VIRTUAL MACHINE CONTROL

• US 20080271015A1
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: IBRAHIM, Wael M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,453,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/62 Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

A method comprises receiving a request for data from a client computer. The method further comprises obtaining an identifier of a virtual machine. The virtual machine identifier is associated with the requested data. The method further comprises providing the virtual machine identifier to the client computer.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a request for a data from a client computer;

obtaining an identifier of a virtual machine, said virtual machine identifier associated with said data; and

providing said virtual machine identifier to the client computer.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the client computer spawning a virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein spawning the virtual machine comprises implementing a hardware and software configuration on the client computer, said configuration being associated with the virtual machine identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising verifying whether the client computer spawned a virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising computing a metric associated with said virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising comparing said metric to a predetermined metric to verify that the client computer spawned a virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising using location information to determine whether a virtual machine associated with said virtual machine identifier is to be spawned.

8. A system, comprising:

logic; and

network interface coupled to said logic;

wherein said logic submits a request for data across a network via the network interface and receives a response to said request, said response comprising an identifier of a virtual machine, said virtual machine identifier associated with the requested data; and

wherein the logic spawns a virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said logic determines whether to spawn the virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier based on whether the system is at a location at which said virtual machine is permitted to be spawned.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said logic monitors the system'"'"'s location and terminates said virtual machine if said system is no longer at a location at which said virtual machine is permitted to be spawned.

11. The system of claim 8 further comprising a location determination device that provides a location of the system to said logic, and said logic determines whether to spawn the virtual machine based on said system'"'"'s location.

12. The system of claim 8 further comprising storage specifying, for at least one virtual machine, a location at which said at least one virtual machine can be spawned.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the logic provides information across the network by which a remote device verifies that the system spawned the virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the logic does not spawn the virtual machine until the system'"'"'s network interface receives confirmation from the remote device that the remove device has successfully verified that the system spawned the virtual machine in accordance with said virtual machine identifier.

15. A system, comprising:

logic; and

network interface coupled to said logic;

wherein said logic receives a request for data from a network via the network interface and obtains an identifier of a virtual machine, said virtual machine identifier associated with said data; and

wherein said logic provides said virtual machine identifier across said network.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said logic verifies whether a remote device that received said virtual machine identifier spawned a virtual machine associated with said virtual machine identifier.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein said logic receives a metric from a remote device that received said virtual machine identifier, and said logic uses said metric to verify that the remote device spawned a virtual machine associated with said virtual machine identifier.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein said logic receives a location of a remote device, that received said virtual machine identifier, to determine whether the remote device is to spawn a virtual machine associated with said virtual machine identifier.

19. The system of claim 15 further comprising storage containing multiple data items, each data item tagged with a virtual machine identifier.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein at least one data item is tagged with a different virtual machine identifier than another data item.