System Resource Groups for Virtual Entity Policy Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current managed systems environments face challenges in integrating and correlating heterogeneous entities due to the dynamic nature of virtualization, lack of mechanisms for holistic management, and difficulties in tracking relationships between entities for provisioning, resiliency, chargeback, and reporting.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of system resource groups (SRGs) that organize virtual heterogeneous entities into a container mechanism, allowing for the application of high-level policies and enabling group-oriented provisioning, network access control, and consistency groups for replication, while providing a level of service through a policy framework for tiered management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If virtualization is implemented to support heterogeneous entities, then system flexibility and resource utilization are improved, but tracking relationships between entities and maintaining consistency becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces system resource groups as intermediary containers that organize virtual heterogeneous entities. These SRGs serve as mediators between individual entities and policy management, providing a hierarchical structure that simplifies relationship tracking while maintaining the flexibility of virtualization. The SRGs capture relationships between entities without requiring direct tracking of all entity interactions.
2Ease of operation
If administrators manually manage each heterogeneous entity, then detailed control over individual entities is achieved, but integration and correlation across multiple entities becomes increasingly difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual entity management tasks into unified system resource groups. By combining related virtual entities into SRGs, administrators can manage groups of entities collectively while still maintaining the ability to control individual entities when needed. This hierarchical approach reduces integration complexity by providing both granular and aggregate management capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system resource groups serve multiple functions simultaneously: they organize entities, define relationships, enforce policies, and provide correlation across different entity types. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate mechanisms for each management task, simplifying the overall integration process while maintaining detailed control capabilities.
3Loss of information
If frequent correlation and analysis are performed to understand entity relationships, then accurate system state information is obtained, but system performance and stability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes system resource groups and their relationships in advance, before runtime correlations are needed. By pre-defining the hierarchical structure and relationships between entities within SRGs, the system reduces the need for frequent runtime analysis. The pre-established framework enables efficient correlation while minimizing performance impact and maintaining system stability.
Data Source
AI summary
Policies are implemented in a managed systems. Virtual heterogeneous entities are organized into a system resource group (SRG) hosted on a virtual volume that is accessed via a virtualization machine. Each of the virtual heterogeneous entities are visible to an application operable on the managed systems environment. The system resource group is subject to at least one membership requirement, defines a relationship between at least two of the virtual heterogeneous entities, contains at least one policy defining an operation as to be performed on the system resource group for a domain of the managed systems environment, and defines at least a portion of a policy framework between the system resource group and an additional system resource group organized from additional virtual heterogeneous entities. The system resource group expands according to an action performed incorporating the relationship, policy, or policy framework.