IP Library Granted Patent US 12,423,124
Granted Patent B2
US 12,423,124 · App. 17/580,488 · Granted Sep 23, 2025

Deploying virtual machines in a software-defined data center

Inventors: Brian Masao Oki (San Jose, CA); Ramsés V. Morales (Sunnyvale, CA); Adrian Drzewiecki (Mountain View, CA); Konstantinos Roussos (Sunnyvale, CA); Olivier Alain Cremel (Los Altos, CA)
Assignee: VMware LLC
G06F9/45558G06F9/5077G06F2009/45562G06F2009/4557G06F2209/501G06F2209/505
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,423,124
App. No.
17/580,488
Granted
Sep 23, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

An example method of deploying a virtual machine (VM) in a software-defined data center (SDDC) includes: receiving a VM specification for the VM at an elastic control plane executing in a cluster of hosts having a virtualization layer; composing, by the elastic control plane in response to the VM specification, logical resources of the cluster managed by the virtualization layer; composing, by the elastic control plane, physical resources of the SDDC to add new hardware to the cluster; expanding, by the elastic control plane, the logical resources with new logical resources managed by the virtualization layer and backed by the new hardware; and deploying, by the elastic control plane, the VM in a virtual environment composed from the logical resources as expanded.

Claims (40)

1. A method of deploying a virtual machine (VM) in a software-defined data center (SDDC), comprising:

receiving a VM specification for the VM at an elastic control plane executing in a cluster of hosts, the cluster of hosts having a virtualization layer, the VM specification describing resource requirements for the VM;

composing, by the elastic control plane in response to the VM specification, logical resources of the cluster managed by the virtualization layer to satisfy a portion of the resource requirements;

determining, by the elastic control plane, that the logical resources of the cluster are insufficient to satisfy another portion of the resource requirements;

composing, by the elastic control plane, physical resources of the SDDC to add new hardware to the cluster, the new hardware including a physical resource external to the hosts of the cluster, the physical resource coupled to a host of the hosts through a network interface controller (NIC) of the host, the NIC adding the physical resource as a local physical resource that is local to a hardware platform of the host though which the host can access the physical resource;

composing, by the elastic control plane, software-defined resources executed on a data processing unit (DPU) of the NIC;

expanding, by the elastic control plane, the logical resources with new logical resources managed by the virtualization layer and backed by the new hardware and the software-defined resources to satisfy the other portion of the resource requirements; and

deploying, by the elastic control plane, the VM in a virtual environment composed from the logical resources as expanded.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical resources are included in a logical resource pool managed by the elastic control plane and identified by the VM specification.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical resources that back the new hardware are included in a physical resource pool managed by the elastic control plane.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the physical resources comprise disaggregated hardware in the SDDC.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the new hardware comprises virtual hardware presented to a host in the cluster and backed by a physical resource of the disaggregated hardware.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the physical resources of the disaggregated hardware are composed into clustered resource pools by the elastic control plane.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a computing device to cause the computing device to carry out a method of deploying a virtual machine (VM) in a software-defined data center (SDDC), comprising:

receiving a VM specification for the VM at an elastic control plane executing in a cluster of hosts, the cluster of hosts having a virtualization layer, the VM specification describing resource requirements for the VM;

composing, by the elastic control plane in response to the VM specification, logical resources of the cluster managed by the virtualization layer to satisfy a portion of the resource requirements;

determining, by the elastic control plane, that the logical resources of the cluster are insufficient to satisfy another portion of the resource requirements;

composing, by the elastic control plane, physical resources of the SDDC to add new hardware to the cluster, the new hardware including a physical resource external to the hosts of the cluster, the physical resource coupled to a host of the hosts through a network interface controller (NIC) of the host, the NIC adding the physical resource as a local physical resource that is local to a hardware platform of the host though which the host can access the physical resource;

composing, by the elastic control plane, software-defined resources executed on a data processing unit (DPU) of the NIC;

expanding, by the elastic control plane, the logical resources with new logical resources managed by the virtualization layer and backed by the new hardware and the software-defined resources to satisfy the other portion of the resource requirements; and

deploying, by the elastic control plane, the VM in a virtual environment composed from the logical resources as expanded.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the logical resources are included in a logical resource pool managed by the elastic control plane and identified by the VM specification.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the physical resources that back the new hardware are included in a physical resource pool managed by the elastic control plane.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the physical resources comprise disaggregated hardware in the SDDC.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the new hardware comprises virtual hardware presented to a host in the cluster and backed by a physical resource of the disaggregated hardware.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the physical resources of the disaggregated hardware are composed into clustered resource pools by the elastic control plane.

13. A virtualized computing system, comprising:

a cluster of hosts having a virtualization layer; and

an elastic control plane executing in the cluster, the elastic control plane configured to:

receive a VM specification for the VM, the VM specification describing resource requirements for the VM;

compose, in response to the VM specification, logical resources of the cluster managed by the virtualization layer to satisfy a portion of the resource requirements;

determine that the logical resources of the cluster are insufficient to satisfy another portion of the resource requirements;

compose physical resources of the virtualized computing system to add new hardware to the cluster, the new hardware including a physical resource external to the hosts of the cluster, the physical resource coupled to a host of the hosts through a network interface controller (NIC) of the host, the NIC adding the physical resource as a local physical resource that is local to a hardware platform of the host though which the host can access the physical resource;

compose software-defined resources executed on a data processing unit (DPU) of the NIC

expand the logical resources with new logical resources managed by the virtualization layer and backed by the new hardware and the software-defined resources to satisfy the other portion of the resource requirements; and

deploy the VM in a virtual environment composed from the logical resources as expanded.

14. The virtualized computing system of claim 13 , wherein the logical resources are included in a logical resource pool managed by the elastic control plane and identified by the VM specification.

15. The virtualized computing system of claim 13 , wherein the physical resources that back the new hardware are included in a physical resource pool managed by the elastic control plane.

16. The virtualized computing system of claim 15 , wherein the physical resources comprise disaggregated hardware in the virtualized computing system.

17. The virtualized computing system of claim 16 , wherein the physical resources of the disaggregated hardware are composed into clustered resource pools by the elastic control plane.

Assignments (2)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Apr 15, 2024
From: VMWARE, INC.
To: VMWARE LLC
Reel/Frame 067102/0242 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 17, 2022
From: OKI, BRIAN MASAO; MORALES, RAMSÉS V.; DRZEWIECKI, ADRIAN; ROUSSOS, KONSTANTINOS; CREMEL, OLIVIER ALAIN
To: VMWARE, INC.
Reel/Frame 061813/0206 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20230229476A1 · Jul 20, 2023
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