Vmware, Inc.

Omnissa, LLC

Xiaodong Ye

Junfei Wu

Chen Liu

Xiang Yu

Haiwei Zhao

Yingfeng Ou

Kai Xiang

Haitao Zuo

Fangchi Wang

Dongyang Li

Zhaokai Yuan

Xinzheng Wang

Described herein are a system and method for combining folders in a host operating system lacking a facility for performing the combining. A helper virtual machine (VM) is formed and runs a guest operating system with a facility for combining folders such as a union mount facility. The host operating system also runs a host/guest file-sharing server to share folders instead of copying them. The file-sharing server allows the VM to access host folders, perform the combination using the union mount facility, and then allows the host operating system to access the results as a shared union mount folder in the host. Any changes to the shared union mount folder in the host are automatically processed by the union mount facility in the VM and then reflected to a folder in the host operating system.

Virtual computing instance based system to support union mount on a platform

Described herein are a system and method for forming a container image. The system and method include obtaining a first layer of a plurality of layers of the container image. The contents of the first layer are stored in a directory such that a first disk image layer file is mounted to the directory. A second layer of the plurality of layers is obtained, and the contents of the second layer are stored in the directory so that the first disk image layer includes contents of the first layer and the second layer. The first disk image layer is saved and is mountable and includes files of the container image.

System to support native storage of a container image on a host operating system for a container running in a virtual machine

Disclosed herein are embodiments for committing changes of an image of a virtual machine-based container running on a host computer system. A starting image for a container is obtained from a guest starting folder, and while the container runs the starting image changes to the image made by the running container are captured in a guest folder that is union mounted with the guest starting folder. Another union folder, which is the union of a new host folder and the starting folder, contains the changed image which can be used for the container or transferred to a different container.

System and method to commit container changes on a VM-based container

Described herein are systems, methods, and software to manage the updates for a container runtime. In one example, a host identifies a request to update a container runtime from a first version to a second version for a container executing in a virtual machine. The host further initiates execution of a second container in a second virtual machine with the second version of the container runtime, wherein the second container uses the same root filesystem as the first container. The host also updates any required networking configurations to direct communications to the second container over the first container and stops execution of the first container.

Updating container runtime using standby virtual machines

An example method is provided for a first host running a client software to provision a virtual machine on the first host in a virtualized computing environment including one or more hosts. The method may include generating a license key message, transmitting the license key message to a second host via a peer-to-peer (P2P) network including the first host and the second host, receiving a determination of the second host whether the virtual machine can be provisioned on the first host via the P2P network, and deciding whether to provision the virtual machine on the first host based on the determination. Some example license key messages may include a license key and a seat number and a sharable level indicator associated with the license key.

Growing community of inventors

Beijing, China

Xiaodong Ye