METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR BUILDING CUSTOM APPLIANCES IN A CLOUD-BASED NETWORK

• US 20090299920A1
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Darcy, Aaron Peter, Ferris, James Michael
• Granted Patent: US 10,657,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters

Abstract

A cloud management system can track the usage of the virtual machines in order to determine the fees associated with the user'"'"'s subscription to the cloud computing environment. The usage can include the resources consumed to support the virtual machines and can include the utilization of the virtual machines by the user or third parties. The cloud management system can determine the fees charged to the user for utilizing the cloud computing environment based on the tracked usage.

Claims

1. A method of building an appliance in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

maintaining a repository of software modules in the cloud computing environment;

receiving a request to build a software appliance, the request including a set of the software modules to be included in the software appliance; and

building the software appliance based on the request, wherein the software appliance comprises the set of software modules and portions of an operating system necessary to provide an execution platform for the set of software modules.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising instantiating the software appliance the the cloud computing environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of the software modules comprises at least one of the operating system and an application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprises:

receiving configuration information for the software appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the software appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a charge associated with building the software appliance.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the charge is based on at least one of a charge for the set of software modules or a charge for instantiation of the software appliance.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the charge for instantiation of the software appliance is based on at least one of a time period for the software appliance, a duration of the software appliance, or a resource usage of the software appliance.

9. A system for building an appliance in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

a network interface to at least one virtual machine in a cloud computing environment; and

a cloud management module, communicating with the network interface, the cloud management module being configured to—

maintain a repository of software modules in the cloud computing environment;

receive a request to build an software appliance, the request including a set of the software modules to be included in the software appliance; and

build the software appliance based on the request, wherein the software appliance comprises the set of software modules and portions of an operating system necessary to provide an execution platform for the set of software modules.

10. The system of claim 9, the cloud management module being further configured to—

instantiate the software appliance the the cloud computing environment.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of the software modules comprises at least one of the operating system and an application.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein receiving the request comprises:

receiving configuration information for the software appliance.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the software appliance.

14. The system of claim 9, the cloud management module being further configured to—

determine a charge associated with building the software appliance.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the charge is based on at least one of a charge for the set of software modules or a charge for instantiation of the software appliance.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the charge for instantiation of the software appliance is based on at least one of a time period for the software appliance, a duration of the software appliance, or a resource usage of the software appliance.

17. A software appliance, the software appliance being built in a cloud computing environment by a method comprising:

maintaining a repository of software modules in the cloud computing environment;

receiving a request to build an software appliance, the request including a set of the software modules to be included in the software appliance; and

building the software appliance based on the request, wherein the software appliance comprises the set of software modules and portions of an operating system necessary to provide an execution platform for the set of software modules.

18. The software appliance of claim 17, further comprising instantiating the software appliance the the cloud computing environment.

19. The software appliance of claim 17, wherein the set of the software modules comprises at least one of the operating system and an application.

20. The software appliance of claim 17, wherein receiving the request comprises:

receiving configuration information for the software appliance.

21. The software appliance of claim 17, wherein the cloud computing environment comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the software appliance.

22. The software appliance of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a charge associated with building the software appliance.

23. The software appliance of claim 22, wherein the charge is based on at least one of a charge for the set of software modules or a charge for instantiation of the software appliance.

24. The software appliance of claim 23, wherein the charge for instantiation of the software appliance is based on at least one of a time period for the software appliance, a duration of the software appliance, or a resource usage of the software appliance.