Nonstop computing fabric arrangements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10965616-B2
Application number	US-201414519532-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2014
Priority date	Oct 21, 2014
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for non-stop computing in a virtualization fabric are disclosed. One system includes a computing fabric comprising a plurality of host platforms, the plurality of host platforms including at least a first host platform and a second host platform communicatively connected to the first host platform. The system also includes an interconnect service partitions residing on the first host platform. The system includes a plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms. The system further includes a DNS server instance managed by at least one of the plurality of interconnect service partitions and defining at least one zone, the at least one zone including one or more partitions from among the plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a computing fabric comprising a plurality of host platforms, the plurality of host platforms including at least a first host platform and a second host platform communicatively connected to the first host platform;
a first interconnect service partition residing on the first host platform;
a second interconnect service partition residing on the second host platform;
a plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms; and
a DNS server instance managed by the first interconnect service partition and defining:
a plurality of zones established via a zone file, the plurality of zones including partitions from among the plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms, each zone of the plurality of zones established via the zone file defining interconnectivity among the partitions within that zone within a common virtual network, the zone file including a key useable to facilitate exclusive communication among the partitions within each zone, and
a security policy for the partitions based on a zone from the plurality of zones in which each of the partitions is included, the security policy including:
permissions implemented to control intercommunication among the partitions, and
rights assignable to the one or more partitions, the rights including a predefined quality of service associated with the zone;

wherein the first interconnect service partition comprises a master of at least one zone included among the plurality of zones and the second interconnect service partition comprises a caching server for the zone.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one zone of the plurality of zones is associated with a predefined quality of service.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the predefined quality of service is based at least in part on a set of defined resources included in the at least one zone.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the predefined quality of service is based on limiting a number of zones capable of accessing at least one of the plurality of host platforms.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the DNS server instance is managed by the first interconnect service partition of the first host platform and the first host platform has a platform zone, and wherein the DNS server instance is a master DNS server for the platform zone of the first host platform.

6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising a second DNS server instance is managed by the second interconnect service partition of the second host platform and the second host platform has a platform zone, and wherein the second DNS server instance is a master DNS server for the platform zone of the second host platform concurrently with being a caching server for the zone.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the second DNS server instance is a caching DNS server for the platform zone of the first host platform.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the DNS server instance on the first host platform comprises a master DNS server for a root zone incorporating each of a plurality of interconnect service partitions residing on one or more of the plurality of host platforms and the plurality of guest partitions distributed across the plurality of host platforms.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a computing system communicatively connected to the first host platform and the second host platform, the computing system being a sponsored member of a zone within the plurality of zones.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein receiving the definition of the zone occurs at a fabric manager tool of the computing fabric.

11. A method of managing partitions in a computing fabric, the method comprising:
receiving a definition of a plurality of zones within the computing fabric, the computing fabric including a first host computing system and a second host computing system;
establishing the plurality of zones within the computing fabric via a zone file managed by a DNS service of a first interconnect service partition of the first host computing system, the plurality of zones including a zone having a plurality of guest partitions across the first host computing system and the second host computing system, each zone of the plurality of zones established via the zone file defining interconnectivity among the partitions within that zone within a common virtual network, the zone file including a key useable to facilitate exclusive communication among the partitions within each zone; and
implementing a security policy for the plurality of guest partitions based on the zone, the security policy defined by the DNS service of the first interconnect service partition of the first host computing system and including:
permissions implemented to control intercommunication among the plurality of guest partitions, and
rights assignable to the plurality of guest partitions, the rights including a predefined quality of service associated with the zone;

wherein the second host computing system includes a second interconnect service partition;
wherein the first interconnect service partition of the first host computing system comprises a master of the zone and the second interconnect service partition comprises a caching server for the zone.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising routing the definition of the zone to the first host computing system.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating a zone signing key and a key signing key at the first host computing system.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating the zone file in a control partition of the first host computing system.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising forwarding the zone file to the first interconnect service partition of the first computing system.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, upon occurrence of an error in the first interconnect service partition of the first host computing system, assigning the second interconnect service partition of the second host computing system as the master of the zone.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising recovering the first interconnect service partition of the first computing system.

18. A method of managing partitions in a computing fabric, the method comprising:
receiving a definition of a plurality of zones within the computing fabric, the computing fabric including a first host computing system and a second host computing system;
establishing the plurality of zones within the computing fabric via a zone file managed by a DNS service of a first interconnect service partition of the first host computing system, the plurality of zones including a zone having a plurality of guest partitions across the first host computing system and the second host computing system; and
implementing a security policy for the plurality of guest partitions based on the zone, the security policy defined by the DNS service of the first interconnect service partition of the first host computing system and including:
permissions implemented to control intercommunication among the plurality of guest partitions, the permissions limiting connection to the first host computing system to host computing systems including partitions included in any zone also including a partition hosted by the first host computing system, each zone of the plurality of zones established via the zone file defining interconnectivity among the partitions within that zone within a common virtual network, the zone file including a key useable to facilitate exclusive communi

Assignees

• Nahrgang Kyle
• Hunter James R
• Landis John A
• Weber Iii William L
• Unisys Corp

Inventors

• Nahrgang Kyle
• Hunter James R
• Landis John A
• Weber Iii William L

Classifications

• 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

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• H04L61/4511

  using domain name system [DNS] · CPC title

• H04L49/15 Primary

  Interconnection of switching modules · CPC title

• H04L61/1511

  Electricity · mapped topic