Methods to extract cloud infrastructure requirements from virtualized applications and autodeploy

An apparatus comprising:

• a communication interface configured to enable network communications including communications on behalf of an orchestration entity configured to instantiate one or more virtual network functions in a cloud computing infrastructure that includes compute resources and storage resources;
• at least one memory;
• and
• at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations including:
• obtaining a virtual network function descriptor file that describes parameters of a virtual network function to be instantiated in the cloud computing infrastructure, and a network services descriptor file that defines networking parameters to be supported in the cloud computing infrastructure, wherein the virtual network function descriptor file includes vendor-specific enhanced resource information associated with one or more configurations of the compute resources and/or storage resources and application configuration requirements for a hypervisor used by a Point of Delivery (POD) in the cloud computing infrastructure on which the virtual network function is instantiated, and wherein the virtual network function descriptor file includes a per-virtual network function capacity metric that indicates a number of users or processes the virtual network function can handle;
• parsing the virtual network function descriptor file and the network services descriptor file to obtain infrastructure template information;
• storing the infrastructure template information in an intermediate form;
• creating, based on the infrastructure template information, artifacts that are referenced when instantiating the virtual network function, the artifacts including virtual machine images, network configurations, and an aggregation of servers that indicates a number of servers based on a number of virtual network functions determined based on the per-virtual network function capacity metric for the virtual network function;
• and
• instantiating the virtual network function on the POD in the cloud computing infrastructure, based on the artifacts.

A system comprising:

• a cloud computing infrastructure that includes compute resources and storage resources;
• and
• an orchestration entity that includes a memory and a computer processor configured to instantiate one or more virtual network functions in the cloud computing infrastructure, wherein the orchestration entity is configured to perform operations including:
• obtaining a virtual network function descriptor file that describes parameters of a virtual network function to be instantiated in the cloud computing infrastructure, and a network services descriptor file that defines networking parameters to be supported in the cloud computing infrastructure, wherein the virtual network function descriptor file includes vendor-specific enhanced resource information associated with one or more configurations of the compute resources and/or storage resources and application configuration requirements for a hypervisor used by a Point of Delivery (POD) in the cloud computing infrastructure on which the virtual network function is instantiated, and wherein the virtual network function descriptor file includes a per-virtual network function capacity metric that indicates a number of users or processes the virtual network function can handle;
• parsing the virtual network function descriptor file and the network services descriptor file to obtain infrastructure template information;
• storing the infrastructure template information in an intermediate form;
• creating, based on the infrastructure template information, artifacts that are referenced when instantiating the virtual network function, the artifacts including virtual machine images, network configurations, and an aggregation of servers that indicates a number of servers based on a number of virtual network functions determined based on the per-virtual network function capacity metric for the virtual network function;
• and
• instantiating the virtual network function on the POD in the cloud computing infrastructure, based on the artifacts.