Porting Virtual Images Between Platforms

• US 20110161952A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Poddar, Indrajit, Ponomarev, Vladislav, Gaponenko, Yulia, Sukharev, Igor, Miroshkin, Alexey
• Granted Patent: US 8,984,503 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

In an embodiment, an approach is provided that differences a source topology model associated with a source platform and a target topology model associated with a target platform. This differencing is performed by a processor and results in a topology difference. An operation in a workflow model is obtained from an asset library, the operation being associated with the topology difference. At least a portion of the asset library is stored in a persistent storage medium. The operation to deploy a portion of a solution is transmitted for deployment. The deployed portion of the solution includes a target image compatible with the target platform.

Claims

1. A method implemented by an information handling system comprising:

differencing a source topology model associated with a source platform and a target topology model associated with a target platform resulting in a topology difference, wherein at least a portion of the differencing is performed by a processor;

obtaining an operation in a workflow model from an asset library, wherein the operation is associated with the topology difference, and wherein at least a portion of the asset library is stored in a persistent storage medium; and

transmitting the operation to deploy at least a portion of a solution, wherein the deployed portion of the solution includes a target virtual image compatible with the target platform.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

deploying the portion of the solution at the target platform by executing the operation.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein a result of the deploying includes a porting of the solution from the source platform to the target platform.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the source platform is a first cloud and wherein the target platform is a second cloud.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the solution is a composite solution, and wherein the second cloud includes a plurality of clouds.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the source platform is a private cloud, and wherein the target platform is a public cloud.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

searching metadata for at least one base virtual image metadata that is associated with the target platform.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

searching the metadata in one or more cloud-specific virtual image libraries.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

retrieving input parameters used in the searching, wherein the input parameters are provided by the target topology model.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

retrieving one or more base virtual image descriptions from the metadata stored in the asset library in response to the searching.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the source platform is a first cloud and wherein the target platform is a second cloud, the method further comprising:

retrieving, from the asset library, a first set of model units corresponding to the source platform;

retrieving, from the asset library, a second set of model units corresponding to the target platform, wherein the differencing results in one or more common model units and one or more different model units;

reusing a first set of one or more workflow steps corresponding to each of the common model units;

retrieving, from the asset library, a second set of one or more workflow steps corresponding to one or more of the different model units; and

creating the workflow model using the reused first set of workflow steps and the retrieved second set of workflow steps.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

associating the topology difference to the source topology model and the target topology model; and

storing the topology difference and the associations in the asset library as a patch.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving a second source topology model that is partially common to the source topology model and a second target platform that is partially common to the target platform;

searching one or more patches, including the patch, in the asset library, wherein the search includes the associated source topology model;

retrieving the patch from the asset library in response to the search; and

applying the retrieved patch to the second source topology model resulting in a second target topology model that associated with the second target platform.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the solution is a composite solution comprised of multiple virtual parts, wherein a virtual part is comprised of a model of a virtual image and its constituent guest OS, middleware and application model units, wherein each virtual part is deployed to a different target platform, and wherein each target platform corresponds to either a public cloud or a private cloud.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting a plurality of operations, including the operation, to deploy a complete solution.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the differencing further comprises:

identifying a first set of model units corresponding to the source platform;

identifying a second set of model units corresponding to the target platform;

comparing the first set of model units with the second set of model units, the comparison resulting in a set of one or more changed model units and a set of one or more common model units;

retrieving a first set of automation step models from the source topology model that correspond to the common model units;

searching the asset library for the changed model units, the searching resulting in a second set of automation step models corresponding to the changed model units; and

including the first and second sets of automation step models in the workflow model.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the differencing results in an identification of one or more new units, wherein the new units are found in the target topology model and are not found in the source topology model, and wherein the method further comprises:

searching the asset library for the new units.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation to deploy the portion of the solution enables the portion of the solution to be ported from one cloud vendor to another cloud vendor.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation to deploy the portion of the solution sets a security firewall.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation to deploy the portion of the solution instantiates the target virtual image in the target platform.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the source platform is a first hypervisor running on a first set of one or more computer systems, wherein the target platform is a second hypervisor running on a second set of one or more computer systems, and wherein the first and second hypervisors are different types of hypervisors.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the source and target topology models each include metadata describing one or more software application components, a middleware software application component, and a guest operating system component.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the metadata included with the source and target topology models each further include one or more virtual image deployment parameters, wherein the source topology model includes source topology model units of source configuration parameters corresponding to a source cloud and source credentials and source service endpoints, wherein the target topology model includes target topology model units of target configuration parameters corresponding to a target cloud and target credentials and target service endpoints.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

associating each of the source topology model units with a source automation step model that details one or more of the operations used to deploy the associated source topology model unit;

associating each of the target topology model units with a target automation step model that details one or more of the operations used to deploy the associated target topology model unit; and

storing each of the target automation step models in the workflow model.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the performing the operation to deploy the portion of the solution enables multi-tenancy.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the performing the operation to deploy the portion of the solution enables varying workloads.

27. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by at least one of the processors;

a persistent storage medium accessible by at least one of the processors;

a network interface that connects the information handling system to a computer network, wherein the network interface is accessible by at least one of the processors; and

a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors in order to perform actions of;

differencing a source topology model associated with a source platform and a target topology model associated with a target platform resulting in a topology difference;

obtaining an operation in a workflow model from an asset library, wherein the operation is associated with the topology difference, and wherein at least a portion of the asset library is stored in the persistent storage medium; and

transmitting the operation to deploy at least a portion of a solution, wherein the deployed portion of the solution includes a target virtual image compatible with the target platform.

28. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the actions further comprise:

deploying the portion of the solution at the target platform by executing the operation.

29. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the source platform is a first cloud and wherein the target platform is a second cloud.

30. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the actions further comprise:

searching metadata for at least one base virtual image metadata that is associated with the target platform.

31. The information handling system of claim 30 wherein the actions further comprise:

retrieving one or more base virtual image descriptions from the metadata stored in the asset library in response to the searching.

32. The information handling system of claim 31 wherein the source platform is a first cloud, wherein the target platform is a second cloud, and wherein the actions further comprise:

retrieving, from the asset library, a first set of model units corresponding to the source platform;

retrieving, from the asset library, a second set of model units corresponding to the target platform, wherein the differencing results in one or more common model units and one or more different model units;

reusing a first set of one or more workflow steps corresponding to each of the common model units;

retrieving, from the asset library, a second set of one or more workflow steps corresponding to one or more of the different model units; and

creating the workflow model using the reused first set of workflow steps and the retrieved second set of workflow steps.

33. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the actions further comprise:

associating the topology difference to the source topology model and the target topology model; and

storing the topology difference and the associations in the asset library as a patch.

34. The information handling system of claim 33 wherein the actions further comprise:

receiving a second source topology model that is partially common to the source topology model and a second target platform that is partially common to the target platform;

searching one or more patches, including the patch, in the asset library, wherein the search includes the associated source topology model;

retrieving the patch from the asset library in response to the search; and

applying the retrieved patch to the second source topology model resulting in a second target topology model that associated with the second target platform.

35. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the actions further comprise:

identifying a first set of model units corresponding to the source platform;

identifying a second set of model units corresponding to the target platform;

comparing the first set of model units with the second set of model units, the comparison resulting in a set of one or more changed model units and a set of one or more common model units;

retrieving a first set of automation step models from the source topology model that correspond to the common model units;

searching the asset library for the changed model units, the searching resulting in a second set of automation step models corresponding to the changed model units; and

including the first and second sets of automation step models in the workflow model.

36. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the differencing results in an identification of one or more new units, wherein the new units are found in the target topology model and are not found in the source topology model, and wherein the actions further comprise:

searching the asset library for the new units.

37. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the source platform is a first hypervisor running on a first set of one or more computer systems, wherein the target platform is a second hypervisor running on a second set of one or more computer systems, and wherein the first and second hypervisors are different types of hypervisors.

38. The information handling system of claim 27 wherein the source and target topology models each include metadata describing one or more software application components, a middleware software application component, and a guest operating system component.

39. The information handling system of claim 38 wherein the metadata included with the source and target topology models each further include one or more virtual image deployment parameters, wherein the source topology model includes source topology model units of source configuration parameters corresponding to a source cloud and source credentials and source service endpoints, wherein the target topology model includes target topology model units of target configuration parameters corresponding to a target cloud and target credentials and target service endpoints.

40. The information handling system of claim 39 wherein the actions further comprise:

associating each of the source topology model units with a source automation step model that details one or more of the operations used to deploy the associated source topology model unit;

associating each of the target topology model units with a target automation step model that details one or more of the operations used to deploy the associated target topology model unit; and

storing each of the target automation step models in the workflow model.

41. A computer program product stored in a computer readable medium, comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions comprising:

differencing a source topology model associated with a source platform and a target topology model associated with a target platform resulting in a topology difference;

obtaining an operation in a workflow model from an asset library, wherein the operation is associated with the topology difference, and wherein at least a portion of the asset library is stored in a persistent storage medium; and

transmitting the operation to deploy at least a portion of a solution, wherein the deployed portion of the solution includes a target virtual image compatible with the target platform.

42. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the actions further comprise:

deploying the portion of the solution at the target platform by executing the operation.

43. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the source platform is a first cloud and wherein the target platform is a second cloud.

44. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the actions further comprise:

searching metadata for at least one base virtual image metadata that is associated with the target platform.

45. The computer program product of claim 44 wherein the actions further comprise:

retrieving one or more base virtual image descriptions from the metadata stored in the asset library in response to the searching.

46. The computer program product of claim 45 wherein the source platform is a first cloud, wherein the target platform is a second cloud, and wherein the actions further comprise:

retrieving, from the asset library, a first set of model units corresponding to the source platform;

retrieving, from the asset library, a second set of model units corresponding to the target platform, wherein the differencing results in one or more common model units and one or more different model units;

reusing a first set of one or more workflow steps corresponding to each of the common model units;

retrieving, from the asset library, a second set of one or more workflow steps corresponding to one or more of the different model units; and

creating the workflow model using the reused first set of workflow steps and the retrieved second set of workflow steps.

47. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the actions further comprise:

associating the topology difference to the source topology model and the target topology model; and

storing the topology difference and the associations in the asset library as a patch.

48. The computer program product of claim 47 wherein the actions further comprise:

receiving a second source topology model that is partially common to the source topology model and a second target platform that is partially common to the target platform;

searching one or more patches, including the patch, in the asset library, wherein the search includes the associated source topology model;

retrieving the patch from the asset library in response to the search; and

applying the retrieved patch to the second source topology model resulting in a second target topology model that associated with the second target platform.

49. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the actions further comprise:

identifying a first set of model units corresponding to the source platform;

identifying a second set of model units corresponding to the target platform;

comparing the first set of model units with the second set of model units, the comparison resulting in a set of one or more changed model units and a set of one or more common model units;

retrieving a first set of automation step models from the source topology model that correspond to the common model units;

searching the asset library for the changed model units, the searching resulting in a second set of automation step models corresponding to the changed model units; and

including the first and second sets of automation step models in the workflow model.

50. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the differencing results in an identification of one or more new units, wherein the new units are found in the target topology model and are not found in the source topology model, and wherein the actions further comprise:

searching the asset library for the new units.

51. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the source platform is a first hypervisor running on a first set of one or more computer systems, wherein the target platform is a second hypervisor running on a second set of one or more computer systems, and wherein the first and second hypervisors are different types of hypervisors.

52. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the source and target topology models each include metadata describing one or more software application components, a middleware software application component, and a guest operating system component.

53. The computer program product of claim 52 wherein the metadata included with the source and target topology models each further include one or more virtual image deployment parameters, wherein the source topology model includes source topology model units of source configuration parameters corresponding to a source cloud and source credentials and source service endpoints, wherein the target topology model includes target topology model units of target configuration parameters corresponding to a target cloud and target credentials and target service endpoints.

54. The computer program product of claim 53 wherein the actions further comprise:

associating each of the source topology model units with a source automation step model that details one or more of the operations used to deploy the associated source topology model unit;

associating each of the target topology model units with a target automation step model that details one or more of the operations used to deploy the associated target topology model unit; and

storing each of the target automation step models in the workflow model.

55. A method implemented by an information handling system comprising:

obtaining a topology model unit that is to be deployed to a target platform;

searching a plurality of automation step models stored in an asset library stored in a persistent storage medium for a selected automation step model that is associated with the received topology model unit, the searching performed by one or more processors;

obtaining one or more deployment operations from the asset library, wherein the obtained deployment operations are associated with the selected automation step model; and

performing the obtained deployment operations in order to deploy the topology model unit to the target platform.

56. The method of claim 55 wherein the searching further comprises:

identifying a set of automation step models from the plurality of automation step models, wherein each of the set of automation step models is associated with the topology model unit; and

comparing the set of identified automation step models to a set of criteria, wherein the comparing results in identification of the selected automation step model.

57. A method implemented by an information handling system comprising:

retrieving, using a processor, a source image metadata from a persistent storage media, wherein the source image metadata corresponds to a source image associated with a source platform;

comparing, by the processor, the retrieved source image metadata to one or more available image metadata corresponding to one or more available virtual images associated with a target platform;

identifying, based on the comparison, one of the available image metadata that is most compatible to the source image metadata; and

using the available virtual image corresponding to the identified available image metadata as a target virtual image compatible with the target platform.

58. The method of claim 57 wherein the source image metadata is associated with a source topology model and the target platform is associated with a target topology model.

59. The method of claim 57 wherein the source image metadata and the available image metadata include software component metadata.

60. The method of claim 57 further comprising:

enhancing the available virtual image prior to the using.

61. The method of claim 60 wherein the enhancing further comprises:

updating one or more software components included in the available virtual image.

62. The method of claim 61 wherein the updating includes adding one of the software components.

63. A method comprising:

obtaining an operation associated with a topology difference, wherein the topology difference is the difference between a source topology model associated with a source platform and a target topology model associated with a target platform; and

deploying at least a portion of a solution by executing the obtained operation, wherein the deployed portion of the solution includes a target image compatible with the target platform.

64. The method of claim 63 wherein the source platform is a first cloud, wherein the target platform is a second cloud, and wherein the deploying at least a portion of a solution comprises:

porting the at least a portion of the solution from the first cloud to the second cloud.

65. The method of claim 63 wherein the source platform is a private cloud, wherein the target platform is a public cloud, and wherein the deploying at least a portion of a solution comprises:

deploying the solution from a private cloud to a public cloud.