PROVISIONING A VIRTUAL MACHINE FROM ONE OR MORE VM IMAGES

• US 20140082613A1
• Filed: 09/17/2012
• Published: 03/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kundu, Ashish, Mohindra, Ajay, Zhang, Zhe
• Granted Patent: US 9,063,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention directed to a method for provisioning a specified virtual machine from one or more selected images, sent over the network, includes the step of decomposing each of the selected VM images to provide a group of components, each component having specified information associated with it. The method further includes using a predetermined selection criterion to select components from the group for assembly into a specified VM image, and using the selected components of the specified VM image to provision the specified virtual machine at one or more locations.

Claims

1. A method for provisioning a specified virtual machine (VM) from one or more selected VM images sent over a network, said method comprising the steps of:

decomposing each of the selected VM images to provide a group of components, each component having specified information associated with it;

using one or more selection criteria to select components from said group for assembly into a specified VM image; and

using the selected components of the specified VM image to provision the specified virtual machine at one or more locations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

selected VM images are decomposed to provide slices for a catalog, each slice comprising one or more of said components, and each slice having one or more specified attributes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the one or more specified attributes that a slice has includes at least one attribute selected from an attribute group that comprises a component owner, the identity of the owner, the owner'"'"'s authentication signature, and the component description, software license terms and software performance.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the selection criteria comprises a set of attributes specified by a user, and the set of attributes are used to select slices from the catalog for assembling the specified VM image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

a logic tool that is furnished with the set of attributes specified by the user is used to select the slices from the catalog.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein:

servers containing each of the selected slices are identified, and each selected slice is downloaded from its server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

respective downloaded slices are assembled into the specified VM image, to provision the specified VM machine.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the attributes for the selection criteria are selected from a group of attributes that include at least trust level, reliability level, licensing cost, component functionality, and software performance.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein:

a packing list is generated that identifies each slice needed to assemble the specified VM image.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

information associated with a component includes the address of the first block of the component, and the address of the last block of that component.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

information associated with a component includes identification information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

information associated with a component includes information about relationships with other components.