APPLIANCE MAINTENANCE IN COMPUTING SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT

• US 20110126186A1
• Filed: 11/23/2009
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SUSE, LLC (EQT AB)
• Original Assignee: SUSE, LLC (EQT AB)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Kattiganehalli Y.
• Application Number:
  US12/624,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20110126186A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming 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

Abstract

Methods and apparatus involve maintaining software appliances. An original appliance is created, including partitioning the appliance binary into multiple files. A kernel file is booted by an appliance owner during instantiation. An identifier of the appliance is sent back to the creator to determine whether an updated operating system image exists. If so, a whole updated image is delivered back to the owner where it replaces the original image in persistent storage. Pluralities of appliances are instantiated from the updated image. In this manner, only a single act of maintenance occurs instead of multiple patches for many instantiations of the image. If not, appliance boot sequence continues, including applying application overlay files. The overlays are obtained during appliance shutdown by taking snapshots of application-specific files and system files that the instantiated appliance may have modified during execution. Other features contemplate computing systems and computer program products, to name a few.

Claims

1. In a computing system environment, a method of maintaining computing appliances, comprising:

booting a kernel of an appliance on a processor of a computing device;

sending an identifier of the appliance to another computing device;

receiving a single whole updated image for the operating system of the appliance based on the sent identifier; and

instantiating pluralities of appliances from the received single whole updated image.

2. The method of claim 1, further including partitioning the appliance into pluralities of files during appliance creation, the kernel being one of the files.

3. The method of claim 1, further including overlaying application specific files after the booting the kernel.

4. The method of claim 1, further including determining at the another computing device whether the single whole updated image is different than an original image at the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further including using the sent identifier to ascertain a list of rpm'"'"'s used to configure the appliance during appliance creation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the instantiating pluralities of appliances from the received single whole updated image further includes instantiating the pluralities of appliances on still other computing devices upon a subsequent reboot of the still other computing devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further including shutting down the appliance, including taking snapshots of application specific files and other system files that the appliance may have modified while executing.

8. The method of claim 7, upon a subsequent booting of the kernel, instantiating the taken snapshots on the computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further including replacing in persistent storage an original image for the operating system of the appliance with the single whole updated image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating further includes creating the original appliance in an open virtualization format.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining whether the original image is current further includes comparing a list of rpm'"'"'s of the original image to the whole updated image.

13. The method of claim 11, further including instantiating pluralities of appliances from the delivered whole updated image.

14. The method of claim 12, further including shutting down the original appliance at the remote computing device, including taking snapshots of application specific files and other system files that the original appliance may have modified while executing.

15. The method of claim 14, upon a subsequent booting of the kernel, instantiating the taken snapshots on the computing device.

16. The method of claim 11, further including booting the kernel file at the remote computing device and thereafter delivering the identifier of the original appliance for said act of receiving.

10. In a computing system environment, a method of maintaining appliances, comprising:

creating an original appliance, including partitioning an appliance binary into a kernel file, a virtual machine configuration file and an application overlay file;

delivering the original appliance to a remote computing device;

receiving from the remote computing device an identifier of the original appliance;

determining whether an original image for the operating system of the original appliance is current; and

if not, delivering to the remote computing device a whole updated image for the operating system.

17. In a computing system environment, a method of maintaining appliances, comprising:

creating an original appliance, including partitioning an appliance binary into a kernel file, a virtual machine configuration file and an application overlay file;

booting the kernel file on a remote computing device;

sending an identifier of the original appliance to another computing device where the original appliance was said created;

determining whether an original image for the operating system of the original appliance is current;

if not, delivering to the remote computing device a whole updated image for the operating system; and

instantiating pluralities of appliances from the received whole updated image.

18. The method of claim 17, further including shutting down the instantiated appliances, including taking snapshots of application specific files and other system files that the instantiated appliance may have modified while executing, the taken snapshots defining the application overlay file.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining whether the original image is current further includes comparing a list of rpm'"'"'s of the original image to the whole updated image.

20. The method of claim 17, further including replacing in persistent storage the original image of the original appliance with the whole updated image for the instantiating pluralities of appliances