Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Dell Software Inc.

Mcafee, Inc.

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Quest Software Inc.

Dilip Naik

Alan M Warwick

E John Sebes

Rishi Bhargava

Peter W Wieland

Edward D McClanahan

Borislav Marinov

Ranji Balasubramanian

A facility is described for optimizing the copying of virtual machine storage files. In various embodiments, the facility refrains from copying portions of the virtual machine storage file that do not contain any meaningful data for the purposes of the guest file system within the virtual machine storage file. In some embodiments, the facility refrains from copying portions of the file that are in use by the guest file system, but are of no practical value.

Optimized copy of virtual machine storage files

Embodiments of systems and methods are described for instant provisioning (e.g., cloning, copying, replicating, migrating, backing up, restoring, etc.) of virtual machines, virtual machine files, or other types of files (e.g., database files). In some implementations, a cloned virtual machine file can present an illusion to multiple applications accessing the cloned file that the cloned file contains all the appropriate data (e.g., a file system volume), even while the clone file is still being filled with relevant data. In some embodiments, the systems and methods use a file system filter driver to intercept and redirect certain input/output (I/O) requests to the cloned file. The file system filter driver may use a data structure (e.g., a bitmap) to determine which logical units of the clone file have already been filled with data. In some embodiments, the systems and methods use the operating system to handle cached I/O requests, which may improve efficiency.

Systems and methods for instant provisioning of virtual machine files

Systems and methods for compacting a virtual machine file are presented. In one example, the system accesses a source virtual machine file associated with a guest file system. The system creates a destination virtual machine file based on the guest file system and initializes a block allocation table of the destination virtual machine file. The system accesses a block allocation table of the source virtual machine file and, for each block of the source virtual machine file, determines whether the block is in use. If so, the system copies the block to the destination virtual machine file and updates the block allocation table of the destination virtual machine file. If not, the system does not copy the block or update the block allocation table of the destination virtual machine file, thereby reducing the destination virtual machine file's size compared to the source virtual machine file's size.

Systems and methods for compacting a virtual machine file

In at least some disclosed embodiments, a method includes a) creating a first stub file on a target file server, b) creating a t-stub file at the location of the source directory, c) disabling performance of operations on the source data while allowing completion of operations in progress, d) copying the source data into a hidden directory on the target file server, thus creating target data, e) overwriting the first stub file by renaming the target data, f) enabling performance of operations on the target data, g) performing queued operations on the target data, and h) deleting the source data from the source file server.

Open file migration operations in a distributed file system

A method for providing solidified software in a computing environment includes creating a new reference for a function in a function table; copying an address of the function and associating the address with the new reference; replacing the address associated with an old reference of the function with a dummy address; and substituting each old reference in normal code with the new reference, where injected code is not able to execute in the computing environment. The function table entries can be further randomized by reordering the entries, introducing intermediate mappings, or providing non-operative entries. Alternatively, all or part of the code of the function can be copied and moved to a different storage location and associated with the new reference. The copied code can be further randomized by the insertion of dummy code, utilizing reverse peephole techniques, varying the size of the copied portion, or interleaving non-operative code.

Piracy prevention using unique module translation

An invention is disclosed that provides a set of common software routines that may be accessed by device drivers in support of the Windows Management Instrumentation system. The set of common routines includes typical routines that would ordinarily be executed by device drivers designed in accordance with WMI. The common routines may reside in a library, dynamically accessible by the device drivers. When a device driver receives a message from the WMI system, the device driver may pass the message to the library to be handled in a common manner. In this manner, the developers of device drivers in accordance with the WMI system need only develop so much code as is necessary to support any unique features or data storage of its associated hardware. The result is shortened development time and fewer programming errors. In addition, the overall system performance may be improved because fewer instances of similar code are loaded in memory to support the WMI system.

System, method and apparatus for supporting a kernel mode driver

A system and method for providing user mode applications operating in user mode with access to events that occur at a system device operating in kernel mode, is presented. A user mode application subscribes to events that occur at a system device by issuing a request to an event subscription management module operating in user mode. In response, the event subscription management module issues a first subscription request to a translation module operating in kernel module, via a user mode/kernel module channel. The translation module translates the first subscription message into a second message, and issues the second message to the system device's interface, thereby subscribing to events that occur at the system device. As events occur at the system device, the translation module is notified, and issues corresponding event messages to the event subscription management module.

System and method for user mode applications to register to receive kernel mode device related events

An invention is disclosed that provides a mechanism for exposing to user mode applications the features and information enabled by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface ('ACPI') specification. The present invention provides a generic mapping driver that executes in kernel mode, and that makes calls to the ACPI driver accessible by user mode applications. The mapping driver may be a part of a management instrumentation system, such as the Windows Management Instrumentation ('WMI') system. The WMI system provides an interface through which instrumented components, such as hardware devices, can provide information and notification to management applications in user mode through a consistent management information store. The mapping driver provides access to the ACPI system from the WMI management system.

System and method for accessing information made available by a kernel mode driver

An invention is disclosed that provides a mechanism for exposing to user mode applications the features and information enabled by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (&ldquo;ACPI&rdquo;) specification. The present invention provides a generic mapping driver that executes in kernel mode, and that makes calls to the ACPI driver accessible by user mode applications. The mapping driver may be a part of a management instrumentation system, such as the Windows Management Instrumentation (&ldquo;WMI&rdquo;) system. The WMI system provides an interface through which instrumented components, such as hardware devices, can provide information and notification to management applications in user mode through a consistent management information store. The mapping driver provides access to the ACPI system from the WMI management system.

A method and system for detecting and reporting storage hardware failure prediction is disclosed. The method and system provide a standardized mechanism for any type of storage device to predict and report storage failures. This includes SMART SCSI devices, SMART ATA/ATAPI devices, non-SMART SCSI devices, non-SMART ATA/ATAPI devices, proprietary storage devices, and others such as CD-ROM drives, DVD ROMs, tape drives, and RAM disks. A device driver obtains failure prediction status information and propagates it to a management application. The information may be propagated via a failure prediction filter driver used to perform statistical analysis or proprietary access to the hardware. In a Windows operating environment, information is propagated from the device driver through a Windows Management Instrumentation component. The Windows Management Instrumentation component bridges the gap across user mode and kernel mode, thereby allowing management applications in user mode to obtain information from device drivers residing in kernel mode. A standardized set of APIs is provided for performing storage device failure prediction.

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Dilip Naik