Autonomic Scaling Of Virtual Machines In A Cloud Computing Environment

• US 20110258621A1
• Filed: 04/14/2010
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daedalus Blue LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kern, Eric R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,612 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

Autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment including virtual machines (‘VMs’), the VMs installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center, also including a cloud operating system and a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs, including deploying, by the cloud operating system, an instance of a VM, flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling; monitoring, by the cloud operating system, one or more operating characteristics of the instance of the VM; deploying, by the cloud operating system, an additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic exceeds a first predetermined threshold value, including executing a portion of the data processing workload on the additional instance of the VM; and terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic declines below a second predetermined threshold value.

Claims

1. A method of autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of virtual machines (‘

VMs’

), the VMs comprising modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center, the cloud computing environment further comprising a cloud operating system and a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs, the method comprising;

deploying, by the cloud operating system, an instance of a VM, including flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling and executing a data processing workload on the instance of a VM;

monitoring, by the cloud operating system, one or more operating characteristics of the instance of the VM;

deploying, by the cloud operating system, an additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic exceeds a first predetermined threshold value, including executing a portion of the data processing workload on the additional instance of the VM; and

terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic declines below a second predetermined threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine;

the method further comprises receiving, through a user interface exposed by the self service portal, user specifications of the VM, the user specifications including specifications of computer processors, random access memory, hard disk storage, input/output resources, application programs, and a specification for autonomic scaling that includes predetermined threshold values for operating characteristics; and

deploying an instance of a VM further comprises deploying the instance of a VM in the cloud computing environment in accordance with the received user specifications.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling includes storing, in the cloud operating system in association with an identifier of the instance of a VM, predetermined threshold values of operating characteristics, including threshold values for processor utilization and for memory utilization.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an instance of a VM further comprises:

passing by the self service portal user specifications for the instance of a VM to the deployment engine;

implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine, a VM template with the user specifications; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the VM template as an instance of a VM on the cloud computer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an additional instance of the VM further comprises:

passing by the self service portal user specifications for the additional instance of the VM to the deployment engine;

implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine with the user specifications, a same VM template used to deploy a previous instance of the VM; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the same VM template as a additional instance of the VM on a cloud computer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal, and terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM further comprises:

transmitting, by the self service portal to the data center administration server, an instruction to terminate the additional instance of the VM; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to terminate operation of the additional instance of the VM on the cloud computer.

7. Apparatus for autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of virtual machines (‘

VMs’

), the VMs comprising modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center;

a cloud operating system;

a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs,

at least one computer processor; and

a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions which when executed cause the apparatus to function by;

deploying, by the cloud operating system, an instance of a VM, including flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling and executing a data processing workload on the instance of a VM;

monitoring, by the cloud operating system, one or more operating characteristics of the instance of the VM;

deploying, by the cloud operating system, an additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic exceeds a first predetermined threshold value, including executing a portion of the data processing workload on the additional instance of the VM; and

terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic declines below a second predetermined threshold value.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine;

the computer program instructions further cause the apparatus to function by receiving, through a user interface exposed by the self service portal, user specifications of the VM, the user specifications including specifications of computer processors, random access memory, hard disk storage, input/output resources, application programs, and a specification for autonomic scaling that includes predetermined threshold values for operating characteristics; and

deploying an instance of a VM further comprises deploying the instance of a VM in the cloud computing environment in accordance with the received user specifications.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling includes storing, in the cloud operating system in association with an identifier of the instance of a VM, predetermined threshold values of operating characteristics, including threshold values for processor utilization and for memory utilization.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an instance of a VM further comprises:

passing by the self service portal user specifications for the instance of a VM to the deployment engine;

implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine, a VM template with the user specifications; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the VM template as an instance of a VM on the cloud computer.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an additional instance of the VM further comprises:

passing by the self service portal user specifications for the additional instance of the VM to the deployment engine;

implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine with the user specifications, a same VM template used to deploy a previous instance of the VM; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the same VM template as a additional instance of the VM on a cloud computer.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal, and terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM further comprises:

transmitting, by the self service portal to the data center administration server, an instruction to terminate the additional instance of the VM; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to terminate operation of the additional instance of the VM on the cloud computer.

13. A computer program product for autonomic scaling of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment comprising a plurality of virtual machines (‘

VMs’

), the VMs comprising modules of automated computing machinery installed upon cloud computers disposed within a data center, a cloud operating system, a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions which when executed cause the VMs and computers in the cloud computing environment to function by;

deploying, by the cloud operating system, an instance of a VM, including flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling and executing a data processing workload on the instance of a VM;

monitoring, by the cloud operating system, one or more operating characteristics of the instance of the VM;

deploying, by the cloud operating system, an additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic exceeds a first predetermined threshold value, including executing a portion of the data processing workload on the additional instance of the VM; and

terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM if a value of an operating characteristic declines below a second predetermined threshold value.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine;

the computer program instructions further cause the VMs and computers to function by receiving, through a user interface exposed by the self service portal, user specifications of the VM, the user specifications including specifications of computer processors, random access memory, hard disk storage, input/output resources, application programs, and a specification for autonomic scaling that includes predetermined threshold values for operating characteristics; and

deploying an instance of a VM further comprises deploying the instance of a VM in the cloud computing environment in accordance with the received user specifications.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein flagging the instance of a VM for autonomic scaling includes storing, in the cloud operating system in association with an identifier of the instance of a VM, predetermined threshold values of operating characteristics, including threshold values for processor utilization and for memory utilization.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an instance of a VM further comprises:

passing by the self service portal user specifications for the instance of a VM to the deployment engine;

implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine, a VM template with the user specifications; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the VM template as an instance of a VM on the cloud computer.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal and a deployment engine, and deploying an additional instance of the VM further comprises:

passing by the self service portal user specifications for the additional instance of the VM to the deployment engine;

implementing and passing to the data center administration server, by the deployment engine with the user specifications, a same VM template used to deploy a previous instance of the VM; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to install the same VM template as a additional instance of the VM on a cloud computer.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the cloud operating system comprises a module of automated computing machinery, further comprising a self service portal, and terminating operation of the additional instance of the VM further comprises:

transmitting, by the self service portal to the data center administration server, an instruction to terminate the additional instance of the VM; and

calling, by the data center administration server, a hypervisor on a cloud computer to terminate operation of the additional instance of the VM on the cloud computer.