Moka5, Inc.

Leland Stanford Junior University

Ramesh U V Chandra

Constantine P Sapuntzakis

Monica Sin-Ling Lam

Michael Kerby Chen

John Whaley

Andrew D Berkheimer

James Eugene Chow

David James Brumley

Mendel Rosenblum

Won-Suk Chun

Kelvin Kam-Suen Yue

Nickolai Borisovich Zeldovich

Dan Boneh

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program apparatus, implementing techniques for publishing, subscribing to, or playing live appliances. A live appliance includes a current virtual machine image. In publishing, a proxy file of a live appliance file type is provided to the publisher. The type is mapped to a live appliance player; so that when a proxy file is opened, the current virtual machine image is run. The player automatically binds a writeable file system external to the virtual machine image to the image to provide file storage that is accessible from within the virtual machine image and from a host operating system. The player also creates a subscription to the live appliance on the host computer if one does not exist when the proxy file is run. With the subscription, the player runs the then-current virtual machine image whenever the live appliance is run.

Binding user data files

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for retaining the function of product activation schemes and other persistent state changes based on hardware identifiers, even when running in a virtual machine monitor. It can tie such schemes to a single identifier, e.g., a USB serial number, instead of the multiple hardware identifiers.

Activation and security of software

Sharing live appliances

Various approaches for virtual appliance management are described. In one approach a virtual appliance repository stores one or more virtual appliances and is coupled to the host computer via a network. A storage device stores a transceiver program capable when executed on said host computer of requesting and receiving the virtual appliances, and generating for each received virtual appliance a respective local copy on the host computer of each received virtual appliance. The local copy is private to the host computer. The transceiver program further binds the virtual appliances to the host computer and obtains user data relevant to the virtual appliances. The transceiver program runs each of the virtual appliances from the respective private local copies on the host computer.

Virtual appliance management

A cache-based system management architecture named 'the Collective' automates system management and supports mobile computing. The Collective manages systems by manipulating virtual appliances, each encapsulating a system state. A virtual appliance (VA) may comprise a virtual network of VAs. Distributed repositories separately storing the VAs and user data. Publishers create and maintain VAs. A user plugs a bootable portable storage device implementing a VA transceiver (VAT) into a host computer. The VAT, comprising a Manager, a Cache Client, and a virtual machine monitor (VMM), authenticates the user, retrieves a copy of the latest version of a subscribed VA from the appropriate network repository, obtains user data, and automatically backs up the user data over the network in the background while running the subscribed VA. Multiple VAs can be run at the same time. With the novel caching protocol and cache charging process, the Collective performs well and has numerous advantages.

Cache-based system management architecture with virtual appliances, network repositories, and virtual appliance transceivers

Growing community of inventors

Belmont, CA, United States of America

Ramesh U V Chandra