VIRTUALIZED APPLICATION IMAGE PATCHING

• US 20090249324A1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yap, Joe Keng, Brar, Gurashish Singh, McDiarmid, Trevor William
• Granted Patent: US 8,631,397 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

Virtual applications are automatically kept up to date with the current version of a virtual application. Instead of the client having to obtain the entire version of the current virtual application, the client obtains the portions of the current virtual application that are changed from its version of the virtual application. After obtaining the changes needed to update its version of the virtual application, the client integrates those changes into its version of the virtual application.

Claims

1. A method for patching a virtualized application, comprising:

storing a current version of a virtual application image at a first location;

wherein the virtual application image captures setup-time changes and run-time changes made to a computing device by a virtualized application;

wherein the virtual application image is segmented into blocks;

accessing a current mapping file from the first location;

determining changes to a client virtual application image by comparing the current mapping file to a client mapping file;

obtaining the changes from the current version of the virtual application image at the first location; and

updating the client version of the client virtual application image using the obtained changes and any portion of the client virtual application image that did not change.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the current mapping file and the client mapping file comprise a hash for each block and a location of each block within its respective virtual application image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the location of each block is specified as an offset within the virtual application image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first location is a first network location and wherein determining the changes to the client virtual application image occur on a client that is storing the client virtual application image.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the current version of the virtual application image is more than one version different as compared to the client version of the virtual application image.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein comparing the current mapping file to the client mapping file comprises determining the hashes within the current mapping file that are located within the client mapping file and for each of the hashes located using the associated block within the client virtual application image within an updated virtual application image.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein comparing the current mapping file to the client mapping file comprises determining the hashes within the current mapping file that are not located within the client mapping file and for each of the hashes that are not located obtaining the associated block from the first location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the current mapping file from the first location comprises downloading the current mapping file from the first location to a client device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining essential blocks from the first location when the client is executing the virtual application in networked mode;

wherein networked mode includes streaming blocks of the client virtual application image when needed for execution.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising resuming a download from a previous state when only a portion of the blocks have been obtained and the download was not completed.

11. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for updating a virtual application image, comprising:

downloading a current mapping file from a first network location;

wherein the current mapping file is associated with a current version of a virtual application image;

wherein the virtual application image captures setup-time changes and run-time changes made to a computing device by a virtualized application;

wherein the virtual application image is segmented into blocks;

determining changes to a client virtual application image that is stored on a client computing device by comparing the current mapping file to a client mapping file;

wherein determining the changes occurs on the client computing device;

downloading the changes from the current version of the virtual application image; and

creating an updated version of the client virtual application image by using the downloaded changes and any portion of the client virtual application image that was determined to not change.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the current mapping file and the client mapping file each comprise a hash for each block and a location of each block within their respective virtual application image.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein comparing the current mapping file to the client mapping file comprises for each block within the current virtual image file determining whether the hash of the block is located within the client mapping file and for each block where the hash is located using the corresponding block within the client virtual application image within the updated version of the client virtual application image.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein comparing the current mapping file to the client mapping file comprises for each block within the current virtual image file determining whether the hash of the block is not located within the client mapping file and for each block where the hash is not located downloading the block and using the downloaded block within the updated version of the client virtual application image.

15. A system for updating a virtual application on a client device, comprising:

a server computing device that is configured to store a current virtual application image and a current mapping file;

wherein the current virtual application image captures setup-time changes and run-time changes made to a computing device by a virtualized application;

wherein the current virtual application image is segmented into blocks;

wherein the current mapping file includes a hash for each block within the current virtual image; and

a client computing device that comprises;

a data store that is configured to store a client virtual application image and a client mapping file;

wherein the client virtual application image captures setup-time changes and run-time changes made to the computing device by the virtualized application;

wherein the client virtual application image is segmented into blocks;

wherein the client mapping file includes a hash for each block within the client virtual image;

a network connection that is configured to connect to the server;

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor; and

a virtual application manager operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to;

download the current mapping file from the server and store the current mapping file in the data store;

determine blocks that have changed within the client virtual application image by attempting to locate each hash within the current mapping file within the client mapping file;

download the blocks that have changed from the current version of the virtual application image from the server; and

create an updated version of the client virtual application image by using the downloaded blocks and any blocks of the client virtual application image that were determined to not change.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein attempting to locate each hash within the current mapping file within the client mapping file comprises for each hash within the current mapping file determining whether the hash of the block is not located within the client mapping file and for each block where the hash is not located marking the block to be downloaded.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the current mapping file includes a hash of each block within the current virtual application image;

and an offset to each block within the current virtual application image and wherein the client mapping file includes a hash of each block within the client virtual application image; and

an offset to each block within the client virtual application image.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the server computing device is configured to stream blocks of the current virtual application to the client;

and wherein the client stores the streamed blocks within a cache.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further configured to determine the blocks to stream in response to a current execution of the client.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the virtual application manager is further configured to mark blocks as essential for execution and for each of the blocks marked essential download the blocks.