SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DIFFERENTIAL SOFTWARE PROVISIONING ON VIRTUAL MACHINES HAVING DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS

• US 20100058328A1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: DeHaan, Michael Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,164,749 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/64 Retargetable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for differential software provisioning on virtual machines having different configurations. A provisioning (or “cobbler”) server can interact with a local virtual machine installation client to initiate a software provisioning process to diverse sets of virtual machines. The provisioning process can entail, for example, the selection and delivery of an operating system to the diverse sets of virtual machines, as well as the installation of applications or other software. In conjunction with the provisioning process, the koan client can identify the virtual machine configuration or type for the various virtual machine sets, such as those based or hosted on a Xen virtualization type, a VMware virtualization type, or kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) type. The cobbler server can generate differentiated versions of the virtualized installations for the different types of target virtual machines, compatible with the various configurations. The supported virtual types can be extensible.

Claims

1. A method of generating differentiated virtualized installations to virtual machines in a software provisioning environment, comprising:

receiving a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on diverse sets of virtual machines in a provisioning server;

communicating with a remote virtual machine installation client to instantiate the diverse sets of virtual machines; and

automatically generating differentiated virtualized installations to provision respective virtual machines in the diverse sets of virtual machines based on a virtual machine configuration type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the differentiated virtualized installations comprises at least one of an operating system and an application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine configuration type for at least one set of virtual machines in the diverse sets of virtual machines is detected by the remote virtual machine installation client.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the virtual machine configuration type is detected using an extensible set of detectable virtual machine configuration types.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at virtual machine configuration type comprises a specification of at least one of a Xen virtualization type, a VMware virtualization type, and a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the differentiated virtualized installations is generated via an installation template associated with the virtual machine configuration type.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a record of the differentiated virtualized installations for each virtual machine configuration type.

8. A system for generating differentiated virtualized installations to virtual machines in a software provisioning environment, comprising:

an interface to a remote virtual machine installation client associated with diverse sets of virtual machines; and

a provisioning server, communicating with the remote virtual machine installation client via the interface, the provisioning server being configured to-

receive a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on diverse sets of virtual machines in a provisioning server,

communicate with the remote virtual machine installation client to instantiate the diverse sets of virtual machines, and

automatically generate a differentiated virtualized installation to provision respective virtual machines in the diverse sets of virtual machines based on a virtual machine configuration type.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the differentiated virtualized installations comprises at least one of an operating system and an application.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the virtual machine configuration type for at least one set of virtual machines in the diverse sets of virtual machines is detected by the remote virtual machine installation client.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the virtual machine configuration type is detected using an extensible set of detectable virtual machine configuration types.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein at virtual machine configuration type comprises a specification of at least one of a Xen virtualization type, a VMware virtualization type, and a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) type.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the differentiated virtualized installation is generated via an installation template associated with the virtual machine configuration type.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the provisioning server is further configured to store a record of the differentiated virtualized installation for each virtual machine configuration type.

15. A set of diverse virtual machines, each virtual machine in the set of diverse virtual machines comprising:

a set of provisioned software, the provisioned software being installed via a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on the set of diverse virtual machines processed via a remote virtual machine installation client communicating with a provisioning server, the provisioning server being configured to-

receive a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on the set of diverse virtual machines,

communicate with the remote virtual machine installation client to instantiate the set of diverse virtual machines, and

automatically generate a differentiated virtualized installation to provision the respective virtual machine in the set of diverse virtual machines based on a virtual machine configuration type.

16. The set of diverse virtual machines of claim 15, wherein each of the differentiated virtualized installations comprises at least one of an operating system and an application.

17. The set of diverse virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the virtual machine configuration type for at least one set of virtual machines in the diverse sets of virtual machines is detected by the remote virtual machine installation client.

18. The set of diverse virtual machines of claim 17, wherein the virtual machine configuration type is detected using an extensible set of detectable virtual machine configuration types.

19. The set of diverse virtual machines of claim 15, wherein at virtual machine configuration type comprises a specification of at least one of a Xen virtualization type, a VMware virtualization type, and a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) type.

20. The set of diverse virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the differentiated virtualized installations are generated via an installation template associated with the virtual machine configuration type.

21. The set of diverse virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the provisioning server is further configured to store a record of the differentiated virtualized installations for each virtual machine configuration type.