Cloud Cluster Configuration Validation Service
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The complexity of deploying computing clusters hosted in the cloud, involving multiple software components and providers, often results in configuration errors due to typographical mistakes and conflicting settings, leading to deployment failures.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that provides a user interface to guide configuration settings for processing and storage resources, checks for conflicts, and generates a configuration script to ensure interoperability and optimal resource allocation in a computing cluster, using a combination of hosting services, resource allocation routines, and support routines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple different scripting languages and APIs are used to configure diverse software components, then the system can support more software providers and resource allocation routines, but the complexity of deployment increases and configuration errors become more frequent
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a configuration validation service that acts as an intermediary between the configuration files and the deployment process. This service validates configurations against a service model before deployment, catching errors early and preventing conflicts between different scripting languages and APIs. The validation service translates and verifies configurations across multiple software providers (Kubernetes, SAS Viya, cloud providers) using a unified service model, thereby maintaining software compatibility while reducing deployment complexity.
2Reliability
If manual configuration checking is performed to detect conflicts, then deployment accuracy can be improved, but the time required for configuration and setup increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary validation of configuration files against the service model before the actual deployment process begins. The configuration validation service checks for conflicts, typographical errors, and incompatibilities in advance, generating error messages that guide users to correct issues before deployment. This preliminary action ensures deployment accuracy while minimizing configuration time by preventing errors from propagating through the deployment process.
Solution Approach 2:
The validation service provides immediate feedback to users about configuration errors, conflicts, and incompatibilities. When configuration files are submitted, the service validates them against the service model and returns specific error messages indicating what is wrong and how to fix it. This feedback loop enables users to quickly correct configuration issues without lengthy manual checking or trial-and-error deployment attempts.
3Reliability
If comprehensive validation of configuration settings is performed, then deployment errors are reduced, but the processing overhead during configuration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements validation that focuses on the most critical configuration elements and common error patterns. Rather than performing exhaustive validation of every possible configuration parameter, the service validates against the essential service model requirements and checks for the most frequent types of errors (typographical mistakes, conflicting settings, incompatibilities). This partial validation approach achieves high deployment success rates while minimizing processing overhead by avoiding unnecessary validation of already-correct or less-critical configuration aspects.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus includes at least one node device to host a computing cluster, and at least one processor to generate a UI providing guidance through a set of configuration settings for the computing cluster, wherein, for each configuration setting that is received as an input during configuration, the at least one processor is caused to: perform a check of the set of configuration settings to determine whether the received configuration setting creates a conflict among the set of configuration settings; and in response to a determination that the received configuration setting creates a conflict among the set of configuration settings, perform operations including generate an indication of the conflict for presentation by the UI, and receive a change to a configuration setting as an input from the input device.