Apparatus and methods for automatically reflecting changes to a computing solution into an image for the computing solution
A pluggable cloud enablement boot device (PCEBD) is a bootable device that includes all information needed to automatically provision hardware and software to create a computing solution that meets customer requirements. This allows for quickly deploying a computing solution in a manner that eliminates many manual steps that are typically performed today. The PCEBD uses firmware to verify a given platform has sufficient resources to deploy the PCEBD. The computing solution, once provisioned and running, can be modified, and these modifications may be reflected in the definition of the PCEBD. In addition, a computing solution may include multiple resources provisioned from multiple PCEBDs, which can be packaged into a PCEBD that will include other PCEBDs. The result is a way to deploy computing solutions that is much more efficient than the manual methods used in the prior art.
1. A computer-implemented method executed by at least one processor for providing a computing solution, the method comprising:
providing a boot device that comprises a computer readable non-transitory storage that includes a bootable image that comprises:
boot code executed by the at least one processor that initializes an apparatus;
requirements for the computing solution that include at least one software application and business logic;
a system verification and integration mechanism; and
a building and integration mechanism;
booting a computer system from the bootable image on the boot device;
the system verification and integration mechanism comparing available hardware and software with the requirements for the computing solution and determining computing resources from the available hardware and software that meet the requirements for the computing solution; and
the building and integration mechanism automatically provisioning the computing resources with the at least one software application and the business logic without intervention of a human user to provide the computing solution, detecting changes made to the computing solution after the building and integration mechanism automatically provisions the computing resources, and reflecting the changes made to the computing solution in the bootable image.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the requirements for the computing solution comprise hardware requirements, software requirements, networking requirements and security requirements.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing solution comprises a cloud computing solution and the building and integration mechanism provisions the computing resources in at least one cloud.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the system verification and integration mechanism determines the available hardware and software by querying firmware in the apparatus.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the changes to the computing solution detected by the building and integration mechanism comprise changes from a second bootable image.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the building and integration mechanism determines when additional hardware resources are available and allocates the additional hardware resources to the computing solution.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the system verification and integration mechanism creates a disk partition and installs a file system in the disk partition.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the boot device comprises at least one image of at least one other boot device.
9. A computer-implemented method executed by at least one processor for providing a computing solution, the method comprising:
providing a boot device that comprises a computer readable non-transitory storage that includes a bootable image that comprises:
boot code executed by the at least one processor that initializes an apparatus;
requirements for the computing solution that include at least one software application, business logic, hardware requirements, software requirements, networking requirements and security requirements;
a system verification and integration mechanism; and
a building and integration mechanism;
booting a computer system from the bootable image on the boot device;
the system verification and integration mechanism comparing available hardware and software with the requirements for the computing solution and determining computing resources from the available hardware and software that meet the requirements for the computing solution, wherein the system verification and integration mechanism determines the available hardware and software by querying firmware in the apparatus; and
the building and integration mechanism automatically provisioning the computing resources with the at least one software application and the business logic without intervention of a human user to provide the computing solution, detecting changes made to the computing solution after the building and integration mechanism automatically provisions the computing resources, wherein the changes to the computing solution detected by the building and integration mechanism comprise changes from a second bootable image, and reflecting the changes made to the computing solution in the bootable image, wherein the building and integration mechanism determines when additional hardware resources are available and allocates the additional hardware resources to the computing solution.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the computing solution comprises a cloud computing solution and the building and integration mechanism provisions the computing resources in at least one cloud.