TWI516951B - Method for encapsulating functions for application programming interfaces in a cloud environment - Google Patents

Description

Method of encapsulating functionality for application interfaces in a cloud environment

The present invention relates to a method of packaging functionality for an application interface. Especially about a way to encapsulate functionality for application interfaces in a cloud environment.

Cloud computing is not a new technology. It is based on the concept of computer technology applications and evolves into a kind of cross-network exchange. The term "cloud" means the network. Cloud computing is a combination of network communication and computing work of multiple computers. Through the connection of the Internet, the services provided by the remote host are obtained. Cloud computing was first proposed by Amazon. Because of the online shopping platform, Google and Microsoft also proposed.

Cloud computing is a new application for distributed computing. A request (probably a large arithmetic handler) is automatically split into several smaller subroutines that are sent over the network to a large system that includes several servers. After searching, operating and analyzing, the system issues A response to the request is given to the user. Through this technology, Internet service providers can process millions or even tens of millions of information to achieve network services in seconds, and their service performance is no worse than a super computer.

Cloud computing is also a shared IT architecture, such as the same large virtual server. Many computer systems are linked into a large repository for IT services. Because cloud computing utilizes virtual resources, it is not limited by remote or near-end computer hardware. Cloud computing has a strong need for storage capacity, so this will drive demand for disk arrays.

Many cloud environments can be defined in terms of the different services supported by cloud computing and the objects provided by the service. For example, private clouds, public clouds, community clouds, and hybrid clouds can all be found on the Internet. Although these "cloud" operating systems, capacity, service objects and resources are not the same, there is a tendency for some clouds to be integrated to provide a wider range of services or to share their resources. Nowadays, open source projects or software that achieve the above goals are easy to obtain, and Openstack is an example.

With the development of all clouds in the open source cloud computing platform, there are many hardware problems to overcome, such as hardware-to-cloud compatibility. For a compute node environment, it typically provides an application interface that is shared by a device (for example, a hard drive and its device drivers for the Windows platform). Each device vendor needs to build a device driver that supports the application interface to provide services for its device. However, if the device driver needs to extend service and/or compute node environment changes (eg, Windows platform upgrade to The new version), each vendor will add a lot of work to rewrite the device driver. The above problem only occurs on a single platform (operating system). If this problem is related to another cloud, it is more complicated and difficult to solve.

At the same time, there are many electrical devices that are "smart", which means that the electrical devices used to be stand-alone, but can now be driven by a central processing unit and connected to the network for remote control. For example, a cloud printer is an example. Where possible, home appliances, such as refrigerators, can also be controlled by users in the cloud. A compatibility application interface for the central processing unit or a computing node connected to the electrical device should be provided for each relevant cloud environment. However, new appliances that are used in the cloud may require a new application interface or be modified into an available application interface using an existing application interface with similar functionality. This encountered a similar problem as described above.

Although cloud computing can provide convenient and powerful services, the compatibility of related hardware in the cloud environment is the first problem encountered before the cloud interoperates. Therefore, it is hoped that there is a way to solve the problem for the service device in the cloud environment, which can encapsulate the necessary functions for the application interface.

As mentioned above, the application interface may not be able to support all of the service devices connected to compute nodes in a particular compute node environment. Therefore, for service devices in the cloud environment, a way to encapsulate the necessary functionality for the application interface is needed.

Therefore, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method for encapsulating a function of an application interface in a cloud environment is provided, the method comprising the steps of: A. providing an application interface supported by a driver; B. In a computing node environment, the application interface can be used for a service device, the application interface is inherited into a new category; C. the extension function is extended to the service device; and D. the driver is repackaged. The application interface that conforms to this inheritance.

The method further includes the following steps between step B and step C: B1. providing a function set containing functions that can be used for the service device; B2. comparing functions of the driver with functions of the function set; B3. Taking at least one function in the function set is the extension function, and the at least one function is not included in the driver.

Preferably, the method further comprises a step between step B and step C: B4. collecting at least one function of the driver that is not included in the function set to the function set.

In accordance with the present invention, the application interface is usable when the application interface is capable of running the service device and is compatible with the computing node environment. The cloud environment is built by open source software or private software, and the service device is a storage device or a peripheral device.

Here, the storage device is a re-recordable optical disk drive, a read only memory optical disk drive, a hard disk, a solid state hard disk, a memory module, a tape drive, or any device capable of storing data. The peripheral equipment is a printing machine, audio equipment, video equipment Equipment, monitors, surveillance cameras, home appliances or any device that can work offline (network). The computing node environment can update its operating system to a new version that is compatible with the latest version of the operating system. The computing node environment includes a computing node, which is a server or a personal computer.

By applying the present invention, drivers from many vendors can be converted into a specific driver and packaged in an application interface, especially for open source cloud environments, such as those provided by Openstack. Thus, by using a new driver (inherited application interface), it can provide management services for computing nodes (such as Nova computer nodes) in an open source cloud environment. This is also a way for service devices in the cloud environment to encapsulate the necessary functionality for the application interface.

100‧‧‧Application Server

200‧‧‧Storage server

205‧‧‧ docking station module

210‧‧‧ Hard disk

220‧‧‧ Hard disk

230‧‧‧ Hard disk

240‧‧‧ Hard disk

250‧‧‧ Hard disk

Figure 1 shows the basic equipment of a cloud environment.

2 is a flow diagram of an application interface encapsulation function in a cloud environment in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 is another flow diagram of the application interface encapsulation functionality in a cloud environment in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 4 is yet another flow diagram of the application interface encapsulation functionality in a cloud environment in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 5 illustrates the access of five hard disks to a compute node in accordance with the present invention.

The invention will be more specifically described by reference to the following examples.

Please see Figure 1. In a cloud environment, there are many compute nodes, each of which can have a specific function. For example, an application server 100 can access all computing nodes (not all computing nodes) in the entire cloud system, and includes a storage server 200. In this cloud environment, each compute node can have the same or different operating systems. Even though some compute nodes use the same operating system, there may be differences in versions. A service device connected to a compute node may encounter problems updating drivers of different operating versions to the relevant application interface. The installation of a new service device or the update of an old service device may be another different scenario.

In one embodiment, storage server 200 manages five hard disks 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250. In practice, the storage server 200 can be a personal computer equipped with a server operating system that can perform other tasks offline. The hard disks 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250 are disk arrays, each of which has a storage management module (not shown), and manages operations according to commands from the driver through the application interface of the storage server 200. . One of them needs to be repaired and replaced with a new one. The hard disk 210 is depicted as the new hard disk, which is a different brand of hard disk, providing the same functions as other hard disks but the driver is not with. When the hard disk 210 is set up and connected to the storage server 200, it is not compatible with the storage server 200, and some functions cannot be performed. According to the present invention, this problem can now be solved. Please refer to Figure 2, the flow is as follows. First, a pair of station modules 205 in the storage server 200 obtains an application interface (S11) provided by a driver and tests whether the application interface can be used for a hard disk in a computing node environment. 210. Here, the docking station module 205 can be a physical module or a software installed in the storage server 200. Preferably, the docking station module 205 is software-defined. The compute node environment contains the current version of the operating system. The application interface is available when the application interface can run the hard disk 210 and is compatible with the compute node environment. If the test result is correct, the docking station module 205 will inherit the application interface into a new category (S12), and define it as an inherited application interface for later explanation.

Next, the storage server 200 will attempt to verify if there is an extension of the driver of some of the hard disks 210. The computing node environment disclosed in this embodiment operates under an open source software, Openstack. Therefore, based on managing different storage uses, all hard disk vendors provide their hard disk drive drivers to Openstack's Cinder module. Typically, the disk driver only supports a limited number of functions, such as create, delete, assign, unassign, and volume, which are basic functions in the application interface. Can be left to use. For some other functions, such as displaying basic data, setting data, Volume creation, access to these materials, etc. in the specified pool may not be included in the functionality of the application interface. However, these functions are available to the driver of the hard disk 210. Therefore, the docking station module 205 will be hard disks 220, 230, 240 and 250, and these functions are extended to the driver (S13) to repackage the driver to conform to the inherited application interface (S14). ).

It should be emphasized that the cloud environment can be built by open source software or proprietary software. Therefore, the software used is not limited to Openstack, other suitable open source or proprietary software, or even an existing platform can be considered. It is clear from the present embodiment that the computing node (storage server 200) is responsible for accessing the hard disk. In fact, the compute node can be a server that manages several other devices, such as other storage devices or peripheral devices (service devices). For example, a server can be used to control several reproducible disc players to read and write data. It can be a storage device, not limited to hard drives and re-recordable disc players, but also includes a read-only memory disc drive, a solid state drive, a memory module, a tape drive, or any device that can store data. Similarly, a compute node can also be used to manage certain other devices, such as peripherals that have specific functions and can perform offline (network) jobs. A good example is a remote surveillance camera. Each identified client can view live video provided by several installed surveillance cameras via a cloud system. The remote surveillance camera can also operate in an open environment (connected to the network). However, when a surveillance camera needs to be replaced in a surveillance system, as in the embodiment described above The same demand has arisen. For these devices, additional functionality can be added to the relevant application interface in accordance with the same procedure as outlined above. It is worth noting that in practice, peripheral devices can be printers, audio equipment, video equipment, monitors or home appliances. In particular, for home appliances, because many home appliances are intelligent and can be controlled via the network, it can be viewed as a separate computing node or connected to the cloud via other computing nodes. The invention still applies to this.

Another important point is that the compute node environment is allowed and can update its operating system to a new version, and the application interface should be compatible with the latest version of the operating system. If all computing node environments (operating systems) are replaced at the same time, the docking station module 205 will consider all devices (including 5 hard disks) to be replaced, and try to repack them for all new devices and operating systems according to the above process. Existing application interfaces, unless the application interface is not available for use in a new compute node environment.

In another embodiment, when the docking station module 205 has a different function (ID record) that is not supported by all hard disk drivers, the present invention provides the following steps for encapsulating the ID record function into the application interface. Please refer to Figure 3. First, the docking station module 205 obtains an application interface (S21) provided by a driver and tests whether the application interface can be used for the hard disks 210, 220, 230, 240 in a computing node environment. 250. This step is used to test if an existing application interface is available. If the test result is correct, the docking station module 205 will inherit the application interface into a new category. (S22), it becomes an inherited application interface. Next, the docking station module 205 provides a function set containing a plurality of functions (not only including the ID recording function), and uses the hard disks 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250 (S23), and compares the functions of the driver. Function with feature set (S24). The docking station module 205 takes a function set, and the ID record function not included in the driver is the above-mentioned extension function (these functions are also selected if there are other functions not included in the driver) (S25). Similarly, the docking station module 205 will extend the extension function to the driver for the five hard disks (S26) to re-encapsulate the driver mode to conform to the inherited application interface (S27).

In another embodiment, when the docking station module 205 finds that the drivers of the hard disks 240 and 250 have two functions that are not supported by the existing application interface and are not available to the docking station module 205, the present invention provides the following The steps are used to encapsulate functionality into the application interface.

Please refer to Figure 4. First, the docking station module 205 obtains an existing application interface supported by a driver (S31) and tests whether the application interface can be used for the hard disks 210, 220, 230, 240 in a computing node environment. 250. If the test result is correct, the docking station module 205 will inherit the application interface into a new category (S32), which becomes an inherited application interface. Next, the docking station module 205 collects at least one function that the driver is not included in the function set (S33), which means that for the docking station module 205, the function that may be required to obtain any hard disk (service device) is optional. Similarly, the docking station module 205 will be a hard disk 210, 220 and 230, extended extension The function is in the driver (S34) to repackage the driver to conform to the inherited application interface (S35).

See Figure 5. For the three hard disks 210, 220, and 230 that can extend the extra function by the assistance of the docking station module 205, they can directly use the functions that are not supported by the original driver to the computing node environment of the storage server 200 ( In the dotted line, the two hard drives 240 and 250 still function properly through the inherited application interface.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the invention, and any one of ordinary skill in the art can make some modifications and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (11)

A method for encapsulating a function in an application environment in a cloud environment, comprising the steps of: A. providing an application interface supported by a driver; B. if in a computing node environment, the application interface can be used for one The service device inherits the application interface into a new category; C. extends the extension function to the service device; and D. repackages the driver to conform to the inherited application interface. The method of claim 1, further comprising the following steps between step B and step C: B1. providing a function set, the function set includes functions that can be used for the service device; B2. comparing the driver And the function of the function set; and B3. Taking at least one function in the function set is the extension function, and the at least one function is not included in the driver. The method of claim 2, further comprising a step between step B and step C: B4. collecting at least one function of the driver that is not included in the function set to the function set. The method of claim 1, wherein the application interface is usable when the application interface is capable of running the service device and is compatible with the computing node environment. The method of claim 1, wherein the cloud environment is built by open source software or private software. The method of claim 1, wherein the service device is a storage device or a peripheral device. The method of claim 6, wherein the storage device is a re-recordable optical disk drive, a read-only memory optical disk drive, a hard disk, a solid state hard disk, a memory module, a tape drive, or any data storage device. device. The method of claim 6, wherein the peripheral device is a printer, an audio device, a video device, a monitor, a surveillance camera, a home appliance, or any device that can operate offline (network). The method of claim 1, wherein the computing node environment is capable of updating its operating system to a new version, the application interface being compatible with the latest version of the operating system. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing node environment comprises a computing node. The method of claim 10, wherein the computing node is a server or a personal computer.