International Business Machines Corporation

Bowen L Alpern

Vasanth Bala

Todd W Mummert

Darrell Christopher Reimer

Glenn S Ammons

Arun Thomas

Joshua S Auerbach

Stephen Edwin Smith

Clement Richard Attanasio

Thomas V Frauenhofer

Jobi George

Michael A Pigott

Johannes Christiaan Laffra

Mark N Wegman

Xiaolan Zhang

Jian Yin

Balachandar Rajaraman

Mona Attariyan

A method for managing a virtual machine image includes receiving a request to change a package configuration of a machine, processing an image action received in the request, wherein the processing the image action received includes, opening the image action with associated action inputs, comparing the opened image action inputs with inputs associated with action instances in a database, determining whether the compared opened image action inputs match the inputs associated with action instances, retrieving from the database, image difference data associated with the image action responsive to determining that the compared opened image action inputs match the inputs associated with action instances in the database, and applying the image difference data to an image to transform the image, determining whether each image action in the request has been processed and processing a second image action responsive to determining that each image action has not been processed.

Scalable package management for virtual-machine images

A novel method is disclosed for capturing an installed state of a conventional application and converting the captured state into a virtual application. The novel method starts with a bare machine in a known state, preferably soon after the OS was installed. Installation scripts are used to install one or more software applications along with required components and dependencies. Other artifacts can be added and configured such as files, trees, directories, entries, data, values, among others. These also may include updates to various system databases, such as the Windows registry in which certain metadata is stored. The installed applications are tested and verified to work as desired. Undesired artifacts can be deleted manually or removed by the OS. The state of the virtual machine with the installed applications is captured. The installed applications can be tested on the frozen virtual machine. If the user determines that the installed applications are working properly, a virtual machine image is prepared and then written out. The resulting output is a new populated virtual application container that encapsulates the applications installed and configured by the user. If the user determines that one or more installed applications do not work properly during testing, then the frozen virtual machine can be unfrozen and any deficiencies corrected. The virtual machine image is stored as a launch document and a set of shards. The virtual machine image represents the state of the virtual machine along with the installed applications at the time the preparation virtual machine was frozen.

Creating an application virtual machine image by isolating installation artifacts in shadow area

An information processing system includes a preparation machine with an installed image; an execution machine on which the installed image is virtually installed; and a virtualizer for virtualizing the installed image on the execution machine to produce a virtually installed image by using a hierarchy of selective virtualizers, wherein the virtualizing is selective such that not all operations of the executing software of the installed image at any particular level are virtualized.

Simplifying the deployment and serviceability of commercial software environments

A method for updating an application on a host system includes steps or acts of: installing an application on the host system; installing a virtual machine monitor on the host system, installing a first virtual container on the host system, wherein the first virtual container comprises at least one update to the installed application; and instantiating the first virtual container under the virtual machine monitor in a mode wherein the host system can be accessed but not modified and wherein instantiating the first virtual container includes updating the installed application in the first virtual computer and running the updated application in the first virtual container. The method may also include a step of confirming that the updated application runs properly. Optionally, the virtual container may be devirtualized.

Method for delivering, testing, and applying software patches or other changes to a conventionally installed application in virtual application containers

A method for creating a virtual machine image, includes: storing a first image manifest for a first virtual machine image, the first image manifest including a mapping from file names of the first virtual machine image to content descriptors; storing a second image manifest for a second virtual machine image, the second image manifest including a mapping from file names of the second virtual machine image to content descriptors; creating a first overlay mapping by: placing a file name and its content descriptor both from the second image manifest in the first overlay mapping; and placing a file name and its content descriptor both from the first image manifest in the first overlay mapping if the file name and its content descriptor are not mapped in the second image manifest; and constructing a third virtual machine image having an image manifest whose mapping is the first overlay mapping.

Method and system for using overlay manifests to encode differences between virtual machine images

A method for performing software operations on virtual machine images, includes: receiving a virtual machine image that includes data; reclassifying the data into a plurality of parts; and performing a software operation on one of the parts, wherein the software operation is performed without running a virtual machine.

Method and system for separating file system metadata from other metadata in virtual machine image format

A method for performing software operations on virtual machine images, includes: receiving a virtual machine image that includes a mapping from a first file name to first file content; reformatting the virtual machine image by: creating a store that contains the first file content and that associates a content descriptor with the first file content, wherein the first file content can be reconstructed by using the content descriptor; and decoupling the mapping by creating an image manifest that maps the first file name to the content descriptor; and performing a software operation on the virtual machine image using the reformatted virtual machine image.

Method and system for separating content identifiers from content reconstitution information in virtual machine images

A method for performing software operations on virtual machine images, includes: receiving a first virtual machine image that includes a mapping from a first file name to first file content; reformatting the first virtual machine image by: creating a unique ID for the first file content; and decoupling the mapping of the first virtual machine image by creating an image manifest that maps the first file name to the unique ID, and creating a store that contains the first file content and that maps the unique ID to the first file content; and performing a software operation on the first virtual machine image using the reformatted first virtual machine image.

Method and system for using semantic information to improve virtual machine image management

Disclosed is a method, computer program product and a server unit of a virtual execution environment having at least one client. The server unit includes a network interface for conducting bidirectional communications with the at least one client and a control unit configured to determine, for individual ones of positions in a virtualized execution of an application, those components that are required at each position; to establish a pseudo-distance between the positions in the virtualized execution of the application; and to identify components that are candidates for prefetching as those components required at one or more positions that are proximate to a current position. The pseudo-distance between positions is indicative of an urgency of prefetching candidate components for regulating an amount of resources devoted to the prefetching of components.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for discovering and prioritizing patterns of component usage in a virtual application container for enhancing prefetching

Disclosed is a method, apparatus and a computer program of a virtual execution environment. In one aspect thereof a data processor includes a read-only storage medium and a virtual machine monitor configured to execute a program in a virtual container. Prior to execution of the application a set of application components accessed during a phase change are recorded in the read-only storage medium in a manner predetermined to minimize the time needed to retrieve the set of components. At the occurrence of the phase change, or prior to the occurrence of a phase change if the files are prefetched, the virtual machine monitor retrieves the components from the read-only storage medium. In a further aspect thereof there is provided a packager of an application to be executed in a virtualization environment by a virtual machine monitor. The packager is responsive to receiving notification from a virtual machine monitor of an occurrence of contemporaneous file accesses, not associated with a known phase change of a virtual container, to evaluate the occurrence as a candidate phase change, and responsive to the evaluation indicating a presence of a previously unknown phase change, for recording the files accessed on a new read-only storage medium in the order accessed for use by the same or a different virtual machine monitor during another instance of execution of the application.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for optimizing access to the content of a virtual application container on a fixed, read-only medium

Disclosed is a method, apparatus and a computer program of a virtual execution environment. In one aspect thereof a data processor includes a disk-based storage system and a virtual machine monitor configured to execute a program in a virtual container. The virtual machine monitor is responsive, prior to execution of the application, to record a set of files accessed during a phase change in the disk-based storage system in a manner predetermined to minimize the time needed to retrieve the set of files. The virtual machine monitor is further responsive, at the occurrence of the phase change, or prior to the occurrence of a phase change if the files are prefetched, to retrieve the files from the disk-based storage system. In a further aspect thereof there is provided a server of the virtual execution environment that includes a unit, responsive to receiving notification from the at least one virtual machine monitor of an occurrence of contemporaneous file accesses not associated with a known phase change of a virtual container, for evaluating the occurrence as a candidate phase change and, responsive to the evaluation indicating a presence of a previously unknown phase change, for adding a list of the files accessed to a phase change template for use by the same or a different virtual machine monitor during another instance of execution of the application.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for optimizing file accesses for an application executing in a virtual container

A method for executing on a first computer an application having an installed image prepared on a second computer, wherein the installed image is virtually installed on the first computer, is disclosed. The method includes emulating on the first computer a native environment of the second computer. The method further includes detecting an operation of the application upon data, wherein the operation requires an operation on data located on the first computer, and wherein a copy of the data is located in the virtually installed image. The method further includes directing the operation of the application to operate on the data located in the virtually installed image.

Method and apparatus for simplifying the deployment and serviceability of commercial software environments

The interface method invocation mechanism of the present invention includes an interface method table (IMT) for a given class of objects. The IMT comprises a table of entries each corresponding to a set S of interface methods that are implemented by objects of the given class. The entries of the IMT are used to support invocation of interface methods. More specifically, processing of a method invocation statement involves either I) loading the pointer to the implementation of the interface method from an entry of the IMT and passing control to this implementation; or II) loading the pointer to a conflict resolution routine pointed by an IMT entry and passing control to this conflict resolution routine. The conflict resolution routine pointed to by the IMT entry identifies at execution time to the location of the particular interface method of the two or more interface methods that are associated with the given IMT entry that corresponds to the method invocation statement being processed, and pass control to this particular interface method.

Method and apparatus for efficient interface method dispatch

A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently creating and maintaining a remembered set in a generational garbage collection scheme using a write buffer and a barrier bit associated with each object. A barrier bit associated with each object differentiates generations in a generational garbage collection scheme. When an object is first created, the barrier bit of the object is set to zero. The barrier bit is set when the object becomes old, for example, after surviving a first garbage collection. The barrier bit is used to determine whether to make an entry into a write buffer when a reference to another object is stored into an object. An entry is made in the write buffer only if the barrier bit of the object that is written into is set. At the end of each garbage collection, entries in the write buffer are added to the remembered set for the next garbage collection if the objects satisfy the criterion for membership, i.e., they are live and may contain pointers to objects in a younger generation. Thus, the remembered set consists of objects that were in the write buffer at the time of a garbage collection, that must be remembered for the next garbage collection. The write buffer is kept small by eliminating duplicate entries. The present invention turns off the barrier bit after the first store during each reclamation period (which causes the object to be identified in the write buffer). The barrier bit is turned on again by the garbage collector after the write buffer has been processed.

Growing community of inventors

Peekskill, NY, United States of America

Bowen L Alpern