METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING ACCESS CONTROL TO USER-CONTROLLED RESOURCES IN A CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20100131949A1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferris, James Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,984,505 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A cloud computing environment can be configured to allow third party, user-controlled resources to be included in the pool of resources available in the cloud. The user-controlled resources can include a cloud application to communicate with a cloud management system to coordinate access to the user-controlled resources. The cloud application allows the user to specify the specific set of resources that the cloud can access, such as specific hardware and software resources.

Claims

1. A method of providing user-controlled resources in a cloud computing environment, comprising:

receiving a request to include user-controlled resources in a cloud;

determining a set of allowed resources, defined by a user, accessible by the cloud; and

providing an indication of the set of allowed resources to the cloud, the indication representing the user-controlled resources accessible by the cloud.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving an instantiation request from the cloud to allocate a potion of the set of allowed resources to a process in the cloud; and

allocating the portion of the allowed resources to the process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the allowed resources comprises at least one of a range of memory accessible by the cloud, a processor accessible by the cloud, and storage devices accessible by the cloud.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the set of allowed resources comprises a total amount of resources accessible by the cloud.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the set of allowed resources accessible by the cloud; and

storing the selection of the set of allowed resources.

6. The method of claims 5, wherein determining a set of allowed resources comprises:

examining the selection of the set of allowed resources to determine an amount of resources available to the cloud.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of the set of allowed resources comprises at least one of an identification of clouds that can access the set of allowed resources and an identification of cloud processes that can access the set of allowed resources.

8. A system for providing user-controlled resources for cloud computing environments, comprising:

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

a cloud application, executing on a user-controlled processing system and communicating with the network interface, the cloud application being configured to—

receive a request to include user-controlled resources in the at least one cloud computing environment;

determine a set of allowed resources, defined by a user, accessible by the at least one cloud computing environment; and

provide an indication of the set of allowed resources to the at least one cloud computing environment.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the cloud application is further configured to

receive an instantiation request from the at least one cloud computing environment to allocate a potion of the set of allowed resources to a process in the at least one cloud computing environment;

and

allocate the portion of the allowed resources to the process.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the allowed resources comprises at least one of a range of memory accessible by the at least one cloud computing environment, a processor accessible by the at least one cloud computing environment, and storage devices accessible by the at least one cloud computing environment.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the indication of the set of allowed resources comprises a total amount of resources accessible by the at least one cloud computing environment.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the cloud application is further configured to

receive a selection of the set of allowed resources accessible by the at least one cloud computing environment;

and

store the selection of the set of allowed resources.

13. The system of claims 12, wherein determining a set of allowed resources comprises:

examining the selection of the set of allowed resources to determine an amount of resources available to the at least one cloud computing environment.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the selection of the set of allowed resources comprises at least one of an identification of the at least one cloud computing environment that can access the set of allowed resources and an identification of cloud processes of the at least one cloud computing environment that can access the set of allowed resources.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the request is received from a cloud management system in the at least one cloud computing environment.

16. A cloud application, the cloud application being embodied in a computer readable storage medium on a user-controlled processing system and comprising instructions for causing the user-controlled processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a request to include user-controlled resources in a cloud;

determining a set of allowed resources, defined by a user, accessible by the cloud; and

providing an indication of the set of allowed resources to the cloud.

17. The cloud application of claim 16, the method further comprising:

receiving an instantiation request from the cloud to allocate a potion of the set of allowed resources to a process in the cloud; and

allocating the portion of the allowed resources to the process.

18. The cloud application of claim 16, wherein the allowed resources comprises at least one of a range of memory accessible by the cloud, a processor accessible by the cloud, and storage devices accessible by the cloud.

19. The cloud application of claim 16, wherein the indication of the set of allowed resources comprises a total amount of resources accessible by the cloud.

20. The cloud application of claim 16, the method further comprising:

receiving a selection of the set of allowed resources accessible by the cloud; and

storing the selection of the set of allowed resources.

21. The cloud application of claims 20, wherein determining a set of allowed resources comprises:

examining the selection of the set of allowed resources to determine an amount of resources available to the cloud.

22. The cloud application of claim 16, wherein the selection of the set of allowed resources comprises at least one of an identification of clouds that can access the set of allowed resources and an identification of cloud processes that can access the set of allowed resources.