Apparatus, systems and methods for cross-cloud software migration and deployment

• US 10,162,666 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2016
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fu, Tianying, Srinivasan, Venkat Narayan
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Camquy
• Application Number:
  US15/217,812
• Publication Number:
  US 20160335114A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed facilitate obtaining a cloud agnostic representation of a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) on a first cloud; and obtaining a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic representation of the first VMI.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method comprising:

obtaining a cloud agnostic image representation of an application from a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) associated with a first Virtual Machine (VM) on a first cloud, wherein the cloud agnostic image representation being obtained, in part, by modifying volume data associated with the first VM to remove a first cloud-specific layer in the first VMI in order to obtain modified volume data and bundling the modified volume data for storage, the first cloud-specific layer being associated with the first cloud, and the first cloud-specific layer permits operation of the first VMI on the first cloud; and

obtaining a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation by unbundling the modified volume data to generate unbundled modified volume data and augmenting the unbundled modified volume data with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud, and the second VMI includes a second cloud-specific layer corresponding to the second cloud.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

obtaining the second VMI comprises obtaining the second cloud-specific layer comprising the cloud-specific settings for the second cloud; and

augmenting the unbundled modified volume data comprises augmenting the cloud agnostic image representation with the cloud-specific settings for the second cloud.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the cloud agnostic image representation bundled in the modified volume data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein modifying the volume data associated with the first VM comprises:

launching the first VM on the first cloud based, in part, on the first VMI;

determining cloud-specific settings for the first VM comprised in the first cloud-specific layer; and

modifying the volume data associated with the first VM by removing the cloud-specific settings for the first VM.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the second VMI comprises:

launching a second VM on the second cloud based, in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation of the application; and

obtaining, in a format compatible with the second cloud, volume data for the second VM from the cloud agnostic image representation from a volume associated with the second VM.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second VM runs a second operating system that is compatible with but different from a first operating system associated with the first VM.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first cloud and the second cloud are selected from a plurality of available clouds, the first cloud is associated with a first cloud provider, and the second cloud is associated with a second cloud provider distinct from the first cloud provider.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deploying the second VMI on the second cloud.

9. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor coupled to at least one cloud, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

obtain a cloud agnostic image representation of an application from a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) associated with a first Virtual Machine (VM) on a first cloud, wherein the cloud agnostic image representation being obtained, in part, by modifying volume data associated with the first VM to remove a first cloud-specific layer in the first VMI, the first cloud-specific layer being associated with the first cloud, and the first cloud-specific layer permits operation of the first VMI on the first cloud; and

obtain a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation by unbundling the modified volume data to generate unbundled modified volume data and augmenting the unbundled modified volume data with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud, and the second VMI includes a second cloud-specific layer corresponding to the second cloud.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein:

to obtain the second VMI, the processor is configured to obtain the second cloud-specific layer comprising the cloud-specific settings for the second cloud; and

augmenting the unbundled modified volume data includes augmenting the cloud agnostic image representation with the cloud-specific settings for the second cloud.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to:

store the cloud agnostic image representation bundled in the modified volume data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein modifying the volume data associated with the first VM comprises:

launching the first VM on the first cloud based, in part, on the first VMI;

determining cloud-specific settings for the first VM comprised in the first cloud-specific layer; and

modifying the volume data associated with the first VM by removing the cloud-specific settings for the first VM.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein to obtain the second VMI, the processor is configured to:

launch a second VM on the second cloud based, in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation of the application; and

obtain, in a format compatible with the second cloud, volume data for the second VM from the cloud agnostic image representation from a volume associated with the second VM.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second VM runs a second operating system that is compatible with but different from a first operating system associated with the first VM.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first cloud and the second cloud are selected from a plurality of available clouds, the first cloud is associated with a first cloud provider, and the second cloud is associated with a second cloud provider distinct from the first cloud provider.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to deploy the second VMI on the second cloud.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions that cause a processor to:

obtain a cloud agnostic image representation of an application from a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) associated with a first Virtual Machine (VM) on a first cloud, wherein the cloud agnostic image representation being obtained, in part, by modifying volume data associated with the first VM to remove a first cloud-specific layer in the first VMI, the first cloud-specific layer being associated with the first cloud, and the first cloud-specific layer permits operation of the first VMI on the first cloud; and

obtain a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation, la unbundling the modified volume data to generate unbundled modified volume data and augmenting the unbundled modified volume data with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud, and the second VMI includes a second cloud-specific layer corresponding to the second cloud.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein:

the instructions to obtain the second VMI cause the processor to obtain the second cloud-specific layer comprising the cloud-specific settings for the second cloud; and

augmenting the unbundled modified volume data includes augmenting the cloud agnostic image representation with the cloud-specific settings for the second cloud.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

store the cloud agnostic image representation bundled in the modified volume data.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions to obtain the second VMI cause the processor to:

launch a second VM on the second cloud based, in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation of the application; and

obtain, in a format compatible with the second cloud, volume data for the second VM from the cloud agnostic image representation from a volume associated with the second VM.