Communicating messages over a social network to members of a virtualization infrastructure

• US 9,729,493 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Soundararajan, Vijayaraghavan, Spracklen, Lawrence
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dustin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guzman, Javier O
• Application Number:
  US13/926,509
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

In a computer-implemented method for communicating messages over a social network to members of a virtualization infrastructure, a message comprising a command is received at a first member of a virtualization infrastructure. The message is communicated over a social network from a second member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein a plurality of members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to the social network, such that at least some of the members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network. The command is executed by the first member of the virtualization infrastructure.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for communicating messages over a social network to members of a virtualization infrastructure, said computer-implemented method comprising:

accessing a virtualization infrastructure, said virtualization infrastructure comprising;

a non-human virtualization management server member able to communicate with a human system administrator member;

a non-human datacenter member communicatively coupled with said non-human virtualization management server member;

a non-human host member communicatively coupled with said non-human datacenter member; and

a plurality of non-human virtual machine members communicatively coupled with said non-human host member, said plurality of non-human virtual machine members able to communicate with a human user member;

mapping a plurality of members of said virtual infrastructure into a social network wherein said mapping of said plurality of members includes identifying at least one human member and at least two non-human members, wherein said mapping is based on a parent/child relationship of said members, and wherein non-human members of said social network are able to contribute status updates to a shared message stream and are able to monitor said shared message stream, said non-human members comprising said plurality of non-human virtual machine members;

receiving a message comprising a command at a first member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein said first member is a non-human member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein said message is communicated over a shared message stream of said social network from a second member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein a plurality of non-human members of said virtualization infrastructure are mapped to said social network, such that at least some of said plurality of non-human members of said virtualization infrastructure are also non-human members of said social network and members of said social network are able to monitor messages generated by other members of said social network posted to said shared message stream; and

executing said command by said first member of said virtualization infrastructure.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said receiving said message comprising a command, at a first member of a virtualization infrastructure, further comprises:

in response to a detected operational condition, receiving a message comprising a command, at said first member of said virtualization infrastructure.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said receiving said message comprising a command, at a first member of a virtualization infrastructure, further comprises:

in response to a change in said virtualization infrastructure, receiving a message comprising a command, at said first member of said virtualization infrastructure.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said receiving said message comprising a command, further comprises:

receiving said message comprising a command, at some of said plurality of members of said virtualized infrastructure.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said receiving said message comprising a command, further comprises:

receiving a private message comprising a command, at said first member of said virtualized infrastructure.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said receiving said message comprising a command, further comprises:

receiving a message comprising a command, at a virtual machine of said virtualized infrastructure.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating said command received by said first member of said virtualization infrastructure is issued by an administrator of said virtualization infrastructure.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically polling for said message, at said first member.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said command is selected from a group consisting of:

powering on a virtual machine, powering off a virtual machine, resetting a virtual machine, and outputting a log file.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method for communicating messages over a social network to members of a virtualization infrastructure, said method comprising:

accessing a virtualization infrastructure, said virtualization infrastructure comprising;

at least one human system administrator member;

at least one non-human virtualization management server member able to communicate with said at least one human system administrator member;

at least one non-human datacenter member communicatively coupled with said at least one non-human virtualization management server member;

at least one non-human host member communicatively coupled with said at least one non-human datacenter member;

a plurality of non-human virtual machine members communicatively coupled with said at least one non-human host member; and

at least one human user member able to communicate with at least one non-human virtual machine member of said plurality of non-human virtual machine members;

mapping a plurality of members of said virtualization infrastructure into a social network wherein said mapping of said plurality of members includes identifying at least one human member and at least two non-human members, wherein said mapping is based on a parent/child relationship of said members, and wherein non-human members of said social network are able to contribute status updates to a shared message stream and are able to monitor said shared message stream, said non-human members comprising said plurality of non-human virtual machine members;

receiving an instruction to send a command; and

sending a message comprising said command to a first member of said virtualization infrastructure from a second member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein said first member is a non-human member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein said message is communicated over a shared message stream of said social network, wherein a plurality of non-human members of said virtualization infrastructure are mapped to said social network, such that at least some of said plurality of non-human members of said virtualization infrastructure are also non-human members of said social network and members of said social network are able to monitor messages generated by other members of said social network posted to said shared message stream, and wherein said command is configured to be executed by said first member of said virtualization infrastructure.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said sending a message comprising a command, further comprises:

in response to a detected operational condition, automatically sending said message comprising said command.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said sending a message comprising a command, further comprises:

in response to a change of said virtualization infrastructure, automatically sending said message comprising said command.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said sending a message comprising a command, further comprises:

sending a private message comprising said command.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said sending a message comprising a command, further comprises:

broadcasting said message to some of said plurality of members of said virtualization infrastructure.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said sending a message comprising a command, further comprises:

sending said message to a virtual machine of said virtualization infrastructure.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said sending a message comprising a command, further comprises:

sending said message from an administrator of said virtualization infrastructure.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, said method further comprising:

sending a pre-generated message to said first member of said virtualization infrastructure.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein said command is selected from a group consisting of:

powering on a virtual machine, powering off a virtual machine, resetting a virtual machine, and outputting a log file.

19. A computer-implemented method for communicating messages over a social network to members of a virtualization infrastructure, said computer-implemented method comprising:

accessing a virtualization infrastructure, said virtualization infrastructure comprising;

at least one human system administrator member;

at least one non-human virtualization management server member able to communicate with said at least one human system administrator member;

at least one non-human datacenter member communicatively coupled with said at least one non-human virtualization management server member;

at least one non-human host member communicatively coupled with said at least one non-human datacenter member;

a plurality of non-human virtual machine members communicatively coupled with said at least one non-human host member; and

at least one human user member able to communicate with at least one non-human virtual machine member of said plurality of non-human virtual machine members;

mapping a plurality of members of said virtual infrastructure into a social network wherein said mapping of said plurality of members includes identifying at least one human member and at least two non-human members, wherein said mapping is based on a parent/child relationship of said members, and wherein non-human members of said social network are able to contribute status updates to a shared message stream and are able to monitor said shared message stream, said non-human members comprising said plurality of non-human virtual machine members;

generating a message comprising a command;

sending said message to a first member of said virtualization infrastructure by a second member of said virtualization infrastructure over a shared message stream of said social network, wherein said first member is a non-human member of said virtualization infrastructure;

receiving said message by said first member of said virtualization infrastructure; and

executing said command by said first member of said virtualization infrastructure, wherein a plurality of non-human members of said virtualization infrastructure are mapped to said social network, such that at least some of said plurality of non-human members of said virtualization infrastructure are also non-human members of said social network and members of said social network are able to monitor messages generated by other members of said social network posted to said shared message stream.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising:

validating said command received by said first member of said virtualization infrastructure.