Unified Data Service for Virtualization Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
In software-defined data centers, clients face inefficiencies in fetching and updating data managed by virtualization management software due to the need to integrate with multiple services and APIs, leading to complex and scalable challenges.
Innovation Solution
A unified data service is introduced that receives client requests, plans operations to access object data, invokes APIs of virtualization management services through a unified data library, and forwards results, enabling efficient data fetching and updating across a cluster of hosts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If clients integrate with multiple virtualization management services and APIs to fetch data objects, then data access functionality is achieved, but system complexity and integration difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a unified data service as an intermediary layer between clients and multiple virtualization management services. This mediator consolidates numerous service-specific APIs into a single standardized interface, allowing clients to access data from multiple services without managing complex integration logic directly. The unified data service handles the complexity of service discovery, data aggregation, and format normalization, thereby resolving the contradiction between achieving comprehensive data access functionality and maintaining integration simplicity.
2Reliability
If clients track incremental updates to data objects over time, then data synchronization is improved, but the number of required API operations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous data synchronization through a publishing/subscription model where the unified data service maintains persistent connections to data sources and automatically pushes updates to subscribed clients. Instead of clients repeatedly polling for changes or managing numerous individual update subscriptions across multiple services, the system establishes continuous observation channels that deliver updates as they occur. This continuous action mechanism maintains reliable data synchronization while significantly reducing the operational overhead of tracking incremental changes across multiple APIs.
3Adaptability or versatility
If virtualization management software uses a distributed architecture with multiple services, then system scalability is improved, but the number of data sources and integration points increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal data access interface that serves multiple virtualization management services through a single standardized API. The unified data service implements multi-functionality by abstracting service-specific data structures into a common data model, enabling the same client code to access data from various services without modification. This universal interface approach allows the system to scale by adding new services while maintaining a constant, simplified integration surface for clients, thereby resolving the contradiction between scalability and integration complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An example method of accessing object data managed by virtual infrastructure (VI) services of virtualization management software that manages a cluster of hosts in a data center and a virtualization layer executing in the cluster of hosts includes: receiving, from a client at a unified data service executing in the virtualization management software, a request for accessing the object data; planning, in response to the request, an operation to access the object data that targets a first VI service of the VI services; invoking, in response to the operation, an application programming interface (API) of the first VI service to access the object data, the API being exposed by a unified data library integrated with the first VI service; and forwarding, from the unified data service to the client, a result of accessing the object data.