Hardware management systems for disaggregated rack architectures in virtual server rack deployments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10348574-B2
Application number	US-201615198914-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2016
Priority date	Aug 17, 2015
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

Hardware management systems for disaggregated rack architectures in virtual server rack deployments are disclosed herein. An example apparatus to manage disaggregated physical hardware resources in a physical rack includes a hardware management system to discover disaggregated physical hardware resources in the physical rack and generate a listing of the disaggregated physical hardware resources, and a physical resource manager to generate a composed resource based on resources from the listing of the disaggregated physical hardware resources, the hardware management system to manage the composed resource.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus to manage disaggregated physical hardware resources in a physical rack, the apparatus comprising:
a hardware management system to:
discover a first sub rack unit including a first sub rack unit module having an array of central processing units, the first sub rack unit installed in a first physical rack;
discover a second sub rack unit, different than the first sub rack unit, including a second sub rack unit module having an array of physical memory units, the second sub rack unit installed in a second physical rack; and
generate a listing of disaggregated physical hardware resources including the central processing units and the physical memory units; and

a physical resource manager to generate a composed resource based on resources from the listing of the disaggregated physical hardware resources, the composed resource to include:
a first identifier identifying a first subset of the central processing units in the first sub rack unit module, and
a second identifier identifying a second subset of the physical memory units in the second sub rack unit module,

the physical resource manager to communicate the composed resource to the hardware management system, the hardware management system to power on the composed resource by communicating with the first sub rack unit associated with the first identifier and the second sub rack unit associated with the second identifier.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the physical resource manager is to recompose the composed resource to at least one of allocate additional physical hardware resources or de-allocate excess physical hardware resources.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein the physical resource manager is to recompose the composed resource in response to a change in a workload executed by the composed resource.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein the physical resource manager is to recompose the composed resource in real time while the composed resource executes a workload.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein the composed resource is a first composed resource and the physical resource manager is to re-allocate physical hardware resources from a second composed resource to the first composed resource when the first composed resource is associated with a first application having a higher priority than a second application associated with the second composed resource.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein the physical resource manager is to re-allocate physical hardware resources that are in separate physical racks.

7. A method to manage disaggregated physical hardware resources in a physical rack, the method comprising:
discovering, with a hardware management system, a first sub rack unit including a first sub rack unit module having an array of central processing units, the first sub rack unit installed in a first physical rack; and
discovering, with a hardware management system, a second sub rack unit, different than the first sub rack unit, including a second sub rack unit module having an array of physical memory units, the second sub rack unit installed in a second physical rack;
sending an inventory of disaggregated physical hardware resources from the hardware management system to a physical resource manager, the disaggregated physical hardware resources including the central processing units and the physical memory units; and
receiving, from the physical resource manager, a composed resource at the hardware management system, the composed resource generated by the physical resource manager based on ones of the physical hardware resources from the inventory of the disaggregated physical hardware resources, the composed resource including:
a first identifier identifying a first subset of the central processing units in the first sub rack unit module, and
a second identifier identifying a second subset of the physical memory units in the second sub rack unit module,

powering on the composed resource by communicating with the first sub rack unit associated with the first identifier and the second sub rack unit associated with the second identifier.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 , further including receiving a recomposed instance of the composed resource, the recomposed instance generated by the physical resource manager to at least one of allocate additional physical hardware resources to the composed resource or de-allocate excess physical hardware resources from the composed resource.

9. A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein the receiving of the recomposed instance of the composed resource occurs in response to a change in a workload executed by the composed resource.

10. A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein the receiving of the recomposed instance of the composed resource occurs in real time while the composed resource is executing a workload.

11. A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein the composed resource is a first composed resource, the recomposed instance of the first composed resource including physical hardware resources re-allocated from a second composed resource to the first composed resource when the first composed resource is associated with a first application having a higher priority than a second application associated with the second composed resource.

12. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
discover a first sub rack unit including a first sub rack unit module having an array of central processing units, the first sub rack unit installed in a first physical rack;
discover a second sub rack unit, different than the first sub rack unit, including a second sub rack unit module having an array of physical memory units, the second sub rack unit installed in a second physical rack;
send an inventory of disaggregated physical hardware resources to a physical resource manager, the disaggregated physical hardware resources including the central processing units and the physical memory units; and
receive a composed resource from the physical resource manager, the composed resource generated by the physical resource manager based on ones of the disaggregated physical hardware resources from the inventory of the disaggregated physical hardware resources, the composed resource including:
a first identifier identifying a first subset of the central processing units in the first sub rack unit module, and
a second identifier identifying a second subset of the physical memory units in the second sub rack unit module,

power on the composed resource by communicating with the first sub rack unit associated with the first identifier and the second sub rack unit associated with the second identifier.

13. A storage medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to receive a recomposed instance of the composed resource, the recomposed instance generated by the physical resource manager to at least one of allocate additional physical hardware resources to the composed resource or de-allocate excess physical hardware resources from the composed resource.

14. A storage medium as defined in claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to receive the recomposed instance of the composed resource in response to a change in a workload executed by the composed resource.

15. A storage medium as defined in claim 13 , wherein the composed resource is a first composed resource, the recomposed instance of the first composed resource including physical hardware resources re-allocated from a second composed

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Kulkarni Rahul
• Sekhar Vishnu Mohan
• Gunti Mukund
• Yavatkar Raj
• Newell Donald
• Sridhar Thayumanavan

Classifications

• H04L41/0893

  Assignment of logical groups to network elements · CPC title

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• G06F9/5077 Primary

  Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455) · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title