Technique for operating a system controller of a virtualized application cluster
A technique for operating a system controller of a virtualized application cluster is presented. The cluster comprises one or multiple virtual machines. In a method embodiment the system controller receives, from outside the cluster, control information defining a function associated with a virtual machine. It further receives, from the virtual machine, a request message including an identifier of the virtual machine. The method also comprises determining, based on the identifier included in the request message, the function associated with the virtual machine and booting information associated with the function. The booting information is then sent in a response message to the virtual machine.
1. A method of operating a system controller of a virtualized application cluster, the cluster comprising at least one virtual machine, the method comprising:
receiving a Media Access Control (MAC) address from a virtual machine within the cluster;
determining that no computing role can be determined for the MAC address, and in response, sending the MAC address received from the virtual machine within the cluster towards outside the cluster;
receiving, in response to the sending of the MAC address, a mapping between the MAC address and a computing role; and
providing booting information to the virtual machine based on the computing role mapped to the MAC address.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping is received from a cluster manager in charge of deploying the system controller and the at least one virtual machine.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the mapping is received from a managing entity functionally located between the system controller and a cluster manager in charge of deploying the system controller and the virtual machine; and
the managing entity is configured to generate the mapping based on an observation of the cluster manager.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the booting information defines at least one of:
an address of a boot server configured to provide one or more boot files to the virtual machine; and
a file path to the one or more boot files.
5. A method of operating a managing component of a virtualized application cluster, the method comprising:
deploying a system controller into the cluster;
deploying a virtual machine into the cluster to fulfill a computing role;
programming the virtual machine with a Media Access Control (MAC) address;
receiving the MAC address from the virtual machine within the cluster via the system controller; and
sending, to the system controller and in response to receiving the MAC address, a mapping between the MAC address and the computing role.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method is performed by a cluster manager in charge of deploying the system controller and the virtual machine, and programming the virtual machine with the MAC address comprises programming the virtual machine at deployment time.
7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
reading a descriptor of the virtualized application cluster; and
deploying the virtual machine in accordance with deployment information comprised in the descriptor.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the descriptor defines the computing role to be fulfilled by the virtual machine.
9. A system controller of a virtualized application cluster, the cluster comprising at least one virtual machine, the system controller comprising:
processing circuitry and interface circuitry communicatively coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
receive a Media Access Control (MAC) address from a virtual machine within the cluster;
determine that no computing role can be determined for the MAC address, and in response, send the MAC address received from the virtual machine within the cluster towards outside the cluster;
receive, in response to the sending of the MAC address, a mapping between the MAC address and a computing role; and
provide booting information to the virtual machine based on the computing role mapped to the MAC address.
10. A managing component of a virtualized application cluster, the managing component comprising:
processing circuitry and interface circuitry communicatively coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
deploy a system controller into the cluster via the interface circuitry;
deploy a virtual machine into the cluster to fulfill a computing role;
program the virtual machine with a Media Access Control (MAC) address;
receive the MAC address from the virtual machine within the cluster via the system controller; and
send, to the system controller via the interface circuitry and in response to receiving the MAC address, a mapping between the MAC address and the computing role.
11. A virtualized computing system, comprising:
a system controller of a virtualized application cluster, the cluster comprising at least one virtual machine, wherein the system controller comprises:
interface circuitry and processing circuitry communicatively coupled to the interface circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
receive a Media Access Control (MAC) address from a virtual machine within the cluster;
determine that no computing role can be determined for the MAC address, and in response, send the MAC address received from the virtual machine within the cluster towards outside the cluster;
receive, in response to the sending of the MAC address, a mapping between the MAC address and a computing role; and
provide booting information to the virtual machine via the interface circuitry based on the computing role mapped to the MAC address; and
a managing component of the virtualized application cluster, wherein the managing component is configured to send the mapping to the system controller.