Environment-driven application deployment in a virtual infrastructure

Abstract

A system for recipe and blueprint-driven automated application deployment comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to receive an environment, receive an application configuration, and deploy an application using the environment and the application configuration. The environment is provisioned using an environment template, and wherein the environment template is built using a blueprint. The application configuration comprises one or more application endpoints. The memory is coupled to the processor and is configured to provide the processor with instructions.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for recipe and blueprint-driven automated application deployment, comprising:
 a processor configured to:
 receive a blueprint comprising: a description of computing resources, computing software, and computing services required for at least two virtual machines; 
 generate a first environment template from the blueprint using a first software tool; 
 instantiate a first environment from the first environment template by using a second software tool; 
 receive an application configuration comprising: an application package that includes a set of runtime software artifacts that can be orchestrated and executed on an ongoing basis to perform one or more desired enterprise tasks on the heterogeneous virtual environment; and a configuration of application parameters of the set of runtime software artifacts; 
 deploy and install the application configuration at the first environment for use by application developers; 
 generate a second environment template from the first version blueprint using the software tool; 
 instantiate a second environment from the second environment template by using the second software tool; and 
 deploy and install the second application configuration package at the second environment, which is different than the first environment, for use by application testers. 
   
     
     
         2 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein the application configuration configures connections from applications running on virtual machines in a virtual machine cluster to systems outside the virtual machine cluster. 
     
     
         3 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein the application configuration configures the application package to deploy. 
     
     
         4 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein the application configuration configures the target deployment environment. 
     
     
         5 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein one of one or more application endpoints comprises information needed for an application running in a given environment to interact with a system external to the given environment. 
     
     
         6 . A system as in  claim 5 , wherein one of the one or more application endpoints comprises information related to an external database system. 
     
     
         7 . A system as in  claim 5 , wherein one of the one or more application endpoints comprises information related to an email systems. 
     
     
         8 . A system as in  claim 5 , wherein one of the one or more application endpoints comprises information related to a directory servers. 
     
     
         9 . A system as in  claim 5 , wherein one of the one or more application endpoints comprises information related to an enterprise resource planning server. 
     
     
         10 . A system as in  claim 5 , wherein one of the one or more application endpoints comprises information related to a web service server. 
     
     
         11 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein the blueprint comprises a set of system details for a given kind of environment 
     
     
         12 . A system as in  claim 11 , wherein the set of details includes one or more of the following: software components intended to run in the given kind of environment, virtual machines needed to run all software components, an allocation or a binding of software components to the virtual machines, a default memory sizing of the virtual machines, a CPU sizing of the virtual machines, and a default sizing of virtual machine clusters. 
     
     
         13 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein the first environment template comprises a set of instantiated virtual machines each with software components installed as indicated in the blueprint. 
     
     
         14 . A system as in  claim 1 , wherein the application comprises a set of runtime computer program artifacts orchestrated and executed on an ongoing basis to address a particular set of customer requirements. 
     
     
         15 . A method for recipe and blueprint-driven automated application deployment, comprising:
 receiving a blueprint comprising: a description of computing resources, computing software, and computing services required for at least two virtual machines;   generating a first environment template from the blueprint using a first software tool;   instantiating a first environment from the first environment template by using a second software tool;   receiving an application configuration comprising: an application package that includes a set of runtime software artifacts that can be orchestrated and executed on an ongoing basis to perform one or more desired enterprise tasks on the heterogeneous virtual environment; and a configuration of application parameters of the set of runtime software artifacts;   deploying and installing the application configuration at the first environment for use by application developers;   generating a second environment template from the first version blueprint using the software tool;   instantiating a second environment from the second environment template by using the second software tool, and   deploying and installing the second application configuration package at the second environment, which is different than the first environment, for use by application testers.   
     
     
         16 . A computer program product for recipe and blueprint-driven automated application deployment, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
 receiving a blueprint comprising: a description of computing resources, computing software, and computing services required for at least two virtual machines;   generating a first environment template from the blueprint using a first software tool;   instantiating a first environment from the first environment template by using a second software tool;   receiving an application configuration comprising: an application package that includes a set of runtime software artifacts that can be orchestrated and executed on an ongoing basis to perform one or more desired enterprise tasks on the heterogeneous virtual environment; and a configuration of application parameters of the set of runtime software artifacts;   deploying and installing the application configuration at the first environment for use by application developers;   generating a second environment template from the first version blueprint using the software tool;   instantiating a second environment from the second environment template by using the second software tool, and   deploying and installing the second application configuration package at the second environment, which is different than the first environment, for use by application testers.