A technique is introduced for intercepting memory calls from a user-space application and applying an allocation policy to determine whether such calls are handled using volatile memory such as dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) or persistent memory (PMEM). In an example embodiment, memory calls from an application are intercepted by a memory allocation capture library. Such calls may be to a memory function such as malloc( ) and may be configured to cause a portion of DRAM to be allocated to the application to process a task. The memory allocation capture library then determines whether the intercepted call satisfies capture criteria associated with an allocation policy. If the intercepted call does satisfy the capture criteria, the call is processed to cause a portion of PMEM to be allocated to the application instead of DRAM.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for registering subscribable sub-states in blockchain are provided. One of the methods includes: obtaining a request for registering one or more sub-states of a state, wherein a registered workflow comprises the state; generating a blockchain contract comprising the one or more sub-states; and deploying the blockchain contract in a blockchain. The deployed blockchain contract is executable to update a current sub-state of the state corresponding to the workflow among the one or more sub-states.

A computing system that provides virtual computing services may generate and manage remote computing sessions between client computing devices and virtual desktop instances hosted on the service provider's network. A computing resource instance manager may monitor connections to and disconnections from a virtual desktop instance during particular time periods, and may apply a resource management policy to determine whether and when to shut down an underlying virtualized computing resource instance following a disconnection (e.g., immediately, after some period of time, or only between certain hours). A storage volume for the virtual desktop instance may be detached during a shutdown. In response to a reconnection request, the virtualized computing resource instance (or another such instance) may be restarted and the storage volume may be reattached. The computing resource instance manager may develop a model for predicting when to shut down or restart an instance based on historical data or machine learning.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for registering subscribable sub-states in blockchain are provided. One of the methods includes: obtaining a request for registering one or more sub-states of a state, wherein a registered workflow comprises the state; generating a blockchain contract comprising the one or more sub-states; and deploying the blockchain contract in a blockchain. The deployed blockchain contract is executable to update a current sub-state of the state corresponding to the workflow among the one or more sub-states.

Peripheral device access support in a distributed computing resource cluster is described. In one example, an application can be supported in a container on a virtual machine in a distributed computing resource cluster. A need or requisite of the container for access to a peripheral device is identified. A device profile is created for the container and associated with the isolation environment. The device profile can be relied upon to check and confirm the compliance of one or peripheral devices on various host machines in the resource cluster. First, one or more host machines having access to the peripheral device are identified in the resource cluster. Then, a check for compliance of the peripheral device on one or more of the host machines is performed based on the device profile. The container is instantiated for the application on one of the host machines based on the check for compliance.

A remote agent for managing virtual machines includes a persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores backup/restoration policies. The backup manager generates backups of the virtual machines based on the backup/restoration policies. The remote agent also includes a resource tagger that obtains a management request for a virtual machine of the virtual machines; in response to obtaining the management request: performs a remote resource analysis of the virtual machine to obtain an application profile of the virtual machine; performs a multidimensional application analysis of the application profile to identify at least one tag; and applies the at least one tag to the virtual machine.

Distributed timer task execution management is disclosed. A cluster member generates a first timer task that can be executed on any cluster member of a plurality of cluster members including the first cluster member that composes a cluster. A first timer task schedule that identifies at least one future point in time at which the first timer task is to be executed is generated. A second cluster member of the plurality of cluster members is selected as a cluster member owner for the first timer task that is to schedule the first timer task and to execute the first timer task at the at least one future point in time. The first timer task and the first timer task schedule are transferred to the second cluster member.

In an embodiment, a system and method for supporting a seeding process with suspend and resume capabilities are described. A resumable seeding component in a data seeding module can be used to move data from a source tier to a target tier. A resumption context including a perfect hash function (PHF) and a perfect hash vector (PHV) persists a state of a seeding process at the end of each operation in the seeding process. The PHV represents data segments of the data using the PHF. The resumption context is loaded into memory upon resumption of the seeding process after it is suspended. Information in the resumable context is used to determine a last successfully completed operation, and a last copied container. The seeding process is resumed by executing an operation following the completed operation in the resumable context.

Techniques for cloning a computing environment while modifying components of the computing environment are disclosed. A cloning request specifies a modification to a source environment. A cloning engine determines one or more additional non-requested modifications to be made in a destination environment necessitated by the requested modification. A modified destination specification is generated including the requested modification and the one or more additional non-requested modifications. A destination stack is generated, and the destination environment is provisioned according to the destination stack.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for blockchain-based notification are provided. One of the methods includes: obtaining information in a block of a blockchain to determine a current state of a workflow, wherein a blockchain contract deployed in the blockchain is executable to update the current state among one or more states of the workflow; updating a locally-maintained state machine based on the determined current state; and in response to determining that the updated state machine corresponds to one of the one or more states, transmitting a notification message to one or more subscribers subscribing to the one state.