Two-Node HCI Gateway with Self-Hosted HMS
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing approaches for creating a high-availability private cloud gateway require human intervention and result in a sub-optimal hardware footprint due to the need for separate infrastructure to host the Hypervisor Management System, which can be costly and inefficient, especially when using three-node or more configurations.
Innovation Solution
A programmatically automated method to create a high-availability private cloud gateway using a two-node Hyperconverged Infrastructure cluster, where a centralized SaaS portal leverages geographically distributed base stations to bootstrap the necessary hardware and deploy a self-hosted Hypervisor Management System within the HCI cluster, minimizing human intervention and hardware requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a separate infrastructure is used to host the Hypervisor Management System, then the system achieves high availability, but the hardware footprint and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the Hypervisor Management System with the HCI cluster infrastructure, eliminating the need for separate hosting infrastructure. The HMS is deployed as a virtual machine within the HCI cluster itself, merging management functions with the infrastructure they manage. This resolves the contradiction by achieving high availability through the clustered architecture while minimizing hardware footprint by eliminating redundant separate infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The HCI cluster nodes serve dual purposes: they function as both infrastructure components and as hosts for the Hypervisor Management System. The cluster provides both the computational resources for workloads and the management plane for the hypervisor, making the infrastructure universal and multi-functional. This reduces hardware requirements while maintaining high availability capabilities.
2Ease of operation
If manual configuration is used to create the private cloud gateway, then customization and control are improved, but the time and complexity of deployment increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary configuration actions through automated provisioning workflows that pre-configure the HCI cluster, deploy the Hypervisor Management System, and establish the private cloud gateway before actual use. Templates and automation scripts prepare the infrastructure in advance, reducing deployment time while maintaining customization capabilities through configurable parameters in the automation workflows.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service deployment through automated provisioning that allows customers to independently create and configure their private cloud gateways without manual intervention. The automation workflows provide self-configuring capabilities where the system automatically detects hardware, provisions software components, and configures services based on customer specifications, reducing both deployment time and operational complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments described herein are generally directed to a creation of an HA private cloud gateway based on a two-node HCI cluster with a self-hosted HMS. According to an example, a request to register a private cloud to be supported by on-premises infrastructure is received by a SaaS portal, which causes a base station to discover servers within the on-premises infrastructure. The base station is then instructed to prepare a server as a deployment node for use in connection with creation of a cluster of two HCI nodes of the servers to represent the HA private cloud gateway, including installing a seed HMS on the deployment node. The base station is further instructed to cause the seed HMS to create the cluster, install a self-hosted HMS within the cluster to manage the cluster, register the cluster to the self-hosted HMS, and finally delete the seed HMS from the deployment node.