Harvest virtual machine for utilizing cloud-computing resources

A system for providing cloud-computing services, the system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• memory in electronic communication with the one or more processors;
• and
• instructions stored in the memory, the instructions being executable by the one or more processors to:
• deploy a virtual container on a server with resources, wherein the virtual container has a minimum size and wherein the minimum size is a minimum amount of the resources to which the virtual container must have access in order to continue operating;
• grant the virtual container, in connection with deploying the virtual container, access to an amount of the resources on the server that are not being used, wherein the amount of the resources is equal to or greater than the minimum size;
• decrease, at a first time, the amount of the resources to which the virtual container has access;
• increase, at a second time different from the first time, the amount of the resources to which the virtual container has access;
• decrease, at a third time after the first time and the second time, the amount of the resources on the server to which the virtual container has access to less than the minimum size;
• and
• terminate the virtual container when the amount of the resources on the server to which the virtual container has access is less than the minimum size.

A server that is part of a cloud-computing system, the server comprising:

• physical computing resources available for use by virtual machines to perform client workloads;
• and
• a virtual machine deployed on the physical computing resources, wherein
• the virtual machine, at an initial time, has access to a specified amount of the physical computing resources,
• the virtual machine is a certain type of virtual machine and the server does not include another virtual machine of a same type as the virtual machine,
• the virtual machine has a minimum size, wherein the minimum size indicates a minimum amount of the physical computing resources,
• the specified amount of the physical computing resources to which the virtual machine has access can change after the initial time,
• the virtual machine terminates if the specified amount of the physical computing resources to which the virtual machine has access at a particular time after the initial time is less than the minimum size, and
• the virtual machine loses access to a physical computing resource when another virtual machine with a higher priority than the virtual machine makes the physical computing resource unavailable.