Datacenter topology definition schema

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016156522-A1
Application number	US-201414557402-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 1, 2014
Priority date	Dec 1, 2014
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In various embodiments, methods and systems for modeling or representing hardware inventory based on a topology definition is provided. A topology definition having physical elements and logical elements corresponding to a physical topology layer and a logical topology layer is received. An instance definition for a rack, cluster, or datacenter for a hardware management operation is received. The instance identifies a physical topology and a logical topology for the operation. A hardware management service is executed, based on the topology definition and the instance definition, to manage the hardware inventory of the topology definition. Hardware management of the hardware inventory corresponding to the separately defined physical elements and logical elements is performed with attributes that are defined in the schema. The topology definition can include precision levels that indicate a hierarchical classification of topology components classified at a device level, a rack level, a cluster level, and a datacenter level.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method for operating datacenter hardware inventory based on a topology definition schema, the method comprising:
receiving a topology definition having a physical topology layer with physical elements and a logical topology layer with logical elements, wherein physical elements and logical elements are defined separately from each other in a schema and correspond to attributes of a hardware inventory; receiving an instance definition for at least one of a rack, cluster, or datacenter for a hardware management operation, wherein the instance identifies a physical topology and a logical topology for the hardware management operation; and executing a hardware management service, based on topology definition and the instance definition, to manage the hardware inventory associated with the topology definition, wherein managing the hardware inventory corresponding to physical elements and logical elements is performed with attributes that are defined in the schema.

2 . The media of claim 1 , wherein the physical elements define devices, wiring rules between devices, and physical configuration and the logical elements define device roles and logical configuration.

3 . The media of claim 1 , wherein physical elements and the logical elements of devices, racks, clusters, and the datacenter are further defined in precision levels of the topology definition schema, wherein a precision level indicates a hierarchical classification of topology components, the precision levels include a device level, a rack level, a cluster level, and a datacenter level.

4 . The media of claim 3 , wherein the topology definition physical layer further comprises:
a device level definition generated based on identifying device attributes, wherein the device attributes are associated with a plurality of device level elements.

5 . The media of claim 3 , wherein the topology definition physical layer further comprises:
a physical rack level definition generated based on identifying rack level physical rack attributes, wherein the physical rack attributes are associated with rack level physical elements; a physical cluster level definition based on identifying cluster level physical cluster attributes, wherein the physical rack attributes are associated with cluster level physical elements; and a physical datacenter level definition based on identifying datacenter level physical datacenter attributes, wherein the physical datacenter attributes are associated with datacenter level physical elements.

6 . The media of claim 3 , wherein the topology definition logical layer further comprises:
a logical rack level definition generated based on identifying rack level logical rack attributes, wherein the logical rack attributes are associated with rack level logical elements; a logical cluster level definition based on identifying cluster level logical cluster attributes, wherein the logical cluster attributes are associated with cluster level logical elements; and a logical datacenter level definition generated based on identifying datacenter level logical datacenter attributes, wherein the logical topology layer attributes are associated with datacenter logical physical elements.

7 . The media of claim 1 , wherein managing the hardware inventory further comprises:
configuring the hardware inventory with topology-specific settings in the topology definition; validating an actual physical topology based on comparing the actual physical topology with an expected physical topology in the topology definition; and validating an actual logical topology based on comparing the actual logical topology with an expected logical topology in the topology definition.

8 . The media of claim 7 further comprising:
aggregating instance-specific data for the hardware inventory; and
generating an updated topology definition based on combining the instance-specific data with the topology definition.

9 . The media of claim 1 , wherein managing the hardware inventory further comprises:
performing network security configurations for one or more blades; assigning different roles the one or more blades based on a network security configuration; and providing Internet Protocol (IP) configuration, booting, and utilizing one or more blades within the applied network security configuration in their assigned roles within a cluster.

10 . A data structure embodied in computer storage media as a topology definition schema, the schema comprising:
a physical topology layer associated with physical elements, wherein the physical elements define devices, wiring rules between devices, and physical configuration; and a logical topology layer associated with logical elements, wherein the logical elements define device roles and logical configuration, and wherein physical elements and logical elements are defined separately in a schema, the physical elements and logical elements corresponding to attributes of at least one of: a device, rack, cluster or datacenter such that management of physical elements and logical elements is performed with attributes that are defined.

11 . The media of claim 10 , further comprising an instance definition associated with at least one of: a rack, a cluster, and a datacenter, wherein the instance identifies a physical topology and a logical topology of the datacenter.

12 . The media of claim 11 , further comprising:
the rack instance having rack instance elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a physical topology identifier, a logical topology identifier, a role, and configuration settings; the cluster instance having cluster instance elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a physical topology identifier, a logical topology identifier, a role, and configuration settings; and the datacenter instance having datacenter instance elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a physical topology identifier, a logical topology identifier, and configuration settings.

13 . The media of claim 10 , wherein the device level elements include one or more of: an identifier, a valid role, hardware information, an interface, firmware, and configuration settings.

14 . The media of claim 10 , wherein device level elements and attributes for the valid role for a blade are different from device level elements and attributes for the valid role for a device.

15 . The media of claim 10 , further comprising physical elements having:
rack level physical elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a valid role, an interface, a device, a blade, wiring rules, a device configuration, and blade configuration; cluster level physical elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a valid role, an interface, a device, wiring rules, and device configuration; and datacenter level physical elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a valid role, an interface, a device, a blade, wiring rules, and a device configuration.

16 . The media of claim 10 , further comprising logical elements having:
rack level logical elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a role, configuration settings, device roles, blade roles, and device configurations; cluster level logical elements comprising one or more of: an identifier, a role, configuration settings, device roles, a rack, device configurations, and a rack configurations; and datacenter level logical elements comprising one or more of:

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Jubran Marwan E
• Gershaft Aleksandr M
• Tsybulnyk Vitalii

Classifications

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/122 Primary

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L43/065

  related to network devices · CPC title