Methods and apparatus to improve cloud management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11403147-B2
Application number	US-201916513413-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 16, 2019
Priority date	Jul 16, 2019
Publication date	Aug 2, 2022
Grant date	Aug 2, 2022

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to improve cloud management. An example apparatus includes at least one processor, and memory including instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to execute a cloud manager installer generated by a container platform manager, the cloud manager installer is to configure a cloud computing environment based on environment information, determine one or more virtual resources based on a blueprint, and deploy a cloud platform manager in the cloud computing environment to manage a lifecycle of an application executing in the cloud computing environment by provisioning the one or more virtual resources to the cloud computing environment, and installing the cloud platform manager in the cloud computing environment by storing the cloud manager installer and the blueprint in the cloud computing environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for deploying a cloud computing environment, the apparatus comprising:
at least one memory;
instructions; and
at least one processor to execute the instructions to:
execute a cloud manager installer to:
configure the cloud computing environment based on environment information;
determine one or more virtual resources based on a blueprint; and
provision the one or more virtual resources to the cloud computing environment;

install a cloud platform manager in the cloud computing environment by embedding the blueprint and an instance of the cloud manager installer in the cloud platform manager;
modify the blueprint embedded in the cloud platform manager, the modification of the blueprint to change the cloud platform manager;
redeploy the cloud platform manager based on the modification of the blueprint; and
cause an execution of the instance of the cloud manager installer of the redeployed cloud platform manager to manage a lifecycle of an application to be executed in the cloud computing environment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cloud manager installer is to:
determine one or more physical hardware resources associated with the one or more virtual resources;
configure the one or more virtual machines based on the one or more physical hardware resources; and
provision the one or more virtual machines to the cloud computing environment to execute the application using the one or more physical hardware resources.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cloud manager installer is to:
in response to obtaining a container from a container database:
configure the container based on the environment information; and
update the blueprint based on the container; and

in response to deploying the cloud computing environment, invoke the cloud platform manager to execute the application by executing the container.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cloud manager installer of the cloud platform manager is to:
in response to a request to modify the blueprint, determine whether the modification is valid;
in response to a determination that the modification is valid, modify the blueprint;
identify a first virtual resource of the one or more virtual resources affected by the modification, the first virtual resource having a first configuration; and
redeploy the first virtual resource with a second configuration based on the modification, the second configuration different from the first configuration.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the cloud manager installer of the cloud platform manager is to:
identify a second virtual resource having a dependency on the first virtual resource based on the blueprint;
determine that the second virtual resource is to be deployed before the first virtual resource based on the blueprint; and
redeploy the second virtual resource before the first virtual resource.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the blueprint is a first blueprint, and the cloud manager installer of the cloud platform manager is to:
in response to the cloud computing environment obtaining a second blueprint, determine whether the second blueprint is different from the first blueprint;
in response to a first determination that the second blueprint is different from the first blueprint, determine that the second blueprint identifies a modification to a first virtual resource of the one or more virtual resources to change from a first configuration to a second configuration;
in response to a second determination that the second configuration is valid, replace the first blueprint with the second blueprint; and
redeploy the first virtual resource with the second configuration based on the second blueprint.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the modification is a first modification, the second blueprint identifies a second modification of a second virtual resource of the one or more virtual resources having the first configuration, and the cloud manager installer of the cloud platform manager is to:
configure a third virtual resource having the second configuration based on the second blueprint;
provision the third virtual resource to the cloud computing environment;
transfer a workload from the second virtual resource to the third virtual resource; and
decommission the second virtual resource from the cloud computing environment.

8. A method for deploying a cloud computing environment, the method comprising:
executing a cloud manager installer to:
configure the cloud computing environment based on environment information;
determine one or more virtual resources based on a blueprint; and
provision the one or more virtual resources to the cloud computing environment;

deploying a cloud platform manager in the cloud computing environment by embedding the blueprint and an instance of the cloud manager installer in the cloud platform manager;
modifying the blueprint embedded in the cloud platform manager, the modification of the blueprint to change the cloud platform manager;
redeploying the cloud platform manager based on the modification of the blueprint; and
executing, with the cloud platform manager, the instance of the cloud manager installer of the redeployed cloud platform manager to manage a lifecycle of an application executing in the cloud computing environment.

9. The method of claim 8 , further including:
determining one or more physical hardware resources associated with the one or more virtual resources;
configuring the one or more virtual machines based on the one or more physical hardware resources; and
provisioning the one or more virtual machines to the cloud computing environment to execute the application using the one or more physical hardware resources.

10. The method of claim 8 , further including:
in response to obtaining a container from a container database, the application to:
configure the container based on the environment information; and
update the blueprint based on the container; and

in response to deploying the cloud computing environment, executing the application by executing the container.

11. The method of claim 8 , further including:
in response to a request to modify the blueprint, determining whether the modification is valid;
in response to determining that the modification is valid, modifying the blueprint;
identifying a first virtual resource of the one or more virtual resources affected by the modification, the first virtual resource having a first configuration; and
redeploying the first virtual resource with a second configuration based on the modification, the second configuration different from the first configuration.

12. The method of claim 11 , further including:
identifying a second virtual resource having a dependency on the first virtual resource based on the blueprint;
determining that the second virtual resource is to be deployed before the first virtual resource based on the blueprint; and
redeploying the second virtual resource before the first virtual resource.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the blueprint is a first blueprint, and further including:
in response to the cloud computing environment obtaining a second blueprint, determining whether the second blueprint is different from the first blueprint;
in response to determining that the second blueprint is different from the first blueprint, determining that the second blueprint identifies modifying a first virtual resource of the one or more virtual resources from a first configuration to a second configuration;
in response to determining that the second configuration is valid, replacing the first blueprint

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Aronov Evgeny
• Petkov Ivo
• Kovacheva Diana
• Delcheva Anna
• Ivanov Zahari
• Mitsov Georgi
• Dimitrov Alexander

Classifications

• H04L67/131

  Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality · 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

• H04L67/34

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

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G06F8/61 Primary

  Installation · CPC title