Automated deployment and configuration of applications in an autonomically controlled distributed computing system

• US 20070168919A1
• Filed: 12/01/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cassatt (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Radia, Sanjay, Henseler, David, Ohren, Jeanne
• Granted Patent: US 8,595,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5011 Pool
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules. A pluggable, application-specific application governor is selected and installed within the control node to provide an application-independent interface through which the rule engines interact to control the deployment, execution and monitoring of the applications within the distributed computing system. The application governor uses a set of application image objects to configure an application on an application node. Each of the application image objects share a common interface and are therefore interchangeable.

Claims

1. A distributed computing system comprising:

a plurality of application nodes that provide execution environments in which an image of a software application is executable;

a control node to provide autonomic control over the plurality of application nodes; and

a communications network to facilitate communication among the application nodes and the control node,

wherein the control node comprises;

an automation subsystem to control execution of instances of the software application to the application nodes;

a set of application image objects associated with images of software applications, wherein each of the application image objects implements a set of methods to control deployment of an image of a software application, and wherein an application programming interface common to each of the application image objects defines the set of methods; and

an application governor to deploy an image of a software application to the application node by invoking one or more of the methods of one of the application image objects associated with the image of the software application, and wherein the application governor deploys the image of the software application in response to instructions from the automation subsystem.

2. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the automation subsystem comprises a rules engine to determine whether to deploy the software application in accordance with a set of rules.

3. The distributed computing system of claim 2, wherein the rules engine is a forward-chaining rules engine and the set of rules is a set of forward-chaining rules.

4. The distributed computing system of claim 2, wherein the control node further comprises:

a monitoring subsystem that collects the status data from the application nodes and communicates the status data to the automation subsystem, wherein the status data represents an actual state for the application nodes; and

a business logic tier that provides expected state data to the automation subsystem, wherein the expected state data represents an expected state for the application nodes,

wherein the rules engine analyzes the status data from the monitoring subsystem and applies the set of rules to produce action requests to the business logic tier to control the application nodes to reduce any difference between the actual state and the expected state.

5. The distributed computing system of claim 2, further comprising:

a database to store data that defines a model for a hierarchical organization of the distributed computing system, wherein the model specifies a fabric having one or more domains, and wherein each domain has at least one tier that includes at least one of the application nodes, and

wherein the rule engines produce the action requests to control the deployment of the application image instance in accordance with the hierarchical organization of the distributed computing system defined by the model.

6. The distributed computing system of claim 5, wherein the application governor automatically invokes a method of the application image object to create a new application image instance when a new application node is added to the tier.

7. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the application image object was added to the set of application image objects while the control node is executing the application governor.

8. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the application governor comprises a registration module to automatically register an application image object when the application image object is provided to the application governor.

9. The distributed computing system of claim 3, wherein the registration module comprises a Java Management Extensions Management Bean Server.

10. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the application governor invokes a method of the application image object to create an application image instance, wherein the method is defined by the common application programming interface.

11. The distributed computing system of claim 10, wherein the application governor invokes a method of the software image to destroy the application image instance.

12. The distributed computing system of claim 1, wherein the application governor invokes a method of the application image object to configure a container resource on one of the application nodes to execute the software application.

13. The distributed computing system of claim 12, wherein the application governor invokes a method of the application image object to configure the container resource to a configuration of the container resource prior to the invocation of the method to configure the container resource to execute the software application.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving status data for a distributed computing system having a plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network, wherein the status data represents an actual state of the application nodes, wherein the application nodes provide execution environments in which an image of a software application is executable;

processing the status data with rules in a set of rule engines to determine operations for reducing any difference between an expected state and the actual state of the distributed computing system;

maintaining a set of application image objects associated with images of software applications, wherein each of the application image objects implements a set of methods to control deployment of images of a software application, and wherein an application programming interface common to each of the application image objects defines the set of methods; and

directing, in accordance with the determined operations, an application governor to deploy an image of a software application to one of the application nodes by invoking one or more of the methods of the application image objects associated with the software application.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein processing the status data with rules comprises processing the status data with forward-chaining rules.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

storing data that defines a model for a hierarchical organization of the distributed computing system, wherein the model specifies a fabric having one or more domains, and wherein each domain has at least one tier that includes at least one of the application nodes, and

wherein the rule engines produce the action requests to control the deployment of the image of the software application in accordance with the hierarchical organization of the distributed computing system defined by the model.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises automatically invoking a method of the application image object to create a new image of the software application when a new application node is added to the tier.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises adding an application image object to the set of application image objects while the application nodes are executing.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein directing the application governor to deploy an image of a software application comprises directing the application governor to invoke a method of a application image object associated with the image of the software application to configure a container resource on one of the application nodes to execute the image of the software application.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions causing a programmable processor to:

receive status data for a distributed computing system having a plurality of application nodes interconnected via a communications network, wherein the status data represents an actual state of the application nodes, wherein the application nodes provide execution environments in which an instance of a software application is executable;

process the status data with rules in a set of rule engines to determine operations for reducing any difference between an expected state and the actual state of the distributed computing system;

maintain a set of application image objects associated with images software applications, wherein each of the application image objects implements a set of methods to control deployment of images of a software application, and wherein an application programming interface common to each of the application image objects defines the set of methods; and

direct, in accordance with the determined operations, an application governor to deploy an image of a software application to one of the application nodes by invoking one or more of the methods of the application image objects associated with the software application.