Managing a set of assets for a user in a shared pool of configurable computing resources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9870260-B2
Application number	US-201514663977-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2015
Priority date	Mar 20, 2015
Publication date	Jan 16, 2018
Grant date	Jan 16, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed aspects include managing a set of assets for a user in a shared pool of configurable computing resources. The shared pool of configurable computing resources has a set of virtual machines. A set of usage data for the user is established. The set of usage data corresponds to usage of an asset by the user. Based on the set of usage data for the user, an asset action for the asset for the user on a virtual machine is determined. In response to determining the asset action for the asset, the asset action for the asset for the user on the virtual machine is selected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a set of assets, wherein each asset in the set of assets includes a particular application for a user in a shared pool of configurable computing resources having a set of virtual machines, the method comprising:
monitoring asset activity data for the user across both the shared pool of configurable computing resources and the set of virtual machines;
establishing a set of usage data for the user, the set of usage data corresponding to a usage of an asset by the user, the set of usage data including asset usage by the user for a temporal period below a threshold value, the set of usage data further including asset activity data for the user across both the shared pool of configurable computing resources and the set of virtual machines, wherein the establishing the set of usage data includes creating a user profile for the user, the user profile including a dependency catalog;
determining, based on the set of usage data for the user, an asset action for the asset for the user on at least one of the set of virtual machines, wherein the determining the asset action for the asset includes:
determining asset dependency relationship and user dependency relationship from the dependency catalog;
determining usage score based on the asset usage by the user for the temporal period below the threshold value and the asset activity data for the user; and
determining that the asset dependency relationship, user dependency relationship, and usage score meet a criterion for the asset action;

selecting, in response to determining the asset action for the asset, the asset action for the asset for the user on the at least one of the set of virtual machines; and
performing the asset action for the asset for the user on the at least one of the set of virtual machines, wherein the asset action is selected from the group consisting of:
preventing an installation of the asset for the user,
removing the asset for the user, and
hibernating the asset for the user on the at least one of the set of virtual machines.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the at least one of the set of virtual machines without the asset to perform the asset action for the asset for the user on the at least one of the set of virtual machines, wherein the asset action for the asset includes preventing the installation of the asset, and wherein the asset includes the particular application.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
metering, in response to selecting the asset action for the asset, use of the at least one of the set of virtual machines, wherein metering use of the virtual machine includes:
monitoring, relating to serving the user, use of the at least one of the set of virtual machines with respect to use by the user,
detecting, relating to serving the user, use of the at least one of the set of virtual machines with respect to use by the user, and
calculating, relating to serving the user, use of the at least one of the set of virtual machines with respect to use by the user; and

generating an invoice based on the metered use.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
determining a projected meter value for the at least one of the set of virtual machines with the asset, wherein the projected meter value indicates an expected use prediction without managing the set of assets;
determining, by comparing the metered use with the projected meter value, a benefit value; and
providing the benefit value to the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring activity by the user across one or more cloud environments to obtain the asset activity data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, to the user, a notification which indicates the asset action for the asset.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, via the administrator, the threshold value.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising hibernating the asset for the user in response to detecting a user dependency relationship with respect to another user when the another user is at least partially dependent on the user.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the asset action for the asset for the user on the at least one of the set of virtual machines in response to detecting a triggering event related to a maintenance operation, wherein the maintenance operation is selected from the group consisting of: write, read, cleanup, allocate, deallocate, running statistics, startup, and shutdown.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the triggering event related to the maintenance operation includes a maintenance timeframe and an action schedule, wherein the action schedule is selected from the group consisting of: asset initiation, asset closure, and job running.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
mapping, to form the dependency catalog, reliance of a first asset with respect to a second asset.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
mapping, to form the dependency catalog, reliance of a first user with respect to a second user.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
mapping, to form the dependency catalog, reliance of a specific asset with respect to a specific user.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
carrying-out, to provision computing capabilities automatically without human interaction, each of: the establishing, the determining, the selecting, and the performing.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
freeing, by performing the asset action for the asset for the user on the at least one of the set of virtual machines, a set of resources with respect to a current user.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shared pool of configurable computing resources includes a hybrid computing environment and the set of virtual machines includes both a set of on-premises virtual machines and a set of off-premises virtual machines.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Cao Bin
• Carey James E
• Manning Bradley L

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F8/61

  Installation · CPC title

• G06F9/5077

  Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455) · CPC title

• G06F2201/81

  Threshold · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title