System and method for centralized software management in virtual machines

• US 20060184937A1
• Filed: 02/11/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Abels, Timothy, Chandrasekaran, Balasubramanian
• Application Number:
  US11/056,645
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184937A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

Virtual machines of a virtual data center generate runtime instances with a software image, hardware configuration, management configuration and user/service configuration. Virtual data center resource use is monitored by reference to the management configuration of runtime instances, such as for environmental controls like power, cooling and balancing, or for policy limitations on users, software or hardware. Users or services generate runtime instances of stored virtual machines by reference to the user/service configuration, such as pricing or priority. In one example embodiment, the virtual machine software image comprises an application system preparation file that populates a read only application image common to plural virtual machines. Information unique to each virtual machine with respect to the application is maintained in the user/service configuration of the virtual machine and version information is maintained in the management configuration of the virtual machine. Updates to the application across each virtual machine are performed by updating the read only image or any of its configuration information for hardware configuration, management configuration or user/service configuration.

Claims

1. A system for maintaining virtual machines of a virtual data center, the system comprising:

global data operable to store plural virtual machines;

plural virtual machines stored in the global data, each virtual machine having a hardware configuration and a software image, the software image having at least one application system preparation file;

an application read only image stored in the global data;

plural processing components operable to run the virtual machines; and

a resource virtualization engine operable to run a virtual machine instance on the processing components by populating the application read only image with the application system preparation file to generate a runtime instance of the application.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the application comprises an operating system.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising an application patch manager operable to update the application with one or more patches by applying the patches to the application read only image.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the patch manager comprises a virtual machine operable to run on the processing components.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the application patch manager updates the application by closing all virtual machines accessing the read only image, installing the patches on the read only image, and restarting the closed virtual machines.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the application patch manager updates the application by storing a copy of the application in cache memory, running from the cache memory one or more virtual machines accessing the read only image, installing the patches on the read only image and restarting the virtual machines accessing the cached memory.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the virtual machines further comprise a management configuration having application version information.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the virtual machines further comprise a user/service configuration having security access information associated with the application.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the virtual machines further comprise a user/service configuration operable to store system specific information associated with the operation of the application at the virtual machine.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a virtual machine cloner operable to clone a virtual machine by copying the application system preparation file.

11. A method for maintaining virtual machines of a virtual data center, the method comprising:

storing a read only image of an application at the virtual data center;

storing plural virtual machines at the virtual data center, each virtual machine having a hardware configuration and a software image, the software image having a system preparation file associated with the application; and

generating a runtime instance of a virtual machine by populating the read only image of the application with the system preparation file of that virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the application comprises an operating system.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

copying an update patch to the read only image of the application to update the application; and

populating the updated application with the system preparation file of a virtual machine to generate a runtime instance of that virtual machine running the updated application.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

shutting down one or more virtual machines that are running the application before the copying of the update patch; and

restarting the shut down virtual machines after the copying of the update patch.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

storing to cache memory one or more virtual machines that are running the application before the copying of the update patch;

running the virtual machines from the cached memory during the copying of the update patch; and

restarting the cached virtual machines from the updated application.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

cloning one or more virtual machines by copying the system preparation file.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

tracking the version of the application associated with a virtual machine in a management configuration stored with the virtual machine.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

generating information at the virtual machine for writing to the application image; and

writing the generated information to a user/service configuration of the virtual machine.

19. A virtual machine comprising:

a hardware configuration;

a software image having a system preparation file associated with an application, the system preparation file operable to populate a read only image of the application, the read only image stored separate from the virtual machine; and

a user/service configuration operable to accept writes generated by the application during runtime instances of the virtual machine.

20. The virtual machine of claim 19 further comprising a management configuration operable to store version information associated with updates to the read only image of the application.