NORMALIZED SEARCHABLE CLOUD LAYER

• US 20150032756A1
• Filed: 07/25/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sigler, Egle
• Granted Patent: US 9,747,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures

Abstract

An example system for indexing heterogeneous resources includes a data module that invokes one or more APIs, and responsive to the invoked one or more APIs, receives a first set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a first subset of the set of cloud resources and a second set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a second subset of the set of cloud resources. The system also includes a normalization module that for at least one attribute of the first and second sets of attributes, searches a database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the respective one attribute, normalizes based on the uniform schema the respective attribute, and places the normalized attribute in a data structure. The system further includes an indexing module that indexes the normalized attributes in the data structure.

Claims

1. A system for indexing heterogeneous resources, the system comprising:

a database including a set of mappings from an attribute of a cloud resource specific to a cloud to a normalized attribute based on a uniform schema; and

one or more servers coupled to the database and configured to execute computer program modules, the computer program modules comprising;

a data module executable by the one or more servers, wherein the data module identifies a set of cloud resources in a plurality of virtual datacenters, invokes one or more application programming interfaces (APIs), and responsive to the invoked one or more APIs, receives a first set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a first subset of the set of cloud resources and a second set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a second subset of the set of cloud resources,

wherein the first subset of cloud resources is executable in the first cloud, and the second subset of cloud resources is executable in the second cloud, and wherein the first set of attributes is compatible with the first cloud and incompatible with the second cloud, and the second set of attributes is compatible with the second cloud and incompatible with the first cloud;

a normalization module executable by the one or more servers, wherein for at least one attribute of the first and second sets of attributes, the normalization module searches the database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the at least one attribute, normalizes based on the uniform schema the at least one attribute, and places the normalized at least one attribute in a data structure; and

an indexing module executable by the one or more servers, wherein the indexing module indexes the normalized at least one attribute in the data structure.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more APIs is a single API.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more APIs includes a first API and a second API different from the first API, and wherein responsive to the invoked first API the data module receives the first set of attributes, and responsive to the invoked second API the data module receives the second set of attributes.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the database includes a set of mappings from an attribute of a physical resource specific to a cloud to a normalized attribute based on the uniform schema,

wherein the data module identifies a set of physical resources in the plurality of virtual datacenters, and responsive to the invoked one or more APIs, receives a third set of attributes of one or more physical resources of a first subset of the set of physical resources and a fourth set of attributes of one or more physical resources of a second subset of the set of physical resources,

wherein the first subset of physical resources is executable in the first cloud, and the second subset of physical resources is executable in the second cloud, and wherein the third set of attributes is compatible with the first cloud and incompatible with the second cloud, and the fourth set of attributes is compatible with the second cloud and incompatible with the first cloud;

and

wherein for at least one attribute of the third and fourth sets of attributes, the normalization module searches the database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the at least one attribute, normalizes based on the uniform schema the at least one attribute, and places the normalized at least one attribute in the data structure.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more APIs is a single API.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more APIs includes a third API and a fourth API different from the third API, and wherein responsive to the invoked third API, the data module receives the third set of attributes and responsive to the invoked fourth API, the data module receives the fourth set of attributes.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the first cloud is at least one of a private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual datacenter of the plurality of virtual datacenters includes one or more resource pools, and wherein each resource pool includes at least one of a cluster, hypervisor, virtual machine, network, storage, clone, template, snapshot, and performance metrics.

9. A method of indexing heterogeneous resources, the system comprising:

identifying a set of cloud resources in a plurality of virtual datacenters;

invoking one or more application programming interfaces (APIs);

responsive to the invoking one or more APIs, receiving a first set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a first subset of the set of cloud resources and a second set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a second subset of the set of cloud resources,

wherein the first subset of cloud resources is executable in the first cloud, and the second subset of cloud resources is executable in the second cloud, and wherein the first set of attributes is compatible with the first cloud and incompatible with the second cloud, and the second set of attributes is compatible with the second cloud and incompatible with the first cloud;

for at least one attribute of the first and second sets of attributes;

searching a database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the at least one attribute, the database including a set of mappings from an attribute of a cloud resource specific to a cloud to a normalized attribute based on a uniform schema;

normalizing based on the uniform schema the at least one attribute; and

placing the normalized at least one attribute in a data structure; and

indexing the normalized at least one attribute in the data structure.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more APIs is a single API.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more APIs includes a first API and a second API different from the first API, wherein the receiving a first set of attributes includes receiving the first set of attributes responsive to the invoked first API, and wherein the receiving a second set of attributes includes receiving the second set of attributes responsive to the invoked second API.

12. The method of claim 9, further including:

identifying a set of physical resources in the plurality of virtual datacenters;

responsive to the invoked one or more APIs, receiving a third set of attributes of one or more physical resources of a first subset of the set of physical resources and a fourth set of attributes of one or more physical resources of a second subset of the set of physical resources,

wherein the first subset of physical resources is executable in the first cloud, and the second subset of physical resources is executable in the second cloud, and wherein the third set of attributes is compatible with the first cloud and incompatible with the second cloud, and the fourth set of attributes is compatible with the second cloud and incompatible with the first cloud; and

for at least one attribute of the third and fourth sets of attributes;

searching the database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the at least one attribute, the database including a set of mappings from an attribute of a physical resource specific to a cloud to a normalized attribute based on the uniform schema;

normalizing based on the uniform schema the at least one attribute; and

placing the normalized at least one attribute in the data structure.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more APIs is a single API.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more APIs includes a third API and a fourth API different from the third API, wherein the receiving a third set of attributes includes receiving the third set of attributes responsive to the invoked third API, and wherein the receiving a fourth set of attributes includes receiving the fourth set of attributes responsive to the invoked fourth API.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying the plurality of virtual datacenters, wherein the identifying the plurality of virtual datacenters includes retrieving a list including the plurality of virtual datacenters.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

dynamically creating the data structure based on the at least one attribute.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the placing the normalized at least one attribute in a data structure includes placing the normalized at least one attribute in a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) formatted document.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining an expected change frequency of a value of a received attribute;

assigning a time-to-live to the received attribute, the time-to-live being based on the expected change frequency;

identifying a first value of the received attribute;

after the time-to-live has expired, identifying a second value of the received attribute;

determining whether the first value is the same as the second value; and

when the first value is determined to not be the same as the second value, updating the first value with the second value.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a first plurality of machine-readable instructions that when executed by one or more processors is adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

identifying a set of cloud resources in a plurality of virtual datacenters;

invoking one or more application programming interfaces (APIs);

responsive to the invoking one or more APIs, receiving a first set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a first subset of the set of cloud resources and a second set of attributes of one or more cloud resources of a second subset of the set of cloud resources,

wherein the first subset of cloud resources is executable in the first cloud, and the second subset of cloud resources is executable in the second cloud, and wherein the first set of attributes is compatible with the first cloud and incompatible with the second cloud, and the second set of attributes is compatible with the second cloud and incompatible with the first cloud;

for at least one attribute of the first and second sets of attributes;

searching a database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the at least one attribute, the database including a set of mappings from an attribute of a cloud resource specific to a cloud to a normalized attribute based on a uniform schema;

normalizing based on the uniform schema the at least one attribute; and

placing the normalized at least one attribute in a data structure; and

indexing the normalized at least one attribute in the data structure.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, the non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a second plurality of machine-readable instructions that when executed by one or more processors is adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

identifying a set of physical resources in the plurality of virtual datacenters;

responsive to the invoked one or more APIs, receiving a third set of attributes of one or more physical resources of a first subset of the set of physical resources and a fourth set of attributes of one or more physical resources of a second subset of the set of physical resources,

wherein the first subset of physical resources is executable in the first cloud, and the second subset of physical resources is executable in the second cloud, and wherein the third set of attributes is compatible with the first cloud and incompatible with the second cloud, and the fourth set of attributes is compatible with the second cloud and incompatible with the first cloud; and

for at least one attribute of the third and fourth sets of attributes;

searching the database for a normalized attribute corresponding to the at least one attribute, the database including a set of mappings from an attribute of a physical resource specific to a cloud to a normalized attribute based on the uniform schema;

normalizing based on the uniform schema the at least one attribute; and

placing the normalized at least one attribute in the data structure.