Patent Application
20190332230
This disclosure relates to distributed computing, and more particularly to techniques for user interface view generation.
In modern virtualized computing systems, users need some mechanism for managing a broad variety of computing resources. Such resources might include virtual machines (VMs), virtual disks (vDisks), virtual network interface cards (vNICs), executable containers (ECs), and/or other resource entities. In some cases, a single computing system might comprise scores of computing nodes that in turn host hundreds or thousands of such resource entities. Certain collections of resource entities are often hierarchically associated. For example, a particular VM “parent” resource entity might be associated with a vNIC “child” resource entity, a vDisk “child” resource entity, etc.
The resource entities can be implemented in the virtualized computing systems with entity-specific configurations to facilitate performance of a certain set of then-current and/or anticipated tasks and/or, the resource entities can be implemented in the virtualized computing systems with entity-specific configurations to facilitate storage and/or networking capabilities, and/or other computing capabilities. In modern computing settings, such tasks and capabilities change and/or are augmented frequently over time. It follows that their respective resource entities and/or their respective entity-specific configurations also change or are augmented frequently over time.
In these computing settings, human-computer interaction with a particular resource entity is often facilitated by user interface (UI) views that are presented to users (e.g., system administrators) on display screens of computing devices (e.g., in a browser). The users interact with the user interface views to manage (e.g., view or change attributes) of the resource entities. It follows that at least to the extent that tasks and capabilities change and/or expand over time the human-computer interaction interfaces might also need to change and/or expand in synchrony.
Unfortunately, existing architectures for user interfaces that are used for presenting computer resource management user interface views over large numbers of heterogeneous resources do not scale. Some approaches attempt to capture all then-known possible user interface configurations in a set of markup language documents (e.g., HTML5 documents, MVC instances, etc.) for rendering of the user interface views in a browser. However, with thousands of resource entities having a broad variety of resource entity configurations (e.g., hierarchies, attributes, etc.), codifying (e.g., hard-coding) all possible variations in such documents incurs a significant amount of human effort and computing power (e.g., development time, CPU resources, memory resources, storage resources, networking resources, etc.).
As one specific example of this, each of the aforementioned numerous user interface configurations might be presented in a corresponding popup view, each of which of the corresponding popup views would require a respective model file, a respective view file, a respective template file, a respective styling file, and so on. Furthermore, such approaches are not efficiently extensible. For example, when new resource entity types or sets are introduced and/or unforeseen configurations are formulated, corresponding new sets of user interfaces need to be hand-coded, tested and deployed. This places an insurmountable burden on user interface developers.
What is needed is a technological solution to efficiently manage (e.g., configure, extend, etc.) a large number of resource management user interface views in systems that support multiple types of ever-changing resource entities.
The present disclosure describes techniques used in systems, methods, and in computer program products for automated user interface view generation, which techniques advance the relevant technologies to address technological issues with legacy approaches. More specifically, the present disclosure describes techniques used in systems, methods, and in computer program products for data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of entities in computing environments. Certain embodiments are directed to technological solutions that consult a hierarchy of computing resource properties to reactively generate an instance-specific user interface view (e.g., to facilitate GUI-assisted interactions over the computing resource by a user).
The disclosed embodiments modify and improve over legacy approaches. In particular, the herein-disclosed techniques provide technical solutions that address the technical problems attendant to managing the large number of computing resource management user interface views in systems that have a correspondingly large number of heterogeneous computing resources. Such technical solutions relate to improvements in computer functionality. Various applications of the herein-disclosed improvements in computer functionality serve to reduce the demand for computer memory, reduce the demand for computer processing power, reduce network bandwidth use, and reduce the demand for inter-component communication. Some embodiments disclosed herein use techniques to improve the functioning of multiple systems within the disclosed environments, and some embodiments advance peripheral technical fields as well. As one specific example, use of the disclosed techniques and devices within the shown environments as depicted in the figures provide advances in the technical field of human-machine interfaces as well as advances in various technical fields related to computing platform management.
Further details of aspects, objectives, and advantages of the technological embodiments are described herein and in the drawings and claims.
The drawings described below are for illustration purposes only. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure address the need to manage the large number of computing resource management user interface views that are present in systems that have a correspondingly large number of heterogeneous computing resources. Some embodiments are directed to approaches for consulting a hierarchy of computing resource properties to reactively generate an instance-specific user interface view (e.g., to facilitate GUI-assisted interactions over the computing resource by a user). The accompanying figures and discussions herein present example environments, systems, methods, and computer program products for automatic, data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views.
Disclosed herein are techniques for consulting a hierarchy of resource entity properties to automatically generate an instance-specific user interface view. The instance-specific user interface view might be ephemeral in the sense that it might exist only for the short duration needed to facilitate management of a subject resource entity by a user. In certain embodiments, the resource entity properties are accessed in response to detecting a resource state management operation (e.g., a view operation, an edit operation, a create operation, a list operation, etc.) over a corresponding resource entity. If the resource entity exists, the then-current state of the resource entity is accessed and analyzed. A user interface view is generated that is based at least in part on the combined instance of the resource state management operation, the resource entity properties, and/or characteristics of the then-current state of the resource entity.
The instance-specific user interface view generated by the herein disclosed techniques facilitates resource state management operations over the resource entity. For example, in certain embodiments, inputs received from a user (e.g., system administrator) at the user interface view are used in the performance of the resource state management operations (e.g., change the target state of a subject resource entity). In certain embodiments, the resource entity properties are hierarchically structured in accordance with the entity relationships of the resource entity.
The herein disclosed techniques facilitate improvements in computer functionality that reduce the demand for computer memory, reduce the demand for computer processing power, reduce network bandwidth use, and reduce the demand for inter-component communication. Specifically, rather than develop and maintain a large codebase of markup documents that can the render a large number of possible user interface views, a significantly smaller set of data stored in a specialized data structure is accessed to generate data-driven instances of the user interface views upon request. This approach serves to eliminate the storage resources required to store the large codebase and/or the computing resources consumed to develop the large codebase.
In accordance with the herein-disclosed techniques, the dynamically-generated data-driven instances of the user interface views can change in both structure and presentation as frequently as there are changes to the underlying instance of a resource entity. As such, a first user interface with a first structure and presentation might be presented at a first moment in time, based on an underlying instance of a resource entity that has a first set of values, and at a second moment in time, the same underlying instance of the same resource entity might have a second set of values that are presented in an updated user interface with a second structure and presentation. In many scenarios, the differences between the first user interface at the first time and the second user interface at a second time are not just differences of different values, but rather the differences that are visibly structural—involving differences in occurrence or absence of fields and/or layout of such fields. The specific structural differences are based on changes in data values of the underlying instance of the same resource entity as the values change from a first time to a second time.
Definitions and Use of Figures
Some of the terms used in this description are defined below for easy reference. The presented terms and their respective definitions are not rigidly restricted to these definitions—a term may be further defined by the term's use within this disclosure. The term “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application and the appended claims, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or is clear from the context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A, X employs B, or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. As used herein, at least one of A or B means at least one of A, or at least one of B, or at least one of both A and B. In other words, this phrase is disjunctive. The articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or is clear from the context to be directed to a singular form.
Various embodiments are described herein with reference to the figures. It should be noted that the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are sometimes represented by like reference characters throughout the figures. It should also be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the disclosed embodiments—they are not representative of an exhaustive treatment of all possible embodiments, and they are not intended to impute any limitation as to the scope of the claims. In addition, an illustrated embodiment need not portray all aspects or advantages of usage in any particular environment.
An aspect or an advantage described in conjunction with a particular embodiment is not necessarily limited to that embodiment and can be practiced in any other embodiments even if not so illustrated. References throughout this specification to “some embodiments” or “other embodiments” refer to a particular feature, structure, material or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments as being included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in some embodiments” or “in other embodiments” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment or embodiments. The disclosed embodiments are not intended to be limiting of the claims.
Users want to manage their own computing resources. However, in modern computing systems, the number and variety of computing resources available to be managed by a given user has exploded. Moreover, the extent of configurability has also exploded such that it becomes unreasonable to statically define a different user interface (UI) for every resource configuration. It is also unreasonable to form a static user interface that could ostensibly serve as a generic interface that covers any arbitrary resource configuration. Use of such techniques is unreasonable even based solely on the sheer number of possible configurations. However, using the techniques of
Strictly as an example, in computing environments such as computing environment 100, a user (e.g., from users 102) might want to manage certain heterogeneous computing resources 120 in the computing system to accomplish some purpose. More specifically, the user might desire to establish a certain computing resource state (e.g., “StateM”) to carry out a particular set of tasks. The resource state might correspond to a set of resource entities (e.g., VMs, vDisks, vNICs, ECs, availability zones (AZs), projects, catalogs, images, etc.) that each are configured to have attributes (e.g., specifications) that are capable of carrying out the tasks. A set of user interface views rendered in a user interface that is associated with the user (e.g., user interface 106 at user device 104) facilitates such management of any of a variety of rapidly-changing computing resources.
As aforementioned, static approaches do not scale with the large number of heterogeneous computing resources comprising today's computing systems. Such approaches consume a significant amount of human effort and computing resources by codifying all of the then-known possible user interface configurations in a set of markup language documents (e.g., HTML5 documents, MVC instances, etc.) for rendering the user interface views in a browser. Even more resources are consumed to extend this large codebase as new resource entity types are introduced and/or unforeseen resource entity configurations are formulated.
Therefore, the herein disclosed dynamic UI generation techniques address the problems attendant to managing (e.g., configuring, maintaining, extending, etc.) a large number of computing resource management user interface views. Specifically, the herein disclosed dynamic UI generation techniques are facilitated by a set of resource property templates 13011 that are defined by, for example, by a developer or by one of the users 102 (operation 1). The resource property templates 13011 comprise specialized data structures for organizing and/or storing various properties corresponding to the resource entities of a computing system. Details of various embodiments of the resource property templates 13011 are described herein. A user interface view generator (e.g., UI view generator 14011) implemented in computing environment 100 can receive requests (e.g., from user device 104) for various resource management user interface views (operation 2). For example, a user might invoke such a request at the user interface 106 (e.g., by clicking a button, by issuing a command line instruction, etc.). The UI view generator 14011 accesses the resource property templates 13011 to get a set of resource properties that correspond to the user interface view request (operation 3). If the resource entity or entities corresponding to the user interface view request exists, the UI view generator 14011 may also get the then-current resource state of the resource entity(ies) (operation 4). As shown, UI view generator 14011 might interact with a state management service 110 at computing environment 100 to retrieve the then-current resource state from one or more of the heterogeneous computing resources 120.
From the collected information (e.g., user interface view request parameters, resource properties, then-current resource state, etc.), UI view generator 14011 generates an instance-specific user interface view (operation 5). The user interface view is “instance-specific” since the view corresponds to the specific combination of information received at UI view generator 14011 in response to the user interface view request. The user interface view generated by UI view generator 14011 according to the herein disclosed techniques may also be characterized as “data-driven” since the specific configuration of the generated user interface view was not known prior to receiving the user interface view request.
Example graphical depictions of a set of instance-specific user interface views 1081 are shown in
One embodiment of a technique for generating the aforementioned instance-specific user interface views is disclosed in further detail as follows.
The user interface view generation technique 200 presents one embodiment of certain steps and/or operations that facilitate data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of entities in computing environments. As shown, a portion of the steps and/or operations can be grouped in a set of UI view generation operations 240. As illustrated, the user interface view generation technique 200 can commence by defining a collection of resource property templates (step 210). Such resource property templates can be defined by a coder/developer of a corresponding resource entity, or by a user/developer, or by a third-party developer. At step 220, a user interface view request is detected. In some cases, the user interface view request originates at a centralized resource management facility. In other cases, the user interface view request might originate from the same node as where the subject resource is being hosted. Then using any known technique or techniques (e.g., via text parsing, via markup-language parsing, via a document object model, etc.) a resource entity (e.g., VM, etc.) described in the resource property templates is matched with the interface view request (step 220).
As can be observed in the UI view generation operations 240, a set of resource properties from the resource property templates are located/identified based at least in part on request parameters derived from the user interface view request (step 242). Inasmuch as it is convenient for a user to view the state or states of a resource, the then-current resource state of the subject resource entity is retrieved. The then-current resource state of the subject resource entity is used for defining the instance-specific user interface components, in expectation of presenting the then-current resource state values in the dynamically-generated user interface (step 244). More specifically, certain data values that correspond to the resource properties are retrieved from state management service 110. A user interface view is generated from a combination of the request parameters, the resource properties, and the then-current resource state data (step 246).
In the shown embodiment, the generated user interface view is rendered at a user device (step 250). User inputs are received at the generated user interface view (step 260). For example, a user device might capture as user inputs certain user interactions (e.g., mouse clicks, keyboard entries, etc.) with the user interface view. The user might make changes to the configuration of the resource. In some cases, the changes refer to a desired state that is to be pursued. In such cases, a resource state specification object is created based at least in part on the user inputs (step 270) and the resource state specification object is sent for processing. For example, a user might assign a certain number of vDisks to assign to a VM, which number is codified in the resource state specification object. The resource state specification object is submitted to state management service 110, which in turn performs resource state management operations (e.g., create operations, update operations, etc.) over the resource entity (step 280).
One embodiment of a system for implementing the user interface view generation technique 200 and/or other herein disclosed techniques is disclosed as follows.
The embodiment shown in
Specifically, system 300 comprises instances of resource property templates 13011, an instance of UI view generator 14011, an instance of user device 104, and an instance of state management service 110. As can be observed, request parameters 354 derived from a UI view request 352 invoked by one or more of the users 102 are received by a UI configurator 342 at the UI view generator 14011. Based at least in part on the request parameters 354, UI configurator 342 identifies a set of resource properties 330 from the resource property templates 13011 that pertain to the UI view request 352. As earlier described, the resource property templates comprise information that characterizes various properties corresponding to the resource entities of a computing system.
In the embodiment of
In certain embodiments, the resource property templates 13011 are structured to describe one or more hierarchical relationships between the resource entities. For example, a reference to a set of properties for a “child” AZ entity might be included in the properties of a “parent” VM entity which, in turn, might be described in the resource property templates 13011. Various structures and/or formats can be implemented to organize and/or store the resource property templates 13011. For example, the resource property templates 13011 might be stored in a YAML and/or a JSON format. The resource property templates 13011 might also be stored in one file or multiple files at multiple physical storage locations. A pseudo-code example of a selected portion of a resource property template is shown and described as pertains to
Referring to
The UI view objects 356 are programming objects that organize and/or associate certain user interface attributes and/or user properties. For example, a UI view object might associate a “name” property of a resource entity with user interface attributes that characterize an editable text box of a certain length. The default value of that text box might also be codified in the UI view object based on the request parameters 354 and/or the selected then-current resource state data 3391. In some cases, the UI view objects 356 are partitioned by function (e.g., data model objects, controller objects, view objects, styling objects, etc.).
A UI builder 344 at the UI view generator 14011 receives the UI view objects 356 to create one or more UI view markup language files 358. As shown, UI builder 344 may access a store of UI elements 346 to facilitate building the UI view markup language files 358. The UI view markup language files 358 are accessed by user device 104 to render one or more instance-specific user interface views 1082 at user interface 106. For example, the UI view markup language files 358 might comprise a set of HTML files that are rendered in a browser at user device 104.
Various user inputs 302 from one or more of the users 102 can be captured at the instance-specific user interface views 1082 to facilitate generation of resource specification objects 332. The resource specification objects 332 and their corresponding set of specification parameters 334, are issued to the state management service 110 to accomplish their respective purposes at the subject computing environment 320. For example, a resource specification object might be issued to the state management service 110 to achieve a target resource entity state for the subject resource entities 322 at the subject computing environment 320. In certain embodiments, the specification parameters 334 received at the state management service 110 are dispatched by a gateway to one or more resource-specific management agents 314.
The resource-specific management agents 314 are selected by the gateway based at least in part on the resource entities referenced by the specification parameters 334. As an example, the resource-specific management agents might be implemented as plug-ins that are accessed from a resource management engine (e.g., an “intent” engine). The resource-specific management agents 314 generate a respective set of resource management commands 336 to achieve the target resource entity state described by the specification parameters 334.
Particular embodiments of the herein disclosed techniques may provide an intelligent frontend system (e.g., UI view generator 14011) that dynamically builds user interface views (e.g., comprising popups, widgets, etc.) from data structures compatible with an intent specification. By reading (e.g., using a REST API) instances of the intent specification (e.g., the then-current resource states 338) and entity descriptions (e.g., the resource property templates 13011) generated by an intent backend system, the user interface views (e.g., GUI views) and/or models used to communicate (e.g., using APIs) intent specifications may be auto-generated and/or modified. The intelligent frontend system may provide ease of development for user interface (e.g., GUI) projects that communicate to a backend system without the need for building user interface components from scratch.
Particular embodiments provide for annotation of entries (e.g., in resource property templates 13011). Particular embodiments provide the ability to build a full and complete resource entity specification based on a high-level description (e.g., in resource property templates 13011). In order to do so, particular embodiments may pull details of related entities and/or subordinate entities and/or properties (e.g., user target state desires or intentions) to generate a UI view. For example, if the creation of a VM in a project requires specification of the particular network the VM is to be placed in, particular embodiments can extend the specification to facilitate annotations (e.g., document location and/or API references) that allow the intelligent frontend system to pull relevant data for other entities (e.g., the network of the VM) when generating the user interface views.
The foregoing discussions describe techniques for generating user interface views (e.g., UI view generation operations 240 of
The instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400 presents one embodiment of certain steps and/or operations that generate instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of resource entities in computing environments. Various illustrations are also presented to illustrate the instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400.
Operation of the instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400 includes a series of steps that are carried out within the UI configurator 342. The UI configurator parses templates to determine which of a set of templates are applicable to the user interface view being requested. The particular templates that are deemed applicable are based on traversing through the collection of templates to identify the set of templates that are at least potentially applicable to the subject resource entity. In some cases, if a template that is potentially applicable to the subject resource entity turns out to be not required (e.g., there is no corresponding underlying data), that template can be skipped. Otherwise, for the templates that do have underlying data in the instance of the subject resource entity, then the template is populated with the retrieved data. As shown, the template is populated with the data retrieved from the resource specification database 312.
When the templates that are applicable to the subject resource entity have been identified and populated with corresponding data, processing moves to the UI builder 344, where steps are undertaken to choose specific user interface screen devices (e.g., widgets) that are incorporated into generated markup language. The markup language can be rendered, for example in a browser. The structure of the rendering is based on the particular identified templates and corresponding data values.
In greater specificity, and as shown, the instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400 can represent one embodiment of the UI view generation operations 240 earlier described. The instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400 can commence by deriving a set of request parameters from a user interface view request corresponding to a resource entity (step 402). For example, as shown in the selected request parameters 432, the request parameters might describe a uniform resource identifier used to issue the request (e.g., associated with a “path” key or variable), a request resource entity identifier (e.g., associated with an “entityID” key or variable), a request operation (e.g., associated with an “operation” key or variable), a set of request arguments (e.g., associated with an “arguments[ ]” object), and/or other request parameters. A collection of resource property templates (e.g., resource property templates 13011) is traversed to identify the resource properties that correspond to the request parameters (step 404). For example, a first set of resource properties in the resource property templates 13011 that match the request parameters might be identified. A second set of resource properties referenced by the first set of resource properties might also be identified. Such recursive traversing operations can continue until no further references are discovered.
If the resource entity associated with the request exists (see “Yes” path of decision 406), then the then-current resource state of the resource entity is accessed to determine the then-current values corresponding to one or more of the resource properties (step 408). For example, the resource specification database 312 might be accessed to determine a then-current value (e.g., “2”) for a VM resource property that describes the number of vDisks mounted to the VM.
If the resource entity associated with the request does not exist (see “No” path of decision 406) or the then-current values of the resource entity have already been determined, a user interface view object that assigns user interface attributes to the resource properties is built (step 410). As shown in user interface attribute assignments 436, resource property “prop1” is assigned a “text” input type attribute, “prop2” is assigned a “multiple” selection type attribute, “prop3” is assigned a “binary” selection type attribute, and “prop4” is assigned a “linear” scaled selection attribute.
In a user interface markup language file created according to the instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400, one or more user interface elements are mapped to the resource properties based at least in part on the user interface attributes (step 412). As shown in user interface element mapping 438, resource property “prop1” is mapped to a “textbox” element based at least in part on the “text” input type attribute, “prop2” is mapped to a “dropdown” element based at least in part on the “multiple” selection type attribute, “prop3” is mapped to a “switch” element based at least in part on the “binary” selection type attribute, and “prop4” is mapped to a “slider” element based at least in part on the “linear” scaled selection attribute. Certain attributes (e.g., default values, selected values, etc.) of the user interface elements in the user interface view markup language file are populated based at least in part on the request parameters, the resource properties, and/or the then-current values (if any) (step 414). For example, a resource entity “Name” property might be populated from an “entityID” request parameter.
A scenario illustrating the instance-specific user interface view generation technique 400 and/or other herein disclosed techniques is disclosed in detail as follows.
For example, the “path” and “operation” request parameters are used to identify the resource properties of the “/vms” “update” operation in a traversing operation 5021. Among other resource properties identified, a “schema” property refers to a VM specification (e.g., “vm_spec”) definition. A traversing operation 5022 follows the codified reference to the “vm_spec” definition and its associated resource properties. An “az_reference” path from the “vm_spec” properties is followed in a traversing operation 5023 to identify a set of properties associated with an availability zone that is to be referenced. Other references to other resource entities from the “vm_spec” definition are shown (e.g., “resources”). The references to other resource entities might include policies and/or environmental information (e.g., references to backup policies, cluster information, etc.). In this particular example, since no references are included in the “az_ref” definition, no further traversing from that particular resource entity is performed.
In accordance with the herein disclosed techniques, certain user interface attributes are assigned to the identified resource properties. As can be observed, a UI view object 556 (e.g., a JavaScript object) can comprise the identified resource properties 532, and the various user interface view attributes (e.g., user interface attributes 5041, user interface attributes 5042, user interface attributes 5043, user interface attributes 5044, etc.) assigned to the identified resource properties 532. For example, and as shown, user interface attributes 5041 are determined based at least in part on the “name” properties of the “vm_spec” definition, user interface attributes 5042 are determined based at least in part on the “kind” properties of the “az_ref” definition, user interface attributes 5043 are determined based at least in part on the “name” properties of the “az_ref” definition, and user interface attributes 5044 are determined based at least in part on the “uuid” properties of the “az_ref” definition.
As such, the structure of the resulting UI is based upon the applicable templates in combination with UI view objects that display the entity data values using an appropriate widget. More specifically, the data-driven aspect of selecting and populating the templates and UI view objects results in UI renderings that exhibit a specific structural composition that is based on then-current data values of the particular instance of a subject entity. One technique for employing a combination of UI view objects with then-current entity state data is shown and discussed as follows.
Referring to
The foregoing discussion describes the herein disclosed techniques as implemented in various computing systems and/or environments. One embodiment of a distributed virtualization environment in which the herein disclosed techniques can be implemented is disclosed in detail as follows.
The shown distributed virtualization environment depicts various components associated with instances of distributed virtualization systems (e.g., hyperconverged distributed systems) that can be used to implement the herein disclosed techniques. Specifically, the distributed virtualization environment 600 comprises multiple clusters (e.g., cluster 6501, . . . , cluster 650N) comprising multiple nodes that have multiple tiers of storage in a storage pool. Representative nodes (e.g., node 65211, . . . , node 6521M) and storage pool 670 associated with cluster 6501 are shown. Each node can be associated with one server, multiple servers, or portions of a server. The nodes can be associated (e.g., logically and/or physically) with the clusters. As shown, the multiple tiers of storage include storage that is accessible through a network 664, such as a networked storage 675 (e.g., a storage area network or SAN, network attached storage or NAS, etc.). The multiple tiers of storage further include instances of local storage (e.g., local storage 67211, . . . , local storage 6721M). For example, the local storage can be within or directly attached to a server and/or appliance associated with the nodes. Such local storage can include solid state drives (SSD 67311, . . . , SSD 6731M), hard disk drives (HDD 67411, . . . , HDD 6741M), and/or other storage devices.
As shown, any of the nodes of the distributed virtualization environment 600 can implement one or more user virtualized entities (e.g., VE 658111, . . . , VE 65811K, . . . , VE 6581M1, . . . , VE 6581MK), such as virtual machines (VMs) and/or containers. The VMs can be characterized as software-based computing “machines” implemented in a hypervisor-assisted virtualization environment that emulates the underlying hardware resources (e.g., CPU, memory, etc.) of the nodes. For example, multiple VMs can operate on one physical machine (e.g., node host computer) running a single host operating system (e.g., host operating system 65611, . . . , host operating system 6561M), while the VMs run multiple applications on various respective guest operating systems. Such flexibility can be facilitated at least in part by a hypervisor (e.g., hypervisor 65411, hypervisor 6541M), which hypervisor is logically located between the various guest operating systems of the VMs and the host operating system of the physical infrastructure (e.g., node).
As an example, hypervisors can be implemented using virtualization software (e.g., VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, RedHat KVM, Nutanix AHV, etc.) that includes a hypervisor. In comparison, the containers (e.g., application containers or ACs) are implemented at the nodes in an operating system virtualization environment or container virtualization environment. The containers comprise groups of processes and/or resources (e.g., memory, CPU, disk, etc.) that are isolated from the node host computer and other containers. Such containers directly interface with the kernel of the host operating system (e.g., host operating system 65611, . . . , host operating system 6561M) without, in most cases, a hypervisor layer. This lightweight implementation can facilitate efficient distribution of certain software components, such as applications or services (e.g., micro-services). Any node of a distributed virtualization environment 600 can implement both a hypervisor-assisted virtualization environment and a container virtualization environment for various purposes. Also, any node in a distributed virtualization environment can implement a virtualized controller to facilitate access to storage pool 670 by the VMs and/or containers.
As used in these embodiments, a virtualized controller is a collection of software instructions that serve to abstract details of underlying hardware or software components from one or more higher-level processing entities. A virtualized controller can be implemented as a virtual machine, as a container (e.g., a Docker container), or within a layer (e.g., such as a layer in a hypervisor).
Multiple instances of such virtualized controllers can coordinate within a cluster to form the distributed storage system 660 which can, among other operations, manage the storage pool 670. This architecture further facilitates efficient scaling in multiple dimensions (e.g., in a dimension of computing power, in a dimension of storage space, in a dimension of network bandwidth, etc.).
The foregoing virtualized controllers can be implemented in the distributed virtualization environment using various techniques. As one specific example, an instance of a virtual machine at a given node can be used as a virtualized controller in a hypervisor-assisted virtualization environment to manage storage and I/O (input/output or IO) activities. In this case, for example, the virtualized entities at node 65211 can interface with a controller virtual machine (e.g., virtualized controller 66211) through hypervisor 65411 to access the storage pool 670. In such cases, the controller virtual machine is not formed as part of specific implementations of a given hypervisor. Instead, the controller virtual machine can run as a virtual machine above the hypervisor at the various node host computers. When the controller virtual machines run above the hypervisors, varying virtual machine architectures and/or hypervisors can operate with the distributed storage system 660. For example, a hypervisor at one node in the distributed storage system 660 might correspond to VMware ESXi software, and a hypervisor at another node in the distributed storage system 660 might correspond to Nutanix AHV software. As another virtualized controller implementation example, containers (e.g., Docker containers) can be used to implement a virtualized controller (e.g., virtualized controller 6621M) in an operating system virtualization environment at a given node. In this case, for example, the virtualized entities at node 6521M can access the storage pool 670 by interfacing with a controller container (e.g., virtualized controller 6621M) through hypervisor 6541M and/or the kernel of host operating system 6561M.
In certain embodiments, one or more instances of a UI view generator can be implemented in the distributed storage system 660 to facilitate the herein disclosed techniques. Specifically, UI view generator 14011 can be implemented in the virtualized controller 66211, and UI view generator 1401M can be implemented in the virtualized controller 6621M. Such instances of the virtualized controller can be implemented in any node in any cluster. Actions taken by one or more instances of the virtualized controller can apply to a node (or between nodes), and/or to a cluster (or between clusters), and/or between any resources or subsystems accessible by the virtualized controller or their agents (e.g., UI view generator). As further shown, instances of a set of resource property templates (e.g., resource property templates 13011, . . . , resource property templates 1301M) can be implemented in the local storage of the nodes in a cluster to facilitate the herein disclosed techniques.
As earlier described, the problems attendant to managing the large number of computing resource management user interface views in systems that have a correspondingly large number of heterogeneous computing resources can be addressed in the context of the foregoing environment. Moreover, any aspect or aspects of consulting a hierarchy of computing resource properties to reactively generate an instance-specific user interface view (e.g., to facilitate GUI-assisted interactions over the computing resource by a user) can be implemented in in the context of the foregoing environment.
The system 700 comprises at least one processor and at least one memory, the memory serving to store program instructions corresponding to the operations of the system. As shown, an operation can be implemented in whole or in part using program instructions accessible by a module. The modules are connected to a communication path 705, and any operation can communicate with other operations over communication path 705. The modules of the system can, individually or in combination, perform method operations within system 700. Any operations performed within system 700 may be performed in any order unless as may be specified in the claims.
The shown embodiment implements a portion of a computer system, presented as system 700, comprising one or more computer processors to execute a set of program code instructions (module 710) and modules for accessing memory to hold program code instructions to perform: receiving one or more request parameters that correspond to at least one user interface view request invoked by at least one user (module 720); identifying one or more resource properties from one or more resource property templates, the resource properties identified based at least in part on the request parameters (module 730); determining a then-current resource state of one or more resource entities associated with the user interface view request (module 740); generating at least one user interface view based at least in part on the then-current resource state and based at least in part on at least one of, the request parameters, or the resource properties (module 750); and presenting the user interface view to the user (module 760).
Variations of the foregoing may include more or fewer of the shown modules. Certain variations may perform more or fewer (or different) steps, and/or certain variations may use data elements in more, or in fewer (or different) operations. Still further, some embodiments include variations in the operations performed, and some embodiments include variations of aspects of the data elements used in the operations.
A hyperconverged system coordinates the efficient use of compute and storage resources by and between the components of the distributed system. Adding a hyperconverged unit to a hyperconverged system expands the system in multiple dimensions. As an example, adding a hyperconverged unit to a hyperconverged system can expand the system in the dimension of storage capacity while concurrently expanding the system in the dimension of computing capacity and also in the dimension of networking bandwidth. Components of any of the foregoing distributed systems can comprise physically and/or logically distributed autonomous entities.
Physical and/or logical collections of such autonomous entities can sometimes be referred to as nodes. In some hyperconverged systems, compute and storage resources can be integrated into a unit of a node. Multiple nodes can be interrelated into an array of nodes, which nodes can be grouped into physical groupings (e.g., arrays) and/or into logical groupings or topologies of nodes (e.g., spoke-and-wheel topologies, rings, etc.). Some hyperconverged systems implement certain aspects of virtualization. For example, in a hypervisor-assisted virtualization environment, certain of the autonomous entities of a distributed system can be implemented as virtual machines. As another example, in some virtualization environments, autonomous entities of a distributed system can be implemented as executable containers. In some systems and/or environments, hypervisor-assisted virtualization techniques and operating system virtualization techniques are combined.
As shown, virtual machine architecture 8A00 comprises a collection of interconnected components suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure and/or for use in the herein-described environments. Moreover, virtual machine architecture 8A00 includes a virtual machine instance in configuration 851 that is further described as pertaining to controller virtual machine instance 830. Configuration 851 supports virtual machine instances that are deployed as user virtual machines, or controller virtual machines or both. Such virtual machines interface with a hypervisor (as shown). Some virtual machines include processing of storage I/O (input/output or IO) as received from any or every source within the computing platform. An example implementation of such a virtual machine that processes storage I/O is depicted as 830.
In this and other configurations, a controller virtual machine instance receives block I/O (input/output or IO) storage requests as network file system (NFS) requests in the form of NFS requests 802, and/or internet small computer storage interface (iSCSI) block IO requests in the form of iSCSI requests 803, and/or Samba file system (SMB) requests in the form of SMB requests 804. The controller virtual machine (CVM) instance publishes and responds to an internet protocol (IP) address (e.g., CVM IP address 810). Various forms of input and output (I/O or IO) can be handled by one or more IO control handler functions (e.g., IOCTL handler functions 808) that interface to other functions such as data IO manager functions 814 and/or metadata manager functions 822. As shown, the data IO manager functions can include communication with virtual disk configuration manager 812 and/or can include direct or indirect communication with any of various block IO functions (e.g., NFS IO, iSCSI IO, SMB IO, etc.).
In addition to block IO functions, configuration 851 supports IO of any form (e.g., block IO, streaming IO, packet-based IO, HTTP traffic, etc.) through either or both of a user interface (UI) handler such as UI IO handler 840 and/or through any of a range of application programming interfaces (APIs), possibly through API IO manager 845.
Communications link 815 can be configured to transmit (e.g., send, receive, signal, etc.) any type of communications packets comprising any organization of data items. The data items can comprise a payload data, a destination address (e.g., a destination IP address) and a source address (e.g., a source IP address), and can include various packet processing techniques (e.g., tunneling), encodings (e.g., encryption), and/or formatting of bit fields into fixed-length blocks or into variable length fields used to populate the payload. In some cases, packet characteristics include a version identifier, a packet or payload length, a traffic class, a flow label, etc. In some cases, the payload comprises a data structure that is encoded and/or formatted to fit into byte or word boundaries of the packet.
In some embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with, software instructions to implement aspects of the disclosure. Thus, embodiments of the disclosure are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and/or software. In embodiments, the term “logic” shall mean any combination of software or hardware that is used to implement all or part of the disclosure.
The term “computer readable medium” or “computer usable medium” as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing instructions to a data processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms including, but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes any non-volatile storage medium, for example, solid state storage devices (SSDs) or optical or magnetic disks such as disk drives or tape drives. Volatile media includes dynamic memory such as random access memory. As shown, controller virtual machine instance 830 includes content cache manager facility 816 that accesses storage locations, possibly including local dynamic random access memory (DRAM) (e.g., through local memory device access block 818) and/or possibly including accesses to local solid state storage (e.g., through local SSD device access block 820).
Common forms of computer readable media include any non-transitory computer readable medium, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium; CD-ROM or any other optical medium; punch cards, paper tape, or any other physical medium with patterns of holes; or any RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, or any other memory chip or cartridge. Any data can be stored, for example, in any form of external data repository 831, which in turn can be formatted into any one or more storage areas, and which can comprise parameterized storage accessible by a key (e.g., a filename, a table name, a block address, an offset address, etc.). External data repository 831 can store any forms of data, and may comprise a storage area dedicated to storage of metadata pertaining to the stored forms of data. In some cases, metadata can be divided into portions. Such portions and/or cache copies can be stored in the external storage data repository and/or in a local storage area (e.g., in local DRAM areas and/or in local SSD areas). Such local storage can be accessed using functions provided by local metadata storage access block 824. External data repository 831 can be configured using CVM virtual disk controller 826, which can in turn manage any number or any configuration of virtual disks.
Execution of the sequences of instructions to practice certain embodiments of the disclosure are performed by one or more instances of a software instruction processor, or a processing element such as a data processor, or such as a central processing unit (e.g., CPU1, CPU2, . . . , CPUN). According to certain embodiments of the disclosure, two or more instances of configuration 851 can be coupled by communications link 815 (e.g., backplane, LAN, PSTN, wired or wireless network, etc.) and each instance may perform respective portions of sequences of instructions as may be required to practice embodiments of the disclosure.
The shown computing platform 806 is interconnected to the Internet 848 through one or more network interface ports (e.g., network interface port 8231 and network interface port 8232). Configuration 851 can be addressed through one or more network interface ports using an IP address. Any operational element within computing platform 806 can perform sending and receiving operations using any of a range of network protocols, possibly including network protocols that send and receive packets (e.g., network protocol packet 8211 and network protocol packet 8212).
Computing platform 806 may transmit and receive messages that can be composed of configuration data and/or any other forms of data and/or instructions organized into a data structure (e.g., communications packets). In some cases, the data structure includes program code instructions (e.g., application code) communicated through the Internet 848 and/or through any one or more instances of communications link 815. Received program code may be processed and/or executed by a CPU as it is received and/or program code may be stored in any volatile or non-volatile storage for later execution. Program code can be transmitted via an upload (e.g., an upload from an access device over the Internet 848 to computing platform 806). Further, program code and/or the results of executing program code can be delivered to a particular user via a download (e.g., a download from computing platform 806 over the Internet 848 to an access device).
Configuration 851 is merely one sample configuration. Other configurations or partitions can include further data processors, and/or multiple communications interfaces, and/or multiple storage devices, etc. within a partition. For example, a partition can bound a multi-core processor (e.g., possibly including embedded or collocated memory), or a partition can bound a computing cluster having a plurality of computing elements, any of which computing elements are connected directly or indirectly to a communications link. A first partition can be configured to communicate to a second partition. A particular first partition and a particular second partition can be congruent (e.g., in a processing element array) or can be different (e.g., comprising disjoint sets of components).
A cluster is often embodied as a collection of computing nodes that can communicate between each other through a local area network (e.g., LAN or virtual LAN (VLAN)) or a backplane. Some clusters are characterized by assignment of a particular set of the aforementioned computing nodes to access a shared storage facility that is also configured to communicate over the local area network or backplane. In many cases, the physical bounds of a cluster are defined by a mechanical structure such as a cabinet or such as a chassis or rack that hosts a finite number of mounted-in computing units. A computing unit in a rack can take on a role as a server, or as a storage unit, or as a networking unit, or any combination therefrom. In some cases, a unit in a rack is dedicated to provisioning of power to other units. In some cases, a unit in a rack is dedicated to environmental conditioning functions such as filtering and movement of air through the rack and/or temperature control for the rack. Racks can be combined to form larger clusters. For example, the LAN of a first rack having a quantity of 32 computing nodes can be interfaced with the LAN of a second rack having 16 nodes to form a two-rack cluster of 48 nodes. The former two LANs can be configured as subnets, or can be configured as one VLAN. Multiple clusters can communicate between one module to another over a WAN (e.g., when geographically distal) or a LAN (e.g., when geographically proximal).
A module as used herein can be implemented using any mix of any portions of memory and any extent of hard-wired circuitry including hard-wired circuitry embodied as a data processor. Some embodiments of a module include one or more special-purpose hardware components (e.g., power control, logic, sensors, transducers, etc.). A data processor can be organized to execute a processing entity that is configured to execute as a single process or configured to execute using multiple concurrent processes to perform work. A processing entity can be hardware-based (e.g., involving one or more cores) or software-based, and/or can be formed using a combination of hardware and software that implements logic, and/or can carry out computations and/or processing steps using one or more processes and/or one or more tasks and/or one or more threads or any combination thereof.
Some embodiments of a module include instructions that are stored in a memory for execution so as to facilitate operational and/or performance characteristics pertaining to data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of entities in computing systems. In some embodiments, a module may include one or more state machines and/or combinational logic used to implement or facilitate the operational and/or performance characteristics pertaining to data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of entities in various computing environments.
Various implementations of the data repository comprise storage media organized to hold a series of records or files such that individual records or files are accessed using a name or key (e.g., a primary key or a combination of keys and/or query clauses). Such files or records can be organized into one or more data structures (e.g., data structures used to implement or facilitate aspects of data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of entities in computing environments). Such files or records can be brought into and/or stored in volatile or non-volatile memory. More specifically, the occurrence and organization of the foregoing files, records, and data structures improve the way that the computer stores and retrieves data in memory, for example, to improve the way data is accessed when the computer is performing operations pertaining to data-driven generation of instance-specific user interface views for managing target states of entities in computing environments, and/or for improving the way data is manipulated when performing computerized operations pertaining to consulting a hierarchy of computing resource properties to reactively generate an instance-specific user interface view (e.g., to facilitate GUI-assisted interactions over the computing resource by a user).
Further details regarding general approaches to managing data repositories are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,601,473 titled “ARCHITECTURE FOR MANAGING I/O AND STORAGE FOR A VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT”, issued on Dec. 3, 2013, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Further details regarding general approaches to managing and maintaining data in data repositories are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,549,518 titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPLEMENTING A MAINTENANCE SERVICE FOR MANAGING I/O AND STORAGE FOR A VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT”, issued on Oct. 1, 2013, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The operating system layer can perform port forwarding to any executable container (e.g., executable container instance 850). An executable container instance can be executed by a processor. Runnable portions of an executable container instance sometimes derive from an executable container image, which in turn might include all, or portions of any of, a Java archive repository (JAR) and/or its contents, and/or a script or scripts and/or a directory of scripts, and/or a virtual machine configuration, and may include any dependencies therefrom. In some cases, a configuration within an executable container might include an image comprising a minimum set of runnable code. Contents of larger libraries and/or code or data that would not be accessed during runtime of the executable container instance can be omitted from the larger library to form a smaller library composed of only the code or data that would be accessed during runtime of the executable container instance. In some cases, start-up time for an executable container instance can be much faster than start-up time for a virtual machine instance, at least inasmuch as the executable container image might be much smaller than a respective virtual machine instance. Furthermore, start-up time for an executable container instance can be much faster than start-up time for a virtual machine instance, at least inasmuch as the executable container image might have many fewer code and/or data initialization steps to perform than a respective virtual machine instance.
An executable container instance (e.g., a Docker container instance) can serve as an instance of an application container. Any executable container of any sort can be rooted in a directory system, and can be configured to be accessed by file system commands (e.g., “ls” or “ls-a”, etc.). The executable container might optionally include operating system components 878, however such a separate set of operating system components need not be provided. As an alternative, an executable container can include runnable instance 858, which is built (e.g., through compilation and linking, or just-in-time compilation, etc.) to include all of the library and OS-like functions needed for execution of the runnable instance. In some cases, a runnable instance can be built with a virtual disk configuration manager, any of a variety of data IO management functions, etc. In some cases, a runnable instance includes code for, and access to, container virtual disk controller 876. Such a container virtual disk controller can perform any of the functions that the aforementioned CVM virtual disk controller 826 can perform, yet such a container virtual disk controller does not rely on a hypervisor or any particular operating system so as to perform its range of functions.
In some environments, multiple executable containers can be collocated and/or can share one or more contexts. For example, multiple executable containers that share access to a virtual disk can be assembled into a pod (e.g., a Kubernetes pod). Pods provide sharing mechanisms (e.g., when multiple executable containers are amalgamated into the scope of a pod) as well as isolation mechanisms (e.g., such that the namespace scope of one pod does not share the namespace scope of another pod).
User executable container instance 880 comprises any number of user containerized functions (e.g., user containerized function1, user containerized function2, . . . , user containerized functionN). Such user containerized functions can execute autonomously, or can be interfaced with or wrapped in a runnable object to create a runnable instance (e.g., runnable instance 858). In some cases, the shown operating system components 878 comprise portions of an operating system, which portions are interfaced with or included in the runnable instance and/or any user containerized functions. In this embodiment of a daemon-assisted containerized architecture, the computing platform 806 might or might not host operating system components other than operating system components 878. More specifically, the shown daemon might or might not host operating system components other than operating system components 878 of user executable container instance 880.
In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will however be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the disclosure. For example, the above-described process flows are described with reference to a particular ordering of process actions. However, the ordering of many of the described process actions may be changed without affecting the scope or operation of the disclosure. The specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than in a restrictive sense.
The present application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/434,456 titled “INTENT FRAMEWORK”, filed on Dec. 15, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety; and the present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/842,698 titled “RESOURCE STATE ENFORCEMENT”, filed on even date herewith, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety; and the present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/842,436 titled “SPECIFICATION-BASED COMPUTING SYSTEM CONFIGURATION”, filed on even date herewith, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety; and the present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/842,837 titled “RULE-BASED DATA PROTECTION”, filed on even date herewith, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety; and the present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/842,714 titled “ACCESSING COMPUTING RESOURCE ATTRIBUTES OF AN EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDER”, filed on even date herewith, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62434456 | Dec 2016 | US |
