Managing virtual computing instances and physical servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10496429-B2
Application number	US-201715655240-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2017
Priority date	Jul 20, 2017
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure is related to managing virtual computing instances and physical servers. An example machine-readable medium may store instructions executable by a processing resource to cause a computer system to provide an application program interface (API) that provides a user with an ability to manage a virtual computing instance (VCI) deployed on a hypervisor and provisioned by a pool of physical computing resources and manage a physical server.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions executable by a processing resource to cause a computing system to at least:
transmit a first virtual computing instance (VCI) management instruction to a VCI deployed on a hypervisor and provisioned by a pool of physical computing resources;
generate a second VCI management instruction;
translate, via a host gateway, the second VCI management instruction to a physical server management instruction;
transmit the physical server management instruction to a physical server to manage the physical server; and
in response to a determination that the hypervisor is a third-party hypervisor, provide a translation layer between the VCI and the hypervisor via an application programming interface (API).

2. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to manage the physical server regardless of whether the physical server has an operating system installed thereon.

3. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further include instructions to provide the API to display information regarding management of the VCI and information regarding management of the physical server in a single user interface.

4. The medium of claim 3 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to display the physical server as a managed host in a user interface.

5. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to restart a different physical server on which the hypervisor is provisioned responsive to a determination that the VCI has failed.

6. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to mount a media image to the physical server.

7. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to generate a unified set of permissions for managing the VCI and the physical server.

8. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to provide a user interface in which a console associated with the physical server and a console associated with the VCI is displayed.

9. A method comprising:
transmitting a first virtual computing instance (VCI) management instruction to a VCI deployed on a hypervisor via an application programming interface (API) to manage the VCI;
generating a second VCI management instruction;
translating the second VCI management instruction to a physical server management instruction;
transmitting the physical server management instruction to a physical server via the API to manage the physical server; and
in response to determining that the hypervisor is a third-party hypervisor, providing a translation layer between the VCI and the hypervisor via the API.

10. The method of claim 9 , further including asserting a command via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) to restart the physical server in response to a determination that a second VCI running on the physical server has failed.

11. The method of claim 9 , further including asserting a command via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) to mount a media image to the physical server.

12. The method of claim 9 , further including displaying information regarding the VCI and the physical server concurrently via the API.

13. The method of claim 9 , further including displaying the physical server as a managed host via the API.

14. A system comprising:
a physical server;
a virtual computing instance (VCI) deployed on a hypervisor and provisioned by a pool of physical computing resources;
a centralized virtual server application to:
transmit a first VCI management instruction to the VCI to manage the VCI;
generate a second VCI management instruction;
translate the second VCI management instruction to a physical server management instruction; and
transmit the physical server management instruction to the physical server to manage the physical server; and

a host gateway to, in response to a determination that the hypervisor is a third-party hypervisor, provide a translation layer between the VCI and the hypervisor via an application programming interface (API).

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the centralized virtual server application is configured to present the physical server as a managed host to the VCI.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the centralized virtual server application is configured to manage the physical server via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI).

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the physical server does not have an operating system running thereon.

18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the centralized virtual server application includes:
first instructions executable to facilitate communication between the VCI and the centralized virtual server application in response to a first determination that the hypervisor is a first-party hypervisor; and
second instructions executable to facilitate communication between the VCI and the centralized virtual server application in response to a second determination that the hypervisor is a third-party hypervisor.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the centralized virtual server application is configured to restart the physical server in response to a determination that a management agent associated with the VCI has failed.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Alexandrov Asen
• Grigorov Danail
• Dragoev Ilko
• Strelkov Ivan
• Gelev Emil

Classifications

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• H04L41/0806

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/5077

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