Image registry resource sharing among container orchestrators in a virtualized computing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11422846-B2
Application number	US-202016933823-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2020
Priority date	Jul 20, 2020
Publication date	Aug 23, 2022
Grant date	Aug 23, 2022

Abstract

A virtualized computing system according to an example includes: a host cluster having hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, the virtualization layer supporting execution of virtual machines (VMs); a container image registry configured to manage container images for deploying containers in the host cluster; an orchestration control plane integrated with the virtualization layer, the orchestration control plane including a master server executing in a first VM of the VMs, the master server configured to manage image secrets based on accounts in the container image registry; and a guest cluster, managed by the orchestration control plane and executing in second VMs of the VMs, the guest cluster configured to receive the image secrets from the master server and access the container image registry using the image secrets.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A virtualized computing system, comprising:
a host cluster having hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, the virtualization layer supporting execution of virtual machines (VMs);
a container image registry configured to manage container images for deploying containers in the host cluster;
an orchestration control plane cooperating with control plane agents in the virtualization layer to provide a supervisor cluster, the orchestration control plane including a master server executing in a first VM of the VMs, the master server configured to manage image secrets based on accounts in the container image registry; and
a guest cluster, managed by the orchestration control plane as a virtual extension of the supervisor cluster and executing in second VMs of the VMs, the guest cluster configured to receive the image secrets from the master server and access the container image registry using the image secrets.

2. The virtualized computing system of claim 1 , wherein the master server is configured to create a project in the container image registry for a namespace of the orchestration control plane, wherein the container image registry includes a robot account associated with the project, and wherein the image secrets are based on the robot account.

3. The virtualized computing system of claim 2 , wherein the guest cluster is deployed in the namespace of the orchestration control plane.

4. The virtualized computing system of claim 2 , wherein the master server is configured to create a guest cluster project for the guest cluster in the container image registry.

5. The virtualized computing system of claim 4 , wherein the master server is configured to add project members to the guest cluster project, the project members corresponding to user accounts of the virtualized computing system having access to the guest cluster.

6. The virtualized computing system of claim 4 , wherein the master server is configured to create a guest cluster robot account for the guest cluster project and guest cluster image secrets for the guest cluster robot account.

7. The virtualized computing system of claim 1 , wherein the master server is configured to update the image secrets and provide the image secrets as updated to the guest cluster.

8. A method of managing access to a container image registry in a virtualized computing system, the container image registry managing container images for deploying containers in a host cluster, the host cluster including hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, the virtualization layer supporting execution of virtual machines (VMs), the method comprising:
creating, by a registry agent, a robot account in the container image registry;
creating, by the registry agent, image secrets in a master server of an orchestration control plane control plane agents in the virtualization layer to provide a supervisor cluster, the orchestration control plane including a master server executing in a first VM of the VMs; and
providing the image secrets to a guest cluster managed by the orchestration control plane as a virtual extension of the supervisor cluster and executing in second VMs of the VMs, the image secrets enabling the guest cluster to access the container image registry through the robot account.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
creating, by the registry agent, a project in the container image registry for a namespace of the orchestration control plane, wherein the robot account is associated with the project.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the guest cluster is deployed in the namespace of the orchestration control plane.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
creating, by the master server, a guest cluster project for the guest cluster in the container image registry.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
adding, by the master server, project members to the guest cluster project, the project members corresponding to user accounts of the virtualized computing system having access to the guest cluster.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
creating, by the registry agent, a guest cluster robot account for the guest cluster project and guest cluster image secrets for the guest cluster robot account.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
updating, by the master server, the image secrets; and
providing, by the master server, the image secrets as updated to the guest cluster.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a computing device to cause the computing device to carry out a method of managing access to a container image registry in a virtualized computing system, the container image registry managing container images for deploying containers in a host cluster, the host cluster including hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, the virtualization layer supporting execution of virtual machines (VMs), the method comprising:
creating, by a registry agent, a robot account in the container image registry;
creating, by the registry agent, image secrets in a master server of an orchestration control plane cooperating with control plane agents in the virtualization layer to provide a supervisor cluster, the orchestration control plane including a master server executing in a first VM of the VMs; and
providing the image secrets to a guest cluster managed by the orchestration control plane as a virtual extension of the supervisor cluster and executing in second VMs of the VMs, the image secrets enabling the guest cluster to access the container image registry through the robot account.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising:
creating, by the registry agent, a project in the container image registry for a namespace of the orchestration control plane, wherein the robot account is associated with the project.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the guest cluster is deployed in the namespace of the orchestration control plane.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising:
creating, by the master server, a guest cluster project for the guest cluster in the container image registry.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , further comprising:
adding, by the master server, project members to the guest cluster project, the project members corresponding to user accounts of the virtualized computing system having access to the guest cluster.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , further comprising:
creating, by the registry agent, a guest cluster robot account for the guest cluster project and guest cluster image secrets for the guest cluster robot account.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Cao Yanping
• Shepherd Zachary James
• Johnson Mark Russell

Classifications

• G06F9/45545

  Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45587

  Isolation or security of virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F21/6218 Primary

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title