Managing virtual computing instances and physical servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11042399-B2
Application number	US-201916698902-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2019
Priority date	Jul 20, 2017
Publication date	Jun 22, 2021
Grant date	Jun 22, 2021

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, via a host gateway, a first virtual computing instance (VCI) instruction to a VCI deployed on a hypervisor;
in response to a determination that the hypervisor is a third-party hypervisor, provide a translation layer between the VCI and the hypervisor; and
transmit, via the host gateway, a server instruction to a server, the server instruction translated from a second VCI instruction to manage the server.

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

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to provide the translation layer between the VCI and the hypervisor via an application programming interface (API).

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the instructions further include instructions to provide the API to display information regarding management of the VCI and information regarding management of the server in a user interface.

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

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processing resource to monitor the hypervisor by receiving a heartbeat.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable 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 server.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable 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 server and a console associated with the VCI is displayed.

9. A system comprising:
a server;
a virtual computing instance (VCI) deployed on a hypervisor;
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; and
a centralized virtual server application to transmit, via the host gateway:
a first VCI instruction to the VCI to manage the VCI; and
a server instruction to the server to manage the server, the server instruction translated from a second VCI instruction.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the centralized virtual server application is configured to present the server as a managed host to the VCI.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the centralized virtual server application is configured to manage the server via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI).

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the server has an operating system installed thereon that has crashed.

13. The system of claim 9 , 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.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the centralized virtual server application is configured to restart the server in response to a determination that a management agent associated with the VCI has failed.

15. A method comprising:
transmitting, via a host gateway, a first VCI instruction to a virtual computing instance (VCI) deployed on a hypervisor;
in response to a determination that the hypervisor is a third-party hypervisor, providing a translation layer between the VCI and the hypervisor; and
transmitting, via the host gateway, a server instruction to a server, the server instruction translated from a second VCI instruction to manage the server.

16. The method of claim 15 , further including asserting a command via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) to restart the server in response to a determination that a second VCI running on the server has failed.

17. The method of claim 15 , further including asserting a command via an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) to mount a media image to the server.

18. The method of claim 15 , further including displaying information regarding the VCI and the server concurrently via an application programming interface (API).

19. The method of claim 15 , further including displaying the server as a managed host via an application programming interface (API).

20. The method of claim 15 , further including managing the server including an operating system installed thereon that has crashed.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04L41/40

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

• H04L41/0895

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

• H04L41/22

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