# US 2025/0097162 A1 · Reducing placement conflicts between concurrent virtual machine allocations > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2025/0097162 A1 - Document ID: US20250097162A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 18/959,219 - Filed: 2024-11-25 - Published: 2025-03-20 - Earliest claimed: 2020-09-14 - Assignees: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC - Applicants: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC - Inventors: Abhisek PAN; Eric Zhao HAO; Esaias Englebertus GREEFF - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20250097162A1 ## CPC - H04L 41/0893: Assignment of logical groups to network elements - G06F 9/45558: {Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects} - H04L 41/0894: Policy-based network configuration management - H04L 47/745: {Reaction in network} - G06F 2009/4557: {Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing} - G06F 2009/45595: {Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances} - H04L 47/74: measures in reaction to resource unavailability - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media for reducing placement conflicts between allocation agents tasked with allocating computing resources on a computing zone. For example, systems disclosed herein may identify placement conflicts between multiple allocation agents processing incoming placement requests on a computing zone. The systems disclosed herein may further modify a placement policy based on the number of placement conflicts by reducing one or more restrictions on rules for allocating computing resources. For example, the systems disclosed herein may enlarge a placement zone of server nodes when allocating computing resources to prevent or otherwise reduce conflicts between multiple allocation agents implementing the same placement policies. By reducing allocation restrictions and enlarging a placement zone, the systems described herein may significantly reduce placement conflicts while still optimizing placement of services on nodes of a cloud computing system. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method, comprising: maintaining a record of allocated computing resources on a plurality of computing nodes of a computing zone, the computing zone including a plurality of agent allocators configured to concurrently allocate resources in response to incoming placement requests in accordance with a first placement policy, the first placement policy being associated with allocating a first type of resource on computing nodes within the computing zone; determining, based on information from the record of allocated computing resources, that a number of placement conflicts between the plurality of agent allocators with respect to allocating resources of the first type is greater than or equal to a threshold number of placement conflicts; based on determining that the number of placement conflicts is greater than or equal to the threshold number, modifying the first placement policy by decreasing one or more restrictions of the first placement policy associated with allocating resources of the first type within the computing zone; and causing the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently allocate resources of the first type on the plurality of computing nodes in accordance with the modified first placement policy. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the first placement policy is applicable to each agent allocator of the plurality of agent allocators. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the first placement policy comprises selectively decreasing one or more restrictions from the first placement policy for a first set of placement requests without decreasing one or more restrictions from a second placement policy for a second set of placement requests based on the second set of placement requests being associated with allocating resources of a different type from the first type. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that a second number of placement conflicts between the plurality of agent allocators with respect to allocating resources of a second type is less than a second threshold number of placement conflicts, wherein modifying the first placement policy is performed without modifying a second placement policy associated with allocating a second type of resource on computing nodes within the computing zone based on the second number of placement conflicts being less than the second threshold of placement conflicts. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that an updated number of placement conflicts between the plurality of agent allocators has decreased by a threshold amount under the modified first placement policy; and based on determining that the updated number of placement conflicts has decreased by the threshold amount, causing the plurality of agent allocators to revert back to the first placement policy. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the record of allocated computing resources comprises storing pairings of service identifiers and node identifiers indicating a placement of one or more services on corresponding computing nodes of the computing zone. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the placement conflicts based on detected conflicts between attempted placement of services by one or more of the plurality of agent allocators and previously placed services indicated within the record of allocated computing resources. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the number of placement conflicts is greater than or equal to the threshold number of placement conflicts comprises detecting a threshold percentage of commit failures for incoming placement requests by the plurality of agent allocators. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the first placement policy includes a set of rules executable by each agent allocator of the plurality of agent allocators to: identify candidate nodes for resource allocation by identifying a subset of computing nodes from the plurality of computing nodes of the computing zone; and randomly allocate resources for the incoming placement requests on the identified candidate nodes. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9, wherein modifying the first placement policy comprises modifying the set of rules to cause the plurality of agent allocators to expand the candidate nodes to include the subset of computing nodes and additional computing nodes from the plurality of computing nodes of the computing zone. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein modifying the set of rules comprises discounting one or more rules from the set of rules to expand the candidate nodes eligible for resource allocation. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein causing the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently allocate resources of the first type comprises causing each agent allocator of the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently process placement requests and allocate resources on the plurality of computing nodes of the computing zone in accordance with the modified first placement policy. ### Claim 13 A system, comprising: at least one processor; memory in electronic communication with the at least one processor; and instructions stored in the memory, the instructions being executable by the at least one processor to: maintain a record of allocated computing resources on a plurality of computing nodes of a computing zone, the computing zone including a plurality of agent allocators configured to concurrently allocate resources in response to incoming placement requests in accordance with a first placement policy, the first placement policy being associated with allocating a first type of resource on computing nodes within the computing zone; determine, based on information from the record of allocated computing resources, that a number of placement conflicts between the plurality of agent allocators with respect to allocating resources of the first type is greater than or equal to a threshold number of placement conflicts; based on determining that the number of placement conflicts is greater than or equal to the threshold number, modify the first placement policy by decreasing one or more restrictions of the first placement policy associated with allocating resources of the first type within the computing zone; and cause the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently allocate resources of the first type on the plurality of computing nodes in accordance with the modified first placement policy. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the first placement policy is applicable to each agent allocator of the plurality of agent allocators. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein modifying the first placement policy comprises selectively decreasing one or more restrictions from the first placement policy for a first set of placement requests without decreasing one or more restrictions from a second placement policy for a second set of placement requests based on the second set of placement requests being associated with allocating resources of a different type from the first type. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein determining that the number of placement conflicts is greater than or equal to the threshold number of placement conflicts comprises detecting a threshold percentage of commit failures for incoming placement requests by the plurality of agent allocators. ### Claim 17 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the first placement policy includes a set of rules executable by each agent allocator of the plurality of agent allocators to: identify candidate nodes for resource allocation by identifying a subset of computing nodes from the plurality of computing nodes of the computing zone; and randomly allocate resources for the incoming placement requests on the identified candidate nodes. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The system of claim 17, wherein modifying the first placement policy comprises modifying the set of rules to cause the plurality of agent allocators to expand the candidate nodes to include the subset of computing nodes and additional computing nodes from the plurality of computing nodes of the computing zone, and wherein modifying the set of rules comprises discounting one or more rules from the set of rules to expand the candidate nodes eligible for resource allocation. ### Claim 19 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein causing the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently allocate resources of the first type comprises causing each agent allocator of the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently process placement requests and allocate resources on the plurality of computing nodes of the computing zone in accordance with the modified first placement policy. ### Claim 20 A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to: maintain a record of allocated computing resources on a plurality of computing nodes of a computing zone, the computing zone including a plurality of agent allocators configured to concurrently allocate resources in response to incoming placement requests in accordance with a first placement policy, the first placement policy being associated with allocating a first type of resource on computing nodes within the computing zone; determine, based on information from the record of allocated computing resources, that a number of placement conflicts between the plurality of agent allocators with respect to allocating resources of the first type is greater than or equal to a threshold number of placement conflicts; based on determining that the number of placement conflicts is greater than or equal to the threshold number, modify the first placement policy by decreasing one or more restrictions of the first placement policy associated with allocating resources of the first type within the computing zone; and cause the plurality of agent allocators to concurrently allocate resources of the first type on the plurality of computing nodes in accordance with the modified first placement policy.