Container Management Service for Distributed Task Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
In distributed computing environments, coordinating and managing numerous containers that work together to form a distributed system is challenging due to their isolated nature, making it difficult to coordinate tasks across different customer applications.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for collecting and distributing information associated with customer tasks using task definition templates with substitution elements, which are populated with values ascertainable during task scheduling, assignment, and execution, allowing for monitoring and coordination through a computing resource management service and task management agents.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If containers are used to provide isolated execution environments for customer tasks, then flexibility in deployment and control over computing resources are improved, but coordination across different customer tasks becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a container management service as an intermediary between isolated containers. This service maintains task definition templates that store metadata about each containerized task, enabling coordination without breaking isolation. The service acts as a mediator that facilitates communication and coordination while preserving the beneficial isolation of containers.
Solution Approach 2:
The container management service provides multiple functions: it maintains task definition templates, coordinates task execution, manages metadata, and enables communication between containers. This multi-functional approach allows a single service to handle various coordination needs across the distributed container ecosystem.
2Loss of information
If task definition templates with substitution elements are used to collect and distribute information, then monitoring and coordination capabilities are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-defines task definition templates with substitution elements before task execution. These templates anticipate what information will be needed and prepare the structure in advance, with placeholders that will be filled with actual values during task lifecycle events. This preliminary preparation reduces the complexity of ad-hoc information gathering.
Solution Approach 2:
The task definition templates automatically populate substitution elements with values from the task lifecycle. The system self-services by automatically collecting and distributing task information through the templates without requiring manual intervention, reducing operational complexity while improving information accessibility.
Data Source
AI summary
The present document describes systems and methods for collecting and distributing information associated with distributed tasks. The information is collected using task definition templates which are provided to a computing resource management service. The task definition templates include substitution elements that act as placeholders for desired information. The values associated with the substitution elements are collected by the computing resource management service, and by agents that maintain access to the task computing environment. Various substitution elements are populated when an associated task is scheduled, assigned to a computing resource, started, completed, or removed from the system. The information is made available via an application programming interface, thereby enabling coordination between tasks as well as overall application management.