Managing networks and machines for an online service

A computer-readable storage medium, excluding a signal, having computer-executable instructions, comprising:

• receiving and processing requests at a central service to perform tasks in an online service that provided document collaboration services for different networks;
• wherein each of the received requests relate to at least one of:
• configuring, updating and managing machines in at least one of the different networks that are used in providing the online service;
• wherein the requests are received through an idempotent and asynchronous application programming interface (API) such that duplicate requests to the central service result in a same result and wherein the central service continues receiving and processing the requests during an upgrade to a database that is used by the central service to process the requests and perform the tasks;
• wherein the central service comprises a work manager for performing operations relating to managing jobs for performing the tasks, a machine manager for tracking a current and a desired state of the physical machines within the different networks, and an application manager for managing application specific information for the document collaboration services of the online service;
• and
• processing each of the received requests by performing actions, comprising:
• updating the database with one or more values relating to the task, wherein the one or more values are a desired state of the task;
• adding a job to a job queue for performing the task;
• and
• executing the task, wherein executing the task comprises a process that is assigned to execute the task and access the one or more values relating to the task from the database to determine the desired state of the task.

A system for, comprising:

• a processor and a computer-readable medium;
• an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;
• and
• a cloud manager operative to perform actions, comprising:
• receiving and processing requests at a central service to perform tasks in an online service that provides document collaboration services for different networks;
• wherein each of the received requests relates to at least one of:
• configuring, updating and managing machines in at least one of the different networks that are used in providing the online service;
• wherein the requests are received through an idempotent and asynchronous application programming interface (API) such that duplicate requests result in a same result and wherein the central service continues receiving and processing the requests during an upgrade to a database that is used by the central service to process the requests and perform the tasks;
• wherein the central service comprises a work manager for performing operations relating to managing jobs for performing the tasks, a machine manager for tracking a current and a desired state of the physical machines within the different networks, and an application manager for managing application specific information for the document collaboration services of the online service;
• and
• processing each of the received requests by performing actions, comprising:
• updating the database with one or more values relating to the task, wherein the one or more values are a desired state of the task;
• adding a job to a job queue for performing the task;
• and
• executing the task, wherein executing the task comprises a process that is assigned to execute the task and access the one or more values relating to the task from the database to determine the desired state of the task.