Virtual Machine Pool Reuse via Writable Partition Erasure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cloud computing methods require significant cloud resources for provisioning new virtual machines, as the pool of available virtual machines is populated only with newly provisioned machines, leading to inefficient resource utilization and prolonged workload deployment times.
Innovation Solution
A method that allows the pool of available virtual machines to be populated with previously terminated machines by creating a writable partition for middleware and user activity, mounting it in storage, unmounting and erasing it upon termination, and returning the virtual machine to the pool, thereby reducing resource-intensive provisioning tasks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If a pool of pre-deployed virtual machines is created to reduce provisioning burden at deployment time, then virtual machine deployment time is reduced, but cloud resources are heavily utilized during the pre-deployment provisioning phase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a mechanism where terminated virtual machine instances are recovered and returned to the available pool for reuse. When a virtual machine is terminated, its instance is not discarded but rather restored to the pool of available virtual machines, allowing it to be allocated to new workloads. This recovering process eliminates the need for complete re-provisioning and reduces cloud resource utilization during deployment phases.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes a pool of pre-deployed virtual machine instances that are prepared in advance and made available for immediate allocation. These pre-provisioned instances undergo initial setup, operating system loading, and configuration beforehand, so that when workloads need virtual machines, they can be rapidly allocated from the existing pool without undergoing the entire provisioning process again.
2Reliability
If only newly provisioned virtual machines are used to populate the available pool, then virtual machine instances are fresh and reliable, but cloud resources are continuously consumed for provisioning new machines
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a mechanism where terminated virtual machine instances are recovered and returned to the available pool for reuse. When a virtual machine is terminated, its instance is not discarded but rather restored to the pool of available virtual machines, allowing it to be allocated to new workloads. This recovering process eliminates the need for complete re-provisioning and reduces cloud resource utilization during deployment phases.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a writable partition that serves as a template or copy mechanism. When virtual machine instances are returned to the pool, their state can be replicated and reused for new allocations. The writable partition allows for creating copies of virtual machine configurations and states, enabling efficient population of the available pool without provisioning entirely new instances from scratch.
3Productivity
If virtual machine instances are reused from the pool, then provisioning costs are reduced, but there is a risk of residual data from previous users remaining
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates the writable partition that contains user-specific data and activity from the core virtual machine instance. By separating this writable partition, the system can selectively clear or reset only the data-containing partition while preserving the underlying virtual machine instance for reuse. This extraction mechanism allows safe recycling of virtual machine instances without compromising security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a mechanism where terminated virtual machine instances are recovered and returned to the available pool for reuse. When a virtual machine is terminated, its instance is not discarded but rather restored to the pool of available virtual machines, allowing it to be allocated to new workloads. This recovering process eliminates the need for complete re-provisioning and reduces cloud resource utilization during deployment phases.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, system and computer program product for optimizing cloud resources in utilizing a pool of virtual machines to service user workloads. A writeable partition is created to store middleware and user activity associated with a virtual machine obtained from a pool of available virtual machines to be deployed. In response to the obtained virtual machine being terminated, the contents of the created writeable partition are erased so that the data generated by the middleware and user activity will not be available for subsequent users. The virtual machine is later returned to the pool of available virtual machines after resetting its password and network address to a default state. In this manner, fewer cloud resources are used since resource intensive activities that were required in provisioning a new virtual machine can be eliminated since previously terminated virtual machines can be utilized in the pool of available virtual machines.