Methods and apparatus to manage application updates in a cloud environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9785426-B2
Application number	US-201514711821-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 14, 2015
Priority date	Feb 19, 2015
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems to manage application updates in a cloud environment are disclosed. Disclosed example methods include determining that a collector in a collector bank is available to process a task, the task to at least one of request an application version or request an application update and sending the task from a task queue to the collector to determine which compute node is to execute the task. Disclosed example methods also include enqueuing the task on a target queue based on a routing key assigned to the task by the collector, the routing key to specify the compute node to execute the task, and sending the task to the compute node associated with the target compute node queue.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to manage application updates in a cloud environment, comprising:
determining that a collector in a collector bank is available to process a version control task, the version control task to request an application version to manage an application update;
sending the version control task from a task queue to the collector to determine which compute node is to execute the version control task;
determining which compute node is to execute the version control task based on version information of applications installed on the compute nodes in the cloud environment;
enqueuing the version control task on a target queue based on a routing key assigned to the task by the collector, the routing key to specify the compute node to execute the version control task;
sending the version control task to the compute node associated with the target queue;
determining an availability of the collector in the collector bank to process a response received from the compute node, the response to indicate a result of the version control task;
sending the response from a response queue to the collector, the collector to process the response to update a version control database based on information in the response; and
when a combination of a size of the task queue and a size of the response queue is greater than a threshold for a period of time, sending a request to the collector bank to add an additional collector to the collector bank.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including when the size of the task queue is greater than a threshold size for a threshold duration, sending a request to the collector bank to add an additional collector to the collector bank.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including when the size of the task queue is less than a threshold size for a threshold duration, sending a request to the collector bank to terminate an existing collector in the collector bank.

4. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including when the combination of the size of the task queue and the size of the response queue is less than a threshold for a period of time, sending a request to the collector network to terminate an existing collector in the collector network.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including receiving the response in the response queue after the compute node at least one of (a) executes the version control task, or (b) proactively compares a version of an application executing on the compute node to a version of the application in an application repository.

6. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause at least one processor to:
determine that a collector in a collector bank is available to process a version control task, the version control task to request an application version to manage an application update;
send the version control task from a task queue to the collector;
determine which compute node is to execute the version control task based on version information of applications installed on the compute nodes in the cloud environment;
enqueue the version control task on a target queue based on a routing key assigned to the version control task by the collector, the routing key to specify the compute node to execute the version control task;
send the version control task to the compute node associated with the target queue;
determine an availability of the collector in the collector bank to process a response received from the compute node, the response to indicate a result of the version control task;
send the response from a response queue to the collector, the collector to process the response to update a version control database based on information in the response; and
send a request to the collector bank to add an additional collector to the collector bank when a combination of a size of the task queue and a size of the response queue is greater than a threshold for a period of time.

7. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to send a request to the collector bank to add an additional collector to the collector network when the size of the task queue is greater than a threshold size for a threshold duration.

8. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to send a request to the collector bank to terminate an existing collector in the collector bank when the size of the task queue is less than a threshold size for a threshold duration.

9. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to send a request to the collector bank to terminate an existing collector in the collector bank when the combination of the size of the task queue and the size of the response queue is less than a threshold size for a threshold duration.

10. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to receive the response in the response queue after the compute node at least one of (a) executes the version control task, or (b) proactively compares a version of an application executing on the compute node to a version of the application in an application repository.

11. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 6 , wherein the compute node is at least one of a non-virtualized physical host, a virtual machine, or a container.

12. A system to manage application updates in a cloud environment, comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to:
determine that a collector in a collector bank is available to process a version control task, the version control task to request an application version to manage an application update;
send the version control task from a task queue to the collector to determine which compute node is to execute the version control task;
determine which compute node is to execute the version control task based on version information of applications installed on the compute nodes in the cloud environment;
enqueue the version control task on a target queue based on a routing key assigned to the task by the collector, the routing key to specify the compute node to execute the version control task;
send the version control task to the compute node associated with the target queue;
determine an availability of the collector in the collector bank to process a response received from the compute node, the response to indicate a result of the version control task;
send the response from a response queue to the collector, the collector to process the response to update a version control database based on information in the response; and
when a combination of a size of the task queue and a size of the response queue is greater than a threshold for a period of time, send a request to the collector bank to add an additional collector to the collector bank.

13. The system as defined in claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to notify a message broker when the collector is available to process the version control task.

14. The system as defined in claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to send the version control task from the task queue to the collector in response to being n

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Madanapalli Narendra Prasad
• V Vinay
• Kamala Kannan Kumaran

Classifications

• H04L67/10

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

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F9/5027

  the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F9/50

  Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title