud.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual resource is to be removed from the virtual cloud and updating the storage includes removing from the storage, information associated with the virtual resource.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising organizing the collected information in a hierarchical format to be displayed.

15. A system for processing infrastructure metadata information, comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive collected infrastructure metadata information about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud, wherein the collected infrastructure metadata information was collected using an Advanced Message Queuing Protocol message, the collected infrastructure metadata information includes information about the virtual resource, the virtual cloud includes a virtual switch, and the infrastructure metadata information includes information about a plurality of virtualization tiers that the virtual resource belong to, and collecting information about the virtual resource includes collecting from a hypervisor, information about a first tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers pertaining to a physical layer of the virtual resource, collecting information from an infrastructure manager that manages the hypervisor about a second tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers, the information about the second tier includes an identifier of the virtual switch that has been automatically discovered, and collecting information from a cloud manager that manages the infrastructure manager about a third tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers; and

a processor configured to update a storage of infrastructure metadata information using the collected information.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is included in an appliance that manages allocation of Internet Protocol addresses.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the collected infrastructure metadata information includes information that identifies a location of the virtual resource in the virtual cloud.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the collected infrastructure metadata information includes one or more of the following:

a fully qualified domain name, an Internet Protocol address, a Media Access Control address, an operating system metadata, a virtual data center metadata, an infrastructure manager metadata, a hypervisor metadata, a virtual entity metadata, a virtual cluster metadata, a virtual host metadata, a host server metadata, a virtual switch metadata, a virtual entity type metadata, an extensible attribute, a virtual resource container metadata, an organization metadata, a cloud metadata, a data center metadata, and an external network metadata.

19. A computer program product for processing infrastructure metadata information, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

collecting infrastructure metadata information about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud, wherein collecting the infrastructure metadata information includes using an Advanced Message Queuing Protocol message, collecting the infrastructure metadata information includes collecting information about the virtual resource, the virtual cloud includes a virtual switch, and the infrastructure metadata information includes information about a plurality of virtualization tiers that the virtual resource belong to, and collecting information about the virtual resource includes collecting from a hypervisor, information about a first tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers pertaining to a physical layer of the virtual resource, collecting information from an infrastructure manager that manages the hypervisor about a second tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers, the information about the second tier includes an identifier of the virtual switch that has been automatically discovered, and collecting information from a cloud manager that manages the infrastructure manager about a third tier of the plurality of virtualization tiers; and

updating a storage of infrastructure metadata information using the collected information.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein collecting the information includes receiving the collected information at an Internet Protocol Address Management appliance.