System and method for installation and management of cloud-independent multi-tenant applications

• US 8,812,627 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Donahue, James E., Ho, Ricky, Kannan, Sudarsun, Gore, Pradnyesh S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Hee Soo
• Application Number:
  US12/955,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20120047239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/226, 718/1
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing

Abstract

An application framework may include a cloud-independent application manager, a cloud-independent content services manager, and cloud-independent content services servers. The framework may dynamically install and manage scalable, multi-tenant applications in a cloud, and may scale the applications, as needed. The application manager may receive and handle requests to install application domains and configurations thereof, and may receive and respond to requests for information about servers on which installed methods are available. The content services servers may execute installed methods, using underlying resources of the cloud, through a cloud-specific SPI. The content services manager and application manager may work together using shared cloud storage to provide scalable content services at a very large scale. In the context of the framework described herein, an “application” may be defined by methods bundled into configurations, and by various cost-based and/or performance-based rules that specify how server instances providing those methods are to be managed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

executing a cloud-independent application manager, that is included as part of a cloud-independent application framework instance in a cloud computing environment capable of supporting multiple cloud-independent application framework instances, on one or more computers to perform operations including;

receiving a request to register an application configuration in the framework instance, the request comprising one or more cloud-independent methods included as part of an application configuration object, an identifier of an application domain that is registered to the framework instance, and rules that the application manager is to apply to manage content services servers that are employed by the framework instance to deploy the one or more cloud-independent methods;

storing the rules in framework storage allocated to the application domain and configured to store the application configuration; and

sending the application configuration object to a cloud-independent content services manager of the framework instance, the application configuration object enabling the content services manager to map the one or more cloud-independent methods to the application domain and store a mapping of the one or more cloud-independent methods in the framework storage.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

starting one of the content services servers in the cloud computing environment; and

configuring the content services server to execute at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods, wherein said configuring is dependent on contents of the application configuration object.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein said starting the content services server is performed in response to receiving a request to invoke the at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods or in response to receiving a request for endpoint information for a content services server on which the at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for a listing of methods or services available in the application domain; and

in response to said receiving the request for the listing of methods or services available, returning information comprising the listing of the methods or services available in the application domain and an indication of one or more of the content services servers on which each of the methods or services available in the application domain can be invoked.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, a request for information from a client indicating one of the content services servers executing in the cloud computing environment on which a given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked; and

in response to receiving the request for information, sending endpoint information to the client identifying the content services server on which the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked, the endpoint information enabling the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods to be requested from the identified content services server, the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods being executable by the identified content services server on behalf of the client by accessing one or more resources of the framework instance, the one or more resources being accessible through a cloud specific service provider interface that is communicatively coupled to one or more cloud-independent components of the application domain.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to receiving the request to register the application configuration;

receiving a request to register the application domain in the framework instance, the request to register the application domain comprising domain configuration information and a domain rule base; and

in response to receiving the request to register the application domain;

storing the domain rule base in the framework storage allocated to the application domain;

launching the content services manager in the framework instance; and

sending the domain configuration information to the content services manager, the sending enabling the content services manager to store the domain configuration information in the framework storage, the domain configuration information and the domain rule base subsequently being usable to manage one or more application configurations registered in the application domain.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein in response to receiving the request to register the application domain, the method further comprises:

obtaining a partition of the framework storage for use of the application domain;

wherein the domain rule base is stored in the partition of the framework storage; and

wherein the domain configuration information is stored in the partition of the framework storage.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the rules included in the request comprise conditions and corresponding actions that are subsequently usable in managing the content services servers.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

probing one or more of the content services servers to obtain performance or cost metrics for at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods;

evaluating one or more rules of a domain rule base for the application domain or the rules included in the request against the obtained performance or cost metrics; and

in response to determining that one or more conditions specified in the one or more rules is met, causing an application to be scaled that comprises the application configuration.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein causing the application to be scaled comprises:

starting an additional content services server instance and configuring the additional content services server instance to execute at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods;

or

stopping a content services server instance that is configured to execute at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods.

11. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory comprising program instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to implement an instance of an application management framework in a cloud computing environment capable of supporting multiple application management framework instances, the framework instance comprising;

a cloud-independent application manager configured to receive a request to register an application configuration in the framework instance, the request comprising one or more cloud-independent methods included as part of an application configuration object, an identifier of an application domain that is registered to the framework instance, and rules that the application manager is to apply to manage cloud-independent content services servers, the cloud-independent application manager further configured to store the rules in framework storage allocated to the application domain;

a cloud-independent content services manager configured to receive the application configuration object from the application manager, map the one or more cloud-independent methods to the application domain, and store a mapping of the one or more cloud-independent methods in the framework storage;

one or more cloud-independent content services servers that are configured to deploy the one or more cloud-independent methods to one or more clients; and

a cloud-specific service provider interface that is communicatively coupled to one or more cloud-independent components of the framework instance.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the application manager is further configured to:

start at least one of the cloud-independent content services servers in the cloud computing environment; and

configure the at least one content services server to execute at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods based on contents of the application configuration object.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the application manager is further configured to;

receive, from one of the clients a request for information identifying at least one of the cloud-independent content services servers on which a given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked; and

in response to receiving the request for information, send endpoint information to the client identifying the at least one content services server on which the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked; and

the at least one content services server configured to;

receive a request to invoke the given one of the one or more methods; and

execute the given method on behalf of the client by accessing one or more resources of the framework instance through the cloud-specific service provider interface.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the application manager is further configured to, prior to the request to register the application configuration being received;

receive a request to register the application domain in the framework instance, the request to register the application domain comprising domain configuration information and a domain rule base; and

in response to the request to register the application domain being received;

store the domain rule base in the framework storage allocated to the application domain;

launch the content services manager in the framework instance; and

pass the domain configuration information to the content services manager; and

the content services manager is further configured to;

store the domain configuration information in the framework storage allocated to the application domain, the domain configuration information and the domain rule base that are stored being subsequently usable to manage one or more application configurations registered in the application domain.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the rules that are included in the request comprise conditions and corresponding actions that are usable in managing the content services servers; and

the application manager is further configured to;

probe the content services servers to obtain performance or cost metrics for at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods that is executing in the cloud computing environment;

evaluate one or more rules of a domain rule base for the application domain or the rules included in the request against the obtained performance or cost metrics; and

in response to a determination that one or more conditions specified in the one or more rules is met, take action to scale an application that comprises the application configuration.

16. A computer-readable storage memory storing program instructions that are executable by one or more computers in a cloud computing environment to perform operations comprising:

executing a cloud-independent application manager, that is included as part of a cloud-independent application framework instance in the cloud computing environment which is capable of supporting multiple cloud-independent application framework instances, to perform;

receiving a request to register an application configuration in the framework instance, the request comprising one or more cloud-independent methods included as part of an application configuration object, an identifier of an application domain that is registered to the framework instance, and rules that the application manager is to apply to manage content services servers that are employed by the framework instance to deploy the one or more cloud-independent methods;

storing the rules in framework storage allocated to the application domain and configured to store the application configuration; and

sending the application configuration object to a cloud-independent content services manager of the framework instance, the application configuration object enabling the content services manager to map the one or more cloud-independent methods to the application domain and store a mapping of the one or more cloud-independent methods in the framework storage.

17. The computer readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

starting one of the content services servers in the cloud computing environment; and

configuring the content services server to execute at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods based on contents of the application configuration object.

18. The computer readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request for information from a client indicating one of the content services servers on which a given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked; and

in response to receiving the request for information, sending endpoint information to the client identifying the content services server on which the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods can be invoked, the endpoint information enabling the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods to be requested from the identified content services server, the given one of the one or more cloud-independent methods being executable by the identified content services server on behalf of the client by accessing one or more resources of the framework instance, the one or more resources being accessible through a cloud specific service provider interface.

19. The computer readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, prior to the request to register the application configuration being received, a request to register the application domain in the framework instance, the request to register the application domain comprising domain configuration information and a domain rule base; and

in response to receiving the request to register the application domain;

storing the domain rule base in the framework storage allocated to the application domain;

launching the content services manager in the framework instance; and

sending the domain configuration information to the content services manager to enable the content services manager to store the domain configuration information in the framework storage, the domain configuration information and the domain rule base being usable to manage one or more application configurations registered in the application domain.

20. The computer readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein:

the rules included in the request comprise conditions and corresponding actions that are subsequently usable in managing the content services server; and

the operations further comprise;

probing one or more of the content services servers to obtain performance or cost metrics for at least one of the one or more cloud-independent methods;

evaluating one or more rules of a domain rule base for the application domain or the rules included in the request against the obtained performance or cost metrics; and

in response to a determination that one or more conditions specified in the one or more rules is met, causing an application to be scaled that comprises the application configuration.