Scalable metering for cloud service management based on cost-awareness

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016094410-A1
Application number	US-201514871443-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2014
Publication date	Mar 31, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to support service management in cloud computing networks. For example, a method for managing a computing platform includes provisioning a plurality of virtual machines across a plurality of computing nodes of a computing platform, wherein the provisioned virtual machines are configured to execute service workloads to provide one or more services to customers, and utilizing one or more of the provisioned virtual machines which execute the service workloads to further perform service management operations for managing the computing platform. The service management operations for managing the computing platform include, e.g., mediation and rating operations for revenue management of the computing platform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for managing a computing platform, comprising:
provisioning a plurality of virtual machines across a plurality of computing nodes of a computing platform, wherein the provisioned virtual machines are configured to execute service workloads to provide one or more services to customers; and utilizing one or more of the provisioned virtual machines which execute the service workloads to further perform service management operations for managing the computing platform, wherein the provisioning and utilizing are implemented at least in part by a processor executing program code.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the service management operations for managing the computing platform comprise mediation and rating operations for revenue management of the computing platform.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein utilizing one or more of the provisioned virtual machines which execute the service workloads to further perform service management operations for managing the computing platform, comprises:
collecting management data that is indicative of resource usage by the provisioned virtual machines; utilizing the management data to generate resource profiles of the provisioned virtual machines, wherein the resource profile of a given provisioned virtual machine indicates a current resource utilization of the given provisioned virtual machine; and dynamically balancing the workload associated with the service management operations of the provisioned virtual machines so that the resource utilization by each of the provisioned virtual machines does not exceed a predetermined resource utilization threshold.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein utilizing the management data to generate resource profiles of the provisioned virtual machines comprises:
applying a sliding window over a previous number (n) of data samples of resource usage of a given provisioned virtual machine to compute a moving average; and using the computed moving average as an estimate of the current resource utilization of the given provisioned virtual machine.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein collecting management data comprises provisioning a centralized virtual machine on a given computing node to support the collection of management data across all the computing nodes of the computing platform.

6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein dynamically balancing the workload associated with the service management operations of the provisioned virtual machines comprises provisioning at least one additional virtual machine in at least one computing node to handle an extra workload for the service management operations, if no currently provisioned virtual machine is capable of handing the extra workload.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the computing platform, a new provisioning request; and determining an expected change in an amount of management data to be collected based on requested resources associated with the new provisioning request, wherein the management data comprises data that is indicative of resource usage by provisioned virtual machines; and scaling a data store system based on the determined expected change in the amount of management data.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising performing an offline analysis to predict a set of resources that would be needed to service the new provisioning request, wherein the offline analysis is performed using (i) the determined expected change in the amount of management data and (ii) resource profiles of the provisioned virtual machines, wherein a resource profile of given provisioned virtual machine indicates a current resource utilization of the given provisioned virtual machine.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the predicted set of resources include resources that would be needed for the provisioned virtual machines to perform workloads associated with the service management operations.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the predicted set of resources include resources that would be needed for the provisioned virtual machines to perform workloads associated with collecting the management data.

11 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method for managing a computing platform, the method comprising:
provisioning a plurality of virtual machines across a plurality of computing nodes of a computing platform, wherein the provisioned virtual machines are configured to execute service workloads to provide one or more services to customers; and utilizing one or more of the provisioned virtual machines which execute the service workloads to further perform service management operations for managing the computing platform.

12 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the service management operations for managing the computing platform comprise mediation and rating operations for revenue management of the computing platform.

13 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the executable program instructions for utilizing one or more of the provisioned virtual machines which execute the service workloads to further perform service management operations for managing the computing platform, comprise executable program instructions for:
collecting management data that is indicative of resource usage by the provisioned virtual machines; utilizing the management data to generate resource profiles of the provisioned virtual machines, wherein the resource profile of a given provisioned virtual machine indicates a current resource utilization of the given provisioned virtual machine; and dynamically balancing the workload associated with the service management operations of the provisioned virtual machines so that the resource utilization by each of the provisioned virtual machines does not exceed a predetermined resource utilization threshold.

14 . The computer program product of claim 11 , further comprising executable program instructions for:
receiving, by the computing platform, a new provisioning request; and determining an expected change in an amount of management data to be collected based on requested resources associated with the new provisioning request, wherein the management data comprises data that is indicative of resource usage by provisioned virtual machines; and scaling a data store system based on the determined expected change in the amount of management data.

15 . The computer program product of claim 14 , further comprising executable program instruction for performing an offline analysis to predict a set of resources that would be needed to service the new provisioning request, wherein the offline analysis is performed using (i) the determined expected change in the amount of management data and (ii) resource profiles of the provisioned virtual machines, wherein a resource profile of given provisioned virtual machine indicates a current resource utilization of the given provisioned virtual machine.

16 . A computing system, comprising:
a plurality of computing nodes, each comprising a plurality of computing resources including memory and processors, wherein a plurality of virtual machines are provisioned across the plurality of computing nodes wherein the provisioned virtual machines are configured to execute service workloads to provide one or more services to customers; and wherein at least one computing mode executes a service management system that is configured to utilize one o

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Anwar Ali
• Baset Salman A
• Kochut Andrzej P
• Lei Hui
• Sailer Anca
• Segal Alla

Classifications

• H04L41/0895 Primary

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

• H04L47/83

  based on usage prediction · CPC title

• H04L43/20

  the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV · CPC title

• H04L41/0897

  by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities · CPC title

• H04L41/40

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