Methods and apparatus to configure virtual resource managers for use in virtual server rack deployments for virtual computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9882969-B2
Application number	US-201514796803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 10, 2015
Priority date	Jul 11, 2014
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

An example method includes configuring a network to facilitate communications between a first virtual resource manager (VRM) in a first physical rack and a second VRM in a second physical rack. The first VRM manages first physical resources in the first physical rack. The second VRM manages second physical resources in the second physical rack. A primary election process determines one of the first or second VRMs to operate as a primary VRM for a virtual server rack. The virtual server rack is based on the first physical resources and the second physical resources. When the first VRM is the elected primary VRM, the first VRM is registered as the primary VRM. When the first VRM is not the elected primary VRM, the first VRM is registered as a secondary VRM, and a watch object is created to monitor for a failure or unavailability of the primary VRM.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to operate a virtual resource manager, the method comprising:
in response to a power-on event, configuring a network to facilitate communications between a first virtual resource manager in a first physical rack and a second virtual resource manager in a second physical rack, the first virtual resource manager to present a first logical resource provisioning of first physical hardware resources in the first physical rack to first virtualization components in the first physical rack, and the second virtual resource manager to present a second logical resource provisioning of second physical hardware resources in the second physical rack to second virtualization components in the second physical rack, the first virtual resource manager to translate the first logical resource provisioning to an allocation of the first physical hardware resources for use by a virtual server rack and the second virtual resource manager to translate the second logical resource provisioning to an allocation of the second physical hardware resources for use by the virtual server rack, the first virtualization components and the second virtualization components to execute workloads using the first logical resource provisioning and the second logical resource provisioning supported by the first physical hardware resources and second physical hardware resources;
performing a primary election process to determine one of the first or second virtual resource managers to operate as a primary virtual resource manager for the virtual server rack, the virtual server rack being an abstraction of the allocation of the first physical hardware resources of the first physical rack and the allocation of the second physical hardware resources of the second physical rack;
when the first virtual resource manager is the elected primary virtual resource manager, registering the first virtual resource manager as the primary virtual resource manager; and
when the first virtual resource manager is not the elected primary virtual resource manager:
registering the first virtual resource manager as a secondary virtual resource manager, and
creating a watch object to monitor for a failure or unavailability of the primary virtual resource manager.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein when the first virtual resource manager is the primary virtual resource manager and the second virtual resource manager is the secondary virtual resource manager, the primary virtual resource manager manages the first physical hardware resources of the first physical rack and delegates instructions to the secondary virtual resource manager to cause the secondary virtual resource manager to manage the second physical hardware resources of the second physical rack.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising when the primary virtual resource manager fails, performing the primary election process to determine another one of the first or second virtual resource managers to operate as the primary virtual resource manager.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising, in response to the power-on event, sending an election initialization message from the first virtual resource manager to the second virtual resource manager to begin the primary election process.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving a response message at the first virtual resource manager from the second virtual resource manager, the response message including configuration information of the second virtual resource manager; and
performing the primary election process at the first virtual resource manager to elect the primary virtual resource manager based on the configuration information.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the registering of the first virtual resource manager as the primary virtual resource manager includes registering the first virtual resource manager as the primary virtual resource manager in a zookeeper of the first virtual resource manager.

7. A method as defined in claim 6 , wherein the zookeeper is a cluster configuration manager to monitor and synchronize at least one of data or tasks across the first and second physical racks, the at least one of data or tasks pertaining to management processes of the first and second virtual resource managers to manage the first and second physical hardware resources.

8. An apparatus comprising:
a network virtualizer to, in response to a power-on event, configure a network to facilitate communications between a first virtual resource manager in a first physical rack and a second virtual resource manager in a second physical rack, the first virtual resource manager to present a first logical resource provisioning of first physical hardware resources in the first physical rack to first virtualization components in the first physical rack, and the second virtual resource manager to present a second logical resource provisioning of second physical hardware resources in the second physical rack to second virtualization components in the second physical rack, the first virtual resource manager to translate the first logical resource provisioning to an allocation of the first physical hardware resources for use by a virtual server rack and the second virtual resource manager to translate the second logical resource provisioning to an allocation of the second physical hardware resources for use by the virtual server rack, respectively, the first virtualization components and the second virtualization components to execute workloads using the first logical resource provisioning and the second logical resource provisioning supported by the first physical hardware resources and second physical hardware resources;
an election manager to perform a primary election process to determine one of the first or second virtual resource managers to operate as a primary virtual resource manager for the virtual server rack, the virtual server rack being an abstraction of the allocation of the first physical hardware resources of the first physical rack and the allocation of the second physical hardware resources of the second physical rack;
a processor to:
when the first virtual resource manager is the elected primary virtual resource manager, register the first virtual resource manager as the primary virtual resource manager; and
when the first virtual resource manager is not the elected primary virtual resource manager:
register the first virtual resource manager as a secondary virtual resource manager, and
create a watch object to monitor for a failure or unavailability of the primary virtual resource manager.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein, when the first virtual resource manager is the primary virtual resource manager and the second virtual resource manager is the secondary virtual resource manager, the primary virtual resource manager is to manage the first physical hardware resources of the first physical rack and is to delegate instructions to the secondary virtual resource manager to cause the secondary virtual resource manager to manage the second physical hardware resources of the second physical rack.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein when the primary virtual resource manager fails, the election manager is to perform the primary election process to determine another one of the first or second virtual resource managers to operate as the primary virtual resource manager.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein, in response to the power-on event, the election manager is to send an election initialization message from the first virtual resource manager to the second virtual resource manager to begin the primary election process.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Reddy Thirumalesh
• Yavatkar Raj
• Indireddy Sreekantha
• Ankala Shreekanth

Classifications

• H04L47/70

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• H04L67/10 Primary

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

• H04L41/5096

  wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications · CPC title

• H04L43/0852

  Delays · CPC title