Abstract: Cloud computing is continuously growing as a business model for hosting information and communications technology applications. While the on-demand resource consumption and faster deployment time make this model appealing for the enterprise, other concerns arise regarding the quality of service offered by the cloud. The placement strategy of the virtual machines hosting the applications has a tremendous effect on the High Availability of the services provided by these applications hosted in the cloud. Systems and methods for scaling a virtualized application that take into consideration the interdependencies between the components of the applications and other constraints such as the communication delay tolerance and resource utilization are provided.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for automated employment of respective quota managers for framework instances, where the respective quota managers can negotiate amongst themselves to manage usage of a resource of a shared computing system in relation to a quota for the resource for a tenant of the shared computing system. This can allow tenants to share their quota among multiple frameworks, enable quota exchange between multiple frameworks, and choose a quota with a minimum costs, and thus maximize savings.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for automated employment of respective quota managers for framework instances, where the respective quota managers can negotiate amongst themselves to manage usage of a resource of a shared computing system in relation to a quota for the resource for a tenant of the shared computing system. This can allow tenants to share their quota among multiple frameworks, enable quota exchange between multiple frameworks, and choose a quota with a minimum costs, and thus maximize savings.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for processing requests, received from clients and peer nodes, in a leaderless cluster of nodes. A node can initiate a read or a write operation in the cluster. The node can solicit votes from its peer nodes in order to confirm that the requested operation should be performed. A threshold number of positive responses, such as a supermajority of the nodes in the cluster, can be required in order to confirm the requested operation.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for automated employment of respective quota managers for framework instances, where the respective quota managers can negotiate amongst themselves to manage usage of a resource of a shared computing system in relation to a quota for the resource for a tenant of the shared computing system. This can allow tenants to share their quota among multiple frameworks, enable quota exchange between multiple frameworks, and choose a quota with a minimum costs, and thus maximize savings.

Abstract: Cloud computing is continuously growing as a business model for hosting information and communications technology applications. While the on-demand resource consumption and faster deployment time make this model appealing for the enterprise, other concerns arise regarding the quality of service offered by the cloud. The placement strategy of the virtual machines hosting the applications has a tremendous effect on the High Availability of the services provided by these applications hosted in the cloud. Systems and methods for scaling a virtualized application that take into consideration the interdependencies between the components of the applications and other constraints such as the communication delay tolerance and resource utilization are provided.

Abstract: Cloud computing is continuously growing as a business model for hosting information and communications technology applications. While the on-demand resource consumption and faster deployment time make this model appealing for the enterprise, other concerns arise regarding the quality of service offered by the cloud. Systems and methods are provided for enabling disaster recovery of applications hosted in the cloud and for monitoring data center sites for failure.

Abstract: A middleware that manages high availability of a software application is automatically configured when the software application is added to a system. The method of automatic configuration includes receiving a user input that specifies availability requirements and information of the software application, where the availability requirements include at least a checkpoint service that enables the software application to save and retrieve its state. The method also includes identifying a checkpoint agent for providing the checkpoint service to the software application. The checkpoint agent includes a first interface to the software application and a second interface, different from the first interface, to the middleware.

Abstract: Redundancy models are compared to determine or assist in determining an Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration of a highly available system based on quantified service availability of the system. Each redundancy model defines assignments of service-instances to service-units. An analysis model of the system is constructed to capture recovery behaviors of the system for each redundancy model. Service availability of the system is quantified based on the analysis model under one or more scenarios including failure scenarios and recovery scenarios. Based on a comparison of service availability levels provided by the redundancy models and subject to constraints of the HA system, one of the redundancy models is identified that provides a required level of service availability for the system.

Abstract: A method and a system are provided for determining an AMF configuration of a highly available system with respect to whether to failover or restart a component when the component fails. The AMF configuration specifies at least two service-units containing components that represent resources, and a set of service-instances representing workload incurred by provision of services using the resources. The method identifies a failover duration and a restart duration for each component in a service-unit; and determines a failover outage and a restart outage for each service-instance impacted by a failure of a given component, based on the failover duration and the restart duration of each component in the service-unit. The method further determines whether to failover or to restart the given component if the given component fails, based on the failover outage and the restart outage of each service-instance impacted by the failure of the given component.

Abstract: An Entity Types File (ETF) is automatically generated from a high-level software description, where the software description describes software to be managed by middleware to achieve high availability. An ETF generation method comprises receiving the software description that describes interfaces and dependency between components of the software; verifying the software description in accordance with constraints imposed by middleware specifications; based on the verified software description, automatically creating a hierarchy of entity types and associations among the entity types compliant with the middleware specifications; and outputting the entity types and the associations as the ETF for subsequent generation of a configuration of the middleware for availability management.

Abstract: A method and a system are provided for determining an AMF configuration of a highly available system with respect to whether to failover or restart a component when the component fails. The AMF configuration specifies at least two service-units containing components that represent resources, and a set of service-instances representing workload incurred by provision of services using the resources. The method identifies a failover duration and a restart duration for each component in a service-unit; and determines a failover outage and a restart outage for each service-instance impacted by a failure of a given component, based on the failover duration and the restart duration of each component in the service-unit. The method further determines whether to failover or to restart the given component if the given component fails, based on the failover outage and the restart outage of each service-instance impacted by the failure of the given component.

Abstract: A middleware that manages high availability of a software application is automatically configured when the software application is added to a system. The method of automatic configuration includes receiving a user input that specifies availability requirements and information of the software application, where the availability requirements include at least a checkpoint service that enables the software application to save and retrieve its state. The method also includes identifying a checkpoint agent for providing the checkpoint service to the software application. The checkpoint agent includes a first interface to the software application and a second interface, different from the first interface, to the middleware.

Abstract: An Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration describes how configuration entities of a highly available system are grouped and includes information on service provision and service protection policies against resource failure. The AMF configuration defines a set of failure types for each component and each node, and specifies a failure rate and a recommended recovery for each failure type. A method for evaluating service availability receives the AMF configuration as input, and analyzes it to obtain an actual recovery that the highly available system is to perform when the given component fails. The method maps the AMF configuration to a stochastic model that captures the dependencies among the components and among the configuration entities at multiple levels of the hierarchy. The method utilizes the model to calculate the service availability of the AMF configuration based on the failure rate, the actual recovery and the dependencies.

Abstract: Presented are methods and apparatus for protecting a plurality of High Availability (HA) Service Instances (SIs) with a plurality of Service Units (SUs) with an Nway redundancy model. Any of the SUs associated with the Nway redundancy model can simultaneously be assigned an active HA state for some of the SIs and a standby HA state for other SIs. However, only one SU can have the active state for any given SI. The Nway redundancy model is a configured prior to runtime operation.

Abstract: Among other things, embodiments described herein enable systems, e.g., Availability Management Forum (AMF) systems, having service units to operate with balanced loads both before and after the failure of one of the service units. A configuration can be generated which provides for distributed backup roles and balanced active loads. When a failure of a service unit occurs, the active loads previously handled by that service unit are substantially evenly picked up as active loads by remaining service units.

Abstract: Configuration requirements for an Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration are generated from high level user requirements that specify a subset of properties of an AMF configuration. The user requirements are first mapped into entity prototypes defined in an extended Entity Types File (ETF) model. A computer system identifies additional entity prototypes and dependency thereof that support functionalities of the mapped entity prototypes under a set of grouping conditions. The computer system calculates the required number of component service instances (CSIs) and service instances (SIs) that satisfy the user requirements. The calculation is based on the subset of the properties specified by the user requirements and measurements associated with the entity prototypes in the extended ETF model. The computer system then forms configuration requirements including the required number of CSIs and SIs for generating the AMF configuration that satisfies the user requirements.

Abstract: Redundancy models are compared to determine or assist in determining an Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration of a highly available system based on quantified service availability of the system. Each redundancy model defines assignments of service-instances to service-units. An analysis model of the system is constructed to capture recovery behaviors of the system for each redundancy model. Service availability of the system is quantified based on the analysis model under one or more scenarios including failure scenarios and recovery scenarios. Based on a comparison of service availability levels provided by the redundancy models and subject to constraints of the HA system, one of the redundancy models is identified that provides a required level of service availability for the system.

Abstract: Among other things, embodiments described herein enable systems, e.g., Availability Management Forum (AMF) systems, having service units to operate with balanced loads both before and after the failure of one of the service units. A method for balancing standby workload assignments and active workload assignments for a group of service units in a system which employs an N+M redundancy model, wherein N service units are active service units and M service units are standby service units is described. An active workload that the N active service units need to handle is calculated and each of the N active service units in the group is provided with an active workload assignment based on the calculated active workload. Standby workload assignments are distributed among the M standby service units substantially equally.

Abstract: Configuration requirements for an Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration are generated from high level user requirements that specify a subset of properties of an AMF configuration. The user requirements are first mapped into entity prototypes defined in an extended Entity Types File (ETF) model. A computer system identifies additional entity prototypes and dependency thereof that support functionalities of the mapped entity prototypes under a set of grouping conditions. The computer system calculates the required number of component service instances (CSIs) and service instances (SIs) that satisfy the user requirements. The calculation is based on the subset of the properties specified by the user requirements and measurements associated with the entity prototypes in the extended ETF model. The computer system then forms configuration requirements including the required number of CSIs and SIs for generating the AMF configuration that satisfies the user requirements.