International Business Machines Corporation

John I Buswell

Amitabha Biswas

Jayakrishna Kidambi

Dorit Rond

Vijoy A Pandey

Dayavanti G Kamath

Harshad S Padhye

A network boot of a platform-specific operating system kernel is performed from a compressed platform-specific operating system kernel. The platform-specific operating system kernel, when booted, dynamically builds from the compressed platform-specific operating system kernel a bootable file system and boots application code. An application is loaded from the bootable file system.

Kernel-integrated instance-specific operational resources with virtualization

A system can include program instructions embodied with the computer-readable storage medium and executable by a processor to cause the system to: automatically determine to make a bid for resources to add to a computer network of a client receive, from a virtual marketplace, a communication indicating that the bid satisfies an offer for additional resources made by an infrastructure provider gateway; successfully negotiate a link with the infrastructure provider gateway such that the additional resources are thereby usable by the client as part of the computer network of the client integrate the additional resources with the computer network of the client and maintain the link with the infrastructure provider gateway until a period of time expires.

Providing real-time trading of virtual infrastructure resources

A compressed platform-specific operating system kernel that allows a network boot of a platform-specific operating system kernel from the compressed platform-specific operating system kernel is provided. The platform-specific operating system kernel, when booted over a network, dynamically builds from the compressed platform-specific operating system kernel a bootable file system and boots application code. The compressed platform-specific operating system kernel includes an application interface code library, and integrated operating system kernel tools. An application is loaded from the bootable file system.

Protection of interpreted programming language code filesystem files from access and alteration may be provided by encrypting a file to be protected in a boot sequence. Run-time examination of a virtual appliance may be deterred by hiding the boot sequence in a restricted virtual appliance platform. No shell or filesystem access may be provided. Thus, permissions on a read-only filesystem (for example) may be kept from being altered. The permissions may be set along with filesystem access control lists to prevent unauthorized examination of the source files.

Protection of interpreted source code in virtual appliances

A virtual non-volatile memory is simulated for a virtual switch. Operating instructions from the non-volatile memory of a physical switch may be translated into a flash type file. The flash type file may be stored on a virtual storage area in the virtual switch. Operating instructions in the virtual switch may access the flash type file in the virtual storage area without the need to access the non-volatile memory in the physical switch.

Securing sensitive information in a network cloud

Simulating non-volatile memory in virtual distributed switches

A virtual EEPROM driver is simulated for a virtual switch. A write function may be written to a shared memory device and designated as a virtual EEPROM driver. The virtual EEPROM driver may be duplicated into a non-volatile memory providing availability during a boot process.

Simulating EEPROM in virtual distributed switches

A virtual appliance may be provided with firmware images that may be simulated in a run-time environment prior to loading into a network component. A kernel may be mapped to a virtual appliance image providing a virtual operating system image. Updates to the virtual appliance may provide updated versions of the virtual operating system image by mapping the updated virtual appliance image to an updated kernel. Various versions of the virtual operating system image may be stored and loaded into the virtual appliance without needing to downgrade a previous version of the operating system.

Providing virtual appliance system firmware images

Packet processing logic of a host system's virtualization manager detects packets on the ingress or the egress path to/from a virtual port having three bitmap arrays for processing packets within a virtual local area network (VLAN). The logic checks the VLAN identifier (VID) of the packet to determine, based on an offset position within the corresponding bitmap array, whether the port supports the VLAN. Both the ingress array offset position and egress array offset positions correspond to the value of the VID, and are set within the specific bitmap array during configuration of the VLAN on the port. When the VLAN is supported by the port, the logic enables the packet to be processed by the port. Otherwise, the logic discards the packet. A strip bitmap array indicates when a packet's VID should be removed prior to forwarding the packet on the egress of a port (or destination port).

Efficient software-based private VLAN solution for distributed virtual switches

A technique for operating a virtual switch includes determining network connection requirements for virtual machines controlled by a virtual machine monitor. Resources available, for processing data traffic of the virtual machines, are also determined. Finally, based on the network connection requirements and the resources available, a port of a virtual switch is selected to operate as a virtual Ethernet bridge or a virtual Ethernet port aggregator.

Operating virtual switches in a virtualized computing environment

Techniques for operating virtual switches in a virtualized computing environment

A method for providing location independent dynamic port mirroring on distributed virtual switches is disclosed. A controller is provided to configure one or more virtual switches within a group of physical machines to appear as a set of distributed virtual switches. In response to the receipt of a data packet at a port of a physical machine, a determination is made whether or not the port has a monitor port located on the physical machine. If the port has a monitor port located on the same physical machine, a copy of the data packet is sent to the monitor port of the physical machine. If the port has a monitor port located on a different physical machine, a copy of the data packet along with an identification (ID) of the port and an ID of the monitor port are encapsulated, and the encapsulated information are sent to a controller.

Method for providing location independent dynamic port mirroring on distributed virtual switches

Techniques for providing location independent dynamic port mirroring on distributed virtual switches is disclosed. A controller is provided to configure one or more virtual switches within a group of physical machines to appear as a set of distributed virtual switches. In response to the receipt of a data packet at a port of a physical machine, a determination is made whether or not the port has a monitor port located on the physical machine. If the port has a monitor port located on the same physical machine, a copy of the data packet is sent to the monitor port of the physical machine. If the port has a monitor port located on a different physical machine, a copy of the data packet along with an identification (ID) of the port and an ID of the monitor port are encapsulated, and the encapsulated information are sent to a controller.

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Athens, OH, United States of America

John I Buswell