Patent Application
20210216347
Benefit is claimed under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) to Foreign Application Serial No. 202041001469 filed in India entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VIRTUAL AGENT MANAGEMENT IN CLOUD COMPUTING”, on Jan. 13, 2020, by VMware, Inc., which is herein incorporated in its entirety by reference for all purposes.
Cloud architectures can be used in cloud computing and cloud storage systems for offering software as a service (SaaS) cloud services. Examples of cloud architectures include the VMware Cloud architecture software, Amazon EC2™ web service, and OpenStack™ open source cloud computing service. SaaS cloud service is a type of software distribution cloud service in which a service provider hosts software applications for customers in a cloud environment.
With increasing adaptation of cloud computing and cloud storage by enterprises, enterprise information technology (IT) solutions for operations and automation are increasingly delivered as SaaS, with abilities to function across public clouds and private clouds. However, although vendors in the public cloud can provide application programming interfaces (APIs) for accessing software services remotely, it is difficult for customers in existing private cloud infrastructures to access software services remotely. Consequently, it is imperative for enterprise services to have virtual agents running in customer private clouds through which enterprise services can provide remote access functionality for the customer private clouds. Various types of enterprise solutions use different types of virtual agents with capabilities that may evolve over time. Because different types of virtual agents are used and the capabilities of virtual agents may evolve over time, there is a need to remotely manage (e.g., install and/or upgrade) and monitor the virtual agents executing in private cloud when needed.
System and computer-implemented method for virtual agent management in a cloud architecture include deploying multiple virtual appliances in the cloud architecture, where each of the virtual appliances includes a proxy service, instantiating at least one virtual agent in each of the virtual appliances, where each virtual agent performs a remote access function in the cloud architecture, communicating with a cloud framework using the proxy service in each of the virtual appliances, and controlling the at least one virtual agent in each of the virtual appliances based on communications with the cloud framework.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing program instructions for virtual agent management in a cloud architecture, where execution of the program instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps including deploying multiple virtual appliances in the cloud architecture, where each of the virtual appliances includes a proxy service, instantiating at least one virtual agent in each of the virtual appliances, where each virtual agent performs a remote access function in the cloud architecture, communicating with a cloud framework using the proxy service in each of the virtual appliances, and controlling the at least one virtual agent in each of the virtual appliances based on communications with the cloud framework.
A system for virtual agent management in a cloud architecture includes memory and one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to deploy multiple virtual appliances in the cloud architecture, where each of the virtual appliances includes a proxy service, instantiate at least one virtual agent in each of the virtual appliances, where each virtual agent performs a remote access function in the cloud architecture, communicate with a cloud framework using the proxy service in each of the virtual appliances, and control the at least one virtual agent in each of the virtual appliances based on communications with the cloud framework.
Other aspects and advantages of embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrated by way of example of the principles of the invention.
Throughout the description, similar reference numbers may be used to identify similar elements.
It will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments as generally described herein and illustrated in the appended figures could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of various embodiments, as represented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure but is merely representative of various embodiments. While the various aspects of the embodiments are presented in drawings, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale unless specifically indicated.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by this detailed description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussions of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, in light of the description herein, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “one aspect,” “an aspect,” “various aspects,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the indicated embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” “in one aspect,” “in an aspect,” “in various aspects,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.
Turning now to
The private cloud computing environment 102 of the hybrid cloud system 100 includes one or more virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N, where N is a positive integer, in which proxy services 110-1, 110-2, . . . , 110-N and virtual agents 112 reside. As used herein, the term “virtual appliance” refers to any software processing entity that can run on a computer system, such as a software application, a software process, a virtual machine (VM), e.g., a VM supported by virtualization products of VMware, Inc., and a software “container”, e.g., a Docker container. In some instances, the virtual computing instances will be described as being virtual machines, although embodiments of the invention described herein are not limited to virtual machines. The proxy service 110-1, 110-2, . . . , 110-N are configured to communicate with the public cloud computing environment 104 of the hybrid cloud system 100 and orchestrate or execute instructions received from the public cloud computing environment 104, and to instantiate the virtual agents in the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N. The virtual agents 112 in the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N can provide remote access functionality for software services in the public cloud computing environment 104. Various types of software services use different types of virtual agents with capabilities that may evolve over time.
The private cloud computing environment 102 of the hybrid cloud system 100 includes computing and/or storage infrastructures to support the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N. In some embodiments, the private cloud computing environment 102 includes one or more host computer systems (“hosts”). The hosts may be constructed on a server grade hardware platform, such as an x86 architecture platform. The hardware platform of each host may include conventional components of a computing device, such as one or more processors (e.g., CPUs), system memory, a network interface, storage system, and other I/O devices such as, for example, a mouse and a keyboard. Each host may be configured to provide a virtualization layer that abstracts processor, memory, storage, and networking resources of the hardware platform into virtual appliances, e.g., software applications, software processes, virtual machines and software containers, which run concurrently on the same host. For example, virtual machines may run on top of a software interface layer, which can also be referred to as a hypervisor, which enables sharing of the hardware resources of the host by the virtual machines. One example of the hypervisor that may be used in an embodiment described herein is a VMware ESXi™ hypervisor provided as part of the VMware vSphere® solution made commercially available from VMware, Inc. The hypervisor may run on top of the operating system of the host or directly on hardware components of the host. For other types of virtual appliances, the host may include other virtualization software platforms to support those virtual appliances, such as Docker virtualization platform to support software containers.
The private cloud computing environment 102 of the hybrid cloud system 100 communicates with the public cloud computing environment 104 of the hybrid cloud system through the network 106. In some embodiments, the private cloud computing environment 102 includes a gateway device (not shown) configured to provide the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N and other devices in the private cloud computing environment 102 with connectivity to external devices via the network 106. The gateway device may be implemented as a virtual appliance such as a software application, a software process, a VM, or a software container. The gateway device may manage external public Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N and route traffic incoming to and outgoing from the private cloud computing environment and provide networking services, such as firewalls, network address translation (NAT), dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), load balancing, and virtual private network (VPN) connectivity over the network 106.
The public cloud computing environment 104 of the hybrid cloud system 100 is configured to dynamically provide an enterprise or users of an enterprise with at least one cloud framework 120 in which an administrator of the enterprise may provision virtual appliances, e.g., the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N, and install and execute various software services and/or applications in the virtual appliances. In some embodiments, the cloud framework 120 provides a framework for executing commands on remote virtual appliances, e.g., the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N, deployed in the private cloud computing environment 102, which can be located in customer data centers. Software services can register commands in the cloud framework 120 and have the registered commands executed in remote virtual appliances. Commands that can be executed in remote virtual appliances may include operating system (OS) commands and/or Representational state transfer (REST) commands. An OS command can be executed in an operating system shell, while a REST command makes API calls on an address provided to the REST command. In some embodiments, a command includes information regarding the command content, at least one identification (ID) of a virtual appliance at which the command is to be executed, command content, status information and/or callback address (e.g., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)).
In the embodiment of
To execute commands from the cloud framework 120 at a proxy service, the proxy service needs to register with the management service 124, which validates the proxy service and loads one or more virtual agents 112 into the proxy service.
Once a virtual appliance is deployed in the private cloud computing environment 102 of the hybrid cloud system 100 (e.g., in a customer data center), services in the public cloud computing environment 104 of the hybrid cloud system 100 can start using a proxy service in the deployed virtual appliance to instantiate their respective virtual agents in the virtual appliance through service tagging. After a new service is tagged to a proxy service in a virtual appliance, the management service 124 can automatically instantiate one or more virtual agents in the virtual appliance.
In the embodiment depicted in
Before a software service 130 can use the management service 124 to remote manage one or more virtual agents 112 in the private cloud computing environment 102 of the hybrid cloud system 100 (e.g., in a customer data center), the software service needs to register agent information with the management service.
Prior to instantiating a virtual agent in a virtual appliance, the virtual agent is associated to a proxy service of the virtual appliance in a virtual agent subscription process such that the proxy service can decide which virtual agent or agents to instantiate in the virtual appliance. In some embodiments, the virtual agent subscription process is performed based on the service tag field of a proxy service.
Virtual agents in remote virtual appliances, such as virtual agents 112 in the virtual appliances VA-1, VA-2, . . . , VA-N in the private cloud computing environment 102, can be updated when needed. In some embodiments, virtual agents are updated periodically. For example, periodic upgrading virtual agents in remote virtual appliances is implemented when a user intends to upgrade a virtual agent when a newer version of the virtual agent is registered with the management service, which ensures that all the instances of this virtual agent running inside a virtual appliance are in the same version. In these embodiments, the functionality of the virtual agent must be immune to restarts, which happen during upgrade. In some other embodiments, virtual agents are updated only when virtual appliances in which the virtual agent resides restart. For example, on-restart upgrading virtual agents in remote virtual appliances is implemented when a user intends to upgrade a virtual agent to a newer version only during a restart of a virtual appliance in which the virtual agent reside, which is advantageous if restart of the virtual agent for upgrade adversely affects its functionality.
The operation status of a virtual agent and a corresponding virtual appliance in which the virtual agent reside can be monitored by the private cloud computing environment 102 and/or the public cloud computing environment 104 of the hybrid cloud system 100. In some embodiments, the CPU, memory and storage utilization at a virtual appliance and/or a virtual agent container are/is periodically reported to and stored in the management service. The state and health of virtual agents and corresponding proxy services can be displayed to a user through a user interface (UI). Metrics for activities in a virtual appliance such as virtual agent version upgrade and virtual agent instantiating can be tracked to visibly depict the operation of virtual agents. When irregularity in virtual agent or virtual appliance operation is discovered, troubleshooting actions can be performed by a user such as an administrator from the UI to adjust the state of a virtual agent or a virtual appliance. For example, operations such as reboot of a virtual appliance, uploading a support bundle of a virtual appliance, checking for upgrade of a virtual appliance and upgrading a virtual appliance or restarting a virtual agent, upgrading a virtual agent or displaying recent agent logs can be performed.
A computer-implemented method for virtual agent management in a cloud architecture in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is described with reference to a flow diagram of
The components of the embodiments as generally described in this document and illustrated in the appended figures could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of various embodiments, as represented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure, but is merely representative of various embodiments. While the various aspects of the embodiments are presented in drawings, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale unless specifically indicated.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by this detailed description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussions of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, in light of the description herein, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the indicated embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.
Although the operations of the method(s) herein are shown and described in a particular order, the order of the operations of each method may be altered so that certain operations may be performed in an inverse order or so that certain operations may be performed, at least in part, concurrently with other operations. In another embodiment, instructions or sub-operations of distinct operations may be implemented in an intermittent and/or alternating manner.
It should also be noted that at least some of the operations for the methods may be implemented using software instructions stored on a computer useable storage medium for execution by a computer. As an example, an embodiment of a computer program product includes a computer useable storage medium to store a computer readable program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform operations, as described herein.
Furthermore, embodiments of at least portions of the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The computer-useable or computer-readable medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device), or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disc, and an optical disc. Current examples of optical discs include a compact disc with read only memory (CD-ROM), a compact disc with read/write (CD-R/W), a digital video disc (DVD), and a Blu-ray disc.
In the above description, specific details of various embodiments are provided. However, some embodiments may be practiced with less than all of these specific details. In other instances, certain methods, procedures, components, structures, and/or functions are described in no more detail than to enable the various embodiments of the invention, for the sake of brevity and clarity.
Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated, the invention is not to be limited to the specific forms or arrangements of parts so described and illustrated. The scope of the invention is to be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202041001469 | Jan 2020 | IN | national |
