DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending in the application.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Examiner’ s Notes
The Examiner cites particular sections in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant(s). Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant(s) fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 20 recites “medium of claim 8” in line 1. However, claim 8 is directed to a system whereas claim 15 is directed to a computer-readable medium. As such, it is not clear if claim 20 should depend on the system of claim 8 or on the medium of claim 15.
For the following analysis, the Examiner will consider the limitation “medium of claim 8” as referring to –medium of claim 15—.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2023/0105901 A1; from IDS filed on 09/09/2024; hereinafter “Adogla”).
With respect to claim 1, Adogla teaches: A computer-implemented method, comprising:
generating, by an orchestrator control plane of a cloud infrastructure orchestration service, a region build plan comprising a plurality of ordered steps for bootstrapping a plurality of services at a data center (see e.g. paragraph 1: “predefined set of cloud services may be deployed to a given region”; paragraph 2: “providing the ability to deploy requested and/or ordered cloud computing resources (e.g., services) at run time… request, via a cloud orchestration service, bootstrapping/deployment of the requested service… request bootstrap/deployment of a specific service (e.g., utilizing a cloud orchestration service) is provided”; and paragraph 43: “embodiments disclosed herein may utilize a cloud infrastructure orchestration service (CIOS). This service can be configured to manage both provisioning and deploying of infrastructure assets within a cloud environment”), the region build plan being generated based at least in part on a plurality of service plans and manifests, each respective service plan and manifest of the plurality of service plans and manifests specifying a deterministic process for building a single service of the plurality of services (see e.g. paragraph 44: “ CIOS can be described as an orchestration layer that applies configuration to downstream systems (e.g., world-wide). It is designed to allow world-wide infrastructure provisioning and code deployment…responsibilities of CIOS include, but are not limited to: ”; paragraph 46: “Helping teams plan and release new changes”; paragraph 47: “Coordinating activity across various downstream systems within a region to execute approved release plans”; and paragraph 48: “Coordinating activity across regions/realms to execute approved release plans world-wide”);
instructing, by the orchestrator control plane, a region orchestrator of the cloud infrastructure orchestration service to execute a build in a data center according to the region build plan (see e.g. Adogla, paragraph 59: “CIOS may manage/control a network-connectivity alternative to using the public Internet for connecting a customer’s on-premises data center”; paragraph 47: “Coordinating activity across various downstream systems within a region to execute approved release plans”; paragraph 48: “Coordinating activity across regions/realms to execute approved release plans world-wide”; and paragraph 80: “CIOS Regional 202 can be a regional service for managing regional instances/deployments of CIOS.), the region orchestrator being instructed based at least in part on being provided the region build plan generated by the orchestrator control plane (see e.g. Adogla, paragraph 44: “ CIOS can be described as an orchestration layer that applies configuration to downstream systems…responsibilities of CIOS include, but are not limited to: ”; paragraphs 47-48; and paragraph 80: “CIOS Regional 202 covers responsibility for authoritatively storing and managing plans and stat that pertains to a particular region”);
executing, by the region orchestrator, a subset of steps from the plurality of ordered steps of the region build plan, the subset of steps being executed in an order identified by the region build plan (see e.g. Adogla, paragraph 47: “Coordinating activity across various downstream systems within a region to execute approved release plans”; paragraph 80: “CIOS Regional 202 covers responsibility for authoritatively storing and managing plans and stat that pertains to a particular region”; and paragraph 84: “CIOS (or the declarative provisioning provisioner) may generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG) for each resource, module, and/or capability that compiles and defines an ordered list of dependencies on other resources, modules, and/or capabilities. While attempting to deploy a resource, CIOS may traverse the DAG to identify when a resource is dependent on another resource, module, and/or capability of another resource. The DAG for each resource may specify implicit dependencies, explicit dependencies, or a combination thereof and may be used for booting or otherwise deploying the corresponding resource with CIOS”); and
updating, by the region orchestrator while executing the subset of steps, an execution state corresponding to the execution of the region build plan (see e.g. Adogla, paragraph 66: “a CIOS Executor 206 (also referred to herein as a “scheduler”), which can handle the actual execution. The CIOS Executor, in some examples, operates at the level of “Execution,” and it can:”; paragraph 67: “Track a pool of available Worker nodes”; paragraph 68: “Query incoming job requests, and assigns them to eligible workers as available”; paragraph 69: “Track worker status and Execution updates”; and paragraph 80: “CIOS Regional 202 covers responsibility for authoritatively storing and managing plans and stat that pertains to a particular region. A Regional DB 204 may be a CIOS DB for the state and plans in the particular region. This is the authoritative copy of the region’s subset of the Central DB 118 of FIG. 1. Scheduler 206 can be responsible for managing worker fleet capacity, assigning tasks to workers, and keeping track of task state.”).
With respect to claim 2, Adogla teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the region build plan defines a plurality of tracks, each track comprising a respective subset of ordered steps of the plurality of ordered steps (see e.g. paragraph 84: “CIOS (or the declarative provisioning provisioner) may generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG) for each resource, module, and/or capability that compiles and defines an ordered list of dependencies on other resources, modules, and/or capabilities. While attempting to deploy a resource, CIOS may traverse the DAG to identify when a resource is dependent on another resource, module, and/or capability of another resource”; and paragraph 100: “each node of the DAG corresponds to a set of operations or a set of capabilities on which a next node of operations depends. The directed edges of each DAG define an order by which these operations are to be executed and/or a dependency between a subset of operations associated with a node and a subset of capabilities associated with an immediately preceding node. The operations of each node are to be executed in the order corresponding to the order of nodes and may individually correspond with one or more dependencies”), and wherein at least one track comprises performing a step associated with executing an infrastructure release or an application release (see e.g. paragraph 84: “While attempting to deploy a resource, CIOS may traverse the DAG to identify when a resource is dependent on another resource, module, and/or capability of another resource. The DAG for each resource may specify implicit dependencies, explicit dependencies, or a combination thereof and may be used for booting or otherwise deploying the corresponding resource with CIOS”; and paragraph 99: “a directed acyclic graph (DAG) associated with the service 402 may be utilized to identify one or more instructions for bootstrapping the service 402”).
With respect to claim 3, Adogla teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the respective subset of ordered steps comprises a skill update step that (see e.g. paragraph 100: “each node of the DAG corresponds to a set of operations or a set of capabilities on which a next node of operations depends. The directed edges of each DAG define an order by which these operations are to be executed and/or a dependency between a subset of operations associated with a node and a subset of capabilities associated with an immediately preceding node”; and paragraph 119: “scheduler 602 may store information indicating that the particular resource was awaiting one or more particular capabilities which are needed for the resource to resume booting and/or for deployment purposes”), when executed, updates a skill state to indicate execution of a corresponding track was completed (see e.g. paragraph 118: “At 622, the computing process 606 may exit after potentially storing state information indicating what operations and/or node of the DAG have already been completed and/or at what particular node of the DAG the computing process 606 was last accessing. The computing process 606 exits, is killed, is suspended, or otherwise ceases to execute”; and paragraph 119: “At 624, the scheduler 602 may store information indicating that the particular resource was awaiting one or more particular capabilities which are needed for the resource to resume booting and/or for deployment purposes”).
With respect to claim 4, Adogla teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:
monitoring the updates to the skill state (see e.g. paragraph 119: “the scheduler 602 may store information indicating that the particular resource was awaiting one or more particular capabilities which are needed for the resource to resume booting and/or for deployment purposes”); and
executing a second subset of steps of the plurality of ordered steps of the region build plan based at least in part on monitoring the updates to the skill state (see e.g. paragraph 120: “At 626, the scheduler 602 may receive one or more notifications that the one or more capabilities for which the resource was waiting have become available. In some embodiments, the scheduler 602 may receive various notification from other computing processes (e.g., threads) indicating various capabilities of corresponding resources as those capabilities become available… Accordingly, the scheduler 602 may proceed to 628”; and Fig. 6).
With respect to claim 5, Adogla teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service plan comprises a plurality of build milestones (see e.g. paragraph 110: “FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 600 for orchestrating the execution of a task (e.g., deploying/bootstrapping a resource such as service 502 of FIG. 5) that includes a dependency on at least one capability (e.g., a capability of a different resource)”; and Fig. 6, steps 608-628) and one or more execution units (see e.g. paragraph 110: “process flow 600 includes a scheduler 602 (e.g. the scheduler 206 of FIG. 2), a worker 604 (e.g. the worker 210 of FIG. 2), and a process 606 (e.g. an example of the CIOS container 212 of FIG. 2)”) that define a respective transition between two of the plurality of build milestones (see e.g. paragraph 111: “At 608, the scheduler 602 may receive a task for deploying one or more infrastructure components/resources (such as service 502) in a region, and the scheduler 602 may transmit data pertaining to the task to the worker 604. In some embodiments, the scheduler 602 may instantiate the worker 604 to handle deployment of a resource (e.g., the service 502)”; paragraph 112: “At 610, the worker 604 may instantiate computing process 606”; paragraph 113: “At 612, the computing process 606 may parse a configuration file associated with the deployment to generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG) for a particular resource (e.g., service 502)”; paragraphs 114-121; and Fig. 6).
With respect to claim 6, Adogla teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the respective transition defines one or more releases, the one or more releases corresponding to at least one of an infrastructure release or an application release (see e.g. paragraph 110: “FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 600 for orchestrating the execution of a task (e.g., deploying/bootstrapping a resource such as service 502”).
With respect to claim 7, Adogla teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining, by the region orchestrator, that execution of the region build plan has halted due to an error (see e.g. paragraph 97: “If the API call is not routable (e.g., the service 402 has not yet been deployed, is not included in the routing table, etc.), the flow 400 may proceed to 414, where a return error may be forwarded to the user device 406”);
receiving, by the orchestration control plane, an intervention indicating a change to the region build plan (see e.g. paragraph 98: “If the API call is not routable (e.g., the service 402 has not yet been deployed, is not included in the routing table, etc.), the flow 400 may proceed to 414, where a return error may be forwarded to the user device 406”);
updating, by the orchestration control plane, the region build plan to a modified region build plan based at least in part on the intervention, the modified region build plan being different from the region build plan by at least one step (see e.g. paragraph 98: “Upon making another API call, the flow may proceed back to 404 and the remaining portion of the flow may be repeated any suitable number of times”; and paragraph 99: “the orchestrator 416 may receive the bootstrap request and perform any suitable operations for bootstrapping (e.g., loading into memory (e.g., memory of a virtual machine) and/or initializing) the absent service (e.g., service 402). In some embodiments, the orchestrator 416 may utilize a predefined set of instructions associated with bootstrapping the service 402”);
instructing, by the orchestrator control plane, the region orchestrator to continue execution of the build using the modified region build plan (see e.g. paragraph 99: “perform any suitable operations for bootstrapping (e.g., loading into memory (e.g., memory of a virtual machine) and/or initializing) the absent service (e.g., service 402). In some embodiments, the orchestrator 416 may utilize a predefined set of instructions associated with bootstrapping the service 402”; and paragraph 102: “At 422, once service 402 has been bootstrapped (e.g., an predefined image for the service 402 is deployed to a particular computer within the environment/region) and is ready to accept subsequent requests, the orchestrator 416 may transmit data (e.g., an IP address associated with the service 402, an alphanumeric identifier associated with the service 402, etc.) to the gateway computer 408 to update the routing table maintained by the gateway computer 408”); and
executing, by the region orchestrator, at least one step of the build using the modified region build plan (see e.g. paragraph 103: “Subsequently, a user may initiate a new API call at 404 and the operations of 404-412 may be repeated. Now that the routing table includes the data associated with the service 402 (e.g., the identifier for the service, an IP address for the service 402, etc.), the determination made at 412 may indicate the API call is now routable to the service 402 and the API call may be forwarded to the service 402 at 424”; and paragraph 105: “At 428, the user device 406 may receive the response and execute any suitable operations”).
With respect to claims 8-14: Claims 8-14 are directed to a cloud infrastructure orchestration system comprising one or more processors and one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement active functions corresponding to the method disclosed in claims 1-7, respectively; please see the rejections directed to claims 1-7 above which also cover the limitations recited in claims 8-14. Note that, Adogla also discloses a system 1700 comprising a processing unit 1704 coupled to a storage 1718 including instructions to implement the method disclosed in claims 1-7 (see e.g. Fig. 17).
With respect to claims 15-20: Claims 15-20 are directed to a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a cloud infrastructure orchestration system, cause the one or more processors of the cloud infrastructure orchestration system to implement active functions corresponding to the method disclosed in claims 1-7, respectively; please see the rejections directed to claims 1-7 above which also cover the limitations recited in claims 15-20. Note that, Adogla also discloses a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions to implement the method disclosed in claims 1-7 (see paragraph 134).
CONCLUSION
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Dockter et al. (US 2021/0224076 A1) discloses a cloud infrastructure orchestration service (CIOS) with central and regional components that utilize CIOS models for deploying resources within a cloud infrastructure (see paragraphs 37-57).
Schumaker (US 2022/0156059 A1) discloses a deployment orchestrator system for generating deployment plans tailored based on a specific deployment factors, such as deployment regions, for deploying components of an application (see paragraph 27).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Umut Onat whose telephone number is (571)270-1735. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 9:00-7:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin L Young can be reached at (571) 270-3180. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/UMUT ONAT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2194
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