Methods and apparatus to scale application deployments in cloud computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10097410-B2
Application number	US-201414453656-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 7, 2014
Priority date	Jun 26, 2014
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to scale application deployments in cloud computing environments. An example method disclosed herein includes marking a scaling status of a virtual machine included in a first node deployed in the computing environment, the first node executing a first component of the application, the scaling status of the virtual machine indicating a change in a number of virtual machines included in the first node. The example method also includes identifying a second node including a dependency with the virtual machine, the second node deployed in the computing environment. The example method also includes updating configuration information associated with the second node based on the scaling status of the virtual machine, the configuration information including a reference to the virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to scale a number of virtual machines executing an application deployed in a computing environment, the method comprising:
determining, by executing an instruction with a hardware processor, if a duration threshold has been satisfied by a duration elapsed since resource utilization of the application in the computing environment satisfied a first threshold; and
in response to determining that the duration satisfies the duration threshold:
setting, by executing an instruction with the hardware processor, a scaling status of a first virtual machine deployed in the computing environment, the first virtual machine executing a first component of the application, the scaling status of the first virtual machine indicating a change in a number of virtual machines executing the first component;
identifying, by executing an instruction with the hardware processor, an information dependency of a second virtual machine on information from the first virtual machine, the second virtual machine executing a second component of the application, the information dependency representing that a task of the second component is performed after a task of the first component, the information dependency to indicate that the first virtual machine is dependent on the second virtual machine and the first virtual machine is to provide information to the second virtual machine, the information dependency to indicate that the second virtual machine is dependent on the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine is to obtain information from the first virtual machine; and
updating, by executing an instruction with the hardware processor, the information dependency of the second virtual machine on the information from the first virtual machine in configuration information associated with the second virtual machine based on the scaling status of the first virtual machine, the information dependency in the configuration information including a reference to the first virtual machine.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the information dependency of the second virtual machine includes parsing a topology map of the application.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the setting of the scaling status of the first virtual machine causes the number of virtual machines executing the first component to increase by a scale-out operation.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein the setting of the scaling status of the first virtual machine includes:
provisioning the first virtual machine in the computing environment;
causing the first virtual machine to execute the first component; and
identifying the first virtual machine as a new virtual machine.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 , wherein the updating of the configuration information associated with second virtual machine includes adding the reference to the configuration information.

6. A method as defined in claim 3 , further including determining a success status of the scale-out operation by checking communication between the first virtual machine and a third virtual machine deployed in the computing environment, the third virtual machine having been added to the computing environment before the first virtual machine.

7. A method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the scaling status of the first virtual machine is set at a first time, the method further including:
creating a deployment snapshot of the computing environment at a second time, the deployment snapshot including state information of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine, the second time being before the first time; and
in response to determining that the success status of the scale-out operation indicates that the scale-out operation was unsuccessful:
deleting the first virtual machine; and
modifying the state information of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine based on the deployment snapshot.

8. A method as defined in claim 6 , further including:
tracking a number of unsuccessful scale-out operations; and
provisioning a fourth virtual machine in the computing environment when the number of unsuccessful scale-out operations satisfies a second threshold.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the setting of the scaling status of the first virtual machine causes the number of virtual machines executing the first component to decrease by a scale-in operation.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 , further including:
selecting the first virtual machine; and
in response to the selecting of the first virtual machine, updating the configuration information associated with the second virtual machine by removing the reference to the first virtual machine.

11. A method as defined in claim 9 , further including:
deleting the first virtual machine from the computing environment;
determining a success status of the scale-in operation to decrease the number of virtual machines executing the first component of the application by checking if the computing environment includes the reference to the first virtual machine; and
repeating the scale-in operation to decrease the number of virtual machines executing the first component of the application when the success status of the scale-in operation is determined to be unsuccessful.

12. A system to scale a number of virtual machines executing an application deployed in a computing environment, the system comprising:
a deployment monitor to:
determine if a duration threshold has been satisfied by a duration elapsed since resource utilization of the application deployed in the computing environment satisfied a first threshold;
initiate a modification of a number of virtual machines deployed in the computing environment when the duration satisfies the duration threshold, a first virtual machine to execute a first component of the application;

a dependents identifier to identify an information dependency of a second virtual machine on information from the first virtual machine, the second virtual machine to execute a second component of the application, the information dependency representing that at least a portion of the second component is performed after at least a portion of the first component the information dependency to indicate that the first virtual machine is dependent on the second virtual machine and the first virtual machine is to provide information to the second virtual machine, the information dependency to indicate that the second virtual machine is dependent on the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine is to obtain information from the first virtual machine; and
an updater to update the information dependency of the second virtual machine on information from the first virtual machine in configuration information associated with the second virtual machine based on a scaling status of the first virtual machine, the information dependency in the configuration information including a reference to the first virtual machine, at least one of the deployment monitor, the dependents identifier and the updater implemented by a hardware circuit.

13. A system as defined in claim 12 , wherein the dependents identifier is to identify the information dependency of the second virtual machine by parsing a topology map of the application.

14. A system as defined in claim 12 , wherein the deployment monitor is to initiate a scale-out operation in the computing environment.

15. A system as defined in claim 14 , further including:
a resources handler to:
provision the first virtual machine in the computing environment;
cause the first virtual machine to execut

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Singh Servesh
• Narayanaswamy Arun
• Saraf Rishi
• Kumar Saket
• Kumar Jitendra

Classifications

• H04L41/0813 Primary

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title

• H04L67/34

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L41/0816

  the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events · CPC title

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title