Cloud platform architecture

• US 9,250,887 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pivotal Software, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pivotal Software, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Spivak, Vadim, Chen, Gerald C., Laddad, Ramnivas, Lucovsky, Mark, Collison, Derek
• Primary Examiner(s): Zecher, Dede
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAKHIA, VIRAL S
• Application Number:
  US14/148,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20140130038A1
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/22, 726/7, 718/1, 717/176, 717/168, 717/177
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine

Abstract

A cloud computing environment provides the ability to deploy a web application that has been developed using one of a plurality of application frameworks and is configured to execute within one of a plurality of runtime environments. The cloud computing environment receives the web application in a package compatible with the runtime environment and dynamically binds available services by appropriately inserting service provisioning data (e.g., service network address, login credentials, etc.) into the package. The cloud computing environment then packages an instance of the runtime environment, a start script and the package into a web application deployment package, which is then transmitted to an application (e.g., container virtual machine, etc.). The application container unpacks the web application deployment package, installs the runtime environment, loads the web application package into the runtime environment and starts the start script, thereby deploying the web application in the application container.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a cloud controller executing on one or more first virtual machines of a cloud computing platform and from a development environment executing on a client device, a web application, the web application being compatible with a runtime environment available from the cloud computing platform;

submitting, by the cloud controller and to a service provisioner executing on one or more second virtual machines of the cloud computing platform, a request for available services of the cloud computing platform, wherein the service provisioner includes a plurality of shim components, wherein each shim component of the plurality of shim components maintains respective service provisioning data for each of the available services of the cloud computing platform;

receiving, by the cloud controller from one or more shim components of the service provisioner, service provisioning data for one or more available services of the cloud computing platform, wherein the service provisioning data for each of the available services comprises network addressing information for the web application to locate the corresponding available service within the cloud computing platform;

receiving, by the cloud controller from the development environment executing on the client device, a user selection of a particular available service of the one or more available services of the cloud computing platform;

binding, by the cloud controller, the selected available service to the web application, including editing the web application to insert at least a portion of the received service provisioning data for the selected available service into the web application;

generating, by the cloud controller, a start script for starting the runtime environment and launching the web application; and

packaging, by the cloud controller, the runtime environment, start script, and the edited web application into a web application deployment package,

wherein each of the one or more first virtual machines and one or more second virtual machines is executed by a computer of the cloud computing platform.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein service provisioning data comprises login credentials to log into the selected available service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the web application is stored as a web application archive (WAR) file, and the web application deployment package is a tar file.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a stop script file for stopping the web application after being launched; and

adding the stop script file to the web application deployment package.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to launch the web application and broadcasting a request for an available application container to deploy the web application.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising executing the start script in the runtime environment.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, by a container virtual machine of a cloud computing platform, a request broadcast from a cloud controller requesting to launch a web application;

indicating, through a deployment agent of the container virtual machine, that the container virtual machine is available to host the web application;

fetching, by the deployment agent, a web application deployment package through a link provided by the cloud controller for downloading the web application deployment package, the web application deployment package comprising a start script, a web application having service provisioning data provided by one or more of a plurality of shim components of the cloud computing platform, and information on a runtime environment for executing the web application, wherein each shim component maintains respective service provisioning data for each of a plurality of available services in the cloud computing platform;

unpacking the web application deployment package, including installing the runtime environment and loading the application program into the runtime environment;

executing the starting script to spawn a process in the container virtual machine that launches the runtime environment and starts the web application in the runtime environment; and

broadcasting, by the deployment agent and upon successful start of the web application, network address information of the container virtual machine and a port number for accessing the web application,

wherein the container virtual machine and the cloud controller execute on one or more computers of the cloud computing platform.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising generating a stop script file for stopping the web application.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising:

receiving, by a router of the cloud computing platform, the network address information broadcast by the deployment agent; and

updating a routing table to route a request for the web application received from a client computer to the container virtual machine.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the web application includes one or more dynamic web pages, one or more static web pages, one or more Java servlets, and one or more Java classes packaged in a Java web application package (WAR) file, and the web application deployment package is a tape archive file.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the indicating, the fetching, and the broadcasting are performed through an addressing and discovery layer of the cloud computing environment that includes a message broker service.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the request is broadcast from the cloud controller in response to a request received by the cloud controller from a client device.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the runtime environment is an Apache Tomcat environment.

14. A system comprising:

one or more computers; and

one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by a cloud controller executing on one or more first virtual machines of a cloud computing platform and from a development environment executing on a client device, a web application, the web application being compatible with a runtime environment available from the cloud computing platform;

submitting, by the cloud controller and to a service provisioner executing on one or more second virtual machines of the cloud computing platform, a request for available services of the cloud computing platform, wherein the service provisioner includes a plurality of shim components, wherein each shim component of the plurality of shim components maintains respective service provisioning data for each of the available services of the cloud computing platform;

receiving, by the cloud controller from one or more shim components of the service provisioner, service provisioning data for one or more available services of the cloud computing platform, wherein the service provisioning data for each of the available services comprises network addressing information for the web application to locate the corresponding available service within the cloud computing platform;

receiving, by the cloud controller from the development environment executing on the client device, a user selection of a particular available service of the one or more available services of the cloud computing platform;

binding, by the cloud controller, the selected available service to the web application, including editing the web application to insert at least a portion of the received service provisioning data for the selected available service into the web application;

generating, by the cloud controller, a start script for starting the runtime environment and launching the web application; and

packaging, by the cloud controller, the runtime environment, start script, and the edited web application into a web application deployment package,

wherein each of the one or more first virtual machines and one or more second virtual machines is executed by the one or more computers.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein service provisioning data comprises login credentials to log into the selected available service.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the web application is stored as a web application archive (WAR) file, and the web application deployment package is a tar file.

17. The system of claim 14, the operations comprising:

generating a stop script file for stopping the web application after being launched; and

adding the stop script file to the web application deployment package.

18. The system of claim 14, the operations comprising receiving a request to launch the web application and broadcasting a request for an available application container to deploy the web application.

19. A system comprising:

one or more computers;

a non-transitory storage device storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by a container virtual machine of a cloud computing platform, a request broadcast from a cloud controller requesting to launch a web application;

indicating, through a deployment agent of the container virtual machine, that the container virtual machine is available to host the web application;

fetching, by the deployment agent, a web application deployment package through a link provided by the cloud controller for downloading the web application deployment package, the web application deployment package comprising a start script, a web application having service provisioning data provided by one or more of a plurality of shim components of the cloud computing platform, and information on a runtime environment for executing the web application, wherein each shim component maintains respective service provisioning data for each of a plurality of available services in the cloud computing platform;

unpacking the web application deployment package, including installing the runtime environment and loading the web application program into the runtime environment;

executing the starting script to spawn a process in the container virtual machine that launches the runtime environment and starts the web application in the runtime environment; and

broadcasting, by the deployment agent and upon successful start of the web application, network address information of the container virtual machine and a port number for accessing the web application,

wherein the container virtual machine and the cloud controller execute on the one or more computers.

20. The system of claim 19, the operations comprising generating a stop script file for stopping the web application.

21. The system of claim 19, the operations comprising:

receiving, by a router of the cloud computing platform, the network address information broadcast by the deployment agent; and

updating a routing table to route a request for the web application received from a client computer to the container virtual machine.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the web application includes one or more dynamic web pages, one or more static web pages, one or more Java servlets, and one or more Java classes packaged in a Java web application package (WAR) file, and the web application deployment package is a tape archive file.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the indicating, the fetching, and the broadcasting are performed through an addressing and discovery layer of the cloud computing environment that includes a message broker service.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the request is broadcast from the cloud controller in response to a request received by the cloud controller from a client device.

25. A non-transitory storage device storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a container virtual machine of a cloud computing platform, a request broadcast from a cloud controller requesting to launch a web application;

indicating, through a deployment agent of the container virtual machine, that the container virtual machine is available to host the web application;

fetching, by the deployment agent, a web application deployment package through a link provided by the cloud controller for downloading the web application deployment package, the web application deployment package comprising a start script, a web application having service provisioning data provided by one or more of a plurality of shim components of the cloud computing platform, and information on a runtime environment for executing the web application, wherein each shim component maintains respective service provisioning data for each of a plurality of available services in the cloud computing platform;

unpacking the web application deployment package, including installing the runtime environment and loading the web application program into the runtime environment;

executing the starting script to spawn a process in the container virtual machine that launches the runtime environment and starts the web application in the runtime environment; and

broadcasting, by the deployment agent and upon successful start of the web application, network address information of the container virtual machine and a port number for accessing the web application,

wherein the container virtual machine and the cloud controller execute on the one or more computers.

26. The non-transitory storage device of claim 25, the operations comprising generating a stop script file for stopping the web application.

27. The non-transitory storage device of claim 25, the operations comprising:

receiving, by a router of the cloud computing platform, the network address information broadcast by the deployment agent; and

updating a routing table to route a request for the web application received from a client computer to the container virtual machine.

28. The non-transitory storage device of claim 25, wherein the web application includes one or more dynamic web pages, one or more static web pages, one or more Java servlets, and one or more Java classes packaged in a Java web application package (WAR) file, and the web application deployment package is a tape archive file.

29. The non-transitory storage device of claim 25, wherein the indicating, the fetching, and the broadcasting are performed through an addressing and discovery layer of the cloud computing environment that includes a message broker service.

30. The non-transitory storage device of claim 25, wherein the request is broadcast from the cloud controller in response to a request received by the cloud controller from a client device.