Single, logical, multi-tier application blueprint used for deployment and management of multiple physical applications in a cloud infrastructure

• US 9,645,858 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2015
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Winterfeldt, David, Mangtani, Komal, Jalagam, Sesh, Nagaraja, Vishwas
• Primary Examiner(s): DENG, ANNA CHEN
• Application Number:
  US14/727,778
• Publication Number:
  US 20160019096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 717174-178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5066 Algorithms for mapping a plurality of inter-dependent sub-tasks onto a plurality of physical CPUs mappping at compile time, see G06F8/451
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

A deployment system enables a developer to define a logical, multi-tier application blueprint that can be used to create and manage (e.g., redeploy, upgrade, backup, patch) multiple applications in a cloud infrastructure. In the application blueprint, the developer models an overall application architecture, or topology, that includes individual and clustered nodes (e.g., VMs), logical templates, cloud providers, deployment environments, software services, application-specific code, properties, and dependencies between top-tier and second-tier components. The application can be deployed according to the application blueprint, which means any needed VMs are provisioned from the cloud infrastructure, and application components and software services are installed.

Claims

1. A method of deploying an application having application components, the method comprising:

receiving a selected cloud environment on which to deploy the application;

determining one or more templates used in a blueprint for the application, the one or more templates specifying virtual computing resources for the application, the blueprint specifying a topology having one or more virtual machines, and each of the one or more virtual machines being represented by each of the one or more templates;

retrieving one or more cloud templates for the selected cloud environment that are mapped to the one or more templates of the blueprint, each of the one or more cloud templates defining a virtual machine having specified virtual computing resources;

determining tasks to be executed for deploying the application components of the application based on the one or more cloud templates;

determining one or more dependencies between the application components according to the blueprint;

determining an order of the application components to be deployed based on the one or more dependencies; and

generating a deployment plan for executing the task to deploy the application in the selected cloud environment based on the determined order.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more dependencies are between a first application component executing on a first virtual computing resource and a second application component executing on a second virtual computing resource.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a catalpa of virtual computing resources that includes definitions of the virtual computing resources and mapping each of the definitions of the virtual computing resources to a definition of a virtual machine that is available to be provisioned in the selected cloud environment.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the catalog includes definitions of the application components, each of the definitions of the application components referencing installation scripts for deploying the application components and one or more configuration properties.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the catalog comprises deployment environments that include definitions of virtual machines that is available to be provisioned in the deployment environments.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to user input, assembling items from a catalog of a plurality of predefined application components configured to provide a software infrastructure for the application and a plurality of predefined virtual computing resources available in the selected cloud environment.

7. The method of method of claim 1, wherein the step of deploying comprises:

determining cloud computing resources of the selected cloud environment that are mapped to a topology of virtual computing resources; and

provisioning the cloud computing resources and deploying the application components on the provisioned cloud computing resources according to dependencies defined in the topology.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed in a computing device, perform operations comprising:

receiving a selected cloud environment on which to deploy an application;

determining one or more templates used in a blueprint for the application, the one or more templates specifying virtual computing resources for the application, the blueprint specifying a topology having one or more virtual machines, and each of the one or more virtual machines being represented by each of the one or more templates;

retrieving one or more cloud templates for the selected cloud environment that are mapped to the one or more templates of the blueprint, each of the one or more cloud templates defining a virtual machine having specified virtual computing resources;

determining tasks to be executed for deploying the application components of the application based on cloud templates;

determining one or more dependences between the application components according to the blueprint;

determining an order of the application components to be deployed based on the one or more dependencies; and

generating a deployment plan for executing the tasks to deploy the application in the selected cloud environment based on the determined order.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions identifying a dependency between a first application component executing on a first virtual computing resource and a second application component executing on a second virtual computing resource.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for accessing a catalog of virtual computing resources that includes definitions of the virtual computing resources and mapping each of the definitions of the virtual computing resources to a definition of a virtual machine that is available to be provisioned in the selected cloud environment.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the catalog of comprises definitions of the application components, each of the definitions of the application components referencing installation scripts for deploying the application components and one or more configuration properties.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for accessing a catalog of deployment environments that includes definitions of virtual machines that is available to be provisioned in the deployment environments.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

assembling items from a catalog of a plurality of predefined application components configured to provide a software infrastructure for the application and a plurality of predefined virtual computing resources available in the cloud environment.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of dam 8, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

in response to user input, determining cloud computing resources of the selected cloud environment that are mapped to the topology of virtual computing resources; and

provisioning the cloud computing resources and according to dependencies defined in the topology.

15. A computer system for deploying an application having application components, the computer system comprising:

a system memory; and

a processor programmed to;

receive a selected cloud environment on which to deploy the application;

determine one or more templates used in a blueprint for the application, the one or more templates specifying virtual computing resources for the application, the blueprint specifying a topology having one or more virtual machines, and each of the one or more virtual machines being represented by each of the one or more templates;

retrieve one or more cloud templates for the selected cloud environment that are mapped to the one or more templates of the blueprint, each of the one or more cloud templates defining a virtual machine having specified virtual computing resources;

determine tasks to be executed for deploying the application components of the application based on cloud templates;

determine one or more dependencies between the application components according to the blueprint;

determine an order of the application components to be deployed based on the one or more dependencies; and

generate a deployment plan for executing the task to deploy the application in the selected cloud environment based on the determined order.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

responsive to user input, assembling items from a catalog of a plurality of predefined application components configured to provide a software infrastructure for the application and a plurality of predefined virtual computing resources available in the selected cloud environment.